INQ 251 / Honors 251 : A Scientific Look at Art: Home

This is a study of the procurement and processing of raw materials employed by the ancient Egyptians over the five millennia of the Predynastic and Pharaonic periods (c.5500-332 BC). During this time, not only were there variations in the preferred materials for particular types of artefacts, but also gradual processes of technological change, and the industries of the Chalcolithic period were complemented and sometimes superseded by the innovations of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Among the topics covered are stone quarrying, the building of temples and pyramids, techniques for preserving meat, fish, and poultry, glass and faience, the baking of bread, brewing of beers, preparation of oils and perfumes, and the mummification of humans and animals. Each chapter has been written by one or more specialists, drawing not only on conventional Egyptological skills but also on expertise in the natural sciences as applied to archaeological data.

The application of chemistry within archaeology is an important and fascinating area. It allows the archaeologist to answer such questions as "what is this artefact made of?", "where did it come from?" and "how has it been changed through burial in the ground?", providing pointers to the earliest history of mankind. Archaeological Chemistry begins with a brief description of the goals and history of archaeological science, and the place of chemistry within it. It sets out the most widely used analytical techniques in archaeology and compares them in the light of relevant applications. The book includes an analysis of several specific archaeological investigations in which chemistry has been employed in tracing the origins of or in preserving artefacts. The choice of these investigations conforms to themes based on analytical techniques, and includes chapters on obsidian, ceramics, glass, metals and resins. Finally, it suggests a future role for chemical and biochemical applications in archaeology. Archaeological Chemistry enables scientists to tackle the fundamental issues of chemical change in the archaeological materials, in order to advance the study of the past.

This lavishly illustrated book brings together nearly 40 essays from leading experts in the field to discuss the phenomenon that was Art Deco.

From Egyptian wall paintings to the Venetian Renaissance, impressionism to digital images, Philip Ball tells the fascinating story of how art, chemistry, and technology have interacted throughout the ages to render the gorgeous hues we admire on our walls and in our museums. Finalist for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award.

The history of art is inseparable from the history of color. And what a fascinating story they tell together: one that brims with an all-star cast of characters, eye-opening details, and unexpected detours through the annals of human civilization and scientific discovery. ? Enter critically acclaimed writer and popular journalist Victoria Finlay, who here takes readers across the globe and over the centuries on an unforgettable tour through the brilliant history of color in art. Written for newcomers to the subject and aspiring young artists alike, Finlay's quest to uncover the origins and science of color will beguile readers of all ages with its warm and conversational style. Her rich narrative is illustrated in full color throughout with 166 major works of art-most from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

One marker of the majesty of ancient Rome is its surviving architectural legacy, the stunning remains of which are scattered throughout the circum-Mediterranean landscape. Surprisingly, one truly remarkable aspect of this heritage remains relatively unknown. There exists beneath the waters of the Mediterranean the physical remnants of a vast maritime infrastructure that sustained and connected the western world's first global empire and economy. The key to this incredible accomplishment and to the survival of structures in the hostile environment of the sea for two thousand years was maritime concrete, a building material invented and then employed by Roman builders on a grand scale to construct harbor installations anywhere they were needed, rather than only in locations with advantageous geography or topography.This book explains how the Romans built so successfully in the sea with their new invention.

This groundbreaking volume explores the epochal transformations and unexpected continuities in the Byzantine Empire from the seventh to the ninth century. As the period opened, the Empire's southern provinces?the vibrant, diverse areas of North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean?were at the crossroads of trade routes reaching from Spain to China. These regions experienced historic upheavals when their Christian and Jewish communities encountered the emerging Islamic world, and by the ninth century, an unprecedented cross-fertilization of cultures had taken place.

From atoms and fluorescent pigments to sulfa drug synthesis and buckyballs, this lush and authoritative chronology presents 250 milestones in the world of chemistry. As the "central science" that bridges biology and physics, chemistry plays an important role in countless medical and technological advances. Covering entertaining stories and unexpected applications, chemist and journalist Derek B. Lowe traces the most important--and surprising--chemical discoveries.

