Decorative Arts

Decorative Arts

• Decorative Arts, categories of useful yet decorative objects, generally intended for the home. These objects include furniture, eating utensils, jewelry, and clothing. Objects classified as decorative arts differ from other useful objects in their design, artisanship, and beauty. The field of decorative arts is vast, covering not only ancient crafts, such as weaving and pottery, but also some products of modern industrial design, such as teakettles, toasters, and other small domestic appliances. People who study the decorative arts generally classify the objects according to the materials from which they are made. The classifications include ceramics, glass, ivory, leatherwork, metalwork, stone, textiles, and woodwork.

Kinds of Decorative Arts

•Handicraft – Object made by hand•Industrial art – Object made by machine or assembly line

Artisan

•The maker of these decorative arts

History• The decorative arts have flourished throughout

history, from prehistoric times to the present, in civilizations around the world. More than 4,000 years ago, craftspeople in ancient Egypt created gold jewelry for kings and queens and gold funerary ornaments for royal tombs.

• Potters in ancient Greece painted decorative designs and scenes on terra-cotta (baked clay) vases and urns, starting in the 9th century BC. Delicate Roman glass vessels date from the 1st century AD.

History

• Chinese tombs dating from the Neolithic period (about 4000 to 2000 BC) have yielded painted ceramic jars and elegant bronze vessels.

History

• In Africa most art forms serve some function, and decorated items for ritual and for everyday use are numerous. But few ancient African art objects have survived because they were made of perishable materials. Gold work, textiles, and ceramics dominated pre-Columbian art in Latin America.

History

SCULPTURE• Art of curving wood, chiseling stone,

casting or welding metal, modeling clay or wax into dimensional representations such as figures, statues, forms, etc.• Most of these sculptured were used in

rituals. • Honor forces of nature (figures of

men ,women or animals)• Drive away spirits (masks worn by

priestesses or medicine man.• Beg favors from their God (sculptured

figures)

Functions of Sculpture• Religion (monuments of biblical heroes,

images of Jesus Christ, the holy family and saints)• Instructional purposes (Old Testament)• Commemoration of heroes, kings, and

historical events.• Minting of coins (shows the relief

designs like Presidents or heroes of a country or other significant symbols.)

Materials Used in Sculpture

• Marble• Bronze• Wood• Ivory• Terra cotta• Bamboo• Adobe• coral

Features of a Sculptural Work

•Line•Color•Texture•Volume•Style

Sculpture in the Ancient World

Egyptian•Belief•Presented Ideas clearly

Persian• Skillful in making designs in bronze

and gold.

Greek• Believed that” man is the measure of

all things”• The most important function of Greek

sculpture was to honor the Gods and Goddesses.

Roman• The most important contribution of Roman artists were portraits.• Roman sculpture becomes abstract.

Romanesque Sculpture• Ideas of curving are more free and small figures

twist and turn freely.• The heads of these figures are enlarged and stand

out from the surface of the relief.

Gothic• Figures were depicted more realistic.• The faces of the figures or statues had

more expression and their garments were draped in a natural way.

Renaissance•The most significant change in art that occurred in the renaissance was the new emphasis on glorifying the human figure. Figures were more likely or more real.

David, by Donatello• Italian sculptor Donatello executed his David

(Bargello Museum, Florence), the first nude statue of the Renaissance, from about 1430 to 1435. This nearly life-size bronze image of the biblical hero was also the first statue since classical antiquity to be cast in the round. Its realism marked a departure from the conventions of Gothic sculpture, which mostly produced rigid, columnar figures.

Pietà by Michelangelo• Pietà (Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City) is an

early sculpture, carved between 1497 and 1500, by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. From the hard marble stone, Michelangelo created the impression of flowing drapery and soft flesh. The Pietà theme represents the Virgin Mary holding the dead Christ in her lap.

Neoclassic and Romantic

•These period called for a deliberate return to classical subject matter and style.

• Venus • Italian neoclassical artist Antonio Canova is noted

for his marble sculptures based on classical models. He created the Venus Italica (1804-1812, Pitti Palace, Florence) to replace an ancient Roman statue known as the Medici Venus, which French emperor

Architecture• The art of building.• Art that has practical basis.• The only one used in one way or

another by everyone.• Each building has a definite and

special purpose.• People developed different styles of

architecture to suit their way of life and their specific needs.

Earliest Architecture• Caves and rock shelters• 10,000 or more years, man learned to polish stone: build houses made of wood, mud, stone, and plants to protect themselves and their families from weather and danger.• The first builder learned that round or oval buildings were the simplest to construct.

Egyptian• Believed that pharaohs were gods so they had

to build strong and sturdy tombs which would be used forever.

• Their religious belief of immortality demanded the preservation of their god through mummification.

• To ensure the or preserve the mummy and the well-being of the spirit, they constructed monumental tombs about 3000 to 2000 B.C.

• The first pyramid constructed was the tomb of King Djoser build by architec Imhotep around 2700 B.C.

• Temple were chapels separate from the tombs. The temple of Sphinx.

• Step Pyramid, Şaqqārah The Step Pyramid of King Djoser was built during the 3rd Dynasty at Şaqqārah, Egypt. It was designed by the architect Imhotep. The pyramid was the first monumental royal tomb and is one of the oldest stone structures in Egypt. 20-storey Building

• Build to glorify their gods.• Religiuos• Tombs for their leaders.

• Famous for their contribution to the development of art and culture.• They originated the direct study of nature.• Their highest aim in art is to improve nature.• Their outstanding art works are architecture and sculpture.

Greek

The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos (the Virgin Athena), stands on the Acropolis high above Athens, Greece. The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC, and despite the enormous damage it has sustained over the centuries, it still communicates the ideals of order and harmony for which Greek architecture is known.

Three styles or “orders” of

Greek ArchitectureDoric style• Column has no base and the bottom of the

column rests on the top step.• The capital is flat block or slab joined to the

column by a simple convex curve which looks like cushion.

Three styles or “orders” of

Greek ArchitectureIonic• Column is Taller and more slender than the doric

type• Has a base and capital is ornamented by scrolls

on each side.Porch of Maidens, Erechtheum Named for Erechtheus, a mythical Athenian hero, the Erechtheum was built in the late 5th century BC on the Athenian Acropolis. The small porch on the temple’s south end, known as the Porch of the Maidens, features six caryatids holding up an Ionic entablature. The elaborate ornaments of this building contrast dramatically with the Doric formality of the nearby Parthenon

Three styles or “orders” of

Greek ArchitectureCorinthian• Column is much smaller than the Ionic column.• Its capital is decorated with acanthus leaves, a

motif popular in eastern areas of the Mediterranean.

During the Classical period, the Corinthian order, the most elaborate of the three Greek architectural orders, was used mainly for interior columns. However, late in the Hellenistic period the Greeks began to build temples with Corinthian columns on the exterior, as here in the Temple of Olympian Zeus, in Athens (174 BC-AD 132). Atop tall, slender columns are capitals carved with stylized, curling acanthus leaves.