Decorative Urns in Drawings and Paintings

Simple curves emphasize the play of light on this English vase. Jeffrey Wyatville, Derbyshire (1820)

"Monsieur, je deteste les urnes! Elles devraient être brisées en morceaux pour pavez nos rues!"

Doctor Samuel Johnson.

Not exactly sure why I wrote that in French, as Johnson was a blue-blood Brit. Probably because I knew it would piss him off. Anyway, Johnson may want them smashed to pave our streets, but I happen to like urns. Especially old drawings and paintings of them.

They come in pretty handy for designing murals, too. Throw in an ornamental urn or two and you've instantly grounded your landscape and added an extra dimension of historic authenticity. That's why I tossed one into the mural above. I feel that their symmetrical curves and tight decoration offset a loosely painted landscape nicely. Reference images can be hard to come by, so I'm posting some here for you.

Mural I did for Kips Bay Show House, New York City

The urn I used in the mural, by Claude Ballin for Versailles (1665)

A little moss will help your urn 'sit' in your landscape. Charles Nizet, Chateau de Raray

Up to the challenge? Try painting this Charles le Brun vase. Versailles, (1678)

I love the shape of this tree. Urn by Claude Ballin for Versailles (1665)

All Illustrations above are from a fantastic book that I highly recommend, called Garden Vases, with incredible paintings by the talented architectural painter, Andrew Zega.

Architectural drawings of urns are scattered throughout literature. Architects on their Grand Tours of Italy and France would painstakingly measure and draw every urn they came across, along with everything else. I've collected a few together for you here. Whether you use them as reference material is up to you, I enjoy them simply as an example of draughtsmanship and the thirst for knowledge displayed by their authors.

from; William Pain, House Carpenter (1792)

from; Ornamental Drawings, Batty

Urns and Ornaments, by Benjamin Asher

Urn engraving, by Stefano Della Bella

'The Breakers' Mansion, Rhode Island

By George Smith, Cabinetmaker

I posted a huge set of Blouet's drawings here.

And the last word goes to the great Paolo Uccello

Bruchsal palace, a Baroque Masterpiece

The staggering cupola of Schloss Bruchsal, a masterpiece of baroque decoration

"I have now selected the place for my residence. I have never seen a more beautiful location in all my life." So said Damian Hugo von Schönborn in 1720. He wasted no time drawing up plans for no less than fifty separate buildings to occupy the grounds that comprise the palace. He said the reason he wanted so many buildings was so that, in the event of war, he could run into another building if one got damaged.

Detail of the grotto ceiling (photo)

There were, of course, the usual construction hiccups that happen on any project. Only these were a whole lot bigger. Balthasar Neumann stepped in when the going was rough, and created the gorgeous twin staircase that is one of the reasons his face ended up on the 50 Deutsche mark banknote. "The staircase in Bruchsal was the queen of all staircases in the baroque style, unparalleled in it's brilliant design and the high poetry of the room." (Georg Dehio)

Another of Marcini's ceilings, this one for Weissenstein Palace

Two painters, Johannes Zick and Giovanni Francesco Marcini were responsible for much of the work. Zick spent nine years working in Bruchsal, Marcini spent five, completing the dizzying illusionistic painting.

The Main Hall at Schloss Bruchsal

Detail of the rotunda ceiling in the Main Hall (photo)

Ceiling detail from the Marble Room (photo)

Hugo's vision seems prescient in hindsight: Bruchsal, like many towns in Germany, was absolutely devastated during the Second World War. The palace was barely standing, and debate raged as to whether it was even worth trying to restore it.

The palace was devastated in an air raid lasting only forty minutes on March 1st, 1945

I guess they fixed it (photo)

The Origin of Painted Ornament

Ornament drawing by Guillaume Abel Blouet

Was Greek sculpture painted? If so, what did it look like? It's a question that has had scholars debating for a very long time. Guillaume Abel Blouet was first to start the fire-storm (in the 1820s) by suggesting that Greek statuary had once been brightly colored. In his L’Expédition Scientifique de Morée he published reconstructions of major Greek and Byzantine monuments, demonstrating his theory by painting them in colorful hues.