"A curator, a paintings conservator, a photographer, and a conservation scientist walk into a bar." What happens next? In lively and accessible prose, color science expert Roy S. Berns helps the reader understand complex color-technology concepts and offers solutions to problems that occur when art is displayed, conserved, imaged, or reproduced.   Berns writes for two types of audiences: museum professionals seeking explanations for common color-related issues and students in conservation, museum studies, and art history programs.

This book introduces the reader to the art of sculpture across five millennia up to the present, and from the Near East to the west. In each of the eleven chapters, a number of selected works are discussed to exemplify the circumstances and conditions for making pieces of sculpture - objects peculiar to place, time and context. Within each cultural framework, characteristics are observable that suggest various reasons for the use of colour in sculpture.

A Companion to Ancient Egyptian Art presents a comprehensive collection of original essays exploring key concepts, critical discourses, and theories that shape the discipline of ancient Egyptian art.

This fascinating volume explores how research, craft, and technology are united in the Art Institute of Chicago’s mission to preserve its collection and further art-historical knowledge. Addressing the many challenges conservators face, the publication highlights their work on objects from throughout the museum, including books, furniture, electronic media, paintings, photographs, posters, sculpture, and textiles.An introductory essay traces the development of the profession and its specific history at the Art Institute. Case studies written by the museum’s conservators and curators examine diverse works ranging from an ancient Egyptian statue of Osiris to Bruce Nauman’s video Clown Torture. The authors explore how they determine appropriate treatment, uncover an artist’s intentions and techniques, and employ pathbreaking new technologies.

Conservation Treatment Methodology describes a systematic approach to decision-making for conservation treatments of all kinds of cultural property. Illustrated with numerous examples, the book explains how the history of an object and the meaning it holds for its owner or custodian contribute to determining its proper treatment. Conservation Treatment Methodology is an essential tool for conservators, historic preservation specialists, and art historians. Non-technical readers including art collectors and appraisers have described it as useful and an easy read.

Boasting well over 6,000 contributors from 12 countries, the Dictionary offers its readers authoritative and comprehensive global coverage. A resource for both art and cultural studies, the Dictionary serves as a unique guide to all the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, drawing, printmaking, as well as the decorative arts. The Dictionary ranges far both geographically and historically; it features unparalleled coverage of Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Mongolia, China, India, the Islamic world, Japan, Korea, Native North America, Pacific and Aboriginal Australia, Pre-Columbian America, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Ancient Near East, and Ancient Rome. Providing depth as well as breadth, The Dictionary of Art examines important art forms and key issues of design, taste, function, and patronage, illuminating them in light of the cultural context in which they developed.

Indigenous concepts of time play a critical role in the works of many contemporary Australian artists. Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia showcases prime examples, featuring many works of art that have never before been exhibited outside Australia. The book provides a cultural framework to help understand these objects, emphasizing the importance of the land, the rich narratives that cleave to it, and the art it inspires. It is organized around four central themes: ancestral transformation, ritualized performance, seasonality, and remembrance. Six essays and nearly seventy catalogue entries highlight many of the most significant Indigenous Australian artists of the last forty years, from Rover Thomas and Emily Kam Kngwarray (both former representatives at the Venice Biennale) to the contemporary bark painter John Mawurndjul and the visual and performance artist Christian Thompson. Also included are examples of related historical objects and a technical examination of traditional Aboriginal bark paintings. This revelatory book introduces the thematic, stylistic, and cultural diversity of contemporary Indigenous art from Australia to a wider audience.  

