Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival also known as Victorian Gothic or Neo Gothic, one of the most influential styles of the 19th century. A very wild range of religious, civic and domestic buildings were built in the Gothic Revival era. It began in 1740s  in England. It came popular in the 19th Century. 

The Architectural elements in the Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th centuries were the most part of inspiration to 19th century designs : such as pointed arches, steep sloping roofs and decorative / ornamental patterns were added to the Gothic Revival objects such as building, furniture ext….

In the mid 19th century people were fascinated for historical costume, fancy dress events and parities were extremely popular at that time.

In Malta we have a cemetery influenced by Gothic Revival which is Santa Maria Addolorata (“Our Lady of Sorrows”). This was built in 1862-69 by an architect Emanuel Galizia in 1830-1906.

John Ruskin

John Ruskin (1819-1900)  was an art critic of his day. He travelled to Europe with a good interest in Medieval architecture, which he made water colours detailed studies. He was interested in decoration and colour of buildings. He wanted to return the spiritual values of the Middle Ages which he had lost in the mechanised and materialistic that he was living. Two imported books by John Ruskin were “The Seven Lamps of Architecture” (1849) and “The stones of Venice” 3 volumes (1851-1853) that they had an impact on the Gothic Revival. 

Owen Jones

Owen Jones (1809 - 1874) is the son of a Welsh antiquary, was an architect and interior designer. He studied with the architect Lewis Vulliamy (1791-1871). He went to Royal Academy School. After a tour in Europe sketching and painting the Alhambra, the Moorish palace at Granada, his attempts to get these lithographed led him to set up a printing establishment.

Jones is know for his master piece of his Grammar of Ornament (1856). Although he specialised as a colour printer in the illuminated gift book. 

“Owen Jones worked for Thomas De La Rue.  Owen  designed 173 playing cards varying from fruit and flower themes to Chinese and Arabesque.”

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co (1861-1875) and its successor was Morris & Co (1875-1940) were furnishing and decorative arts manufacturing  and realities founded by the Pre-Raphaelites artists and designer William Morris. They gave aesthetic and respect for the hand-craftsmanship and traditional textiles arts in the early 20th century.

Aubrey Beardsley 

Aubrey Beardsley born August 21 1872 Brighton, Sussex England lived March 16 1898, Menton France. Beardsley had a strong interest for drawing in his early childhood. He practiced his drawing while working as a clerk. He meet with Edward - Burne Jones in 1891 and promoted him to attend evening classes at the Westminister School of Art for a few months, his only professional instruction. He was inspired from the elegant curvilinear style of Art Nouveau and the design found in Japanese wood cuts. 

(The peacock skirt)

He took his inspiration from Japanese prints and Art Nouveau´s whiplash.

Referencing :

Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013. Gothic Revival. [ONLINE] Available at: <http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/style-guide-gothic-revival/>. [Accessed 09 November 13].

The Victorian Web. 2011. The Addolorata Chapel and Cemetery, Paolo, Malta, by Emmanuel Luigi Galizia. [ONLINE] Available at: <http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/galizia/5.html>. [Accessed 09 November 13].

Monogon Company Limited . 1996. The World of Playing Cards. [ONLINE] Available at: <http://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/owenjones.html>. [Accessed 09 November 13].

Encyclopaedia Britannica . 2013. Encyclopaedia Britannica . [ONLINE] Available at: <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/57391/Aubrey-Beardsley>. [Accessed 09 November 13].

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace

The year 1851 is known as the year in which Great Britain was believed to be the principal of the industrial revolution. To illustrate this success The Great Exhibition of 1851 was apprehended in London. In order to make sure that every technological achievement was clearly shown, it was decided that the exhibit was to be made international by extending its invitations to the major part of the colonised world. The predominating attitude in England at the time was enriched with pompous demonstrations of capabilities. During the mid-1850s, the word "Victorian" began to be used to symbolise a new modesty, in relation to the nation as well as to the time phase through which it was passing.

The Crystal Palace itself was almost transcended by the park in which it stood. Hyde park contained a sublime series of fountains, encompassing almost 12,000 individual jets. The biggest of them was able to throw water up to a height of 250ft.

The park also contained exceptional collections of statues, mostly being replicas of works from all over the world. A geological display was also found in Crystal Palace where a copy of a lead mine was present, together with the first pursuits anywhere in the world to depict life-size reformations of extinct animals, including dinosaurs. Crystal Palace park was also the scene of astonishing Brock's fireworks displays.

On November 30th 1936, fire hit the Crystal Palace itself, demolishing it in the process. As a consequence, the focus of that area was lost. however,  the largest part of important events in the Crystal Palace’s history occurred in the grounds, which possess much of their original blueprint today. Hence, for 140 years, Crystal Palace park has been the scene of countless inputs to the nation's social, scientific and sporting history.

Inner view of the inside of the Crystal Palace.

                       

Outer view of the Crystal Palace.

William Morris 

William Morris was born on March 24th 1834 and died on October 3rd 1896. He was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement.

