The overwhelming advantage of Gothic over other architectural styles was that for the first time in history during the middle age the people made use of all natural materials that were available and used them to their full acount. Also every detail, every ornament had a purpose and wasn’t just there without underlining either the architectural design or the meaning of the building. The construction was made to serve the purpose and to compliment the purpose of the building. Pugin noted that building in the 19th century consisted too much of design instead of great architecture (construction, et cetera).
12 December 2011
Research: Romanesque/Medieval buildings in Britain
I just finished a few sketches of two Romanesque and two Medieval Gothic buildings. It was fun and I learned a lot about the different arch types. I mean in 14 century the arches weren’t as pointed anymore – it was more a combination of the semi-circular and the pointed ones. Very interesting!
Reading a lot!
Today I am going to start reading about Religious art. Last week I went to the library and got a book about Christian art and I’ve read in it over the weekend and I though it was really interesting. It’s not just all about the history of it but about the symbols that appear in different religious art pieces. It is kind of like a dictionary of Christian art and I think that I am going to find it helpful for annotating images.
Notes/ things that interest me and got my attention while reading Chapter 9 “Medieval Christendom” (World Art of History, 2009):
- The book just talks about acoustic and how well the stone echoes the singer – it’s an amazing thing – almost every church I’ve been in in my life has this great acoutisc and a single stone vault and I think it’s great how it all began such a long time ago; and it’s the same with the little chapel and altar enclosed to the single stone vault so a few priests could say mass at the same time – it’s in almost every church these days unless it’s only a small one then not but the ones we call classical or of extreme beauty they all have that
- “Dignified” is such a perfect word to describe Romanesque style – I always wondered what that word was and the feeling you get when you enter such building
- “Romanesque portal” – the entrance of a church (where every person entering the church would enterd under the all-seeing judge), Christ was always shown in the middle and the other men/women shown around him were much smaller, favourite subject to portray was the Last Judgement
- Architecture wise they developed two different styles: the tunnel and the transverse (series of tunnel vaults places transversely) and then they started combining the two and made a new style called “Groin” vaults
- Rib vaults were practically easier to built than Groin vaults as they were built first as the supporters of the rest of the building instead of being built after the rest of the building which made the construction with the Groin vaults much more complicated + rib vaults also had aesthetic reasons why architects started using them instead of Groin vaults because it Rib vaults let in more light and it took of the forbidding appearance that the darkness and sterness gave the older buildings
- St Denis was the first church built in the Gothic style (around 1144 AD)
- Churches with a lot of stained glass had extra support to make the building stable; it was called “flying buttresses” and were built outside of the building and stabilised the few columns on the inside
- English and German architects developed the Gothic style further and especially Germany expanded scale and richness of detail (Cologne Cathedral was one of the tallest and longest Gothic churches although it was finished in 1880 after 600 years taking to complete it)
08 December 2011
Annotating a Roman portrait bust
Annotating Roman Portrait Bust
Bust of Seneca ( 4 BC – 65 BC), 1st century AD, by a Roman artist, marble
Image from http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=79&balid=165526 (Accessed 8 Dec 2011)
Portrait bust:
- Looks tired and exhausted (à eyes, mouth)
- He’s a thinker (wrinkles on his forehead)
- Worrying and feeling like the sense of the world, the whole demystification is on his shoulders (wrinkles between his eyes)
- Eyebrows sank down because of age – make him look like he is resigned but still a little hopeful – expression in eyes
- Open mouth – sighing pose?
- Hair – most portrait busts’ hair is portrait as curly and short – his is longer and falls freely without the restriction of a helmet from an armour, et cetera
- Is wrinkly – gives hint of age – middle aged man (also another indicator might be the nose as it grows with age, wondering about the ears tough – normally they get bigger when one gets older but his ears are quiet small – but maybe it only looks like that because of the hair?)
- Interesting are the deep wrinkles from his nose to his mouth – can be an indicator of age, that he has been laughing a lot (but I don’t think that because of his facial expression that he had when he got portrait)
- Eyebrow hair is very detailed (it’s the condition of the stone that makes it look like that) and one can kind of “see” every single hair
- Prominent chin that is framed by his beard
- Shape of his beard is typical Roman
- Nose shape can’t be identified because of the lightning or maybe because a piece was broken off from it
- The jaw line is very detailed with wrinkles and facial hair
- Mouth points downwards (is that another indicator of his age or is it the feeling of hopelessness – not being able to make sense of the world?)
- Naked from neck down? Where are his clothes?
- Looking closely at his left eye – it is more sunken in than the right one (maybe that’s because it is an image?) and his eyebrow is further down than the other one
- Big lower lip
- The shape of his beard around his mouth and the sad look around his eyes gives the first impression of hopelessness and sadness
- His beard is covering up parts of his upper lip
- His cheekbones are quiet fine
____________________________________________________________________________
What is he thinking about?
