Giotto

1/31/18

Giotto (Giotto Di Bondone) was an italian artist (most known for his painting) and an architect born in Florence and was considered to be one of the first artists in italian Renaissance. He worked during the period of italian Renaissance and his talent of art, especially for his painting, were highly prized and he also got paid by the commune of Florence for his skills.

Lamentation c.1305 by Giotto 

The painting piece above is one of Giotto's masterpieces named Lamentation Giotto painted for the Scrovegni Chapel, describing a emotional story of the lamentation of Christ. It's a fresco painting that involves Byzantines style; the figure of Christ seems to be the focal point for the entire piece, and the facial expression of every figure highly increases the emotional impact. What adds to the emotional effect would be the angels that flying above the dying Christ: their body movements are very dramatic.

Gargoyles & Grotesques

Bill
1/24/18

Gargoyles are Grotesque that are carved in or formed, which are often used in architectural fields especially for Gothic buildings. Grostesque (referring to the word grottoes) is a decorative, imagery art form that usually represents of bizareness or unpleasantness and sometimes a weird mood or feeling when it appears in theatrical performances. The animal heads or totem, distorted living shapes and mythical creatures are parts of Grotesque, and the difference between Grotesque and Gargoyles is Gargoyles are used as a water spout in architecture while Grotesques are purely decorative things. Gargoyles are used by architects to prevent rainwater and divide them to protect the building from rainstorm.
                                         
                                                        Gargoyles:

Grotesques:

Head of a Grotesques

Real life Grotesque

There are extremely relevant and easy to be mixed up. 

Celtic design.

Bill
1/17/18

Celtic art includes what people called "Early Medieval art" and European art in temporary days; it is always difficult to define due to its enormous expanse of time (Celtic art culture potentially traces back to the early exposure of art from the Bronze Age). Initially "Celtic" is  to describe the people who speaks Celtic language in Europe, but later it is defined to refer to people of Britain and western Europe in Iron age (traces back to 500 BC).

Many Celtic designed product were found made of bronze that contained symbolic figures and pictures that looks like totem. The meaning of the designed pictures or animal figures are hard to define and trace because there are minimal written records left. Celtic design is ornamental, including spiral elements, curve lines, mandala patterns and other early developed art elements from other culture.

Mosaic. brief

Bill 1/10/18

Mosaic are widely used in the field of architecture and are usually used as a art form to describe the attributes of the regional culture, especially for decorating religious building. Islamic mosaic are very popularly used in architecture; one of the most famous examples would be the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem, which is decorated with glass mosaic that are all colored inside-out.

                                        The Dome of the Rock mosaic, Jerusalem 688-692

Mosaic art get flourished in Byzantine for centuries (approximately from 6th-15th); interiors of churches and other important religious constructions are all covered with glass mosaic that are golden colored, meanwhile the architecture's complexity are also increased by using brick, wood panel and plaster to replace stone to decorate.

Mosaic- Great Palace of Constantinople

Gothic Chieftain, survival mosaic piece from Great Palace of Constantinople

Mosaic made during the Roman period are usually used for most of the important public constructions and some private buildings. The earliest mosaic in Roman Pompeii, which is destructed caused by volcano action, are composed of large amount of tesserae, a kind of tile and functions to form a cube. Roman uses different kinds of material for mosaic making including pebble and chip pavement, which are, to a certain extent, derived from Greek mosaic making. 

Tesserae mosaic(unearthed)

Gladiator mosaic Roman

Pebble Mosiac of Roman