Morris had trained as an architect and had early ambitions to be a painter. While at the University of Oxford he encountered Edward Burne-Jones who was an artist.  By this friendship Morris came to know the Pre-Raphaelite painters, one of which was Rossetti.Morris lived in Bexleyheath, Kent together with his wife Jane Burden whom he had married in 1859. Jane was uniquely beautiful and cherished amongst the pre-Raphaelites. Upon marrying Jane, Morris promptly instructed his friend, also an architect Philip Webb, in order to build them a new home. Webb agreed and gave Morris a modern home, being “very medieval in spirit” just as the latter had wanted.
The success of Morris’  friends’ efforts in helping him design his home motivated them to start their own company. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was the name given to their company and it was rooted at 8 Red Lion Square in London in April 1861. This company was the mind behind a vast range of products namely embroidery, tableware and furniture, stained glass and tiles. He fought against the ´inhuman` conditions of mass production. He founded the arts and Crafts Movement and reformed commercial art, the return to hand crafted house hold products. Designed Textiles by William Morris 

A Portrait of William Morris

                                         Designed Textiles by William Morris . The Acanthus Leaf

 

Designed Textiles by William Morris, unfinished flower patterns.

Referencing :

V&A. 2013. Biography of William Morris. [ONLINE] Available at: httpy://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/biography-of willam-morris. [Accessed 08 November 13]

Victorian Station. 1999. Victorian Station. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.victorianstation.com/palace.html. [Accessed 08 November 13]. 

The Esquire Theme . 2012. Morris Prints . [ONLINE] Available at: http://lamachineahabiter.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/morris-prints/. [Accessed 18 December 13].

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution  

The Industrial Revolution established the unity of nature. The term Industrial Revolution refers to the shift from an agrarian, handcraft, labour intensive economy to one dominated by machine manufacture, specialisation of tasks, factories, a free flow of capital and concentration of people in cities. For contemporaries of the Industrial Revolution, the application of machines to human task seemed the most significant change taking place. They thought that technology might alleviate poverty, want and harsh labour. 

But the great revolution in the 18 th century were made by many lesser men banded together. The Industrial Revolution is a long train of changes starting about 1760. It forms one of a triad of revolution of which the other two were the American Revolution that started in 1775 and the French Revolution that started in 1789.

Industrial Revolution didn´t started everywhere in the same time and at the same speed however Britain first, because of the effect of the Agriculture Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution social costs were people saw machinery as a threat to their skill, Conditions in the Factories, Building of Slums and their conditions, long working hours and effects of Capitalism.

The Industrial Revolution involved a process from water to steam. The pioneer such process was James Brindley of Straffordshire who started his self made career in 1733 by working at mill wheel machine. Furthermore Brindley was also a pioneer in the art of canal building.

The Steam Engine 

The steam engine can be considered the single most important invention of the entire industrial revolution.It is not clear on who had come up with this invention. Some give the credit to James Watt while others claim that Thomas Newcomen was the original inventor.  However, the idea of using the power of steam to the advantage of human beings has been around practically since the beginning of time.   

    The majority of people will tell you that the steam engine was invented by James Watt, but it is not quite correct. It came from a compilation of work and theories that took centuries to complete. James Watt discovered the steam engine when he observed the lid of a kettle lifting as water boiled. 

Thomas Newcomer 1664-1729 was an ironmonger, He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. He is regarded as a forefather of the Industrial Revolution. He was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomer engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines. 

The Type writer

The first type writer to ever be invented was called the "Sholes & Glidden Type Writer," and it was produced by the gunmakers E. Remington & Sons in Ilion, NY. It was not a great success, but it founded a worldwide industry, and brought mechanisation to tedious, time-consuming office work.

The idea began at Kleinsteuber's Machine Shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the year 1868. A local, named Christopher Latham Sholes spent hours at Kleinstuber's with fellow tinkerers, eager to participate in the Age of Invention to produce devices to improve the lot of Mankind.

Sholes thought of a simple device with a piece of printer's type mounted on a little rod, striking upward to a flat plate holding a piece of carbon paper sandwiched with a piece of stationary. The percussive strike of the type should produce an impression on the paper. Sholes' demonstration model looked like this.

Henry Ford 

 More than any other single individual, Henry Ford was responsible for transforming the automobile from a futile invention into an innovation that extremely shaped the 20th century and continues to affect our lives to this day.

Innovation requires values including self-confidence, being somewhat risky, leadership ability and a sight of the future. Henry Ford was lucky to have all these characteristics, but it took him quite a long time to fully develop all of them.

               

This was the model T 15 million were produced. The difference between the model T and the new Ford models are more efficient more sports and has the tear drop effect, but the still do the same job by get you to destination you wish to go.

The Assembly Line 

An assembly line consists of a number of determined sequences of operations for manufacture of each product component, together with the final product. Each movement of material is made as simple as possible.

An automotive assembly line starts with a bare structure; components are attached successively as the growing cluster moves along a conveyor. Parts are fixed into subassemblies on feeder lines intersecting the main line to deliver body parts, engines, and other assemblies. As the units move past, each worker along the line carries out a specific function. A number of different assemblies are on the line simultaneously, but an intensive detailed system of scheduling and control ensures that the appropriate body type and colour, trim, engine, and optional equipment arrive together to make the desired combinations.

