Art and the Evolution of Consciousness — Eros & Kosmos Allan Combs California Institute of Integral Studies acombs@ciis.edu The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. — Henri Bergson The idea that consciousness, or experience, has evolved and may continue to evolve through time and history has been explored in one way or another by many philosophers and pioneers of the inner life, but is seen nowhere more clearly than in the history of art. Gebser’s explorations of art and history beginning with a sudden recognition that art at the fin de siècle represented a new kind of consciousness, a new way of seeing and experiencing reality. The most ancient of these forms of experience was the archaic structure of consciousness, perhaps 200,000 years into our past. The earliest human art seems to come from this period. These images exhibit a vigor and simplicity that has not been seen since. Horizontal Evolution Ancient tales from around the world include exchanges between human beings and gods or goddesses. — G. Zones of Experience
L'Impressionnisme et les peintres impressionnistes Art nouveau Types of arches | archi...tech's Talk With reference to the earlier post on arches, this one defines the various types of arches. Arches are constructed in four basic shapes that frame and support doors, windows, porches, and other wall openings: Flat archTriangular archRound archPointed arch Flat arch An arch having a horizontal intrados with voissoirs radiating from a centre below, often built with a slight camber to allow settling is called a flat or jack arch. French arch: A flat arch with voissoirs inclined to the same angle at each side of the center. Triangular arch It is a primitive form of arch consisting of two stones laid diagonally to support each other over an opening. Corbel arch: A false arch formed by corbelling courses from each side of an opening until they meet at a midpoint, where a capstone is laid to complete the work. Round arch Round arches are generally single centred or four centred arches. Roman Arch: A Roman arch is a strong rounded arch with a semicircular intrados. Pointed Arch References: Like this:
La Renaissance Période de renouveau artistique, littéraire et scientifique, la Renaissance débute au XIVe siècle en Italie du Nord. Véritable révolution de la pensée et de tous les champs artistiques, ce mouvement diffuse rapidement ses modèles dans toute l’Europe, où il domine jusqu’à la fin du XVIe siècle. Il transforme radicalement l’art occidental, mais plus profondément, au-delà des modes de représentation, il s’infiltre jusque dans le rapport de l’homme à la nature, au monde, à Dieu, à l’autre. Le mot Renaissance est employé pour la première fois au XVIe siècle par Giorgio Vasari, père fondateur de l’histoire de l’art des Temps modernes, dans le célèbre recueil Vies des plus célèbres peintres, sculpteurs et architectes, pour évoquer le courant artistique apparu en Italie deux siècles plus tôt. La Renaissance s’épanouit sur près de trois siècles, en trois périodes successives : le Trecento (XIVe siècle), le Quattrocento (XVe siècle) et le Cinquecento (XVIe siècle). L’humanisme et la Renaissance
La renaissance Le courant renaissance couvre une période longue de deux siècles durant lesquels la peinture s’exprime différemment selon la région, l’école picturale ou encore le contexte politico-social. Ce vaste mouvement est généralement divisé en trois périodes : la première renaissance (1400 - 1500), la renaissance classique (1500 - 1520) et le maniérisme (1520 - 1600). Le nouveau style s’impose d’abord en Italie dès le XVe siècle. La découverte de l’Amérique en 1492 dévoile un monde beaucoup plus vaste que ce que l’on croyait et excite la convoitise et l’ambition des monarques des grands Etats européens, devenus titulaires d’un pouvoir de plus en plus centralisé. LA PREMIERE RENAISSANCE Dès le premier quart du siècle, la fracture avec l’ancien système est annoncée, d’abord avec l’invention de la perspective qui propose un schéma de lecture inédit puis avec la redécouverte de l’art antique que l’on cherchera à imiter et à intégrer dans l’architecture, la sculpture et la peinture.
The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages: Image, Text, Performance The macabre encounter of skeletons mocking the living has haunted Case Western Reserve University art historian Elina Gertsman’s imagination since childhood walks with her grandfather through the St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn, Estonia (now the Art Museum of Estonia). That childhood fascination led to Gertsman’s newly published book, The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages: Image, Text, Performance (Brepols, 2010), a rare and long-awaited volume on the subject. Gertsman is an assistant professor in the art history department, who started at the university in August. The Dance of Death is a late medieval genre that, when incarnated as a large-scale public artwork, often combines images and text. The Dance may begin, Gertsman said, with a preacher or a long-suffering figure standing on a raised pulpit and speaking directly to the viewer: “Oh, reasonable creature, poor or rich, look into this mirror, young and old” and exhorting him or her to heed death’s approach.
The Dance of Death The artistic genre of the dance of death was most probably developed in France. The dance of death of the Cimetière des Innocents in Paris, painted in 1424, is considered the starting point of this tradition. (That work having been destroyed, we know it only through a reproduction in a book published into 1485 by the editor Guyot Marchant.) Afterwards were created among others the frescoes of London (circa 1430), of Basel (a first one around 1440 and a second around 1480), of La Chaise-Dieu (circa 1460-70), of Lübeck(1463). During the second half of the 15th century, the dance of death enjoyed an always growing popularity. You can now admire several dances of death on this site. The dances od death were mostly painted (or more rarely carved) on the outside walls of cloisters, of family vaults, of ossuaries or inside some churches. The dance of death of the Jesuits' college in Lucerne Je fis de Macabre la danse,Qui tout gent maine à sa traceE a la fosse les adresse. France c. 1424: c. 1470:
Constructivism (art) Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements. Its influence was pervasive, with major impacts upon architecture, graphic and industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion and to some extent music. Photograph of the first Constructivist Exhibition, 1921. The term Construction Art was first used as a derisive term by Kazimir Malevich to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko in 1917. IZO, the Commissariat's artistic bureau, was managed during the Russian Civil War mainly by Futurists, who published the journal Art of the Commune. Agitprop poster by Mayakovsky. The constructivists tried to create works that would make the viewer an active viewer of the artwork.