History of furniture - test 1 Walters

Chinese History

Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism: cultural vision, art, architecture

Careful orientation, order, symmetry, asymmetry, hierarchy

Chinoiseries and Japonisme describe Oriental design influences Art, architecture, culture influence West

Trade: Begins with the Han dynasty along the "silk road" to Ancient Rome; Europe & America 17th-19th centuries

British and Dutch East India Company organizes trade routes during the Ming dynasty

Railroads bring cultural influence to North America

Continues to present, booming Chinese economy, growing international design exchange, globalism

Chinese Concepts

Unity, harmony, balance

Forms develop early, continue

Religious influences: rituals, symbols, spatial order

Universality: yin (negative, feminine, dark) & yang (positive, masculine, light)

Five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water

Feng shui (wind & water): orientation, natural forces, balance, harmony

Affect buildings, interiors, furnishings relationships, spacing, color, form, patterns

Chinese Motifs

Numerous motifs, singly or combinations

Lions of Buddha, tigers, dragons, the phoenix

Fret, meander, diaper patterns, shou (long life), calligraphy

Lotus, peony, chrysanthemums, bamboo, clouds, fruits

Bat (happiness), 5 bats (Five Blessings—longevity, wealth, serenity, virtue, easy death

Pine, evergreen, stork, tortoise (longevity)

Taoist: 8 Immortals

Buddhist: flaming wheel, endless knot, state umbrella

Chinese Architecture

Value site, pattern, tradition over individual buildings

Framework for social system

Axiality, hierarchy, modular compositions with fixed proportional relationships, color

Repetition of forms, few stylistic changes

Symmetry, uneven numbering systems for roof layers, details, spacing, balance, finiteness, regularity

Landscapes contrast: asymmetrical compositions, empty space, infinity

Forms & elements from construction methods

Palace complexes, individual houses, pagodas, shrines, temples, commercial structures

Forbidden City

Forbidden City overview, built in 1420 by Emperor Yongle, rebuilt 1798; Beijing, China.

Forbidden City

Roof Detail, Hall of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City

Forbidden City audience hall (Qian Qing Gong), built in 1420 by Emperor Yongle, rebuilt 1798; Beijing, China.

Temple of Glorious Filial Piety

Pagoda, Temple of Glorious Filial Piety; Guangdong, China.

Chinese Interiors

Planned carefully like buildings

Axial relationships, hierarchy based on age & status

Symmetry, formality in room shape, door & window placement, furniture arrangements

Strong colors

Windows, door may open to courtyards

Grilles integrate exterior & interior

Public rooms more lavishly furnished

Few pieces of furniture

Chinese Furnishings and Decorative arts

Formality, regularity, symmetry, straight lines

Beauty: simplicity, structural honesty, refined proportions

Similar forms, shapes

Polished wood or bamboo, lacquered sets for wealthy Intricate joinery, no nails or dowels, little glue

Miter and mortise & tenon joints

No applied moldings, carved decoration, brass hardware

Parallel or right angle to walls

Trade brings Chinese furnishings & decorative arts & their influence to the West 16th century onward

Chinese known for porcelain, rugs

Armchair with yoke back and solid splat and horseshoe armchair; China.

Carved canopy bed, c. early 20th century; China.

Japan cultural characteristics

Buddhism, Shintoism, Neo-Confucianism

Chinese influence ▪ Centralized government, city planning, court protocols

Writing, art

Buddhism

Feudalism

Daimyo - Lords

Samurai - Warriors

Kamakura Period (1185-1392)Shoguns (military dictators) maintain political & military authority

Decreased individual ownership of land

Muromachi Period (1392-1568)

Exports to Europe

Cha-no-yu - formal tea ceremony

Civil war brings isolation and Neo Confucianism

Prohibition of foreign travel

Epitomizes aesthetic beauty, simplicity, modularity, attention to detail

Art & design evolve independent of outside influences

Buddhism and other concepts from China

Religions shape daily activities & rituals & relationship to nature

Influence design

Strong hierarchy of society & emphasis on tradition

Yet, nourish artists, designers, scholar

Trade with China & West more influences to Japan

Japanese art & design imitated in West from 17th century onward

Japan Concepts

Isolation and contact bring characteristics suited to cultural preference

Unity, harmony, & balance important as in China

Shibui, highest aesthetic level of traditional design

Simplicity, implicitness or inner meaning, humility, silence, & use of natural materials

