DOCSLIB.ORG

Suppositions: the Art of Wim Delvoye

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Suppositions: the Art of Wim Delvoye — isabelle loring wallace — Suppositions: The Art of Wim Delvoye I. In 2012, in conjunction with his solo exhibition together at their broad ends to form a menacing, if at the Musée du Louvre, Wim Delvoye installed a arrested, torpedo. Indeed, a threat is implicit here, large work of art beneath I.M. Pei’s iconic glass pyr- and, if Delvoye’s sculpture served to anticipate amid. Visible from the courtyard and, once again, other gothic works in the show — secular stained upon entry to the museum, the sculpture marked glass windows, lacey metal dump trucks with beds the Louvre’s main entrance, while granting visitors in the shape of a nave, a gothic tower curved in on a preview of the work in Delvoye’s show, much of itself in the shape of a nautilus — this comparative- which used gothic architecture as a subject and ly more abstract sculpture, made of stainless steel medium. If representative, the object in question and perforated by glassless arched windows, also is not easily described, and for all the immediate served as a worrisome foil for Pei’s glass and steel impact of its installation, digestion takes time. One pyramid, which was likewise perceived by some as a notices first its shape and scale, also its reflective threatening intervention in its own right. material, exaggerated at the Louvre by the light that poured down on all sides through Pei’s dia- Commissioned to accommodate the Louvre’s daily mond-shaped windows. Conical and tapered at onslaught of visitors, the pyramid complex, which both ends, the work is eleven meters tall and has opened to the public 1989, appeared futuristic to the contours of a missile or un-husked ear of corn, traditionalists and, at the same time, Pharonic — though the light might initially obscure this fact, as an interloper from a distant, pre-classical past and, well as the debt this form owes to gothic architec- simultaneously, a suite of alien objects, recently ture. Once the details of Delvoye’s work come into landed from an encroaching, post-classical future. focus, they facilitate an economic, if perplexing, Of course, in time, Pei’s pyramids would find ac- description: two twisted gothic spires, as if sutured ceptance and even admiration, and, for some, the 64 < Suppo (scale model 1:2), 2010, laser-cut stainless steel, ø 75 × 620 cm, mona, hobart, 2011 65 logic of their installation was always apparent. For the Renaissance would return Western civilization the oval, the vertical with the diagonal, and the or embodies a certain restraint and sobriety, with although Pei’s pyramids are both pre- and post-clas- to the “to the purer style of the antique”3 and put cylinder with its more dramatic cousin, the spiral. most of its details deriving from classical architec- sical, their symmetry, triangularity, and transparen- the style of the late medieval period in its place as a With this in mind, let us return to Delvoye’s instal- ture and seeming to serve assorted architectural cy established unexpected affinities — not only be- debased, graceless form of expression. lation at the Louvre. needs (pediments, columns, etc.), so do the forms tween Classicism and other, pre-classical cultures, and materials of Pei’s pyramids, which lack super- but also between high Modernism and the staid clas- There’s much to say about art history’s investment At first, there is the simple fact of the opposition fluous details and seem as if an austere solution to sicism of the Louvre. Hence, we might say of Pei’s in the ideas of antagonism and renewal, but in the Delvoye’s work stages between the Gothic and the a complex architectural problem. pyramids that they created alliances that Delvoye’s context of this essay there are two major points Classical, and the pointed suggestion that the one gothic sculpture would then solidify and exploit. worth underscoring. First, if key to art history, the serves as a threat to the other. Jagged-edged and Of course, the problem Pei faced was light — its opposition between the Classical and the Gothic possessed of a needle like nose at each end, Del- capture and passage through architecture — and For although “gothic” is an unruly term with di- is also key to Delvoye’s installation at the Louvre, voye’s work literalizes the notion not just of differ- if he managed a technical solution to this prob- verse connotations in a variety of fields — a fact and key even to the sculpture when seen in isola- ence — an elongated, dramatic, and ornamental lem late in the twentieth century following in the to which I’ll return — it first emerged as a stylis- tion. Second, within art history, Gothic is not the form in stark contrast to the Louvre ‘s classical footsteps of other modern architects and their fa- tic concept in conjunction with architecture and only style charged with possessing an anti-classical structure and façade — but also the notion of risk mous, stripped-down experiments with glass and was used as a pejorative in an effort to mark some- aesthetic; in