Historical Illustration Quiz 1

relief carving

shallowly carved narrative sculpture

hierarchical scale

the importance of subjects is based on their size and/or position

stele

stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide. commemorative.

hellenism

admiration for / imitation of the ideas, style, or culture of classical greek civilization

iconography

religious images were believed to have miraculous origins, so the jin of the artist was to copy them as closely as possible. deviation and innovation was heretical.

silk road

4000 mile network of trade routes that connected eastern and western eurasia, allowing transfer of goods, ideas, and aesthetics from 200 BCE - 1500s AD

arabesque

rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing lines in Islamic art — repetition shows the infinite nature of god

renaissance

• triangular, stable compositions

• first oil paintings and mathematical perspective

• often commissioned by the church

scientific revolution

• man is not so special

• comparative anatomy (man vs animal)

• earth moves around the sun

• isaac newton, laws of physics + gravity

baroque

• dark and scary

• reflects religious tensions at the time

• catholic church in rome trying to reassert dominance after protestant reformation

rococo

• cultural center is now france

• frivolous, fanciful, decorative, focused on leisure of aristrocrats

• reaction to religious agenda of baroque

enlightenment

reason, liberty, and order valued above all else. classical antiquity is seen as the height of civilization.

neoclassicism

• reaction to frivolity of rococo, aligned with the values of the enlightenment

• moral stories demonstrated the ethical “superiority” of antiquity

• partly stimulated by the discovery of roman ruins at herculaneum and pompeii

mandala

a chart, diagram, or geometric pattern that represents the universe

african art

power, imagination. disregard for anatomy. design > realism

logogram

a sign or character representing a word or phrase, used in Mesoamerican art

carpet page

an illuminated manuscript page covered entirely in decoration

persian miniatures

islamic art that did not forbid the human figure

gutenberg press

developed in 1440, dramatically sped up reproduction time for books; beginning of the end of illuminated manuscripts

wood and copperplate engraving

main illustration technique for 500 years

industrial revolution

• 1850

• beginning of life based on commerce, mass production, and materialism instead of spiritual and natural beauty

the industrial revolution…

prompts several stylistic reactions

• romanticism

• realism

• the pre-raphaelite brotherhood

• the arts and crafts movement

Japan Opens for Trade

• 1850

• japanese woodblock prints, with flat, graphic depictions, open space, planar perspective, and high horizons spread around the west

• western cultural influence spreads through japan

romanticism

• reaction to industrial revolution

• a longing for the days of antiquity

• mythological and legendary subject matter with particular regard for the hero and heroine

• same time period as neoclassical art, but very different stories and focus

preraphaelite brotherhood

• dismissing the requirements of “fine” art that dominated since Raphael (renaissance)

• natural detail, every single leaf on a plant

• observation and photographic reference

• full picture plane, as if the image will be engraved

• love ophelia, tragic romantic stories

arts and crafts movement

believed that hand crafted objects were superior to those made by machine and that the rural craftsman had a superior lifestyle to those who slaved in the urban mills and factories

currier and ives

lithographic print producing company that chronicled life in the 19th century

revolutionary war

documentation and political cartoons founded American published artwork

Reading Industry

• 1800s

• the decreasing cost of publishing and the increased capacity for travel via the invention of tracks, engines, and the corresponding railway distribution

• cheaper and faster to print large quantities

• ad revenue decreased costs to the consumer

• ability for literature to be circulated on a large scale

• increased literacy due to easier access

penny press

new printing technology dramatically sped up the printing process = increased newspaper circulation. cheap, interesting literature = increased literacy = larger market

as revenue

gave newspapers autonomy — not reliant on personal wealth to start production

• fewer socioeconomic barriers to publication = more differing viewpoints were published

Hogarth’s Act

Engravers Copyright Act (1735) — the first copyright law to deal with visual works as well as the first to recognize the authorial rights of an individual artist

two major competing illustration heavy newspapers:

• Harper & Brothers

• Frank Leslies Illustrated News

special correspondents

civil war artists who mailed their work to publications via special delivery — worked for two major newspapers, Harper’s or Leslie’s

penny dreadful

late 1800s — cheap popular serial horror stories

• precursor to pulp fiction, along with story papers

1890 Photomechanical Reproduction

allowed illustration to be directly reproduced in print

• killed engraving

• opened way for individual illustration styles

John Tenniel

Gustav Dore

John James Audubon

Dante Gabriel Rosetti

William Morris

J.J. Grandville

Thomas Nast

Aubrey Beardsley

Egyptian Art

Nok Sculpture

Celtic Art

Illuminated Manuscript

Illumination - Carpet Page

Persian Miniature

Gothic

Renaissance

Mannerism

Baroque

Rococo

Neoclassism

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Special Correspondents

Lithograph

Woodcut

Copperplate