Tiffany Zhong

Dreams & Designers
(1895 – 1905)

Peter Behrens was a key figure in the later part of the Jugendstil movement (the German counterpart to the Art Nouveau movement). Its elements showed up in all of his work as an artist, type/graphic/furniture designer, and architect. Behrens’ work would bridge movement into modernism in the early 20th century.

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Typography

A Quintessential German Typeface

Peter Behrens’s typeface Behrens Schrift was released in mid-1901 by the Rudhard’sche Foundry of Offenbach. It was Behrens’ attempt at a simplified gothic style with a broad-pen calligraphic look in a very German way. He was going for the hand-lettered feel of which he associated with integrity and formality of letterforms. He was also inspired by the handiwork of the medieval scribes. It was ideas like this that tied him to the philosophies of William Morris’ Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain from the the 1860s on. Though it is simple, this typeface still holds some Jugendstil characteristics, such as the elemental decorations like the whiplash curve at the tops of the I and J.

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This typeface became very popular for the foundry. It was most popular in advertising and fine printing. A variation of it was even used for the German exhibitions at the 1904 World Expo in St. Louis and for the 1910 World Expo in Brussels. At the bottom of the second page, you can even see that Peter Behrens was in charge of the printing and supervision of the German catalogue.

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Architecture

Peter Behrens was a multi-talented man, much like William Morris, the father of the Arts and Crafts movement in England in latter half of the 19th century. When he was invited to participate in the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony in 1890, he got to design his own house, now called the Behrens House, and all the interior furnishings—down to the dishes. In his endeavours into architecture, he was interested in creating functional forms and improving and modernizing the designs of factory-produced everyday objects. His “model family house” was the most elaborate of all those in the colony. You can see from the photos that he was still highly decorative, even adding linear geometric designs to the ceilings and in other pieces in the house. He was a huge proponent of getting these designs into production by local factories and he was backed by the governments to make this happen. At the time, artist-designed products were not typically sent off for general production runs, but he found some success for his items which help solidify his reputation as the first industrial designer.

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Behrens and his group the Deutscher Werkbund (modelled after William Morris’ design group) would go on to train the future head of Bauhaus, Walter Groupius, and another pioneer of modern architecture, Le Corbusier. The work of Behrens and his group was at the forefront of the transition from the Jugendstil movement into modernism in Germany.

References

Type Images: https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/14729/behrens-schrift https://archive.org/details/internationalexp00germrich/page/n9/mode/2up

Architecture Images: http://architectuul.com/architecture/behrens-house

Burke, Chris. “Peter Behrens and the German Letter: Type Design and Architectural Lettering.” Journal of Design History, vol. 5, no. 1, 1992, pp. 19–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1315850. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

Rudoe, Judy. “Aspects of Design Reform in the German Ceramic Industry Around 1900, As Illustrated By The British Museum Collection.” The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 – the Present, no. 14, 1990, pp. 24–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41809173. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

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Rationale

I chose to do a zine on Clarendon because I came across the fact that it was the first registered typeface in Britain in 1845 while we were learning about copyright in other classes which I found quite interesting.

I chose a limited colour palette with just white, black, and red because it would keep the small format of the zine cohesive and simple. I added small illustrations and illustrative details to each page to bring life to the facts.

I also chose to use a variety of materials (gouache, ink, pencil crayons, tracing paper) to bring some textural elements to an otherwise white letter-sized sheet of paper. Also, because I worked in a limited palette, I was afforded the opportunity to incorporate a range of materials and still have it look like it all fits together.

I took advantage of a 2-page spread to share some of Clarendon’s typographic characteristics which allowed me to demonstrate in a clear way how it’s constructed without just listing out a bunch of facts. It aims to educate readers in a ‘show, don’t just tell’ way.

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Grade

8/10

I could have made the copy more interesting. Even though I planned and adjusted the wording several times, I never landed on anything too quippy, which I personally find the most engaging.

I almost never work with red, but I think it turned out quite striking! I had a great time working with gouache, pencil crayons, ink pens, and most of all, tracing paper for this zine. The tracing paper added a nice softness in texture to the otherwise bright white paper underneath. It started out as an experiment, but it ended up being a big element of the project in the end!

I’m quite happy with the end-result and this may be my favourite zine out of the four I’ve made in the last year. This is definitely getting mailed off to my old roommate in Toronto who got me into zines!

William Holman Hunt
(1827-1910 England)

Founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

William Holman Hunt met Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais while at the Royal Academy Schools. They would go on to create the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The aim of their group was to paint serious subjects, to study nature closely, and to return to the sincerity of spirit of painters before the time of Raphael Sanzio. They painted mostly biblical and literary subjects with an obsessive naturalist quality and attention to detail. Their philosophy and style influenced many artists and movements after them. Holman Hunt was the only one out of the three who committed wholly to the tenets set out by the Brotherhood. He was highly influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and they worked off of each other to popularize the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Holman Hunt’s paintings are characterized by their meticulous attention to detail and clear moral and religious symbolism. His use of colour really brings a luminosity and brilliance to the surface of the painting. His style did not change much throughout the course of his career, though he did focus more on religious subject matters later on as he was influenced by his trips to Syria and Jerusalem.

