Sunday 5 December 2010
Saturday 4 December 2010
New Links
Take a look down the right hand column to find a new list of design and art history web links.
Try the following first:
Shop: Bonjour Mon Coussin
Photography: Kasu
Design: Outrepart
Design: SolarBeat
Try the following first:
Shop: Bonjour Mon Coussin
Photography: Kasu
Design: Outrepart
Design: SolarBeat
www Matilda Saxow
One of my tutors at uni. Some inventive book design and layouts – her work seems to make use of no more than what's essential. The Grafik editions are stunning but I think the way she uses space in the Man&Eve books makes the best of the work featured within.
Friday 3 December 2010
Cracked articles on Art
I recently found the following articles on American humour site Cracked.com – very funny stuff. Don't pay too much attention to the part on the Last Supper though: the original painting was a mess of smudges and blurs according to Vasari, who saw it only 50 years after its creation. What's shown today is the reproduction of the painting by other artists.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18386_7-mind-blowing-easter-eggs-hidden-in-famous-works-art.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18700_7-famous-works-art-with-bizarre-mistakes-you-cant-unsee.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18386_7-mind-blowing-easter-eggs-hidden-in-famous-works-art.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18700_7-famous-works-art-with-bizarre-mistakes-you-cant-unsee.html
www Smart History
This site is great, if not for taking part in the discussions, for browsing through the various pages and dipping in and out of some of the more well known works of art throughout history. The design is quite well done too - very handy timeline, loads of immediately accessible pages.
http://smarthistory.org/
http://smarthistory.org/
Thursday 2 December 2010
The Montefeltro Conspiracy - Marcello Simonetta
For anyone interested in Renaissance Italy, add this beauty to your bookshelf - The Montefeltro Consiracy.
I'd read quite a lot about Renaissance Florence before I came across Federico da Montefeltro - it was actually a portrait by Pedro Berrugete that I saw of him (first image below) that caught my eye (...a pun for later). I'd seen Piero della Francesca's painting (second image below) long ago and knew very little about it. I assumed it was of some Italian scholar or another, never knowing he was actually a battle-hardened condottiere. Seeing Berruguete's portrait, I'd managed to make the link back to della Francesca's work and saw it in a totally new light. For instance, if the man's face was depicted from the other side, we would find him missing an eye - the result of a jousting accident and the reason why the bridge of his nose is almost horizontal (a little DIY to his face improved his vision with that lonely left eye).
The book itself is a beautiful one - embossed lettering on the cover and the inner pages left untrimmed. The literature surrounds the assassination attempt upon Lorenzo 'Il Magnifico' de Medici; it includes lots of images that I've seen in no other books on the subject and, although they're in black and white to conform to the book's design, they really offer a valuable resource on a quite specialised subject.
I'd read quite a lot about Renaissance Florence before I came across Federico da Montefeltro - it was actually a portrait by Pedro Berrugete that I saw of him (first image below) that caught my eye (...a pun for later). I'd seen Piero della Francesca's painting (second image below) long ago and knew very little about it. I assumed it was of some Italian scholar or another, never knowing he was actually a battle-hardened condottiere. Seeing Berruguete's portrait, I'd managed to make the link back to della Francesca's work and saw it in a totally new light. For instance, if the man's face was depicted from the other side, we would find him missing an eye - the result of a jousting accident and the reason why the bridge of his nose is almost horizontal (a little DIY to his face improved his vision with that lonely left eye).
The book itself is a beautiful one - embossed lettering on the cover and the inner pages left untrimmed. The literature surrounds the assassination attempt upon Lorenzo 'Il Magnifico' de Medici; it includes lots of images that I've seen in no other books on the subject and, although they're in black and white to conform to the book's design, they really offer a valuable resource on a quite specialised subject.
Filippo Negroli's Armour 02
Among Filippo Negroli's more prestigious customers were the Emperor Charles V and the dukes of Urbino, Francesco Maria I and Guidobaldo II della Rovere. Filippo's brother, Francesco, was highly skilled in damascening - a process of decoratively inlaying metals into the armour; he often did this in gold, favouring acanthus foliage patterns for the most part of his designs below.
Interestingly, you can see, in the miniature portrait of Guidobaldo II della Rovere below, that the armour he had Negroli produce for him (which is also featured in my last post on Negroli) is included in the background, proudly put on show for all to see. Seemingly, the armour is recorded very little as far as whether it was used or not - but to find it included in his portrait tells us it was of great significance to him.
Although the foliage designs on the works below are incredibly eye-catching, I find they lose their value when we learn the meaning or function of the illustrations. They act as a sort of secondary feature to the actual form of the armour, which is why I find that the more 'pure' (or 'simple') ancient Roman armour that would make more use of the human form itself and rely less on symbolism or motif, seems to function in a different way - something I might address at a later date.
Armour for Guidobaldo II della Rovere, 1532-35
Charles V's Masks Garniture, 1539
Armour for Dauphin Henry of France, 1540
Interestingly, you can see, in the miniature portrait of Guidobaldo II della Rovere below, that the armour he had Negroli produce for him (which is also featured in my last post on Negroli) is included in the background, proudly put on show for all to see. Seemingly, the armour is recorded very little as far as whether it was used or not - but to find it included in his portrait tells us it was of great significance to him.
Although the foliage designs on the works below are incredibly eye-catching, I find they lose their value when we learn the meaning or function of the illustrations. They act as a sort of secondary feature to the actual form of the armour, which is why I find that the more 'pure' (or 'simple') ancient Roman armour that would make more use of the human form itself and rely less on symbolism or motif, seems to function in a different way - something I might address at a later date.
Armour for Guidobaldo II della Rovere, 1532-35
Charles V's Masks Garniture, 1539
Armour for Dauphin Henry of France, 1540
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