Thread for the Fine Arts of painting, sculpture, and other interesting mediums!

QA48 said:
Yes, they did! In fact they painted their temples and statues with bright colors. Unfortunately, as time passed, and these temples and sculptures disappeared and when discovered buried underground, time had erased all traces of color, and the world then had a romanticized view of what the temples and sculptures in antiquity looked like. That's why during the Renaissance and Baroque era, when artists looked back to antiquity for inspiration we see sculptures of those eras made out of white marble. Never had they imagined that the art they were influenced by were brightly painted by any means! It wasn't until scientific technology had advanced later on in the 20th century (I'll have to chase my notes on whether it was late 19th or 20th century) that historians began to see traces of paint on ancient walls and sculptures. Let me see if I can find some examples of it on my USB. I had a lot of great examples on my old laptop but it crashed taking with it everything.

Edit: Managed to get some of the pics (you can also find these online)

Dying Gaul (Hellenistic sculpture from Greece) as discovered.
As it would've been painted
Grave Stele of Hegeso
Grave Stele as it would've been painted back then
The Parthenon as the world sees it
Parthenon as the Greeks would've seen it (corner of one of the cornice and frieze of the temple)

I had a lot of more examples on my old computer. It's sad that I lost almost all of it.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, If any of you live in Tennessee, they have an exact reconstruction of the Parthenon down to the 40ft. statue of the Goddess Athena sculpted by the great Phidias, who also sculpted the colossal statue of Zeus for his temple at Olympia. Both of them no longer exist! The Athena replica is the only one in the world.
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This is some very interesting stuff, Tiff! Grecian art is so beautiful.
And is that Tennessee, USA? That would be awesome to visit it.
 
Yes, it's the Tennessee in the United States. I visited that site long ago.

The _performing_ arts have been brought up on this thread. Let me observe that the purely visual arts have often turned to the performing arts for subject matter--like Toulouse-Lautrec painting pictures of the dancers of Paris.
 
Tiff, thanks for the link to the Loser Letters. I have read the rest of that series, and it is quite intriguing to me.

When you choose to carry on with the lessons, I believe we will only link to the G-rated. Although all of us in this discussion understand art, we are thinking maybe the 8-year-old boys who might stumble in should wait a few years before confronting Susanna & the Elders, et al. Thank you so much for carrying on with this.

I fear I don't know enough to have an opinion yet about art, but between looking at Miss Artemisia's art and something like Guernica, I prefer the older work ... maybe I'm a Dull after all!

Welcome back, Joseph. Glad you're recovering.
 
As a matter of fact, a framed print on a hospital wall boosted my spirits last Friday morning as I was being wheeled to Radiology for my chest scanning. It was a painting of a butterfly.

Also, remember the wood-carving friend I mentioned? I don't think any of his work would be considered naughty. His "gallery" website is:

http://www.salembarker.com
 
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This topic deserves better than to fade into obscurity! So I'll mention another example of art: brass rubbings. Of course, the real art there was the art of the persons who made the low-relief images in brass that someone took rubbings from. My Mary of blessed memory had one that symbolically represented the Three Persons of the Trinity; and she gave me one depicting a late-medieval knight in plate armor. I still have both pictures.
 
Ok, so I was writing a long post previously and for some reason I hit the back button and I disappeared :mad:


One thing I'll quickly say. I love your friend's representation of the female body. The use of wood reminded me of Donatello and his Mary Magdalene, Though, your friend's work is much more graceful than that of Donatello's Mary (I cringe at his depiction of the penitent Mary). And I see that one of my favorite works of his is still available, Evening of the Sixth (Love the allusion of the title of what was created on the sixth day;))

I really had some other things to say but my post disappeared. I'll have to gather my thoughts some other time.

And thanks Joseph for having faith in this thread. For the past two years I debated whether to start one but felt intimidated to do so for some reason :)

If any of you guys have questions about art of the past, feel free to ask, I'll try and do my best to answer it.
 
