Download or read book The Green Bronze Mirror written by Lynne Ellison and published by CNposner Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mirror Mirror written by Mark Pendergrast and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all human inventions, the mirror is perhaps the one most closely connected to our own consciousness. As our first technology for contemplation of the self, the mirror is arguably as important an invention as the wheel. Mirror Mirror is the fascinating story of the mirror's invention, refinement, and use in an astonishing range of human activities -- from the fantastic mirrored rooms that wealthy Romans created for their orgies to the mirror's key role in the use and understanding of light. Pendergrast spins tales of the 2,500year mystery of whether Archimedes and his "burning mirror" really set faraway Roman ships on fire; the medieval Venetian glassmakers, who perfected the technique of making large, flat mirrors from clear glass and for whom any attempt to leave their cloistered island was punishable by death; Isaac Newton, whose experiments with sunlight on mirrors once left him blinded for three days; the artist David Hockney, who holds controversial ideas about Renaissance artists and their use of optical devices; and George Ellery Hale, the manic-depressive astronomer and telescope enthusiast who inspired (and gave his name to) the twentieth century's largest ground-based telescope. Like mirrors themselves, Mirror Mirror is a book of endless wonder and fascination.
Download or read book Dawn of Japan written by Michael P. Speidel and published by Dr Ludwig Reichert. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English summary: Images of war dancers enliven the third-century Shuryo-mon kyo bronze mirror in the Tokyo National Museum.The dancers are celebrating the great "Eastern Campaign" of Jimmu Tenno, Japan's legendary first emperor, according to the authors' detailed analysis and archaeological documentation. The mirror's images match, point by point, Jimmu's victorious campaign as described in the eighth-century accounts of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. It follows that, contrary to the prevailing view, the written legend too goes back to the actual historical events, and that Jimmu Tenno, the founder of Japan as a country and of its ruling dynasty, was a historical figure who lived in the later third century of our era. Other mirrors, paintings, and rock-carvings of the Kofun Period (250-600) also depict Jimmu's deeds and myths: The Goroyama paintings record Jimmu's victory at Tomi, the Takaida drawings his Yamato campaign, and the "Sea-Dance" mirrors reflect the help he got from the sea gods. Works of art of this period even portray Amaterasu as Jimmu's main goddess, they show Jimmu's journey as Hikohohodemi to the palace of the sea god, his woman-shaman Sarume, his Wani sea steed, and the monkey god Sarutahiko. Some hitherto missing parts of ancient Japanese myth are thereby recovered and for the first time early Shinto religion is richly illustrated. As for military history, these works of art offer wealth of information and illustration about Japanese warfare from a time long before that of the Samurai. Altogether, this study (120 pages, 47 figures in the text, 16 color plates) greatly contributes to our knowledge of Japanese history, art, and religion by revealing that the previously nebulous, legendary beginnings of Japan, are historical events, firmly set in time and place, and colorfully recorded by images from those times. Published by the German Archaeological Institute, this is a scholarly, archaeological work. It deliberately sidesteps the political issue, that nevertheless will arise: Jimmu Tenno is the idol of Japan's rightwingers. His rule was a point of faith until 1945, when he was "massacred." German description: In einer reich illustrierten Arbeit untersuchen die Verfasser Darstellungen von Jimmu Tenno, Japans erstem Kaiser, auf Bronzespiegeln seiner Zeit. Sie zeigen, dass trotz mythologischer Einkleidung diese Spiegel Jimmu's Taten nahezu genau so berichten wie die im "Kojiki" und "Nihon shoki" erhaltenen Legenden des 8. Jahrhunderts. Die Legenden stammen also aus Jimmus eigener Zeit, dem 3. Jahrhundert unserer Zeitrechnung. Jimmu, der Grunder Japans und seiner regierenden Dynastie war somit eine echte historische Personlichkeit - eine Tatsache von entscheidender Bedeutung fur die Geschichte des Landes.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Etruscan Society written by Vedia Izzet and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-12-13 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late sixth century was a period of considerable change in Etruria; this change is traditionally seen as the adoption of superior models from Greece. In a re-alignment of agency, this book examines a wide range of Etruscan material culture - mirrors, tombs, sanctuaries, houses and cities - in order to demonstrate the importance of local concerns in the formation of Etruscan material culture. Drawing on theoretical developments, the book emphasises the deliberate nature of the smallest of changes in material culture form, and develops the concept of surface as a unifying key to understanding the changes in the ways Etruscans represented themselves in life and death. This concept allows a uniquely holistic approach to the archaeology of Etruscan society and has the potential for other archaeological investigations. The book will interest all scholars and students of classical archaeology.