time, the Gothic will come to share and incipient violence, as if the Gothic’s resur- load-bearing steel (Mies van der Rohe and Philip thing off and differentiate it from the classical art this status with the Baroque, which was also (and gence might again derail Western civilization, shat- Johnson among others), it’s also true that gothic of the Renaissance, itself a revival of classical an- through its very name) demonized as an unwel- tering its very structure into a pile of irrecuperable architects engineered a solution of their own in tiquity. Entangled with the idea of various gothic come departure from the ostensibly normative shards. And yet, Delvoye’s sculpture isn’t simply the late medieval period, using vaulted ceilings tribes who were perceived as barbaric, by the seven- tendencies of the classical tradition. As we shall gothic, nor is its environment (the Louvre) simply and flying buttresses to open up the cathedral’s teenth-century “gothic” had come to connote cru- see, the Baroque is also an important aspect of Del- classical. Indeed, even if we set aside the majori- walls and in that way maximize the effects of light dity and excess in a stylistic sense, especially when voye’s recent work, including his theatrical installa- ty of the Louvre’s history and concentrate on the via the power of glass. Thus, even as Delvoye’s in- seen in contrast to classical art and its renewals. 1 tion at the Louvre. mid seventeenth-century structure and façade one stallation makes strange bedfellows of classicism The groundwork for using the term in this way was sees today, there is still the fact of Pei’s pyramid, and Modernism, uniting them against the per- laid by Giorgio Vasari, whom many take to be the II. the glass canopy under which Delvoye’s sculpture ceived threat of the Gothic, it also undoes their first art historian, thanks to the 1550 publication of The history and etymology of the term “Baroque” stands, poised like rocket before take-off. opposition to the Gothic, establishing a series of his famous tome, The Lives of the Artists. Therein, he is complex, but scholars agree that it derives from unwelcome affinities between the Louvre and the lamented the gradual decline of the arts following one or more words — the Portuguese word “barro- Directly situated beneath the main pyramid’s apex, primary style deployed in Delvoye’s promiscuous their early perfection in ancient Greece and Rome. co,” the Spanish term “barrueco,” and the Italian Delvoye’s sculpture was juxtaposed with Pei’s mod- object. After all, Delvoye’s sculpture echoes the The uncivilized Goths, for whom gothic art is even- word “barocco” — that denote irregularity and ex- ern addition as much as it was with the grounded materials of Pei’s pyramid and is a pyramid (or tually, erroneously named do not receive full cred- cess, originally in the context of jewelry, as in the classicism of the Louvre, ever-visible through Pei’s two) in its own right, albeit one that’s distended it for this decline, but Vasari mentions them often baroque or irregular pearl. Hence, when used sub- glass canopy. As an effect of this juxtaposition, the and busy with detail. Made of steel and perforated as contributing factors in his book’s first preface sequently, in conjunction with the visual arts, as it Louvre’s own internal differences began to recede by windows, Delvoye’s sculpture is in many ways an before suggesting that they ultimately deliver a was by the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin in in favor of various commonalities that bring Mod- uncanny reflection of Pei’s central pyramid, which decisive blow to the progressive trajectory of West- his canonical text Renaissance and Baroque (1888), ernism and classicism together against an enemy is also both sculpture and architecture and a steel ern art. In fact, it is in the course of describing the the point was to insist on its difference from the deemed too emotional, ornamental, and excessive armature perforated by windows. What’s more, the many chapters of this protracted descent, egged sober classicism of antiquity and its revivals. 4 Char- by contrast. Again, if the structure of the Louvre is form of Delvoye’s symmetrical, self-mirroring ob- on, he says, by the fervency of Christianity, that acterized by a sense of drama and energetic move- rational and symmetrical with one side left open to ject echoes the forms and overall structure of Pei’s Vasari makes mention of Delvoye’s heroes — the ment, the baroque style, which begins for Wölfflin signal its status as the structure’s front, so is Pei’s complex, not only because it includes an inverted “new architects, [who] after the manner of their with various late renaissance or mannerist tenden- complementary installation, in which the view to pyramid that descends into the space of the Louvre barbarous nations, erected buildings in that style cies, is associated with dynamism, fluidity, and ex- the main pyramid is left open when considered but also because the reflecting pools on the main which we now call Gothic.”2 Fortunately, for Vasari, uberance.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Catalonia 1400 the International Gothic Style
