BYZANTINE GRIFFIN

#griffin #byzantine #sculpture 

GREEK ART DOES NOT JUST MAGICALLY

 STOP AND START AT THE CLASSICAL ERA. 

It is a continuum.

Jumping forwards a few centuries here is an example that shows how Byzantine art may have influenced Islamic art and how the ancient griffin carvings of Mesopotamia influenced both.

Note the interlacing and the stylised plants and vines forming frames within frames emphasizing the griffin by filling in the background. This very leonine griffin has a birds talons on its forelegs but leonine rear paw and haunches and a mane plus the now traditional raptors beak and ears pointing forwards.

Let me know if you are finding this collection of images useful or enjoyable whether you are an illustrator seeking references or a scholar. Most of my collection came from Wikimedia Commons if you need large sizes go there!

 

Some Egyptian Sphinxes

I was doing a sequence over on www.metousia.blogspot.com which involved in the first posts comparing Egyptian Syrian and Early Greek art and I thought some of you might find my collection of interest and use.

Machinery as Sculpture Four

#Machinery as #Sculpture Four

If Machinery is like Sculpture or is sculpture and vice verse
what is the purpose of sculpture as a machine.

Yes this means I'm going to show a couple of pieces of modern art .. and other things ...

Calder Mobile 

Sculpture in a Sydney park 

Perhaps sculpture is a device for moving ideas?

Like this ?

Roman Emperor

Though the idea moved is the power and wealth of the Roman Empire.

Lets finish with another look at an image from my first post.

Why would one choose to paint a stationary crane? 

Its a portrait of a sculpture yet also of a machine.

Machines and sculptures both move things. 

Machinery as Sculpture THREE LOOM

#machinery as #sculpture three #Looms and #textiles

Have you ever considered #weaving as a #sculputural process?

We think of a loom as a device for making 2nd flat textiles and forget its as much a #3d process as a modern 3d printer.

Think and look at how threads are set up on a loom especially for processes like ikat or brocade or tapestry.

Here's some images of looms for hand weaving with shuttles

Not a flat process is it? and the loom in itself is a beautiful thing?

Now for some modern powered looms.

DO they not have a certain grace of geometry?

Sculpture is not always a reductive process of carving AWAY!

Finally consider the punch cards used in Jacquard looms are the ancestors of the software codes that make desk or table top knitting or 3d printing machines possible?!

Machinery as Sculpture Two

#Machinery as #Sculpture  TWO

Consider ARMOUR particularly articulated plate armour.

Here it is in its most modern cgi sfx form with Mr Downey striking a very sculptural pose for a PR poster.

Hands up anyone who went to an Iron Man movie cos they loved the workshop and armor scenes and because they actually showed at least of the design and prototype process. Our tech isn't quite up to real life Iron man powered armour ... yet ...

Now for its ancestor late middle ages plate armor.

I've shown a relatively version. 

Plate armor for tourney was often etched and engraved and more ornate.

Note how the artist in metal the smith who made this armour had to co-ordinate all the parts and the harmony of the parts makes the armour beautiful to look at because it is functional a defensive machine yet also design and sculpture.

Sculpture you can move in?

The Japanese also had articulated armour.

I've chosen to just show a helmet because of the use of ornament.

Several moving parts and sections joined together.

The same also applies to Japanese swords which are one object but can be detached blade handle and sword guard.

Art for a deadly destructive or defensive purpose but still art.

Next post in this series LOOMS!

Machinery as Sculpture One

#Machinery as #Sculpture One

The OED defines machinery as "having several parts" and being an "instrument that transmits force" ... an instrument ... so a tool that moves however those tools large or small often have sculptural and aesthetic properties.

Lets start the series by looking at two examples from #Sydney

This photography captures the crane itself and an painter's (not me) perceptions of the crane raising up again a blue sky!

Sydney is a working harbour. The next time you catch a ferry or a bus or train  as you move over or along a road or rail track or a bridge with a view of the harbour consider the beauty of various cranes for construction or cargo.

If you have ever been or plan to go into the QVB building near Town Hall if you have the time and have not already seen it go to the top floor and check out the central clock. This is one of the few examples of European style  clocks adorned with moving sculptures in Sydney.  

Both machines both sculptures!? 

Next post in this series we look at armour.