See especially the chapter on Materials and technology

In 1928, and again in 1937, parts of a large-scale bronze horse and nearly complete jockey were recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision in Greece, where they had gone down in a shipwreck. These original Hellenistic sculptures, known together as the Horse and Jockey Group from Artemision, are among the very few surviving bronze sculptures from antiquity. Sein Hemingway has been allowed by the National Museum in Athens to investigate the horse and jockey statuary group as no one ever has before, and in this book, combining archaeological and art historical methods of investigation, he provides the first in-depth study of this rare and beautiful monument. New technical analyses of the statues by Helen Andreopoulou-Mangou form an appendix to the volume.

In this richly illustrated book, art historian John R. Clarke helps us see the ancient Roman house "with Roman eyes." Clarke presents a range of houses, from tenements to villas, and shows us how enduring patterns of Roman wall decoration tellingly bear the cultural, religious, and social imprints of the people who lived with them. In case studies of seventeen excavated houses, Clarke guides us through four centuries of Roman wall painting, mosaic, and stucco decoration, from the period of the "Four Styles" (100 B.C. to A.D. 79) to the mid- third century. .

An accompaniment to the Egyptian Museum of Berlin’s special exhibition celebrating the discovery of the Nefertiti bust in 1912, this catalog presents never-before-seen artifacts and objects from the Amarna period of Egyptian history. The book also explores religion, craftsmanship, daily life, and sculpture in Amarna and the world famous Nefertiti bust.

Located at the intersection of trade routes from central Africa, the ancient Near East, and the Classical world, ancient Nubia ruled the entire Nile Valley at the height of its power in the eighth century bc. Its neighbour and frequent rival Egypt called it the gold lands because its territories held such an abundance of the precious metal, and because its inhabitants produced some of the most finely crafted jewelry of the ancient world. This book features over 100 adornments and personal accessories from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which houses the finest collection of Nubian jewelry outside Khartoum. The first comprehensive introduction to the sophisticated jewels of this great empire, it reveals how Nubian artisans employed techniques that would not be reinvented in Europe for another thousand years, and how the original owners valued such possessions not only for their inherent beauty, but also because they were imbued with magical meanings. Exquisite photography and an authoritative history written by leading experts make this book essential for both jewelry aficionados and anyone interested in the great cultures of the ancient world.

Six contributors here examine one of the definitive paintings of the Italian Renaissance. Renowned for the grandeur of its characterisations, both sacred and mortal, for the perspectival illusion of its monumental architectural setting, and for its compelling depiction of a human skeleton, the fresco was famous from the time it was painted in the 1420s, and remembered despite its having been hidden from view for nearly two centuries. This 1998 volume considers the Trinity in its historical and spiritual contexts, its relation to the symbolism of the Trinity, and its liturgical function in the great Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella. Also emphasised are the extraordinary features of the painting, especially its system of spatial illusionism, its problematic state of conservation, and the conception of time and space that the artist masterfully visualised.

This title details tests for metals, inorganic compounds, organic and synthetic materials as well as several tests that help to characterize materials. The tests are applicable to a wide range of object classes including metal, textile, leather, paper, plastics and architectural materials. In addition to presenting the detailed methodology for carrying out each test, the authors have evaluated the effectiveness of each test in order to assist the reader in selecting the most applicable test and interpreting the results.

Sums up 20th-century knowledge: paints, binders, metals, surface preparation. Based on manuscripts and scientific investigation.

The sudden destruction of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the surrounding Campanian countryside following the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 preserved the remarkable evidence that has made possible this reconstruction of the natural history of the local environment. Following the prototype of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, various aspects of the natural history of Pompeii are discussed and analyzed by a team of eminent scientists, many of whom have collaborated with Jashemski during her years of excavation of several gardens in the Vesuvian area. This volume brings together the work of geologists, soil specialists, paleobotanists, botanists, palaeontologists, biologists, chemists, dendrochronologists, ichthyologists, zoologists, ornithologists, mammalogists, herpetologists, entymologists, and archaeologists, affording a thorough picture of the landscape, flora, and fauna of the ancient sites. The detailed and rigorously scientific catalogues, which are copiously illustrated, provide a checklist of the flora and fauna upon which future generations of scholars can continue to build.