A type  of assembly line is the automated assembly line which consists entirely of machines. Examples of such continuous-process industries include petroleum refining and chemical manufacture. 

However, most products are still assembled by hand. This is due to the fact that many component parts are not easily handled by one simple mechanism. Expensive, inflexible, automatic assembly machines are economical only if run at very high quantities. 

 Today assembly lines are modernised by the use of versatile automatic robots, making them more efficient in terms of speed and quality. Also, nowadays assembly line are considered to be less time consuming and they are now improved with regards health and safety measures.

Jules Chéret 

Jules Chéret was born in Paris to a rather poor but creative family of artisans, hence had a very limited education. At age thirteen, he began a three-year apprenticeship with a lithographer and then his interest in painting led him to take an art course at the École Nationale de Dessin. Like most other artists, Chéret studied the techniques of various artists, past and present, by visiting Paris museums.  

For seven years, he undergone training in lithography in London, where he was strongly influenced by the British.

The Flying Shuttle

The ‘wheeled shuttle’  is a device which greatly accelerated weaving where the shuttle is allowed to carry the weft in order for it to be passed through the warp threads faster and over a greater width of cloth. It was designed for the broad loom, for which it saved labour over the traditional process, needing only one operator per loom (before Kay's improvements a second worker was needed to catch the shuttle). 

John Kay always called this invention a "wheeled shuttle", but others used the name "flying shuttle" due to its continuous speed, especially when a young worker was using it in a narrow loom. 

                                                                               
           

                            

  Referencing :

Kendra Bolon, 2001. The Steam Engines. [online] Available at: <http://campus.udayton.edu/~hume/Steam/steam.htm>[Accessed 8 November 2013].

Darryl Rehr, 2010. The First Typewriter. [online] Available: <http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/firsttw.html> [Accessed 8 November 2013].

Oakwood Blvd, 2013. Th Henry Ford. [online] Available at: <http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/>.  [Accessed 8 November 2013].

Ford, 2013. Driving you further. [online] Available: <http://fordlux.com/modifications/ford-mustang-will-come-to-europe-with-two-new-motors.html>. [Accessed 8 November 2013].

2011. Assembly Line. [online] Available: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line>.[Accessed 8 November 2013].

GM,Ford and Chrysler, 1999. Cars Direct. [online] Available: <http://pricinginsider.carsdirect.com/2012/02/27/gm-ford-and-chrysler-struggling-to-keep-manufacturing-pace-as-sales-surge/>.[Accessed 8 November 2013].

Unknown, 2013. Jules Cheret. [online] Available: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Chéret>. [Accessed 8 November 2013].

Unknown, 2013. John Kay . [online] Available: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kay_(flying_shuttle)>. [Accessed 8 November 2013].

Design of Classical Antiquity

 Doric order

The original Greek Doric columns stood directly on the flat pavement of a temple without a base with their vertical shafts furrowed by 20 parallel concave grooves, topped by a smooth capital that flashed from the column to meet a square abacus at the intersection with the horizontal beam (architrave) that they carried. It was most popular in the  Archaic Period  (750-480 BC) in Greece and the parthenon consists of such columns.

Ionic order

The Ionic order is another order from the organisational system of classical architecture, the other two being the  Doric and the Corinthian.

The Ionic capital is characterised by the use of volutes. The Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform. Also, the cap is usually enriched with egg-and-dart.

Corinthian order 

The Corinthian order is the last chronologically of the three major orders in the organisational system of classical architecture. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is stated to be the most ornate of the orders, identified by slender grooves and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls.

The name "Corinthian" is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth, although the style had its own model in Roman practice. It was employed in southern Gaul at the Maison Carrée, Nîmes and at the comparable podium temple at Vienne.

Parthenon

The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron deity. In 447 BC, the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power and this was the beginning of the construction of the Parthenon. It was completed in 9 years later although its decoration continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, and is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, western civilisation and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. Currently, the Parthenon is being restored and reconstructed by the Geek Ministry of culture, in order to ensure its stability.

 Pantheon

The Pantheon is a building found in Rome, Italy. It was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus as a  temple for all the gods of ancient Rome, and rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian about 126 AD.

It is a circular building consisting of a portico of large granite Corinthian columns located under a pediment. A rectangular hall links the porch to the rotunda, found under a coffered concrete dome, which has a central opening to the sky known as the oculus. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.

Johann Gutenberg

The printing press was invented by the German goldsmith Johann Gutenberg in 1448. By the use of this device it was possible for the first time for the common man, woman and child to have access to books.This meant they would for the first time have unrivalled ability to accumulate knowledge.

Before the printing press was invented, the majority of books were written and copied by hand. Block printing involved carving each page of a text into a block of wood and pressing each block onto paper. Due to the fact that these processes were so labor-intensive, books were very expensive, and only rich people could afford them.

Reference :

Univertity Press Inc , 2003 Ancient Greece .  [online] Available at: <http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Art/>.[Accessed 8 November 2013].

Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 2004. Johann Gutemberg.  [online] Available at: <http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/gutenberg.html>[Accessed 8 November 2013].