    Lluís Borrassà: the Vocation of Saint Peter, a panel from the Retable of Saint Peter in Terrassa Catalonia 1400 The International Gothic Style Organised by: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. From 29 March to 15 July 2012 (Temporary Exhibitions Room 1) Curator: Rafael Cornudella (head of the MNAC's Department of Gothic Art), with the collaboration of Guadaira Macías and Cèsar Favà Catalonia 1400. The International Gothic Style looks at one of the most creative cycles in the history of Catalan art, which coincided with the period in western art known as the 'International Gothic Style'. This period, which began at the end of the 14th century and went on until the mid-15th century, gave us artists who played a central role in the history of European art, as in the case of Lluís Borrassà, Rafael Destorrents, Pere Joan and Bernat Martorell. During the course of the 14th century a process of dialogue and synthesis took place between the two great poles of modernity in art: on one hand Paris, the north of France and the old Netherlands, and on the other central Italy, mainly Tuscany. Around 1400 this process crystallised in a new aesthetic code which, despite having been formulated first and foremost in a French and 'Franco- Flemish' ambit, was also fed by other international contributions and immediately spread across Europe. The artistic dynamism of the Franco- Flemish area, along with the policies of patronage and prestige of the French ruling House of Valois, explain the success of a cultural model that was to captivate many other European princes and lords.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romantic Movement on European Arts: a Brief Tutorial Review
    SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No 2, (2015), pp. 39-46 Copyright © 2015 SC Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved. The Romantic Movement on European arts: a brief tutorial review Anna Lazarou Academy of Athens, 84 Solonos Str., Athens 10680, Greece ([email protected]; [email protected]) Received: 10/01/2015 Accepted: 25/02/2015 ABSTRACT The movement of romanticism in art (18th-19th c) is briefly reviewed. This artistic movement institutionalized freedom of personal expression of the artist and presented various art styles, which were rooted mainly in topics of the past. One of the manifestations of the romantic spirit was Neoclassicism which was based on copies of works of Greek and Roman antiquities. Romantic painters, musicians and architects have left as heritage an amazing wealth of art works. KEYWORDS: art, architecture, music, romance, artistic movement, neoclassicism. 40 Anna Lazarou 1. INTRODUCTION his vision was a European empire with its capital The period from the second half of the 18th century Paris. The economic downturn that led to wars and until the first half of the 19th century in western social changes created by the Industrial Revolution, Europe was of a multidimensional character both in made Europeans to feel trapped by events that ex- art and in other fields of intellectual life, expressed ceeded the control, which could not be explained by by the romance, the first great movement of ideas of rational perception. Even Napoleon's career was for that era e.g. architecture, music, literature (Blayney many a supernatural power and his defeat, a divine judgment (Fig.1).
    [Show full text]
  • EARLY NETHERLANDISH PAINTING Part One
    EARLY NETHERLANDISH PAINTING part one Early Netherlandish painting is the work of artists, sometimes known as the Flemish Primitives, active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance, especially in the flourishing cities of Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Leuven, Tounai and Brussels, all in present-day Belgium. The period begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523, although many scholars extend it to the start of the Dutch Revolt in 1566 or 1568. Early Netherlandish painting coincides with the Early and High Italian Renaissance but the early period (until about 1500) is seen as an independent artistic evolution, separate from the Renaissance humanism that characterised developments in Italy; although beginning in the 1490s as increasing numbers of Netherlandish and other Northern painters traveled to Italy, Renaissance ideals and painting styles were incorporated into northern painting. As a result, Early Netherlandish painters are often categorised as belonging to both the Northern Renaissance and the Late or International Gothic. Robert Campin (c. 1375 – 1444), now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych), was the first great master of Flemish and Early Netherlandish painting. Campin's identity and the attribution of the paintings in both the "Campin" and "Master of Flémalle" groupings have been a matter of controversy for decades. Campin was highly successful during his lifetime, and thus his activities are relatively well documented, but he did not sign or date his works, and none can be confidently connected with him.
