Encyclopédie

Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come. Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert Encyclopédie. University of Michigan Library:Scholarly Publishing Office and DLXS. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007

The encyclopaedia developed from the dictionary in the 18th century.

A dictionary primarily focuses on alphabetical listing of words and their definitions. But, a dictionary typically provides limited information, analysis or background for the word defined. While it may offer a definition, it may leave the reader still lacking in understanding the meaning, significance or limitations of a term, and how the term relates to a broader field of knowledge.

To address those needs, an encyclopaedia article covers not a word, but a subject or discipline.

Four elements define an encyclopaedia: its subject matter, its scope, its method of organization, and its method of production:

Encyclopaedias can be general, containing articles on topics in every field (the English-language Encyclopædia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples). General encyclopaedias often contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and gazetteers. There are also encyclopaedias that cover a wide variety of topics but from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia or Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their subject domain, such as an encyclopaedia of medicine, philosophy, or law. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, depending on the target audience. (For example, the Medical encyclopaedia produced by A.D.A.M., Inc. for the U.S. National Institutes of Health.)

Some systematic method of organization is essential to making an encyclopaedia usable as a work of reference. There have historically been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopaedias: the alphabetical method (consisting of a number of separate articles, organised in alphabetical order), or organization by hierarchical categories. The former method is today the most common by far, especially for general works. The fluidity of electronic media, however, allows new possibilities for multiple methods of organization of the same content. Further, electronic media offer previously unimaginable capabilities for search, indexing and cross reference. The epigraph from Horace on the title page of the 18th century Encyclopédie

As modern multimedia and the information age have evolved, they have had an ever-increasing effect on the collection, verification, summation, and presentation of information of all kinds. Projects such as Everything2, Encarta, h2g2, and Wikipedia are examples of new forms of the encyclopaedia as information retrieval becomes simpler. More specifically, Wikipedia has received acclaim for its scholarly nature, succinctness, verifiability, accuracy, and neutrality.^{[citation needed]} suggests the importance of the structure of an encyclopaedia: "What grace may be added to commonplace matters by the power of order and connection."

text source: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Exoticism in the Decorative Arts (from chinoiserie to art deco).

European interest in non-Western art was first stimulated by trade with the East in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the nineteenth century, with the advent of the railroad and steamship, lands that were little known to Westerners became easier to access. As more Europeans traveled beyond the established routes of the Grand Tour, their experiences abroad began to influence their tastes at home. Other influences were a result of England's massive imperial control over lands in China, India, Africa, and the Pacific. By mid-century, many non-Western forms and ornamental motifs had found their way into the vocabulary of European decorative arts.

Like Orientalist subjects in nineteenth-century painting, exoticism in the decorative arts and interior decoration was associated with fantasies of opulence and "barbaric splendour," in the words of the English explorer, linguist, and writer, Sir Richard F. Burton (1821–1890). The arts of the East were also considered quaint and uncorrupted by industrial capitalism. While English critics complained about the lack of integrity and poor design in the utilitarian goods that were being produced in their factories, they exalted the arts of preindustrialized nations and held them in great esteem as supreme examples of good design. Because of their purity of design, Islamic ceramics, Indian textiles, and Japanese prints were considered aesthetically superior to European goods, which aimed for commercial novelty. Ironically, the introduction of non-Western motifs into the European design vocabulary was equally novel and became an alternative to the historically based designs associated with various revivalist styles in the nineteenth century.

Not only were non-Western societies thought of as being untainted by industry and capitalism, they were also perceived as morally superior and more devout than their European counterparts. Owen Jones (1809–1874) described objects from India that were considered exemplars of good design as "the works of a people who are still faithful to their art as to their religion, habits and modes of thought which inspired it. … We find no struggle after an effect; every ornament arises quietly and naturally from the object decorated, inspired by some true feeling, or embellishing some real want." In an attempt to provide principles of design along with an encyclopedic compilation of design motifs, Jones published the Grammar of Ornament in 1856. However, rather than appreciating non-Western design for its sense of "otherness," he analyzes it based on stylistic merits alone, stripping away its cultural context.