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Tiff: As soon as I saw what you posted on Janalee's thread, I dashed over here in hopes that you had posted here too, and ta daaaa! I'm so glad that you like my buddy Salem's work. He has told me he's impressed with your scholarship in this field. Question: when you thanked "John" for having faith in this thread, whom did you mean? John "Badger" Burkitt? If by any chance you meant me, my name is Joseph. Odd thing, though, a number of acquaintances in my lifetime have addressed me as John...and one as Jonathan Livingston Seagull (which I forced myself not to take as an insult).
 
Copperfox said:
Tiff: As soon as I saw what you posted on Janalee's thread, I dashed over here in hopes that you had posted here too, and ta daaaa! I'm so glad that you like my buddy Salem's work. He has told me he's impressed with your scholarship in this field. Question: when you thanked "John" for having faith in this thread, whom did you mean? John "Badger" Burkitt? If by any chance you meant me, my name is Joseph. Odd thing, though, a number of acquaintances in my lifetime have addressed me as John...and one as Jonathan Livingston Seagull (which I forced myself not to take as an insult).
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I'm so sorry, I keep confusing Joseph and John. I meant to say you, Mr. Joseph Ravitts :)

I'll go ahead and edit my post. Again, my apologies.
 
That's okay, it's fun being apologized to by brilliant and beautiful women. Tell me, while we've got you in the classroom: have you done any study of brass rubbings?
 
Copperfox said:
That's okay, it's fun being apologized to by brilliant and beautiful women. Tell me, while we've got you in the classroom: have you done any study of brass rubbings?
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Actually, this is the first time I've heard of the medium, so my question would be, what can you tell me about the medium :D
 
What brass rubbing means is that you find old cemeteries and other such places, where there are cast bronze or brass plaques forming what amounts to bas-relief sculptures. Then you lay a big sheet of sturdy paper over them, and rub a crayon or charcoal stick evenly all over, the way movie detectives will do with notepad pages to make the impression of previous writing visible. This gives you an image of the plaque. The image of a knight that I mentioned Mary giving to me was fastened atop the sepulcher of an actual medieval knight--like the way modern headstones may bear a photo of the deceased.
 
Copperfox said:
What brass rubbing means is that you find old cemeteries and other such places, where there are cast bronze or brass plaques forming what amounts to bas-relief sculptures. Then you lay a big sheet of sturdy paper over them, and rub a crayon or charcoal stick evenly all over, the way movie detectives will do with notepad pages to make the impression of previous writing visible.
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So basically we have forensic science borrowing from an artistic medium that goes back hundreds of years old :D

The image of a knight that I mentioned Mary giving to me was fastened atop the sepulcher of an actual medieval knight--like the way modern headstones may bear a photo of the deceased.
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I would love to see a picture of the image!

I was thinking earlier today about how in the 1600's paintings were such valuable items for the government and middle class citizens that sometimes it was used as currency. Rembrandt did it a couple of times in order to get out of debt and when tax collectors would come to his property they often took his paintings with them.
 
Copperfox said:
Then is that why modern currency has portrait pictures on it? (-:
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That actually goes way back to antiquity even before Alexander the Great. Currency back then was used as a way to inform (through symbols and portraits) people from other countries of current events. People from other countries would bring their currencies with them and when exchanged, merchants were able to know of the events that had occurred in the buyer's country.
 
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In the hope of some new "customers" visiting this thread, let's take it back to regular sculpture. I assume that you, Tiff, are familiar with the custom established for statues of American Civil War heroes? I'll describe it for the benefit of any newbies. If the man died right in the midst of action, his horse is depicted rearing up with both forehooves in the air; if he died because of wounds but died after a battle, his horse has one forehoof raised; and if he died of causes unrelated to war, his horse has all four hooves on the ground.

Professor Tiff, do you have any favorite patriotic monuments?
 
Tiff is right: I do believe in this thread, and I'm not letting it vanish!

Narrowly specific art styles can be characteristic of a particular locality. When I was stationed in Japan, my base was not far from the Pacific Ocean port city of Hachinohe. I seem to recall that the city's name had something to do with horses; and wooden figurines OF horses were the "signature" of the city in folk art.

