Line art
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| + | '''Line art''' is any image that consists of distinct straight and curved lines placed against a (usually plain) background, without gradations in [[shading|shade]] (darkness) or [[hue]] ([[color]]) to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects. Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic. | ||
| - | '''''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''''' (in [[English language|English]] '''''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream''''', from Greek ''hypnos'', ‘sleep’, ''eros'', ‘love’, and ''mache'', ‘fight’) is a romance by [[Francesco Colonna]] and a famous example of early printing. First published in [[Venice]], 1499, in an elegant page layout, with refined [[woodcut]] illustrations in an [[Early Renaissance]] style, ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' presents a mysterious arcane [[allegory]] in which Poliphilo pursues his love Polia through a dreamlike landscape, and is at last reconciled with her by the Fountain of Venus. | + | Line art emphasizes [[form]] and [[outline]], over color, shading, and [[texture]]. However, areas of solid [[pigment]] and dots can also be used in addition to lines. The lines in a piece of line art may be all of a constant width (as in some [[Sketch (drawing)|pencil drawings]]), of several (few) constant widths (as in [[technical illustration]]s), or of freely varying widths (as in brush work or [[engraving]]). |
| - | ==History== | + | Line art may tend towards [[Realism (arts)|realism]] (as in much of [[Gustave Doré]]'s work), or it may be a [[caricature]], [[cartoon]], [[ideograph]], or [[glyph]]. |
| - | The book was printed by [[Aldus Manutius]] in [[Venice]] in December 1499. The book is [[Anonymous work|anonymous]], but an [[acrostic]] formed by the first, elaborately decorated letter in each chapter in the original Italian reads POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT, "Brother [[Francesco Colonna]] dearly loved Polia." However, the book has also been attributed to [[Leon Battista Alberti]] by several scholars, and earlier, to [[Lorenzo de Medici]]. The latest contribution in this respect was the attribution to [[Aldus Manutius]], and arguably, a Francesco Colonna, a wealthy Roman Governor. The author of the illustrations is even less certain, but contemporary opinion gives the work to [[Benedetto Bordon]]. | + | |
| - | The subject matter lies within the tradition of the [[Romance (genre)|genre of Romance]] within the conventions of [[courtly love]], which still provided engaging thematic matter for [[Quattrocento]] aristocrats. | + | Before the development of [[photography]] and of [[halftone]]s, line art was the standard format for [[illustrations]] to be used in [[Printing|print]] publications, using black ink on white paper. Using either [[stippling]] or [[hatching]], shades of gray could also be simulated. |
| - | The text of the book is written in a bizarre [[Latin]]ate [[Italian language|Italian]], full of words coined based on Latin and [[Greek language|Greek]] [[Root (linguistics)|roots]] without explanation. The book, however, also includes words from the Italian language, as well as illustrations including Arabic and Hebrew words; Colonna also invented new languages when the ones available to him were inaccurate. (It also contains some uses of [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] hieroglyphs, but they are not authentic.) Its story, which is set in 1467, consists of precious and elaborate descriptions of scenes involving the title character, Poliphilo ("Lover of Many Things", from Greek ''Polú'' "Many" + ''Philos'' "Beloved"), as he wanders a sort of [[pastoral|bucolic]]-classical dreamland in search of his love Polia ("Many Things"). The author's style is elaborately descriptive and unsparing in its use of superlatives. | ||
| - | The book has long been sought after as one of the most beautiful [[incunabulum|incunabula]] ever printed. The [[typography]] is famous for its quality and clarity, in a roman<!--no capital is required--> typeface cut by [[Francesco Griffo]], which Aldus had first used in February 1495 for ''De Aetna'' of [[Pietro Bembo]], for which reason the typeface was named [[Bembo]] when it was revived in 1929 by [[Stanley Morison]]. | ||
| - | The book is illustrated with 168 exquisite [[woodcut]]s showing the scenery, architectural settings, and some of the characters Poliphilo encounters in his dreams. The illustrations are perhaps the best part of the book; delicate and evocative, they depict scenes from Poliphilo's adventures, or the architectural features over which the text rhapsodizes, in a simultaneously stark and ornate [[line art]] style which perfectly integrates with the type<!--Perhaps the second part of the sentence should be replaced with a reference to "typographic art"-->. These images are also interesting because they shed light on what people in the [[Renaissance]] fancied about the alleged [[aesthetics|æsthetic]] qualities of [[Greece|Greek]] and [[Rome|Roman]] antiquities. | + | ==See also== |
| - | + | *[[Printmaking]] | |
| - | The [[psychology|psychologist]] [[Carl Jung]] admired the book, believing the dream images presaged his theory of [[archetype]]s. The style of the woodcut illustrations had a great influence on late-19th century English illustrators, such as [[Aubrey Beardsley]], [[Walter Crane]] and [[Robert Anning Bell]]. | + | *[[Old master print]] |
| - | + | *[[Popular prints]] | |
| - | ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' was partially translated into [[English language|English]] in a [[London]] edition of 1592 by "R. D.", believed to be [[Robert Dallington]], who gave it the title by which it is best known in English, ''The Strife of Love in a Dream''. A facsimile of this edition can be seen online at the [http://www.archive.org/details/hypnerot00colluoft Internet Archive]. | + | |