    [Show full text]
  • Dana Jenei, Gothic in Transylvania. the Painting (C
    Book Reviews / Buchrezensionen Dana Jenei, Gothic in Transylvania. The Painting (c. 1300-1500), Oscar Print Publishing House, București, 2016, 240 p., 156 il., with a foreword by Răzvan Theodorescu Adrian Stoia* As the author has already accustomed us with her previous works, this new volume is printed in exquisite graphical conditions. The book presents two centuries of Western painting created in Tran- sylvania, an area situated at the border of Western European culture. More precisely, it refers to the flourishing period of the Gothic art, stimulated by the development of urban and rural communities invited here by the Hun- garian crown, until the political and religious changes caused by the fall of the Hungarian Kingdom under the Turks and the dawn of the Reformation, when numerous works of the Catholic art were destroyed. As the author states, the book presents the research “started in faculty and first materialized in the PhD thesis”, defended in 2005 at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, with the scientific information updated to 2016, and “presented in the spirit of the «new manner of writing history» of the French School of Les Annales” (pp. 10-11). The volume opens with a brief analysis of the state of research in the field (pp. 11-13), continued by the chapterTransylvania in late Middle Ages (pp. 14-26), divided into four parts: Historical sketch, The crisis of „the security symbols”, New religious sensitivity and Care for life after death. Here are men- tioned the anxieties of the Transylvanian society – the war, the famine and the plague”– the permanent Ottoman menace, the economic, medical and climate problems that Medieval Europe has faced.
    [Show full text]
  • ART-102 History of Art and Visual Culture to 1400
    Bergen Community College Division of Arts and Humanities Department of Arts & Communication Course Syllabus Art 102 History of Art and Visual Culture to 1400 Three Credits - Three Hours I. Catalogue Description: History of Art and Visual Culture to 1400 is a chronological survey of art and visual culture, western and non-western, from the Mesopotamian period through the Middle Ages. In a lecture and discussion format, selected works of sculpture, architecture, and painting as well as decorative utilitarian objects made by peoples in Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and Africa are studied both for their styles and materials and their relation to politics, religion and patronage. II. Student Learning Objectives: As a result of meeting the requirements of this course, students will be able to A. Identify major periods of art history, and exemplary works of art and visual culture, from ca. 3500 bce to ca. 1400, in western and non-western societies B. Define and use vocabulary of visual analysis in speech and writing C. Describe the materials used and the techniques employed to make works of art in a variety of media in these periods and cultures D. Describe how political, religious and economic situations influence the creation of works of art and their meaning and significance E. Analyze the difference between perceiving a work of art viewed on the internet and the same work experienced directly within a museum context. III. Course Content: A. Course Orientation 1. Procedures and requirements 2. Structure of course 3. Explanation of special features: museum visits 4. Evaluation methods B. Ancient Art 1.
    [Show full text]
  • European Romantic Perception of the Middle Ages: Nationalism and the Picturesque
    EUROPEAN ROMANTIC PERCEPTION OF THE MIDDLE AGES: NATIONALISM AND THE PICTURESQUE NÚRIA PERPINYÀ UNIVERSITAT DE LLEIDA SpaIN Date of receipt: 7th of July, 2012 Final date of acceptance: 12th of December, 2012 ABSTRACT The aims of this study1 are theoretical and comparative. It contains a theoretical section describing the 18th and 19th centuries visions of the Middle Ages (admirable, critical and indifferent). Then, the relationships with the European romantics, including the Catalans, are studied. The folkloric and nationalism are presented as bridges between the two epochs. The history of the 17th and 18th centuries Picturesque is reviewed and a new view of it is presented. Instead of conceiving it as a minor aesthetic, I propose it as a precedent for the avant-garde given its defence of the irregular and the badly done. Furthermore, the 19th century idea of paradise lost was conceptualised around four axes (past, infancy, nature and art) and I propose a fifth (ethnicity)2 for the 21st century. KEY WORDS Picturesque, Nationalist, Romantic Medievalism, Paradise Lost, Catalan. CAPITALIA VERBA Mirifice describere, Nationis ratio, Romanticum Medium Aevum, Paradisus Amissus, Catalaunienses. 1. This article is developed within the framework of the research project “Identity, Memory and Ideology in the Middle Ages” (HAR 2009-08598/HIST) 2. Although the concept of “ethnicity” is anti-scientific and outdated, I mention it because it was a relevant concept in the 19th century that, unfortunately, continues to be used in the 21st, as I explain below. IMAGO TEMPORIS. MEDIUM AEVUM, VI (2012): 23-47. ISSN 1888-3931 23 24 NÚRIA PERPINYÀ 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Vincent Caranchini Student Portfolio