When exactly was this portrait bust made? – to give one more information about the overall time period and what was going on in the Roman empire which would maybe give a glimpse on what problems he is thinking about
Who was Seneca? (I know he is a philosopher, dramatist, et cetera; but I don’t know much about his life except for that?)
What was this portrait bust made for?
Was it made for private use or public displaying?
How old was Seneca when this portrait bust was made?
Who made this portrait bust?
Why does it look like Seneca isn’t wearing any clothes?
Research about Seneca:
I am not interested in learning all about his life e.g. who his brother was, how he grew up, what he did here and there – I am more interested in what kind of person he was – and I found these really great quotations from him and they kind of reflect his thinking manner that I thought was so interesting when I first saw the portrait bust.
“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger#Quotations
“The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger#cite_note-23
“Our minds must have relaxation: rested, they will rise up better and keener. Just as we must not force fertile fields (for uninterrupted production will quickly exhaust them), so continual labor will break the power of our minds. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation.” http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger
I think it’s so interesting that these quotes still work today – just looking around I can see too many people, sometimes including myself, chase after time complaining about not having enough time to do what they really want to do but really what they do is they spend their valuable time chasing after it instead of enjoying the full amount of it. Living in the present is another thing. Buddhists teach to live in the now, there are probably about a 100 books to read about living in the now these days but who really is?
Giving our minds freedom and don’t overwork is such a good quote right now to read – I don’t know if I am doing enough for this course or if I should do things in another way but I am just trying to enjoy this, give my mind freedom to do this. Over the past few days I was also wondering if this learning log is a good one – but when I went back to the study material and read about learning logs and it asked those three simple questions if I learn from what I write down – then yes this is a good learning log cause I am learning so many new things every day. I am enjoying it very much so far – I feel like I know so much more already since I’ve started this course, I am having immense fun reading new stuff every day, researching things that I like further on the internet, collecting images of things that interest me and I am not surprised that I love learning about sculptures almost all day long. I am one who enjoys looking at sculptures in museum, walk around them if possible and trying to catch every detail of it, so annotating sculptures, reliefs or portrait busts is a pleasure for me and I am really enjoying this.
Now I am off the computer for now and I am going to try drawing some classical figure sculptures...Maybe I can find a sculpture without head, hands and feet – because I am not good at drawing those features.
Notes about "Art of the Western World"
Today I am going to start with watching “Art of the Western World” episode 2, cause I feel like starting my day yesterday with episode 1 about the Greek – helped me to get back into the topic and I really appreciate it.
Notes “Imperial Stone – The Art of Rome”:
- Rome gave western world practical legacy à architecture
- They didn’t show glorification of war – but showed it the way it was: brutal
- Arch was revolutionary
- New conception of architecture of inside architecture – more space
- New building material – concrete – made all the great architecture possible
- Colosseum seems to be the expression of greatness that all Emperor were longing for
- Bricks had most of the time some sort of signature from who it was built in them
- The Pantheon was the world’s largest Dome for over 18 centuries (and is the only one that survived)
- Greeks gave the western world the incredible architecture for the outside – and the Romans gave the harmonious way of building the inside (lofty, spacious)
- The Pantheon was Paegon temple and Christian church
- Roman sculpture: used to decorate public places, decorate the amphora, palaces, gardens,
museums; Greek sculptures have “survived” as Roman copies; Roman
portrait busts
- To honour Constantine architectures built one of the last triumph arches in Rome
I was able to visit Rome in summer 2011 and I was very impressed by the triumph arch – all the detailed work in frieze and the numerous people that the artist carved into the stone. I didn’t know much about the history of it but I thought it must be some kind of monument for someone, but I didn’t know for who – so this is very interesting to finally know who it was built for – Constantine who also legalized Christianity.
I also visited the Colosseum of course and even I was kind of speechless standing in front of this amazing piece of architecture – and I just wonder what the people of the Roman empire must have thought when it was finally finished and they saw it for the first time. It must have been a little bit like a shock about its giant size. I also didn’t know much about what they showed inside of the Colosseum, I was sure that it was some kind of Gladiator kind of thing but I didn’t know that the Gladiators mostly were slaves, criminals condemned to death or prisoners of war who had no rights in Rome. Just from the first century AD free men started choosing fighting as their profession and trained hard to become Gladiators.
I also had the pleasure to visit the Vatican Museum and I was very excited about the architecture – just walking through the rooms looking up and seeing all these amazing details painted, carved into the ceiling was a great feeling. I am always very excited to think about the fact that I am walking through history that maybe a lot of important people have looked at it just like I did and for me going to a historical place also feels like connecting with art in another way. Of course it was very crowded in the Vatican Museum which meant that I didn’t have much time to look at things in detail so I just enjoyed the inspiring atmosphere of the place and listened to some interesting stories that I heard from people’s guided tours. I especially loved the circular room – it was beautiful and like the Pantheon there was light coming in from a small window at the top – connecting the normal world to heaven – it was wonderful!
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