The fascination for exotic styles was fueled by significant displays of non-Western art at many of the international exhibitions from 1851 onward. Publications of archaeological finds and collections also fed the nineteenth-century passion for the exotic. For example, the Egyptian style, popularized following Napoleon's campaign in Egypt in 1798, was promoted throughout the nineteenth century by such publications as Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte (1802) (26.168.77) and Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807). John Gardner Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (1837), which illustrated domestic furniture found at Thebes, continued to influence the style of chairs and other furniture made by artist-designers through the 1880s.

Non-Western designs influenced ornament, form, materials, and techniques. The complexities of geometric design associated with Islamic decorative arts and architecture became a source of inspiration. Jones, a proponent of Islamic design, stressed the visual importance of stylizing forms inspired by nature. The motifs and luster glazes of Turkish ceramics influenced English (23.163.2ab), French (1985.225), and Hungarian ceramics, while North African architecture and materials inspired the furniture of Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940) in Italy (69.69). Persian decorative arts were a frequent source for the enamelwork of the French jewelry firm Falize (2002.258) as well as for Christopher Dresser (1834–1904) in England (1996.94). Looking to the Americas, Dresser also took inspiration from Precolumbian artifacts (1988.30).

Throughout the nineteenth century, the arts of China and Japan were an inexhaustible source for design ideas. Chinoiserie, a pseudo-Chinese decorative style popularized by Europeans in the 1730s, reappeared during the Regency and continued into the nineteenth century (69.193.1-.11). However, by the 1880s, Europeans—such as the Austrian chemist A. Bünzli and the French potter Joseph-Théodore Deck (1985.225)—were producing ceramic glazes stained with metallic oxides in imitation of the Chinese sang de boeuf (ox-blood) glaze. Copper-oxide could produce other colors such as variant shades of green, blue, and violet, which were labeled flambé (2003.280). Chinese stoneware with incised decoration also influenced artist-potters in France at the end of the century (23.31.1).

Following the opening of Japan to trade with the West in 1854, the influence of Japanese arts resonated in nearly all media. The simplicity of Japanese craft, design, and construction found favor among the Gothic revivalists—the architect William Burges called the Japanese display at the International Exhibition of 1862 the "true medieval court"—and the abstract and asymmetrical approach of Japanese design greatly affected the Aesthetic movement. Japanese prints influenced porcelain designs (1996.161.1-3), and Japanese fans, parasols, and blue-and-white porcelain became de rigueur accessories for the fashionable interior. Following his extensive travels in Japan in 1877, Christopher Dresser drew upon Japanese design in his work. He also imported Japanese goods to England, as did the merchant Arthur Lasenby Liberty (1843–1917) in London, and the art dealer Siegfried Bing (1838–1905) in Paris. Even Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera of 1885 The Mikado (with costumes supplied by Liberty's), capitalized on the West's fascination with Japan.

By the end of the century, the exotic, as appropriated by the West, had become a mass-produced commodity in itself; exotic images were used to sell everything from cigarettes to candy. However, the exotic continued to influence the appearance of the decorative arts as it fused with the organic whiplash curves of the avant-garde style known as Art Nouveau.


text source : The Metropolitan museum of Art

A small history of German and Austrian Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century

Chinese and Japanese porcelains were highly esteemed in seventeenth-century Europe, and although they were imported in ever-increasing quantities throughout the century, Europeans did not know the ingredients necessary for the production of true porcelain, commonly known as hard-paste porcelain. However, in 1709 an alchemist named Johann Friedrich Böttger discovered the materials required to produce a white, translucent, high-fired porcelain body, and this discovery was to have profound consequences for the entire European ceramic industry.