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| - | The first complete English version was published by Thames & Hudson in 1999, five hundred years after the original. ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the Strife of Love in a Dream'' was translated by musicologist [[Joscelyn Godwin]] and typeset in [[Monotype Corporation]]'s typeface "Poliphilus", a re-creation of Griffo's original. A smaller format paperback edition was published in February 2005. However, probably due to the difficulty of the original, the translation is recreated in standard, modern language, rather than following the original's pattern of coining and borrowing words. | + | |
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| - | Eight of the monuments described in the ''Hypnerotomachia'' were reconstructed by [[computer graphics]] and published by [[Esteban A. Cruz]] in 2006. | + | |
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| - | ==Plot summary== | + | |
| - | The book begins with Poliphilo, who has spent a restless night because his beloved, '''Polia''' (literally ''"Many Things"''), shunned him. Poliphilo is transported into a wild forest, where he gets lost, encounters dragons, wolves and maidens and a large variety of architecture, escapes, and falls asleep once more. | + | |
| - | He then awakens in a second dream, dreamed within the first. In the dream, he is taken by some [[nymphs]] to meet their queen, and there he is asked to declare his love for Polia, which he does. He is then directed by two nymphs to three gates. He chooses the third, and there he discovers his beloved. They are taken by some more nymphs to a temple to be engaged. Along the way they come across five triumphal processions celebrating the union of the lovers. Then they are taken to the island of [[Cythera]] by barge, with [[Cupid]] as the boatswain; there they see another triumphal procession celebrating their union. The narrative is uninterrupted, and a second voice takes over, as Polia describes his [[erotomachia]] from her own point of view. | + | |
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| - | [[Image:Poliphilo and Polia.jpg|thumb|right|Polia kisses Poliphilo back to life]] | + | |
| - | Poliphilo resumes his narrative after one-fifth of the book. Polia rejects Poliphilo, but Cupid appears to her in a vision and compels her to return and kiss Poliphilo, who has fallen into a deathlike swoon at her feet, back to life. Venus blesses their love, and the lovers are united at last. As Poliphilo is about to take Polia into his arms, Polia vanishes into thin air and Poliphilo wakes up. | + | |
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| - | ==Characters in ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''== | + | |
| - | *'''Poliphilus''' | + | |
| - | *'''Polia''' | + | |
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| - | ==Allusions/references from other works== | + | |
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| - | *The book is briefly mentioned in ''The Histories of [[Gargantua and Pantagruel]]'' (1532-34) by [[François Rabelais]]: :"Far otherwise did heretofore the sages of Egypt, when they wrote by letters, which they called hieroglyphics, which none understood who were not skilled in the virtue, property, and nature of the things represented by them. Of which Orus Apollon hath in Greek composed two books, and Polyphilus, in his Dream of Love, set down more.." (Book. 1, Ch. 9.) | + | |
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| - | *''Polyphilo : or The Dark Forest Revisited - An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture'' (1992) is a modern re-writing of Polyphilo's tale by [[Alberto Pérez-Gómez]]. The non-fictional preface to this book by this eminent architectural historian is an excellent introduction to the Hypnerotomachia. | + | |
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| - | * ''Gypnerotomahiya'' (Гипнэротомахия, 1992) is an 8-minute [[Russia]]n animation directed by [[Andrey Svislotskiy]] of [[Pilot Animation Studio]] made based on the [[novel]] by the same title. [http://www.animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=4810] | + | |
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| - | *The 1993 [[novel]] ''[[The Club Dumas]]'' by [[Arturo Pérez-Reverte]] mentions the 1545 edition of the ''Hypnerotomachia'' (Ch. 3). This book was the basis for [[Roman Polanski|Polanski]]'s 1999 film ''[[The Ninth Gate]]'' (where the book is misnamed "Poliphilo"). | + | |
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| - | *The title and many themes of [[John Crowley]]'s 1994 novel ''Love & Sleep'' (part of his ''[[Ægypt]]'' series) were derived from the ''Hypnerotomachia''. | + | |
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| - | *In the 2004 novel ''[[The Rule of Four (book)|The Rule of Four]]'' by [[Ian Caldwell]] and [[Dustin Thomason]], two students try to decode the mysteries of ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''. | + | |
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| - | *[[Umberto Eco]]'s 2004 novel ''[[The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana]]'' features a protagonist whose doctoral thesis was written on the Hypnerotomachia. | + | |
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Revision as of 21:02, 19 July 2009
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Line art is any image that consists of distinct straight and curved lines placed against a (usually plain) background, without gradations in shade (darkness) or hue (color) to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects. Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic.
Line art emphasizes form and outline, over color, shading, and texture. However, areas of solid pigment and dots can also be used in addition to lines. The lines in a piece of line art may be all of a constant width (as in some pencil drawings), of several (few) constant widths (as in technical illustrations), or of freely varying widths (as in brush work or engraving).
Line art may tend towards realism (as in much of Gustave Doré's work), or it may be a caricature, cartoon, ideograph, or glyph.
Before the development of photography and of halftones, line art was the standard format for illustrations to be used in print publications, using black ink on white paper. Using either stippling or hatching, shades of gray could also be simulated.
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Line art" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