"This touched off a controversy as to whether classical works were poly-chromed, an assumption counter to Winckelmann and other earlier classical historians." source

Blouet published several volumes of gorgeous drawings from his trips to Rome, including these few examples of painted ornament from 1823. I posted over 140 of his drawings from the Roman volume here, on my Flickr page. They are fantastic reference material for murals too, by the way.

From "Ensemble de Dessins de Rome et Ses Environs" by Blouet, 1823

Winckelmann was considered the father of art history, and anything he said on the subject was considered gospel. Here comes Blouet and over-turns our whole notion of what we consider 'Classical'. [The controversy must have been short-lived, however, as Blouet was appointed architect for the completion of the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris in 1836].

What's interesting to me is that his theories, though grudgingly accepted, were quickly swept under the rug. Nobody ran out with brushes to slap a coat of paint on all the monuments of Paris. We have been conditioned to prefer the bleached and faded statues as they stand in our Museums. "Centuries of burial or neglect had bleached the marbles, and greened the bronzes, beyond their makers' recognition. But it was those altered colors that became the model for how the ancient world had looked, and for what all new sculpture ought to look like." source

Or, as Gurewitsch writes: "Though we seldom think about it, such fragments are overwhelmingly abstract, thus, quintessentially "modern." And for most of us, that's not a problem. We're modern too. We like our antiquities that way."

Athena, colored according to research by Brinkmann

We now know that Blouet was correct: the Greeks did in fact paint their statuary with high chroma colors of great variety. 

The Smithsonian describes the above pictured re-construction of the statue of Athena, showing the color palette of the ancient Greeks as determined by archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann. Brinkmann has been painstakingly researching for the last 25 years

"The partial color reconstruction of Athena is based on a c.490 B.C. sculpture of the Goddess from the pediment of the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island of Aegina. Vinzenz Brinkmann typically leaves areas white where no evidence of original coloration is found. This rear view of the statue emphasizes the elaborate detailing of Athena’s aegis, or cape, trimmed with the life-like bodies of partially uncoiled green snakes."

Brinkmann himself has struggled somewhat with the gaudy palette. "If people say, ‘What kitsch,’ it annoys me but I’m not surprised,” he says. 

What pigments did they use exactly? Hard to say. "Even after extensive visual and scientific analysis of the original sculptures, scholars still don't know if the paint was applied in one or two coats, how finely the pigments were ground, or exactly which binding medium would have been used in each case--all elements that would affect the appearance of a finished piece. Generally, though, the color reconstructions in the exhibition "truly look closer to ancient sculpture than just the plain white marble"." archaeology.org

The Alexander Sarcophagus as it originally appeared

How to Draw the Acanthus: Drawing Shadows (Part IV)

Figure 1; Outline

George Smith, "Furniture Draughtsman to His Majesty", produced an incredible volume of Plates in 1826 "comprising instructions in the elementary principles of Ornamental Foliage enabling the student to draw with facility and correctness in this so generally useful branch of the Art."

Of course I had a camera hidden in a loaf of bread when I went to study these fabulous engravings. I guess I could have bought a copy online for $2,750, but I'm still holding out for a time-machine so I can buckle up my pantaloons and race down to Jones & Co. in London with a shiny new Guinea in my purse to purchase a copy of Mr. Smith's new and "elegantly colored" hand-engravings, fresh off the press.

I'm including here his engravings of the Acanthus as Part V in an ongoing series describing how to draw the Acanthus and other ornament. In this instance we'll take a brief look at how to lay in the shadows.

Fig. 1 shows the delineation of the outline of the Acanthus ornament. The design is taken from an example of the Corinthian Capital as existing in the arch of Titus, in Rome. Of note is the calligraphic quality of the line. Though it was copied from a stone carving, Smith has rendered his ornament with fluid, organic lines. I also love how carefully he delineated the flutings (a,b and c)and the principal fibres of the stem.