Böttger's experiments with the formula for porcelain included the development of a high-fired red stoneware, which led to several technological advances ultimately resulting in porcelain. This so-called Böttger stoneware was used both for wares and for figures, including one depicting Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony (1982.60.318). Augustus had provided the impetus for Böttger's experiments and, based on the latter's success, he established a factory at Meissen, just outside Dresden, in 1710. The factory was soon producing a creamy white porcelain now known as Böttger porcelain (42.205.26), becoming the first European manufactory of hard-paste porcelain. In the 1720s, the Meissen factory developed a new and extensive range of enamel colors, and the factory's painters excelled in chinoiserie scenes. Fanciful depictions of life in an imagined and exotic Far East, chinoiseries were the most popular type of decoration during this decade (1974.356.488). One of the great achievements of the Meissen factory was the production of large-scale vases, which were difficult to fire successfully because of their size. Many of these vases were decorated with ground colors in imitation of Chinese porcelains, and chinoiserie scenes continued to be in vogue through the 1730s (1974.356.363). Frequently these vases are marked on the underside with the initials AR—for Augustus Rex—and it is likely that these objects were intended for Augustus' use or to be given as royal gifts.

The most ambitious of all of the projects undertaken at Meissen for Augustus the Strong was the production of large-scale animals for the Japanese Palace, the building intended to house all of his porcelain collections. The size of these animals presented enormous technical difficulties, and even though the factory used a more resilient hard-paste porcelain body for the animals, many of them display fire cracks and other evidence of problems encountered during firing. Nevertheless, they represent a remarkable achievement and remain among the most significant of all porcelain sculpture (1988.294.1).

The second factory in Europe to produce hard-paste porcelain was that founded in Vienna by Claudius du Paquier (died 1751). Du Paquier was assisted by the former kiln master from Meissen, and the new enterprise was able to make hard paste by about 1719. The du Paquier porcelain body was quite similar to that produced at Meissen, but the forms and styles of decoration employed at the Viennese factory were entirely original. The decoration on one du Paquier flower vase seems to depict du Paquier himself, seated near a group of porcelain objects, and the painted inscription calls attention to Vienna's accomplishment in producing porcelain (54.147.94). The concept of a dinner service with matching components was still novel in the 1730s, and the first dinner service to be made in porcelain was ordered from Meissen in late 1731. Du Paquier produced a partial dinner service, possibly composed exclusively of tureens, as early as the mid-1720s, and in the years 1736–40 made another service—composed primarily of tureens and wine coolers—that Emperor Charles VI gave to the Russian empress Anna Ioannovna (1982.60.330).

The success of the Meissen and du Paquier firms led to the establishment of other porcelain factories in Germany in the 1740s and 50s, and it was often workers coming from either Meissen or Vienna who provided the necessary technical expertise to the new operations. The factory established at Höchst in the mid-1740s began production on a viable scale only after the arrival of J. J. Ringler from the du Paquier factory. The Höchst factory employed a number of highly competent modelers, and the factory excelled in the production of figures. One of the most ambitious of these is The Audience of the Chinese Emperor (50.211.217), which was modeled by Johann Peter Melchior, director of the sculpture workshop beginning in 1767. This group probably decorated the table during the dessert course, accompanied by additional single figures also in a chinoiserie style.

Perhaps the most popular subjects for figures and groups were characters from the Italian commedia dell'arte. Porcelain figures depicting Harlequin, Columbine, Mezzetin, Isabella, and numerous others would have been instantly identifiable because of their costumes, for the traveling troupes of Italian commedia players had made these characters very familiar to eighteenth-century audiences. One of the greatest modelers of these figures was Franz Anton Bustelli, who worked at the Nymphenburg factory from 1754 until 1763. His figures (1974.356.524,.525) always display a pronounced elegance and a slight exaggeration of pose that simultaneously reflects some essential aspect of the character's personality.


text source : The Metropolitan museum of Art

to show

If it is about the gaps in between + how to fill them

The word history comes from the root *weid-, "to know, to see".^[8] This root is also present in the English words wit, wise, wisdom, vision, and idea, in the Sanskrit word veda,^[9]

The Ancient Greek word ἱστορία, historía, means "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation".

It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, Peri Ta Zoa Ηistoriai or, in Latinized form, Historia Animalium.^[11] The term is derived from ἵστωρ, hístōr meaning wise man, witness, or judge. We can see early attestations of ἵστωρ in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes' oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions (in a legal sense, either "judge" or "witness", or similar). The spirant is problematic, and not present in cognate Greek εἴδομαι - eídomai ("to appear"). The form ἱστορεῖν - historeîn, "to inquire", is an Ionic derivation, which spread first in Classical Greece and ultimately over all of Hellenistic civilization.

