DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0566
9i:
HAT
rCHED SHADING-EARLY CHIAROSCURO
with a remarkable
poly-
it--
ypn-.
motives more will be said below in connexion
chrome charcoal-burner from the ' Temple
Tomb '.! As seen on the painted pottery of
Tell-el-Amarna, this feature, indeed, must be
regarded as of Minoan origin.
Along the Griffin's back runs a curious
decorative chain of ovals and double dots (see
Fig. 884), which, though here assimilated to
the beads of a necklace, recalls the inner line
of ovals on the tentacles of the Argonaut, as
shown in Figs. S70, 871, above.2 In that case,
however, they are easily recognizable details of
the cephalopod's suckers.
In one technical detail the Griffin as here
depicted is of unique interest in the History
of Art. It supplies the first recorded instance
of a regularized attempt to render Chiaroscuro.
The shading of the lower contours of the body
and of the legs is given by means of closely
set and, in most cases, hatched lines—a
method which might rather be thought to have N
originated in line engraving applied to figures "*■
on a flat surface (see Fig. 886 a, b). That this
linear method has been used to express shading
in the case of a painted design was doubtless
itself due to the inexperience of the artist in
manipulating nuances of varying depth in the
same colour. Such colour shading, indeed, was
already known in the remote Age of Cave
Man—witness the brilliant representations of
animals such as the deer, boars, and bisons of
Altamira or the Font de Gaume. But there is no Fig. SS5. Arrangement of
,..... _ . _ . Picture Fresco and Bands on
trace ot it either in Ancient Egypt or the .hast. walt.sof'Room of the Throne
In Classical Greece itwas hardly practised before (Theodore Fyke).
the Hellenistic Age, to become later one of the
chief resources of Renaissance Italian artists. It is curious to note, how-
ever, that this later form of linear shading, such as was first popularized by
.Gutenberg's Art, must be regarded as the imitation of what was already
1 See below, p. ion seqq., and Coloured Plate XXXV. " See pp, 890, S91.
spacf occur/CD By
iflR.CE 5C/tU
"PKfURC FRFiCO —
CRJFF/r/S , WITH
LANDSCAPE.
dACKGROi/fiD
i>r 3C>,r (cym
f<r flock________-
HAT
rCHED SHADING-EARLY CHIAROSCURO
with a remarkable
poly-
it--
ypn-.
motives more will be said below in connexion
chrome charcoal-burner from the ' Temple
Tomb '.! As seen on the painted pottery of
Tell-el-Amarna, this feature, indeed, must be
regarded as of Minoan origin.
Along the Griffin's back runs a curious
decorative chain of ovals and double dots (see
Fig. 884), which, though here assimilated to
the beads of a necklace, recalls the inner line
of ovals on the tentacles of the Argonaut, as
shown in Figs. S70, 871, above.2 In that case,
however, they are easily recognizable details of
the cephalopod's suckers.
In one technical detail the Griffin as here
depicted is of unique interest in the History
of Art. It supplies the first recorded instance
of a regularized attempt to render Chiaroscuro.
The shading of the lower contours of the body
and of the legs is given by means of closely
set and, in most cases, hatched lines—a
method which might rather be thought to have N
originated in line engraving applied to figures "*■
on a flat surface (see Fig. 886 a, b). That this
linear method has been used to express shading
in the case of a painted design was doubtless
itself due to the inexperience of the artist in
manipulating nuances of varying depth in the
same colour. Such colour shading, indeed, was
already known in the remote Age of Cave
Man—witness the brilliant representations of
animals such as the deer, boars, and bisons of
Altamira or the Font de Gaume. But there is no Fig. SS5. Arrangement of
,..... _ . _ . Picture Fresco and Bands on
trace ot it either in Ancient Egypt or the .hast. walt.sof'Room of the Throne
In Classical Greece itwas hardly practised before (Theodore Fyke).
the Hellenistic Age, to become later one of the
chief resources of Renaissance Italian artists. It is curious to note, how-
ever, that this later form of linear shading, such as was first popularized by
.Gutenberg's Art, must be regarded as the imitation of what was already
1 See below, p. ion seqq., and Coloured Plate XXXV. " See pp, 890, S91.
spacf occur/CD By
iflR.CE 5C/tU
"PKfURC FRFiCO —
CRJFF/r/S , WITH
LANDSCAPE.
dACKGROi/fiD
i>r 3C>,r (cym
f<r flock________-