    Vincent Caranchini Ancient Egyptian Temple- Justin Keller Student Portfolio 1 2 History of Interiors: Justin Keller, Deqi Qin & Katie Eastman 3 4 Ancient Egypt began to take form as a country around 3100 B.C.E. and was located along the Nile River. The Egyptians are known for their monumental struc- tures and buildings such as the great Pyramids of Giza and numerous other temples. These massive structures were made of stone and bricks that they Egyptians gathered or made. The important structures (those for the gods and pharaohs) were adorned with gold, painted with bright colors, and covered with patterns and drawings. The interior was decorated just as heavily. Intricate patterns were used on the walls and in other Egyptian artwork. Pottery(1) was a popular form of art in this time. Their pots were used for storage and also decoration. The columns(2) were adorned with patterns that were taken from nature and simplified. The columns themselves also showed the rhythm of nature in their flower capitals. These forms were taken directly from original method of tying reeds together to make a column. The Sphinx(3) was an important part of Egyptian culture. A sphinx consists of the body of a lion and the head of another animal. The chairs(4) and benches(5) were intricately carved and covered with gold and fabric. These objects were common for the interior of an Egyptian temple. 5 Baroque (Rococo) Perspective Deqi Kin Louis XV Gilt and Grey Marble Top Console from the S. of France PLACE OF ORIGIN: France DATE OF MANUFACTURE: Mid 18th C.
    [Show full text]
  • Undergraduate Courses
    20-21 Catalog Undergraduate Courses Art MAJORS, MINORS PROFESSORS: Kathleen D. Nolan, Christina Salowey (classical studies) ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS: Elise Schweitzer ASSISTANT PROFESSOR: Genevieve Hendricks, Mary Zompetti VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSORS: Andrea Martens FRANCES NIEDERER ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE: Eleanor Ray, (spring term) VISITING LECTURERS: Josh Manning, Jennifer Shamy (art education) STUDIO ART TECHNICIAN: Hona Knudsen The art department offers majors and minors in art history and studio art. Note: students may not declare both a major and a minor within the art department. Art History The art history major offers students a knowledge of works of art in the context of the social, political, and intellectual cultures of which they are a part. Students learn to think, read, and write critically about art and to be astute interpreters of visual imagery. Art history majors progress through chronologically oriented survey courses into upper-level seminars and research projects. The program stresses individual student research and active leadership roles for students in small seminars. The art history major culminates in the senior seminar, an overview of the critical issues of the discipline, as well as in the writing of a senior paper and the public presentation of each senior’s research. The curriculum is enriched through lectures and seminars by distinguished visiting art historians as well as by the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum program. All majors are encouraged to travel. Art history majors are encouraged to pursue internships in fields such as museum work, art galleries and auction houses, arts administration, architecture, historic preservation, and interior design, fields in which many majors find employment after graduation.
    [Show full text]
  • Distribution of Subject Matter of Art History Courses
    Distribution of Subject Matter of Art History Courses As of fall 2017 Art History has adopted a new numbering system for its courses. Old course numbers appear in brackets in the following list. Introductory Courses 26.02 Renaissance and Baroque Architecture in Rome [12] (FSP course; Consult Art History 1 Bodies & Buildings: Introduction to the History of Department Chair) Art in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages 27.01 The Ideal City [17.17] 2 Introduction to the History of Art II 27.02 Living Stone: Sculpture in Renaissance & 4 Introduction to World Architecture Baroque Italy 5 Introduction to Contemporary Art 28.01 The Global Renaissance [17.15] 28.02 Going for Baroque 28.03 Vision and Reality in the Art of Northern Field Surveys - Pre-Modern th (ancient and medieval art to 1400) Europe in the 15 Century [17.04] 28.04 Reform and Response in Sixteenth-century Northern Europe [16.21] 10.01 The Art of Ancient Egypt and the Ancient 28.05 Art and Society in the Age of the Rococo [48] Near East [20] 28.07 Art Writing and Writers on Art 10.02 Art and Archaeology of Israel [17.11] 28.08 Italian Art from Renaissance to Baroque: 10.03 Art in Egypt Crisis and Invention 11.01 Art in Ancient Greece: Temples Gods, and 28.09 Art on the Move: Renaissance Italy & the Heroes [21] Islamic World 11.02 Alexander to Cleopatra: Art in an Unsettled World [22] 12.01 Roman Art [25] Mid-level - Early Modern Europe 12.02 Roman Architecture 13.01 Early Medieval Art [32] 61.71 Italian Renaissance Architecture 13.02 Italian Medieval Art and Architecture [36]
