AH246 Week 1: Lascaux to Gutenberg

The beginning of art was ritualistic. Art was not done for art's sake. 

The caves of Lascaux show animals and hunters. 

Cuneiform was the first writing, which is very abstract.

Capitals quadrata are Roman squared capitals

Capitalis rustica are rustic capitals, as in old Roman calligraphy  

Caroline minuscule is script standardization where lower case letters come from.

The Book of Kells is a Celtic book, a new style bringing in decorative elements to first letters of a sentence or paragraph. The start of initial caps. 

Vatican, Virgil, 5th century 

1400s playing cards were made possible by the advances of technology: Woodblock printing. Devotional card: St. Christopher. Xylography is printing with the wood technique of woodblock printing. This advance in technology made learning how to make paper valuable because there would be a lack of sheep skins.

Death books---the art of dying--- was a part of early church propaganda in the 1400s, black plague. Blackletter typography and color images were used in these books of the 1400s.

Factors for woodblock printing:

1) a growing middle class--- the need for someone to buy

2) students in an expanding university--- an emerging literate class

3) increased literacy

= all equates to demand for printing.

Johannes Gutenberg

Gutenberg modified the wine press and used it to make ink and a system casting(letterform made from molding) and alloy.

Blackletter and Textura were used. He didn't make new letterforms. He based letterforms off of what was the letter style of the current day.

1438: Gutenberg comes up with printing press. Andreas Dritzehn was his business partner, lending him the money.

mid-1400s= beginning of printing

Renaissance. cutting type.

Johannes Gutenberg and Joahann Fust (or Faust) share a partnership and print the Gutenberg Bible. 210 copies.

Quality of printing made better by Schoeffer. 

Ligature: two characters made as one unit. fi example

Incunabula: infancy of printing. The first 50yrs of printing.

Fleurons: "printers"' flowers --- cast decorative elements; ornaments such as leaves or flowers.