Hachinohe Horses are not realistic wood carvings, but flat-sided abstractions of the shape of a horse, with manes and tails of real hair. All are handmade by local artisans (accept no substitutes). They vary in size from three inches to about a foot in length. The really good ones are lacquered and painted, with prominent carvers identified by their personal color patterns; but you can also get them with blank sides, so they can be written on like signing a yearbook. At Misawa Airbase where I served, it was a custom that every American military member who was about to transfer out was given a large Hachinohe Horse, which would be signed by friends as a remembrance. Mary and I left Japan with more than one wooden horse in our possession. A fully-painted one is on display in my family room to this day.
 
I would like to apologize for the lack of contribution on this thread these past two weeks. Unfortunately, one of the cases I work needs to be provided with 24 hours of services and we've been trying to cover these shift between 2.5 people (.5 being a staff who's only available half the time). Not to mention our other cases we need to work during the time we're not working the 24 hour case. So I basically come home emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted only to sleep for a couple of hours and be ready to go early in the morning again. Ugh, I can't wait for all of this to be over. So I please ask you guys to pray. It is much needed and I'm beginning to lose my patience.

Oh and CF, that's very interesting what you posted about the depictions on the statues of Civil War heroes. I have yet to take American Art because there are currently 3 ARH professors at my University and the one that specializes in American Art won't be teaching the class until Spring of '09 so I'm schedule to take that class then.

Are these the Hachinohe Horses you speak of?

display28.jpg

(at the bottom)
 
YES! YES! That is what Hachinohe Horses look like!! Where did you encounter those?

Concerning your absence: having been married for 25 years to a nurse (and then having BEEN in effect a nurse to Janalee in our shorter time together), I understand very well the demands of certain kinds of work. I tried to keep the flame alive here for you, my esteemed friend. I'm sure we can cultivate more interest over time, especially if you can post more visible examples.
 
I often have ideas for these arts.
I just had one actually.
Inspired by life and submarines... hehe.

It would be tall, so tall it'd need a stair case just to see the top of it.
It would be a pillar of sorts, with the entire exterior being brass. There would be thick glass windows of all sorts of sizes all over the the submarine pillar. Inside the windows will be images, sculptures, or actual things that once lived. Such as a small window showing bacteria, another showing an insect, others with pictures of animals of all kinds. A rather large one to show a whale. The deathmask of a person. Then at the top be a small pool with goldfish inside. I want to create a piece of art that involves life.
It would be in a dark room, with a blue light cast on it, to give the effect of being underwater. And a composition of eerie violin music to go along with the experience. And for some reason I see a window at the very bottom of the pillar as a tv screen, except playing only static.
I just had that picture in my head, I obviously don't have the funds to carry it out, but it was a nice thought. But I imagine someone has already thought of something like this, and I'll be accused of plagerism.

I'm in the art of music. I play and compose for the piano. Music facinates me, perhaps because of the science of it. Notes, pitches, hidden sound waves that are there, but you just don't see it. How music affects your moods, and how it can tell a story without pictures or words. Violin speaks to me the most that way, and I want to take it up someday.

Visual arts, such as photography, is probably where I plan to make my money. Photojournalism interests me, and I can't tell you the amount of hours I've spent looking at picture books by who knows how many different photographers. I spend a lot of time looking at National Geographic, I've got a bad case of wanderlust and I'm just waiting to let it out.
But another thing, not to far from photography, is cinematogrophy. I would love being a director.

I think something that I've seen, I'm not sure what to call it, but Russian statues and paintings, propaganda posters. How everything is glorified, and the way they make flags and clothing seem to blow in the wind like some divine hero.


But continue on your discussion, I know nothing about the history of art. Only what happens to pop into my head at the time is what I know about.
 
Jack, that was great! Never be bashful about posting here!

The general style or mood of the arts in the Soviet Union, to which you refer, is sometimes called "Socialist Realism." As always happens in a totalitarian regime, such a label was a self-serving lie. All of it was calculated to inspire citizens to strive and sacrifice for the benefit of a ruling class which would NEVER be grateful for their efforts.
 
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