Shape daily activities & visual arrangements

Human relationship to nature different than Western

Houses open directly to garden

Seamless division of space

Nature appears throughout interiors

Japan Motifs

Naturalistic

Cherry blossom, iris, chrysanthemum, wisteria

Bamboo, leaves, buds, waves, whirlpool

Geometric ▪ Stripes, grids, swirls, latticework, fret

Figurative Men & women in traditional dress

Family crest

Japan Architecture

Works of art in beautiful natural environments

Axiality, hierarchy, asymmetry

Asymmetrical balance between right & left, dynamic & appealing

Building's shape, roof layers, details, spacing

Fixed proportional relationships, modularity

Contrasts, little variation from traditional forms

Religions influence construction, details, decoration, color

Easy to rebuild because of earthquakes

Rambling country house indigenous, 8th-12th centuries

Houses in landscaped gardens for seclusion, mediation

Itsukushima Shinto Shrine, 1241-1571; Miyamjima, Japan. Japan.

"Ninomaru Palace" by cogdogblog

Golden Pavilion of Yoshimitsu, Kinkaku-ji, 1394-1427; Kyoto, Japan. Japan.

Katsura Detached Palace (also known as Katsura Imperial Villa), c. 1615-1663; Kyoto, Japan. Japan.

Shokin-Tei Pavilion (tea house) and Rooms of Hearth and Spear, Katsura Detached Palace (also known as Katsura Imperial Villa), c. 1615-1663; Kyoto, Japan; Rooms of Hearth and Spear by Kobori Enshu. Japan.

Japan Interiors

Beauty, harmony, flexibility, serenity

Visible structure, economy of line, naturalistic colors, textural harmony, diversity, meticulous detail, uncluttered space, modularity

Floors - Tatami mats organize space

Walls - Screens, fusumas & shoji, subdivide & give flexibility, Sliding partitions instead of doors & windows

Tokonoma or tana display in formal rooms

Low ceilings

Strong geometry, respect for materials, contrasts

Neutral backgrounds with color & pattern in decorative objects

Japan Furnishings and Decorative Arts

Little freestanding furniture, several carefully chosen accessories

Sit on knees on zabutons

Seating groups focus on hibachi or charcoal heater

Built in furniture

Pieces parallel to walls

Some gilding, colored floral motifs

Neutral color schemes with bright colors in decorative arts

Tansu

Japanese chest ...means "in two parts"

Byôbu

folding screen), c. 1800; Tokyo, Japan.

Senzui Byobu

Six-fold screen, color on silk. Late-Heian Period (11th Century). Kyoto National Museum

Nuihaku

(Nō costume)—design of lily and court-cow-carriage patterns on brown fabric). Azuchi-Momoyama period/16th century. Tokyo National Museum

Japan Interior, Moromasa

a House of Pleasure, 18th century

HISTORY

• Pre-Dynastic (c.3500-3000 BC)• Old Kingdom (3000-2155 BC)• Middle Kingdom (2100-1700 BC)• New Kingdom (1520-1000 BC)

▪Powerful, enduring civilization ▪Hierarchal society with Pharoah at head

ARCHITECTURE

Consistent forms and patterns with little evidence of stylistic development•

Surviving tombs & temples, built of stone, grand scale• Domestic rarely survives, built of impermanent materials•

Reflect cultural belief in eternal life•

Monumentality, eternal, symmetry, order balance, stylization, formality, repose, solidity, grand scale•

Geometric volumes & forms, rectangular shapes, straight lines•

Thick walls, often slanted (batter); little fenestration, colorful decoration •

Hieroglyphics, columns, nature inspired ornament

Construction methods + materials

Trabeated• Post and Beam• Post and Lintel• Vertical –Horizontal Member

Columns• First to experiment with shape and base• Highly decorated• Defined space of necessity• Shape (round, polygonal)