Download or read book Iron Age Mirrors written by Jody Joy and published by British Archaeological Reports Limited. This book was released on 2010 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mirrors are amongst the most well known British Iron Age objects. They are of a type which is peculiar to Britain and are significantly different in form from contemporary Greek, Etruscan and Roman forms. 58 mirrors are known. They are made of bronze and iron, or sometimes a combination of bronze and iron components. Mirrors comprise a handle and a reflective plate, which is often decorated with intricate and free-flowing designs. Some plates are also rimmed. Mirrors are found throughout Britain; two have been discovered in Ireland and two others are known from the continent. They are most commonly found in graves; but were also deposited in bogs and rarely at settlements. They date to the mid-late Iron Age. This book tests the applicability of the biographical approach to prehistoric objects and the application of the biographical approach to prehistoric material culture is evaluated by constructing biographies for Iron Age mirrors. This study is divided into three main sections. In the first section mirrors are introduced as is the theoretical methodology (Chapter 2). Chapter 1 explains what mirrors look like, the contexts they are found in and how they have been studied in the past to pinpoint what we do not yet understand about them and what needs further clarification. In Chapter 2 the biographical approach to artefacts is outlined; how it has been used in archaeology and how the approach will be utilised to expand our knowledge of mirrors and the broader Iron Age context by reconstructing the relationships that constitute mirrors and their biographies. Chapter 3 examines evidence for the production of Iron Age metal artefacts as well as investigating the context of the production of metalwork in ethnographic contexts. The aim is to develop an understanding of the technology of mirror production, the relationships established through their production and the potential future trajectories of the life of a mirror set out at the time of manufacture. In Chapter 4 mirror decoration is examined. Chapter 5 summarises the results of a programme of visual examination of the physical condition of surviving mirrors. Over 30 mirrors were examined for signs of wear, polishing and repair; clues which can indicate how mirrors were used and inform us about their social lives. Chapter 6 examines the form of mirrors. In the third section deposition context is examined. Chapter 8 is the first comprehensive dating audit of all Iron Age mirrors. In Chapter 9 all of the deposition data is collected. Chapter 10 is an analysis of the results of Chapter 9. In Chapter 11 the implications of these findings for wider research and the future of the application of the biographical approach to archaeological research, is assessed.
