Title

Old and New

Question

Could the art of the Gothic period be considered “new” and if so, could geography have been a factor and, what else could have contributed to it?

Part I

Summery

In researching this question I learned that the main contribution of the gothic art period was the creation of cathedrals

Reason

I think the reason this question was asked was to show the researcher the advancements made during the gothic period and to show how those advancements came to fruition.

Purpose

The reason I picked this question was to see how innovative the artists of the gothic period were.

Direction

This question will show what can be considered new art and how geography shaped it.

Impression

I learned allot about cathedral building and how they seems to be an improvement of the early Christian monasteries. On a personal note, after learning about the builders of the great cathedrals, I can definitely see a connection between the Knights Templar and the Masons.

Part II

Answer

               The gothic period is most notably known for the cathedrals that were erected during this time period. The bases for building these cathedrals seem to co-inside with the base reasoning behind the building of more ancient great structures, such as the pyramids and the pantheon. The difference or improvements of cathedrals compared to the ancient structures was caused mainly from competition.

               The first gothic building was the church of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Denis, located North of Paris. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 494). This early monastery was built over the tomb of St. Denis who was an early Christian martyr, and it also housed the tombs of French royalty. To me this shows a base line similarity to the Egyptians, who built the great pyramids over the tombs of their deceased pharaohs. In 1130 construction began to build a new church in place of the old monastery. The construction of the new building was supervised by a man named Abbot Suger. Suger believed that the more grandiose, astatically pleasing, and artistically detailed a cathedral was, the more it reflected the greatness of god and Jesus. The verse that was written on the bronzes doors of the church of St. Denis gives us an idea of Suger’s mentality.

“Whoever though art, If thou seekest to extol the glory of these doors, marvel not at the gold and expense but at the craftsmanship of the work, bright is the noble work; but being nobly bright, the work should lighten the minds, so they may travel, through the true lights, to the true light where Christ is the true door. In what manner it be inherent in this world the golden door defines: The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material and, in seeing the light, is resurrected from its former subversion.” (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 493)

               Another technique the builders of the gothic period used to integrate detailed art work into churches was the use of stained and painted glass instead of regular glass windows. Suger used these stained glass windows in the choir of the St. Denis cathedral as a representation of the “Wonderful and uninterrupted light.” (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 497). These stained glass windows could extremely large and filled with very detailed art work. The Chartes cathedral had 22,000 square feet of stained glass in 176 windows by 1260. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 500).   

Saint Dennis Cathedral, France

http://www.eurotravelogue.com/2011/05/saint-denis-basilica-in-paris.html

               Because the first cathedrals built within a close proximity to one another probably fueled the fires of completion. Almost like an “I have a better lawn then my neighbor mentality.” And because of the need to build bigger, better, and more grandiose cathedrals, the technology of cathedral building improved as well. One of these technologies was called rib vaulting. Rib vaults were used has a lighter support for the webbing of a vault. In other words the rib acted has the vaults skeleton while the web acted has the vaults skin. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 495).  The flying buttress was another innovation from the gothic period. The flying buttress was a huge curved skeletal support designed to transfer the weight of a high vaulted ceiling down along the sides of a cathedrals outer walls.

               Another by product of the cathedral age was the occupation of master mason. These masons were in charge of overseeing the building of these large cathedrals. It is said that fewer than a hundred master masons were responsible for some 40 churches and all the major architectural projects during a century long building boom there. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 501) This shows that the experience and knowledge of building these wondrous churches belonged to only a select few.

               After researching this topic I started thinking about the master masons and whether or not they were the forefathers of the Masonic order that is still in existence today. It has been said that the masons have a connection to the Knights templar. The Templers are a group that is fabled to be guardians of Christian relics and secrets. And what better way to guard these things, then to put those relics and secrets in a secure area. Even better, wouldn’t it be well advised to keep those relics in a secure area, that is cleverly hidden, and in a place that you own? In order to make such a place you would need someone to build it. And it would be better if the knowledge of how and where these secure hidden place weir was only privy to a select few. But it is just a theory.  

Us and them

Title

Them and Us

Question

How artistically similar or different, do you think prehistoric people were compared to modern man and, what singular force or need continues to drive the artistic needs and human expressions of the 21^st century?

Part I

Summery

By researching this project I learned that there are differences between modern and prehistoric artists. But there are many similarities as well.

Reason

 The reason for this question is to show the various ways that the prehistoric and modern artists differed and to also point out the things they both have in common.  

Purpose

I picked this question because I knew there would be many more similarities between modern and pre historic people then the average person would expect.

Direction

This question will show the things that changed and the things that remained constant in art, from the very beginnings of human art work.

Impression

At first I thought that there would be allot more differences between prehistoric and modern art. But it turns out that there are many more similarities then I thought.

Part II

Answer

The differences between cave man art and modern art are the obvious ones. For instance, most modern painters use paints that are oil based. The artists of the prehistoric days used “charcoal and spit.” (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 10). Another obvious difference is the tools the artists had at their disposal. The modern artists have a wide variety at their disposal. They can make art with the standard paintbrush and canvas or, can create something using a graphics program on a computer. While a cave dwelling artists might be limited to only sticks, bones and, his very own, hands and fingers. Cave people also had to create and make their own art supplies, while a modern artists could simple go to a store and buy the material he needed.

Has you can see, the differences between the two are only really skin deep. When you compare the works of art from both time periods more closely, you start to notice how art really hasn’t changed that much in the last 30,000 years.

Many pictures drawn by early man depicted herds of animals or people hunting animals. In 1994, hundreds of Cave paintings were discovered in the Chavet Cave located near Vallon-Pont-d’Arc in southern France. The paintings found on the cave were of animals such as, wild horses, mammoths, bison, bears, panthers, woolly rhinos, dear, and owls. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 9). Another painting found in Lascaux cave depicts a male, possible lying down, with an atlatl (a device used to through a spear farther) lying next to him. He is wearing what appears to be a bird head hat or mask, and there is a bison standing above the man. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 9). The former of these two paintings could describe what the artists hunted and killed. He could have created this as a sort of kill tally. Which to me, would be the same thing has a marine or soldier putting notches in his rifle, or a WW II pilot painting small silhouettes of the planes he has taken out. The former of these two could have been a picture of someone who witnessed one of their hunting mates killed in the line of duty. Such a thing can be compared to a war photographer taking pictures of the mortal dangers that surround the occupation of war. 

 

 Bird head man (possibly dead) with bison, Lascaux cave, France http://timothystephany.com/stone.html

Wall painting of various animals, Chauvet cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, France. http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/origins.html

Even some of the technical aspects of the way art was created between then and now has not changed that greatly. One of the techniques archeologists Michel Lorblanchet demonstrated when recreating the caving painting located at Pech-Merle was very similar to the way a modern artist would use a cut out stencil to spray paint an image on an object. Lorblanchet painted the rump end of a horse by chewing on a piece of charcoal to dilute it with spit and water. He then put his hand on the cave wall and sprayed the solution below his thumb and hand using the natural curve it created as a stencil. (Art History, 4^th addition Volume 1, Stokstad and Cothren, p 10).

Above all I believe that the only difference between pre-historic artists and modern artists are the different tools and technology. The underlining theme of telling a story through the eyes of the artists has not changed since the first time an artist decided to vandalize or decorate his cave.