Figure 2; 1st Tint

Having prepared three tints necessary for painting the shadows, according to value, Figure 2 shows us how the first (or lightest value) of these shadow tints is laid in. Using a full brush, Smith washes the broad shade of the leaf from the turnover. Note how the same shade is used to also wash in the broad shadow cast outside the leaf.

Figure 3; 2nd Tint

Proceeding to his second shadow tint in Figure 3, Smith continues to lay on his shadows. We can see that he omits tinting the projecting parts such as the stems and fibres of the leaves under it's shadow, as marked in Figure 3 above as 1,2,3 and 4.

Figure 4; 3rd Tint

Smith reserves his darkest shadow value for the tight whorls of the leaf, and narrow areas where the fibrous stems are closest together. Use dark shadows sparingly, or your grisaille ornament painting will appear stiff and angular. Remember that we're painting foliage not stone, in this case.

Also notice that there is reflected light cast from the background onto the left side of the leaf. Smith omits painting his darkest shadow tint on these areas to render the effect of reflected light.

Figure 5; Constructing the Acanthus

Used in combination with this post showing painted examples of grisaille ornament from that era, you should be able to see clearly the steps involved in the painting of this type of ornament. Below is a beautiful example (from that post) of the technique described above, with the added inclusion of a painted highlight. You can clearly see the steps involved as described by Smith to create cast shadows and reflected light with no more than three or four shadow tints and a fifth highlight.

Jean-Francois Hache, Marquetry

Time for a little eye candy. After all my inane babbling in the last few posts I think it's time we heard from a Master, and Jean-Francois Hache was one of the greatest craftsmen who ever lived. These images are from a collection of small boxes that he created. I posted a more complete set here. Hache's work was highlighted in the three volume set by Pierre Ramond, Masters of Marquetry.

It's kind of crazy to think that this could ever be considered a 'craft' and not an 'art', but that's evidently the way they thought in those days. You followed in the footsteps of your father, and joined the trade like anyone else.

"The dynasty began with Noël Hache (1630-1675), the son of a master baker who chose not to enter the family business, but rather studied veneering in the workshop of a Calais master. Eventually, Noël set up his own workshop in Toulouse and, upon his death, it was taken over by his son Thomas. Thomas Hache then moved the atêlier to Grenoble. His only son, Pierre, worked with him as did his grandson, Jean-François.

Jean-François Hache (1730-1796) is probably the most famous of the Hache craftsmen. In 1756 he spent some time in Paris where he was very much influenced by the Louis XV style and particularly by the work of Jean-François Oeben. He gradually took the baton at the family workshop and around 1760 began to incorporate more simplified forms and intricate marquetry into his designs.

A strong keynote of Hache’s work is his use of bold and unusual geometric inlaid forms. The distinctive nature of these forms is accentuated by the fact that he placed them within late Louis XV rococo furniture prototypes. The interesting and highly successful tension this created makes Hache’s work unique."

I love the subtle tones, simple geometry & patina of this Hache floor

Our digital line drawing

Asked to produce a Parquet tile based upon one of Hache's designs, we re-drew the geometry (of the floor above) in the computer, then textured it using our collection of digital veneer files. Now it was ready for printing onto our custom 3/4" HDF floor tiles. Here's our rough file layed out like the Hache floor:

Here's a schematic of our 'work in progress' digital Hache floor, on modular 16" HDF tiles (needs aging)

Our (not quite finished) Hache central star quadrant, with digital 'aged patina' added for effect

Heartbeat of the City

Excerpt from Baraka, by Ron Fricke. Music by Tortoise.

Living in New York City is a special kind of madness. Every time I walk to the Subway or along the street I can feel myself picking up the pace until I'm rushing along at the same breakneck speed as others, whether I've got somewhere to go or not. People speak of the addictive physical charge of this city, but it turns out that all cities have their own distinct and measurable speed.