Materials• Sandstone, Limestone, Granite, Diorite, Basalt, Alabaster, Mud-brick• Wattle and daub

INTERIORS

Surviving only in tombs/temples

Domestic: Wall paintings

Rectangular shapes, straight lines, flat ceilings

Few windows, limited architectural detail

Colorful paintings on walls/ceilings/tombs, grand houses

Little furniture

FURNISHINGS + DECORATIVE ARTS

▪ Rectangular, few curves; plain or decorated▪

Surviving examples from royal or upper-class tombs▪

Common furnishings little known▪

Few types: seating, storage, tables, beds▪

Definitive characteristics: animal legs in natural position, raised on cylinder• Paw or hoof feet▪

Local woods poor quality; mostly imported•

Plywood of small wood pieces glued together▪ Ornament: inlay, carving, gilding, silvering

MOTIFS

Geometric designs

Guilloche, spiral, palmette, wave, lotus, papyrus, palm, hieroglyphics, sundisk, vulture, scarb beetle

Egyptian introductions

gullioche, spiral, palmette, wave patterns

Great Pyramids at Giza

• Pyramid of Khufu, c. 2550 BC• Pyramid of Khafre, c. 2500 BC• Pyramid of Menkaure, c. 2450 BC

Very important !!!

Sacred chamber

Reflect their needs to the afterlife

Filled with goods

Looted and robbed since

Middle is of Kafka has limestone 356 ft to the Kufu- largest one

Incara- is the smallest

Have several passages that would hide the goods and the mummy

Limestone and sandstoen

Didn't keep out robbers like they thought

Temple Complex of Amun-Ra

Temple Complex of Amun-Ra images

Temple Complex of Amun-Ra section

Hypostyle Hall

The grandest hall- 340 ft long and 170ft wide 134 columns and 16 rows.

Clearstory windows

Lotus flower capitals two in the center.

Rising to meat the sun and rising in the sun42 ft high- gigantic69 ft tall - massive expanse of structure- foreshadow the afterlife and covered in hieroglyphics

Relief carvings

Temple of Ramesses III

at Medinet Habu, c. 200 b.c.e; Thebes, Egypt.

Deep Hall of General Ra-mose(reconstructed elevation), c. 1370 b.c.e.; Tell-el-Amarna, Egypt.

Entrance (reconstructed) to the Tomb of Puyemre, 15th century B.C.E.; Thebes, Egypt.

Floor plan, nobleman's villa, 1500-1400 B.C.E., Tell-el-Amarna, Egypt.

Golden throne of Tutankhamen, 1500-1400 B.C.E. Egypt.

Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. Gold-plated wood inlaid with semi-precious stones

Golden throne for king tut- was wood and covered in gold.

Lion heads and paw feet

Wife attending him

This throne has arms- china has a throne with arms as well

Pylon Gates

Slanted wall and large figures and obelisk before you entered in

Periods of Greek Art

Cycladic and Minoan

Mycenaean

Early Greek art/formative periods

Three periods of classical greek art ( early classical, high classical, late classical)

Later period

Minoan

Mycenean

Society:

Sea-faring people who interacted with other lands and peoples •

Mostly influenced by Crete & Mycenae•

Valued independent thought • Freedom & Equality for all citizens, wealth seldom displayed•

Birthplace of democracy• Greek citizen's first duty -service to the state -including glorification & promotion of cultural development•

City-States - strife & bickering, semi-autonomous units each comprised of a city and its surrounding dependent lands.•

Many long time feuds between these city states. Most famous -Sparta & Athens.•

Spartans were courageous, self-disciplined.•

Athenian idealism pervaded.

