Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art

Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art
Author: Chloë N. Duckworth
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1351682962

The myriad ways in which colour and light have been adapted and applied in the art, architecture, and material culture of past societies is the focus of this interdisciplinary volume. Light and colour’s iconographic, economic, and socio-cultural implications are considered by established and emerging scholars including art historians, archaeologists, and conservators, who address the variety of human experience of these sensory phenomena. In today’s world it is the norm for humans to be surrounded by strong, artificial colours, and even to see colour as perhaps an inessential or surface property of the objects around us. Similarly, electric lighting has provided the power and ability to illuminate and manipulate environments in increasingly unprecedented ways. In the context of such a saturated experience, it becomes difficult to identify what is universal, and what is culturally specific about the human experience of light and colour. Failing to do so, however, hinders the capacity to approach how they were experienced by people of centuries past. By means of case studies spanning a broad historical and geographical context and covering such diverse themes as architecture, cave art, the invention of metallurgy, and medieval manuscript illumination, the contributors to this volume provide an up-to-date discussion of these themes from a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective. The papers range in scope from the meaning of colour in European prehistoric art to the technical art of the glazed tiles of the Shah mosque in Isfahan. Their aim is to explore a multifarious range of evidence and to evaluate and illuminate what is a truly enigmatic topic in the history of art and visual culture.

Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia

Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia
Author: Monica Bethe
Publisher: Spencer Museum of Art
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Art, East Asian
ISBN: 9780300212990

With essays by Monica Bethe, Mary M Dusenbury, Shih-shan Susan Huang, Ikumi Kaminishi, Guolong Lai, Richard Laursen, Liu Jian and Zhao Feng, Chika Mouri, Park Ah-rim, Hillary Pedersen, Lisa Shekede and Su Bomin, Sim Yeon-ok and Lee Seonyong, Tanaka Yoko, and Zhao Feng and Long Bo Color was a critical element in East Asian life and thought, but its importance has been largely overlooked in Western scholarship. This interdisciplinary volume explores the fascinating roles that color played in the society, politics, thought, art, and ritual practices of ancient and medieval East Asia (ca. 1600 B.C.E.-ca. 1400 C.E.). While the Western world has always linked color with the spectrum of light, in East Asian civilizations colors were associated with the specific plant or mineral substances from which they were derived. Many of these substances served as potent medicines and elixirs, and their transformative powers were extended to the dyes and pigments they produced. Generously illustrated, this groundbreaking publication constitutes the first inclusive study of color in East Asia. It is the outcome of years of collaboration between chemists, conservators, archaeologists, historians of art and literature, and scholars of Buddhism and Daoism from the United States, East Asia, and Europe.

Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art

Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art
Author: Chloë N. Duckworth
Publisher:
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781315167435

The myriad ways in which colour and light have been adapted and applied in the art, architecture, and material culture of past societies is the focus of this interdisciplinary volume. Light and colour's iconographic, economic, and socio-cultural implications are considered by established and emerging scholars including art historians, archaeologists, and conservators, who address the variety of human experience of these sensory phenomena. In today's world it is the norm for humans to be surrounded by strong, artificial colours, and even to see colour as perhaps an inessential or surface property of the objects around us. Similarly, electric lighting has provided the power and ability to illuminate and manipulate environments in increasingly unprecedented ways. In the context of such a saturated experience, it becomes difficult to identify what is universal, and what is culturally specific about the human experience of light and colour. Failing to do so, however, hinders the capacity to approach how they were experienced by people of centuries past. By means of case studies spanning a broad historical and geographical context and covering such diverse themes as architecture, cave art, the invention of metallurgy, and medieval manuscript illumination, the contributors to this volume provide an up-to-date discussion of these themes from a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective. The papers range in scope from the meaning of colour in European prehistoric art to the technical art of the glazed tiles of the Shah mosque in Isfahan. Their aim is to explore a multifarious range of evidence and to evaluate and illuminate what is a truly enigmatic topic in the history of art and visual culture.