I find that Holman Hunt uses lighting for effect to bring attention to faces especially. Their expressions are lit up in a phosphorescent manner and they invite you in for a closer look at what they’re trying to say. The symbolism in his pieces are also interesting as he is able to tell another story beyond what meets the eye. Whether it’s a literary, biblical, or contemporary scene, he is able to add his own flair and underlying narrative, just like his fellow brotherhood members.

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References

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-holman-hunt-287

https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/hunt_william_holman_1827_1910/0?institutionId=6884

https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/andbda/hunt_holman_1827_1910/0?institutionId=6884

Steam and the speed of light (1750 – 1850)

Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837 at the age of 18 and would continue on to reign for 64 years. Her time on the throne was the reason an entire era was named after her—The Victorian Era. The Queen undoubtedly had a huge influence on her subjects throughout the British Empire and beyond.

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Fashion

The rise of white bridalwear

You can thank Queen Victoria for popularizing the modern day tradition of white bridal-wear. She decided to defy royal tradition at the time—instead of wearing her coronation dress for her royal wedding to Prince Albert in 1840, she chose a fashionable gown made of English-made Spitalfields satin, trimmed with Honiton lace.

Typical brides at the time tended to wear brighter and more colourful dresses that could be worn again for other occasions. Wealthy brides soon hopped on the trend of wearing white on their own wedding days which flaunted the fact that they could afford to have the dress cleaned—a task that was notoriously difficult in those days.

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Geopolitics

During the reign of Queen Victoria, the two opium wars happened. This was the first Anglo-Chinese conflict. The First Opium War lies in this survey’s time frame (1839–42) was waged by Britain against China to enforce the opening of Chinese ports to trade in opium. Opium from British India paid for Britain’s imports from China, such as porcelain, silk, and, above all, tea. The First Opium War resulted in the cession of Hong Kong to Britain and the opening of five treaty ports for trade (Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai).

References

http://www.vintageconnection.net/QueenVictoria.htm

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/04/queen-victoria-royal-wedding

“Opium Wars.” The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, edited by Helicon, 2018. Credo Reference, https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/opium_wars/0?institutionId=6884. Accessed 21 Oct. 2020.

Scientific Revolution + Baroque
1600 – 1700

This century brought about revolutionary scientific ideas by Newton in England. This was also the time when the Baroque style flourished under the use of Bernini in Italy.

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In Britiain

Science + Tools

Newton and his productive pandemic

Isaac Newton had to leave Cambridge University to return back to his home in Lincolnshire during the plague year of 1665-66. In this isolated time (much like we’re going through now), he made three great discoveries (along with many more).

1. Gravity – Watching an apple fall to the ground from the tree outside his bedroom window in his countryside home made him question why it fell straight to the ground.
2. White light is made up of all the colours (eventually led to the fundamentals of physical optics) – He drilled a hole in the shutter of his bedroom window and held a prism up to the beam of sunlight that came through it to make the discovery
3. Calculus – He finally had the time to contemplate complex mathematical questions that he had began to think about while he was at Cambridge, and out of the year, he wrote three papers on fluxions (early calculus)

Architecture

Baroque Brilliance

This period was also the time when the Baroque style flourished. Baroque architecture was mainly characterized by complex shapes, extravagant ornaments, its movement, and theatrical drama. 

One of the leading figures of Baroque architecture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He was an Italian architect, sculptor, and painter known for his work on the interior and exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica redesign in Vatican City. From from 1656-67, his was the sole architect of Piazza San Pietro outside of the basilica and it was a full display of his brilliance working with optical illusions and spatial ordering. Bernini’s main objective was to fully interpret the great meaning of the basilica and provide a sacred area where the faithful could come and be protected from the harsh outside world and feel like they’re being welcomed by the pope and surrounded by the arms of “maternal arms of Mother Church”.

(Offside: I visited Vatican City in 2012 when I was just a teenager touring with my high school orchestra, but I had no background knowledge on any of the architecture at the time. While I remember being impressed at how beautiful everything was, I wish I knew then what I’m learning now about the genius and creativity behind the architecture! But then again, this place was designed to be experienced by a naive visitor who would not have known all the work that went behind it.)

References

Kurian, George Thomas. “Bernini, Gianlorenzo (1598-1680).” The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, George Thomas Kurian, Wiley, 1st edition, 2012. Credo Reference, https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyenchci/bernini_gianlorenzo_1598_1680/0?institutionId=6884. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(1780-1867)

French Neoclassical Painter

Ingres was the main Neoclassical painter after his mentor Jacques-Louis David died in 1825. He was very much influenced by David an the works of antiquity he saw in the Louvre. His style was in opposition to Eugene Delacroix and the rising Romanticism style. He spent time studying art between Paris and Rome and had many ups and downs throughout his career and at the end of it, there was left no one to continue on the Neoclassical style that he carried on for David. He was varied with his subject matter throughout his career—ranging from historical paintings to portraits but at the end of it, he was the most sought-after society portrait painter in France.