Religion:

• Polytheism• Founded on the worship of natureo

Zeus -Supreme god -heaven & earth, stormso

Athena -AIR, goddess of love, Athens

Apollo -the sun god -Delos & Delphi•

Gods WERE humans - Larger than life, but still human traits• Shrines & Temples -built at large scale, but not as grandiose as the Egyptians• Religion focused on life -not afterlife•

Emotional satisfaction, athletic games, private life

ARCHITECTURE - greece

Search for ideal, perfect proportions, distribution of forms & parts▪

Attributes that contribute to & enhance ideal image•

Form: temple most common• Order: relationship of parts to whole, articulation of parts• Proportion: relates to human body▪

"Man the measure of all things," Protagoras (c. 480-410 B.C.E)•

Repose, horizontality, symmetry, stability, clarity• Proportional systems, numerical relationships, geometry▪

Forms repeated, planned transitions•

Optical refinements • Classical: elements & attributes of Greek & Roman architecture

Proportion and Distribution of parts

The ratio of the length of the temple to its width is 9:4•

The ratio of the distance between the columns (measured from center to center) to each column diameter is 9:4•

The ratio of the width of the front of the temple to its height is 9:4

Prostyle

free standing columns across the front

DORIC

Cornice

Front usually plain•

Bottom –miniature slabs called mutules and at the bottom projecting tapered cylinders called guttae• Acroteria - All Three angles of the pediment –winged lions

Frieze

Metopes –squarish panes that may be filled with low-relief carvings or may be left plain• Triglyphs –triple grooved elements (wooden beams)

Architrave

Lowest portion• Plain member • Rests on column capitals

IONIC

Entablature -either plain or highly ornamented

Architrave -Sometimes stepped into three horizontal planes

CORINTHIAN

• Shaft Smaller diameter than Ionic•

Capital -In addition to the volutes, Acanthus leaves • Entablature -•

Frieze -sometimes omitted• Lightest of any order

The Dentil motif

• Small square projecting blocks (teeth) • Used in the cornice of Greek entablature,• Ionic & Corinthian• Less seen in Doric

MOTIFS•

The Guilloche• The Egg & Dart• Bead & Reel•

INTERIORS - greece

Public interiors connect to architecture▪

Architectural elements (columns), proportions, materials, colors

Few surviving interiors▪ Especially residences▪ Information: archaeology, literature, vase paintings, reliefs, statuettes

FURNISHINGS + DECORATIVE ARTS - greece

Little survives•

Examples from vase paintings, grave steles, terra-cotta reliefs, sculpture, theaters•

Function important, limited ornament

• Some evidence of search for perfection in some pieces•

Rooms sparsely furnished• Few types: seating, tables, storage, beds•

Greek innovations: klismos, rectangular legs, some table forms, couches for sleeping or reclining at meals• Klismos most often copied or adapted later

Temples - greece

• Two interior colonnades

• Central section with side aisles•

Statue of the god or goddess at the rear of the sanctuary

Early Temples -•

Cella •

Pronaos - porch•

Adytum -• Second inner room, Most sacred

Greek temple floor plans

A, in antis• B, prostyle;• C, amphiprostyle• D, peripheral(The Parthenon)• N, Naos• O, Opisthodomos;• S, statue.

Acropolis & Parthenon

• Most refined example • Acropolis -Highest point of a city•

Some fortified (Mycenean)• Acropolis at Athens -religious•

The largest building -Parthenon•

Erechtheum•

Gateway -Propylaea•

Small Temple of Nike

Acropolis & Parthenon - site plan

Parthenon

Parthenon - interior

Erechtheum

• South Porch, Erechtheum on the Acropolis (421 -405 BC)

• Caryatids:

sculpted female figure used instead of a column (not an order)

Temple of Athena Nike - pics

Greek House

• Simple –one courtyard; more prosperous –more courtyards•

From the street, narrow hall, into the courtyard, to covered space called ANDRON (dining & altar), surrounded by colonnades•

Andron housed 7 couches (klini) placed around the walls for reclining diners•

Living room with central hearth - Oikos

Other Building Types

Semi-public• Prytaneum• Courtyard, dining room & altar to goddess of the hearth Hestia

Public• Council Houses –seating as many as 700 on backless tiers• Bouleuterion• Small rectangular or semi-circular theater

• Stoa• Town Center & Marketplace• Simplest form –A colonnade placed in front of a solid wall (decoratively painted) with roof between the wall & columns - Two columns