Download or read book Eulogy for Burying a Crane and the Art of Chinese Calligraphy written by Lei Xue and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eulogy for Burying a Crane (Yi he ming) is perhaps the most eccentric piece in China’s calligraphic canon. Apparently marking the burial of a crane, the large inscription, datable to 514 CE, was once carved into a cliff on Jiaoshan Island in the Yangzi River. Since the discovery of its ruins in the early eleventh century, it has fascinated generations of scholars and calligraphers and been enshrined as a calligraphic masterpiece. Nonetheless, skeptics have questioned the quality of the calligraphy and complained that its fragmentary state and worn characters make assessment of its artistic value impossible. Moreover, historians have trouble fitting it into the storyline of Chinese calligraphy. Such controversies illuminate moments of discontinuity in the history of the art form that complicate the mechanism of canon formation. In this volume, Lei Xue examines previous epigraphic studies and recent archaeological finds to consider the origin of the work in the sixth century and then trace its history after the eleventh century. He suggests that formation of the canon of Chinese calligraphy over two millennia has been an ongoing process embedded in the sociopolitical realities of particular historical moments. This biography of the stone monument Eulogy for Burying a Crane reveals Chinese calligraphy to be a contested field of cultural and political forces that have constantly reconfigured the practice, theory, and historiography of this unique art form. Art History Publication Initiative A McLellan Book
Download or read book Imperial Illusions written by Kristina Kleutghen and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Forbidden City and other palaces around Beijing, Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) surrounded himself with monumental paintings of architecture, gardens, people, and faraway places. The best artists of the imperial painting academy, including a number of European missionary painters, used Western perspectival illusionism to transform walls and ceilings with visually striking images that were also deeply meaningful to Qianlong. These unprecedented works not only offer new insights into late imperial China’s most influential emperor, but also reflect one way in which Chinese art integrated and domesticated foreign ideas. In Imperial Illusions, Kristina Kleutghen examines all known surviving examples of the Qing court phenomenon of “scenic illusion paintings” (tongjinghua), which today remain inaccessible inside the Forbidden City. Produced at the height of early modern cultural exchange between China and Europe, these works have received little scholarly attention. Richly illustrated, Imperial Illusions offers the first comprehensive investigation of the aesthetic, cultural, perceptual, and political importance of these illusionistic paintings essential to Qianlong’s world. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/imperial-illusions
Download or read book Sanyan Stories written by and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presented here are nine tales from the celebrated Ming dynasty Sanyan collection of vernacular stories compiled and edited by Feng Menglong (1574–1646), the most knowledgeable connoisseur of popular literature of his time in China. The stories he collected were pivotal to the development of Chinese vernacular fiction, and their importance in the Chinese literary canon and world literature has been compared to that of Boccaccio’s Decameron and the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. Peopled with scholars, emperors, ministers, generals, and a gallery of ordinary men and women in their everyday surroundings—merchants and artisans, prostitutes and courtesans, matchmakers and fortune-tellers, monks and nuns, servants and maids, thieves and imposters—the stories provide a vivid panorama of the bustling world of imperial China before the end of the Ming dynasty. The three volumes constituting the Sanyan set—Stories Old and New, Stories to Caution the World, and Stories to Awaken the World, each containing forty tales—have been translated in their entirety by Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang. The stories in this volume were selected for their popularity with American readers and their usefulness as texts in classes on Chinese and comparative literature. These unabridged translations include all the poetry that is scattered throughout the original stories, as well as Feng Menglong’s interlinear and marginal comments, which point out what seventeenth-century readers of the stories were being asked to appreciate.
Download or read book Artistry in Bronze written by Jens M Daehner and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in this volume derive from the proceedings of the nineteenth International Bronze Congress, held at the Getty Center and Villa in October 2015 in connection with the exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World. The study of large-scale ancient bronzes has long focused on aspects of technology and production. Analytical work of materials, processes, and techniques has significantly enriched our understanding of the medium. Most recently, the restoration history of bronzes has established itself as a distinct area of investigation. How does this scholarship bear on the understanding of bronzes within the wider history of ancient art? How do these technical data relate to our ideas of styles and development? How has the material itself affected ancient and modern perceptions of form, value, and status of works of art? www.getty.edu/publications/artistryinbronze
Download or read book Heaven Earth in Chinese Art written by Yin Cao and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forewords / Michael Brand, Chen Chi-nan -- Heaven and earth in Chinese art / Yin Cao -- Nature in Chinese philosophy / Karyn Lai -- The workds of art -- Heaven and earth -- Seasons -- Places -- Landscape -- Humanity -- List of works and entries -- Timeline of Chinese dynasties -- Selected bibliography
Download or read book The God Dare written by Kate Battistelli and published by Barbour Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The God Dare. Where will you hear it? . . . Deep down inside, you know you’re on this planet for a reason. God has a plan in mind just for you. In fact, He chose you for His plan before the foundation of the world. He designed you very specifically for this time and this place, and He’s perfectly equipped you to accomplish His purpose in the earth. Through engaging and memorable true stories—both biblical and modern—author Kate Battistelli challenges and encourages you to discover how God has specifically designed you for this time in history, your place in the world, your role in His cosmic plan. Once and for all, let go of your fear, worry, pride and strife. . . All God ever needs is a willing vessel. Will you say yes?