    [Show full text]
  • AP Art History Organized to Include Course Content Material from the Ancient World AP Art History Covers Approximately 30,000 Years of Art Through the 21St Century
    C1 – The syllabus is AP Art History organized to include course content material from the ancient world AP Art History covers approximately 30,000 years of art through the 21st century. creation, from the Prehistoric and Neolithic periods to 20th Century, Postmodern and current art trends. Though a brief survey of Asian, African and other Eastern Art is studied, the bulk of this year-long class covers mainly Europe and the rest of the Western World. The course studies historical transition of art periods, as well as how culture, religion, government and history reflect the personal and sociological art trends throughout the existence of humans. [C1] Texts Primary Text: . Marilyn Stokstad‟s Art: A Brief History. Prentice-Hall, 3rd Edition. Weekly Readings Supplemental Texts: related to art . Helen Gardner‟s Art Through the Ages. De la Croix and history and Tansey, 12th Edition. careers. Written summaries upon each . Carol Strickland‟s The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash reading completion. Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Peer teaching from Andrews and McMeel, 1992. text. My plans for reviewing content before the exam: Review of major concepts and historical periods learned throughout the school year. Teaching Strategies: Throughout the year, each section or chapter will begin with a student reading assignment (usually a whole chapter, or half depending on the subject. Classroom discussions and lectures are based on PowerPoint presentations. Normally the day or two before test is spent reviewing these pieces of Art from the PowerPoints. Assessments: Topics Taught Include: First Semester: Introduction to Art and Prehistoric to High Renaissance.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Gothic Architecture and Gargoyles 6Th Grade Late Medieval & Gothic Art Gothic Era 1150/1400
    Introduction to Gothic Architecture and Gargoyles 6th Grade Late Medieval & Gothic Art Gothic Era 1150/1400 about 250 years Gothic Gothic Architecture • Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. • Originating in 12th Century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as "the French Style”. • The term Gothic first appeared during the Renaissance. • Its characteristic features include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. • Gothic architecture includes many of the great cathedrals, castles, palaces, town halls, universities, abbeys and parish churches of Europe. • A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued into the 20th century. Ideal Gothic Church Notre Dame Cathedral begun in 1163 Notre Dame Cathedral flying buttresses c. 1175 Chartres Cathedral buttresses Flying Buttress diagram Other Gothic innovations • pointed arch (instead of round arch) • ribbed vault (instead of dome) • stained glass windows WHO CAME UP WITH THESE IDEAS? Abbey Church of Saint Denis ribbed vaulting Chartres V Cathedral E R T I C A L I T Y Chartres Cathedral detail Proportion – heads to bodies? Chartres Cathedral detail 1150 - a Gothic date to remember Gothic style architecture starts and is rapidly falls out of fashion around 1150. A much clearer start & style than Romanesque PLAGUE
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Art and Architecture
    MEDIEVAL Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church. These sources were mixed with the vigorous "barbarian" artistic culture of Northern Europe to produce a remarkable artistic legacy. Indeed, the history of medieval art can be seen as the history of the interplay between the elements of classical, early Christian and "barbarian" art. Apart from the formal aspects of classicism, there was a continuous tradition of realistic depiction of objects that survived in Byzantine art throughout the period, while in the West it appears intermittently, combining and sometimes competing with new expressionist possibilities developed in Western Europe and the Northern legacy of energetic decorative elements. The period ended with the self-perceived Renaissance recovery of the skills and values of classical art, and the artistic legacy of the Middle Ages was then disparaged for some centuries. Since a revival of interest and understanding in the 19th century it has been seen as a period of enormous achievement that underlies the development of later Western art. At the start of the medieval period most significant works of art were very rare and costly objects associated with secular elites, monasteries or major churches, and if religious, largely produced by monks. By the end of the Middle Ages works of considerable artistic interest could be found in small villages and significant numbers of bourgeois homes in towns, and their production was in many places an important local industry, with artists from the clergy now the exception. Hagia Sophia ''Holy Wisdom''; is the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.
    [Show full text]