A Cultural History of Color in the Medieval Age

A Cultural History of Color in the Medieval Age
Author: Carole P. Biggam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-08-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350193488

A Cultural History of Color in the Medieval Age covers the period 500 to 1400. The medieval age saw an extraordinary burst of color - from illuminated manuscripts and polychrome sculpture to architecture and interiors, and from enamelled and jewelled metalwork to colored glass and the exquisite decoration of artefacts. Color was used to denote affiliation in heraldry and social status in medieval clothes. Color names were created in various languages and their resonance explored in poems, romances, epics, and plays. And, whilst medieval philosophers began to explain the rainbow, theologians and artists developed a color symbolism for both virtues and vices. Color shapes an individual's experience of the world and also how society gives particular spaces, objects, and moments meaning. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Color examines how color has been created, traded, used, and interpreted over the last 5000 years. The themes covered in each volume are color philosophy and science; color technology and trade; power and identity; religion and ritual; body and clothing; language and psychology; literature and the performing arts; art; architecture and interiors; and artefacts. Carole P. Biggam is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Glasgow, UK. Kirsten Wolf is Professor of Old Norse and Scandinavian Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Volume 2 in the Cultural History of Color set. General Editors: Carole P. Biggam and Kirsten Wolf The Cultural Histories Series A Cultural History of Color is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available as hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a tangible reference for their shelves or as part of a fully-searchable digital library. The digital product is available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access via www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com . Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available in print or digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com .

Light and Colour in Byzantine Art

Light and Colour in Byzantine Art
Author: Liz James
Publisher:
Total Pages: 242
Release: 1996
Genre: Art
ISBN:

This is the first book to investigate the place of color in Byzantine art. By engaging the issue on both a technical level--how colors were made, what colors were available--and a perceptual level--how these colors were seen and described--James offers a new approach to the study of color in art history. Including sixty-four color illustrations, most never before published, James's study offers a unique view of the details of Byzantine art.

Medieval Art

Medieval Art
Author: Michael Byron Norris
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2005
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1588390837

This educational resource packet covers more than 1200 years of medieval art from western Europe and Byzantium, as represented by objects in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the contents of this resource are: an overview of medieval art and the period; a collection of aspects of medieval life, including knighthood, monasticism, pilgrimage, and pleasures and pastimes; information on materials and techniques medieval artists used; maps; a timeline; a bibliography; and a selection of useful resources, including a list of significant collections of medieval art in the U.S. and Canada and a guide to relevant Web sites. Tote box includes a binder book containing background information, lesson plans, timeline, glossary, bibliography, suggested additional resources, and 35 slides, as well as two posters and a 2 CD-ROMs.

The Brilliant History of Color in Art

The Brilliant History of Color in Art
Author: Victoria Finlay
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2014-11-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606064290

The history of art is inseparable from the history of color. And what a fascinating story they tell together: one that brims with an all-star cast of characters, eye-opening details, and unexpected detours through the annals of human civilization and scientific discovery. Enter critically acclaimed writer and popular journalist Victoria Finlay, who here takes readers across the globe and over the centuries on an unforgettable tour through the brilliant history of color in art. Written for newcomers to the subject and aspiring young artists alike, Finlay’s quest to uncover the origins and science of color will beguile readers of all ages with its warm and conversational style. Her rich narrative is illustrated in full color throughout with 166 major works of art—most from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Readers of this book will revel in a treasure trove of fun-filled facts and anecdotes. Were it not for Cleopatra, for instance, purple might not have become the royal color of the Western world. Without Napoleon, the black graphite pencil might never have found its way into the hands of Cézanne. Without mango-eating cows, the sunsets of Turner might have lost their shimmering glow. And were it not for the pigment cobalt blue, the halls of museums worldwide might still be filled with forged Vermeers. Red ocher, green earth, Indian yellow, lead white—no pigment from the artist’s broad and diverse palette escapes Finlay’s shrewd eye in this breathtaking exploration.

Colors Demonic and Divine

Colors Demonic and Divine
Author: Herman Pleij
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2004
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780231130226

Including a wealth of vivid detail and ranging over theology, poetry, painting, heraldry, fashion, and daily life, this book elucidates the attitudes toward color in medieval times and the effect these attitudes still have on modern society.

Black

Black
Author: Michel Pastoureau
Publisher:
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2009
Genre: Art
ISBN:

About the history of the color black, its various meanings and representations.