London's Millennium Bridge over the Thames famously started swaying the day after it was opened to the public. As thousands of people poured across, the natural rhythm of their footsteps caused a positive feedback phenomenon where the bridge and all the pedestrians began a lock-step kind of dance.

"Known as Synchronous Lateral Excitation, the natural sway motion of people walking caused small sideways oscillations in the bridge, which in turn caused people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect.The lateral vibration problems of the Millennium Bridge are very unusual, but not entirely unique." Wiki

Oscillating bridges are not news, but in this case it was an unforeseen response to the pedestrians themselves. The greater the number of people, the greater the amplitude of the vibrations.

Experimenters tested whether it's actually true that people live faster in big cities. Turns out it is true: Measured over the distance of 60 feet and averaged, it is possible to tell the size of a city merely by the speed that it's pedestrians walk. In other words, if you tell me how fast you walk, I can tell you not only the population of your city but the average income and lots of other facts about you. We are linked to our cities in fundamental ways, echoing their size with our pace of life.

"Observation of over 1,300 pedestrians at 10 places in Australia and England revealed that walking speed is a function of city size in that pedestrians move more quickly in big cities than in small towns." [source]

Ray Stantz:	We've been experimenting with the ectoplasm we found in the subway tunnel.
Peter Venkman:	Should I get spoons?

In Ghostbusters II, a toxic slime emanates from the sewers and threatens the city, but the Ghostbusters "discover that the slime reacts both to positive and negative emotions and even 'dances' to music, but suspect that it has been generated by the bad attitudes of New Yorkers." Hollywood stole my thesis.

Stephen Jay Gould informs us that "during an average lifetime, all mammals have nearly the same number of breaths and heartbeats"

"Small animals tick through life far more rapidly than large animals - their hearts work more quickly, they breathe more frequently, their pulse beats much faster. To keep themselves going, large mammals do not need to generate as much heat per unit of body weight as small animals. Tiny shrews move frenetically, eating nearly all their waking lives to keep their metabolic fire burning at the maximal rate among mammals; blue whales glide majestically, their hearts beating the slowest rhythm among active, warm-blooded creatures."

Small and large mammals are essentially similar. Their lifetimes are scaled to their life's pace, and all endure for approximately the same amount of biological time. Small mammals tick fast, burn rapidly and live for a short time; large mammals live long at a stately pace. Measured by their own internal clocks, mammals of different sizes tend to live for the same amount of time.

Elephants are known to sway to the rhythm of their own heartbeat. Believed to be a reaction to unnatural stress caused by life in captivity, their rhythmic swaying was found to be at the rate of about 28 beats per minute, the same rate as their heart. Like elephants in captivity, we live ever faster within the confines of our cities as they expand, our pace of life increasing exponentially. As Tyrell said to Roy Batty in Bladerunner, "the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

"Museums are just a lot of lies, and the people who make art their business are mostly impostors."

"There have been all sorts and manner of artists, from the uncouth Richard Wagner, who gave us sublime music and was probably one of the meanest and most despicable characters that ever lived, to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who also gave us sublime music and left behind a reputation for gentleness and charm and unselfish generosity that may have been equalled but never surpassed by the saints themselves."

Hendrik Willem Van Loon, 'The Arts'

Time magazine asked Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough why he started writing a biography of Pablo Picasso but never finished it. McCullough said it was because the famous artist turned out to be boring.

Sure; he attracted a steady flow of new lovers, and made hundreds of paintings, but he didn't actually live an interesting life, said McCullough.

Boring? There are many of his jilted 'muses' who might go even further, and disagree with the title of Jonathan Richman's song, "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole." In addition to being called exactly that, I'll bet he was also occasionally called a vain-glorious egomaniac and lots of other not-so-flattering things by many, including Gertrude Stein.

"Well, some people try to pick up girls and get called an asshole,
this never happened to Pablo Picasso.
He could walk down your street
and girls could not resist his stare,
and so Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole."
-Jonathan Richman

It all made me question whether it's necessary to like an artist in order to like their work, or can Bad people make Good Art?