As a student of David, Ingres also had a firm belief that more attention should be paid to the drawing of lines and contours rather than colour. This is what he thought set himself apart from the Romantics. While he held this belief, he still also had an excellent grasp on colour and texture in the way he handled fabrics and clothing.

I find the drawings so enlightening to Ingres’ process. You can see what he chooses to pays attention to in his sketches and how that plays out in the final paintings. He focuses on the softness of the face and hair and pays close attention to the way the fabric creases. All this forethought comes through in his final pieces.

He was known for his ‘obsessive perfectionism’ and Ingres was actually resented by his contemporaries because he was very good at what he did. His preciseness and smooth finishes are a part of his desire to depict ideal beauty which resulted in some distorted proportions of his figures. His painting of Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière in 1806 (shown below) gives her an elongated neck and nose which just doesn’t look quite anatomically correct.

To me, his figures take on a porcelain doll look—the texture of the skin is rendered to such an unblemished surface that it looks unreal and hard to connect with. The doll-like quality given to the females he paints is a bit uneasy, but at the same time the entire painting just demands to be examined all over as he pays such careful attention to all the elements in the painting.

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References

https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1411.html

https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/ingres_jean_auguste_dominique/0?institutionId=6884

http://www.artnet.com/artists/jean-auguste-dominique-ingres/2

https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-A-D-Ingres/Late-life-and-works

Domenico Ghirlandaio
(1449-1494)

Early Italian Renaissance Painter from Florence

Ghirlandaio operated a successful workshop where many great artists have trained and he is accredited as one of Michelangelo’s teachers. He was a master in fresco and was commissioned to do work in the Sistine Chapel amongst other chapels in his lifetime.

Ghiralandaio’s most prominent patrons were the Medici family and Tornabuoni family. They gravitated towards the way Ghiralandaio pleasantly depicted scenes of the times and maybe for the way he idealized people for beauty’s sake in his works.

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He was also known to incorporate portraits of his contemporaries in many biblical scenes which made him even more popular amongst the rich Florentines who wanted to see themselves immortalized this way. He even incorporated hints of ancient art in the backgrounds just to appeal to their tastes.

His works were notably colourful and vivid, mirroring the fashionable, well-decorated lives of rich Florentines in his patronage. He somehow manages to not overuse colour to a point of garishness . It seems obvious that he knew what would catch the attention of the patrons he wanted and created works that would appease them and keep his business thriving. While some may see his work as a bit overindulgent to suit the tastes of the rich, it shows that he had business sensibilities and knew what he was doing to create works that would be attractive and beautiful and who could deny liking that?

References

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Domenico-Ghirlandaio

http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/ghirlandaio/giovannatornabuoni.htm

https://issuu.com/workinmann/docs/the_story_of_art_by_e.h.gombrich__z-lib.org

https://www.wikiart.org/en/domenico-ghirlandaio

Indus Valley Civilization
3300 BCE – 1300 BCE

The Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harrapan Civilization, is thought to possibly have brought the origin of Hinduism and is believed to be one of the most peaceful civilizations to have existed. It extended from what we know today as northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan, and northwest India.

Architecture/Urban Planning

World’s First Major Urban Centres

Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa were the two largest cities of the Indus Valley. Not only that, they are now thought to be two of the world’s first major urban centres. Both cities showed incredible signs of advanced architecture and urban planning.

The street planning of these cities was elaborate. It was gridded and orientated to the points of the compass. Towns were sophisticatedly divided into wards according to their function (shops, workshops, residences). All buildings were built with uniformly-sized baked bricks through both these major cities which is an obvious indication that their civilization was widely organized. They found public wells at street intersections and they found private wells inside the courtyards of two-storey residences. Most importantly, they had an urban sanitation system which consisted of covered sewers and a drainage system leading water out of the city. All these elements of urban planning suggest that the Indus Valley civilization had an efficient city governments who priority placed on hygiene. Mohenjo-daro also features an impressive public bath and social gathering site known as the Great Bath.

Surrounding the cities were massive perimeter walls constructed of mud brick and sometimes additionally faced with fired brick or stone. These perimeter walls were most likely built to protect against floods, but they also could have helped deterred military conflicts. Surprisingly, there are no other obvious signs of fortification within these large cities, which was very uncommon for the times. There is also no evidence that these walls have been damaged by warfare in any way over its lifetime.

Science and Tools

Consistency is key
The Indus civilization are believed to be among the first to develop a set of standardized weights and measures. Archaeologists have discovered a highly standardized system of stone weights was used throughout the entire area of the Indus civilization that is thought to have been based off of the weights of grains, such as wheat, barley, and edible seeds. These weights were used with matched scale
pans, which were made of copper or bronze and occasionally of terracotta and were used broadly. Indus weights, along with seals and sealings, have been found in the Arabian Gulf to as far away as Mesopotamia, and Central Asia which goes to show just how effective and widespread its use was.

References