Download or read book Lost Knowledge written by Benjamin B. Olshin and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lost Knowledge: The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories examines the idea of lost knowledge, reaching back to a period between myth and history. It investigates a peculiar idea found in a number of early texts: that there were civilizations with knowledge of sophisticated technologies, and that this knowledge was obscured or destroyed over time along with the civilization that had created it. This book presents critical studies of a series of early Chinese, South Asian, and other texts that look at the idea of specific “lost” technologies, such as mechanical flight and the transmission of images. There is also an examination of why concepts of a vanished “golden age” were prevalent in so many cultures. Offering an engaging and investigative look at the propagation of history and myth in technology and culture, this book is sure to interest historians and readers from many backgrounds.
Download or read book Discs of Splendor written by Alexandra Ann Carpino and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Etruscans, whose culture flourished in Italy from the late eighth century B.C.E. to the first century B.C.E, produced some of the most sumptuous bronze and silver mirrors found in the ancient Mediterranean. Mirrors with relief decorations on their reverse sides are extremely rare and uniquely Etruscan. Their designs inform us about artistic styles and supplement our understanding of Etruscan culture and taste. The subjects illustrated on the mirrors give important insights into Etruscan mythology, beliefs, and cultural values, filling the vacuum left by the loss of most of their literary record.
Download or read book The Odyssey of China s Imperial Art Treasures written by Jeannette Shambaugh Elliot and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Metalworking in Bronze Age China written by Peng Peng and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is the first study that adopts a comprehensive, thorough, and interdisciplinary approach toward early Chinese lost-wax castings. With more than 80 images, this book provides a study on the "norms," which are seldom questioned. By examining the reasons why Chinese founders often chose not to use the lost-wax process they had clearly mastered, the book refutes the idea that lost-wax technology is the only "right way" to cast bronzes. This study demonstrates that a "norm" is in many ways an illusion that twists our comprehension of art, technology, civilization, and history"--
Download or read book Border Landscapes written by Janet C. Sturgeon and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-06-27 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comparative, interdisciplinary study based on extensive fieldwork as well as historical sources, Janet Sturgeon examines the different trajectories of landscape change and land use among communities who call themselves Akha (known as Hani in China) in contrasting political contexts. She shows how, over the last century, processes of state formation, construction of ethnic identity, and regional security concerns have contributed to very different outcomes for Akha and their forests in China and Thailand, with Chinese Akha functioning as citizens and grain producers, and Akha in Thailand being viewed as "non-Thai" forest destroyers. The modern nation-state grapples with local power hierarchies on the periphery of the nation, with varied outcomes. Citizenship in China helps Akha better protect a fluid set of livelihood practices that confer benefits on them and their landscape. Denied such citizenship in Thailand, Akha are helpless when forests and other resources are ruthlessly claimed by the state. Drawing on current anthropological debates on the state in Southeast Asia and more generally on debates on property theory, states and minorities, and political ecology, Sturgeon shows how people live in a continuous state of negotiated boundaries - political, social, and ecological. This pioneering comparison of resource access and land use among historically related peoples in two nation-states will be welcomed by scholars of political ecology, environmental anthropology, ethnicity, and politics of state formation in East and Southeast Asia.
Download or read book Copper and Bronze in Art written by David A. Scott and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2002 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a review of 190 years of literature on copper and its alloys. It integrates information on pigments, corrosion and minerals, and discusses environmental conditions, conservation methods, ancient and historical technologies.