Gallery owner Rebecca Ibel once told me that the personality of an artist is completely irrelevant for her when considering the merits of their Art. I wonder if it's that easy to separate the two. It rings a tad hollow if you agree that as an aspiring artist, it's not what you do but who you know, so you'd better hone that inner social climber. It seems blindingly obvious in the wake of Art Stardom that the cult of personality is alive and well.  Good people get leeway, but being Bad gets you media attention

In the case of Picasso, his status as a heavyweight makes any quibbles about his personality sound like the sour grapes it probably is. I'd like to think that the artists whose work I enjoy reveal something fundamental of their personal nature through their creative process, and that good artists are also on some basic level good people. I'm basically holding out hope that the universe rewards goodness with success.

 If an artist has all the personality of an anal wart, shouldn't we be able to detect that just by standing in front of their Art?

I doubt if Marie de Medici's arrival actually involved nudity

Take Rubens for example. It's self-evident that his paintings speak volumes about his personality. They convey a rich personal understanding of literature and culture. And he threw naked women into pretty much every painting. Why? Because he liked them. For better or worse, his personality was intrinsically linked to his Art to the point where it's impossible to consider his Life and Work separately. If he was a real jerk, I wonder if we'd still be enjoying his paintings to this day.

But what if the opposite is also true? What if really nice, decent people can create egotistical, bloated rubbish as their art? We might roll our eyes and mutter something about "manure" in front of a piece of art, expecting the artist to be equally as pompous as their work, but they could easily be great people making an honest attempt at it.

So then who is the asshole? Me the viewer, that's who. Mr. high-and-mighty-judgmental-pants.

Ultimately though, I find it hard to believe that there is a total disconnection between the work of an artist's hand, and their personality. Otherwise, Art is just a cold intellectual pursuit. But I know that's just naive. I'm not suggesting that Art always has to be deep or monumental and all that, but there's something about slapping useless crud on a wall and calling it a 'post-consumerist comment on capitalism' that reminds me a lot of horse turds.

Maybe the Yana Indians were on to something: maybe the gods have retreated into a volcano somewhere and are killing time  playing gambling games with magic sticks, waiting for human beings to reform themselves and become 'real people' again, people the gods might want to actually associate with. The last survivor of the Yana tribe emerged from the hills of California in 1911, having lived his 49 years alone and away from civilized society. Evidently the gods are still in hiding.

Nicola Keegan, author of the critically acclaimed Swimming, told me that we "have to stay focused on excellence." That could be just words though: 'Excellence' could mean anything, and is different for everyone. In this case, she meant that we should always be true to our passion and try to do our very best work regardless of any financial or critical consideration. I found it hard to agree in practice. It's not easy to disregard that stuff when you've got bills to pay.

Making a virtue of ignorance

Perhaps Modernism has had something to do with the success of Ugly Art. The rejection of Classical dogma as a rigid code for the creation of Art was a natural progression for sure, but it has developed to an extreme now where it's  'Originality at all Costs', and that cost is often quality. Guilds and Salons were stiflingly critical on the one hand, but on the other, they were a form of quality control that worked.

With every advert extolling us to 'Just Do It,' and 'Express Yourself', arguments for Tradition and the slow acquisition of good old-fashioned Skill are drowned out in the noise of personal ego and a sense of entitlement, where we celebrate easy fame and a quick buck. We are sold the fable that each of us has an inner celebrity waiting to burst on stage and win American Idol. As Marilyn Monroe said; "we are all stars, and we demand our right to twinkle." Every talk show (and even now the Evening News) urges us to "call in and tell us what YOU think."

I'm sorry, have we even met?

Maybe the simple truth is that we shouldn't be listening to everything everybody has to say all the time, because some of those people are just not worth listening to. For me, it's simply a matter of knowing when to put the brush down and pack it in because it's just not working, and taking a walk through a Museum. There's nothing like looking at good Art to put things in perspective. Seeing how a Master resolved a certain passage in a painting is a great exercise. If nothing else, it certainly puts that ego in it's place.