The Kline (klini)

Bed used for sleeping, napping, eating, drinking, lounging, and conversing• Similar to a chaise longue• Made of wood (maple & olive) iron or bronze, with silver feet• Sweeping curved headboards•

Legs -rectangular, curving away from the frame, or turned

The Thronos

• Formal Chair of honor

• Hellenistic - solid sides, arms ending in lion's heads, animal legs, cushions

• Archaic

feet of animals or legs of birds

The Klismos

Most influential• Undecorated• Purely Greek -no outside influences•

Beauty through form• Revisited in Directoire, Empire, Regency, Duncan Phyfe, modern styles• Earlier styles -decorative finials • Curved legs, broad back splat, narrow stile made with legs into one curved piece • Front legs mortised into the frame

The Diphros

• Stool without back& arms• Folding or fixed legs• sometimes stretchers • Grandest made of ebony, but mostly wood•

Leather seats• Folding with X shaped legs

Tables & Storage

• Three-legged trapeza -more stable on uneven floor -with rectangular tops

Mostly wooden chest called kibotos, hinged lid used as a seat

Roman eras

• Republican (510-60 B.C.E): strong Greek influence•

Arched construction, mastery of concrete for buildings•

Early Imperial/Early Empire (60 B.C.E.-285 C.E.)• Arched & concrete construction, new building types•

Late Imperial/Late Empire (285-395 C.E.) interiors important• Explore relationships among different sizes & shapes• Large-scale building campaigns, reuse of materials

roman MOTIFS

Top right: acanthus leaf with rosettes; bottom right: vase and motifs; Left: rinceau from Pompeii; Middle: mosaic from Pompeii

ARCHITECTURE - rome

Synthesis of adopted forms & Roman innovations▪

Temples from Etruscans; orders & classical elements from Greece•

Roman classicism more lavish & grand than Greek• History: new, developing technologies, sure construction•

Emphasis on volume & space; spatial innovation unique▪

Engineering abilities: concrete; arches, vaults, domes• Greater variety of building types than Egypt, Greece▪

Temples, basilicas, baths, theaters, aqueducts▪

Imperial palaces, villas, domuses, insulae

who wrote Ten Books on Architecture

Vitruvius

Arcuated Construction

spreads larger loads more effectively•

replaced the post and lintel trabeated system in most large buildings and structures (until the introduction of steel girder beams in the industrial era)

Roman doric

Tuscan

roman ionic

roman corinthian

composite

roman INTERIORS

Surviving public & private interiors▪

Private mainly from Pompeii & Herculaneum▪

Domestic interiors more known than Egypt or GreeceInterior decoration lavish & varied▪

Luxurious to utilitarian in scale & treatment▪ Architectural details (columns, niches, moldings) mainly in public buildings▪

Floors: brick, marble mosaics▪

Walls: painted or mosaics

Few furnishings

FURNISHINGS + DECORATIVE ARTS - rome

Greek furniture forms adapted to Roman tastes▪

More comfortable & ornamented•

Forms & shapes similar across Empire•

Luxury pieces: large scale, grand proportions• Sophisticated construction•

Types: seating, tables, storage, beds

roman furniture innovations

couch with a back, barrel-shaped tub chair, distinctive table forms

Sella curulis

(X-form stool). Rome.

Pantheon, 118-125 C.E.; Rome Italy. Rome - exterior

Pantheon - structure

Pantheon - interior

- 3 Interior Sections

• Opening at the top is the oculus

• Dome with coffers diminishing in size and depth

• Attic with decorated facade

• Corinthian columns and interior niches at ground level

- On April 21, the date of Rome's foundation, the light shines in on the entrance, where the emperor would walk in.

Maison Carée - exterior

Maison Carée - floor plan

Colosseum, Rome;

The Thermae of Caracalla, Great Hall (restored), 212-216 C.E., Rome Italy.

ancient baths

The Frigidarium

The cold-bath section of a Roman bathing establishment

Caladarium

The hot-bath section of a Roman bathing establishment.