Thousands of texts, written over a period of three thousand years on papyri and potsherds, in Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, and other languages, have transformed our knowledge of many aspects of life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. The Oxford Handbookof Papyrology provides an introduction to the world of these ancient documents and literary texts, ranging from the raw materials of writing to the languages used, from the history of papyrology to its future, and from practical help in reading papyri to frank opinions about the nature of the workof papyrologists. This volume, the first major reference work on papyrology written in English, takes account of the important changes experienced by the discipline within especially the last thirty years.Including new work by twenty-seven international experts and more than one hundred illustrations, The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology will serve as an invaluable guide to the subject.

Rembrandts paintings have been admired throughout centuries because of their artistic freedom. But Rembrandt was also a craftsman whose painting technique was rooted the tradition. Rembrandt--The Painter at Work is the result of a lifelong search for Rembrandt's working methods, his intellectual approach to the art of painting and the way in which his studio functioned. Ernst van de Wetering demonstrates how this knowledge can be used to tackle questions about authenticity and other art-historical issues. Approximately 350 illustrations, half of which are reproduced in colour, make this book into a monumental tribute to one of the worlds most important painters. "The book is--if one may be allowed to say such a thing about a serious scholarly work--a gripping good-read.' Christopher White, The Burlington Magazine "This is a very rich book, a deeply felt analysis of an artist whom the author knows better than almost any other living scholar." Christopher Brown, Times Literary Supplement

The physics and materials science behind paintings: the pigments, binders, canvas, and varnish that go into making a painting appear the way it does. The text discusses the physical principles behind the colors seen and how these change with illumination, the various types of paint and binders used in both old and modern paintings, and the optics and microscopic structure of paint films. Chapters on dating, binders, and dendochronology have been contributed by experts in the respective fields.

Crucial to an understanding of life in the past is an appreciation of how individuals perceived their world. This book captures the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the late medieval period to recreate and explain the kinds of lives lived then. Based on a wide range of sources, from saints' lives, collections of miracles, and literary works to domestic financial records and the remains of buildings, the book reveals a physical experience unlike our own. And it was a world that thought differently, one in which the luster of a color might be more important than its hue, and where moral qualities might attach to sound. As well as examining individual senses, the book considers how sensation functioned in practicein the households of bishops of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, of the queens of late medieval England, and of the aristocracy at the end of the Middle Ages. Woolgar's deft and scrupulous text recovers an elusive and fascinating world.

Thebes is almost certainly the largest archaeological site in Egypt, and in recent years the tombs of the city's ancient inhabitants have been studied more intensively than ever before. This collection of essays reflects the current state of research on many aspects of the site, from the monuments of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000 BC) to the people who live in the area in the present day. Together they present many new insights into the topography and history of the necropolis and the function and development of the various objects placed in the tombs, as well as offering valuable indications of the direction which future work might take. The majority of the papers were originally presented at an international conference held at the British Museum in July 2000.

This book presents fifty wide-ranging articles written by various international scholars in honour of Janine Bourriau. In date these studies range from the Predynastic Period to the Twentieth Century AD and cover all aspects of Egyptology. As is to be expected most deal with the topic for which Janine is most famous - ceramic studies. These include items on miniature pots, Aswan flasks, fish dishes, Bes vases, embalming caches, terracotta figurines, copies of ceramic vessels in glass, stone and metal, painted pottery, depictions of vases in Egyptian reliefs, newly excavated ceramic material, and the influence of Egyptian motifs on pottery of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries AD.However as a token of Janine's wide-ranging enthusiasm for her chosen career, there are also articles which consider hair combs, soul houses, stelae, coffins, Nubia, the dormitian of princess Meketaten, the length of the reign of Seti I, Late Period names, Ancient Egyptian science, Petrie's unpublished archives and Luxor geology.