It was still in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the late 16th century, when he wrote about "Natural History". For him, historia was "the knowledge of objects determined by space and time", that sort of knowledge provided by memory (while science was provided by reason, and poetry was provided by fantasy).

The word entered the English language in 1390 with the meaning of "relation of incidents, story". In Middle English, the meaning was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning "record of past events" arises in the late 15th century. In German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, the same word is still used to mean both "history" and "story". The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669.^[12]

Historian in the sense of a "researcher of history" is attested from 1531. In all European languages, the substantive "history" is still used to mean both "what happened with men", and "the scholarly study of the happened", the latter sense sometimes distinguished with a capital letter, "History", or the word historiography.^[11]

Historiography is the history of history, the aspect of history and of semiotics that considers how knowledge of the past, either recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted.^[1] Formally, historiography examines the writing of history, the use of historical methods, drawing upon authorship, sources, interpretation, style, bias, and the reader; moreover, historiography also denotes a body of historical work.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, at the ascent of academic history, a corpus of historiography literature developed, including What is History? (1961), by E. H. Carr, and Metahistory (1973), by Hayden White.

text source : http://en.wikipedia.org/

Franz Anton Bustelli (sculptor contributing to industry part 02)

Franz Anton Bustelli (April 12, 1723 — April 18 1763) was a Swiss-born German modeller for the Bavarian Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory from 1754 to his death in 1763.
He is widely regarded as the finest modeller of porcelain in the Rococo style: "if the art of European porcelain finds its most perfect expression in the rococo style, so the style finds its most perfect expression in the work of Bustelli".^[2]

He was born in Locarno in Italian-speaking Switzerland, and died in Munich, Bavaria, just after his 40th birthday.

Few details of his life are known, but he trained as a sculptor, probably mostly in wood,^[3] and perhaps in Italy.

The sculptor was employed at Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg on 3 November 1754 as a figure-maker – just shortly after Joseph Jakob Ringler succeeded in making porcelain. Within just a brief period, he became model master at the manufactory and helped it achieve world fame with his elaborate rococo designs. Bustelli remained with Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg until his death in 1763 and, after just nine years, left around 150 new designs.

Bustelli is the outstanding figure of Rococo porcelain, and his best work has a unique grace, energy, drama and often wit. His figures are thoroughly designed in the round, meant to be appreciated from all angles. The bases are unusually thin, and often include scroll-work that integrates elegantly with the figures. Some subjects are drawn from engravings, and many seem to show the influence of the conventional theatrical gestures of the period.^[10]

He was not very highly paid, and his possessions at his death included furniture and personal effects, some of his own figures, 228 engravings, and 31 books on chemistry.^[11]


above: Liebesgruppe, 1760, 14.4 cm

below: Painter's Notes, Nymphenburg services



























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text source : http://en.wikipedia.org/
image 01 source: http://www.swansea.gov.uk/
image 02 source : http://www.nymphenburg.com/

If it is about the gaps in between.... then editing is crucial

The wikipedia of 1764, the apotheosis of Homer and some gaps

John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826), English sculptor and draughtsman

Flaxman re-interpreted a red figure design which appeared as a decoration on a calyx krater vase, purchased by the British Museum in London from Sir William Hamilton. This original vase was one of the ancient so-called Etruscan vases amassed by Sir William Hamilton when he was resident in Italy. The calyx krater vase is featured in the four-volume work compiled by d'Hancarville entitled Antiquities, Etrusques Grecques, et Romaines (published 1766-67), Volume III, plate 31.

Wedgwood referred to Flaxman's relief model in a letter to his Ornamental Ware partner Thomas Bentley, dated 19 August 1778. Bentley had already interpreted the scene as: '....some honor paid to the genius of Homer'.

Eight years later the bas relief was chosen by Josiah Wedgwood as the principal ornament for his most important jasper vase to date, sometimes known as the Pegasus Vase. The first copy of the vase was produced in February 1786. In May of the same year Wedgwood presented a copy of it to the British Museum, saying of it: '...it is the finest and most perfect I have ever made.'

Various examples of the vase exist in a number of collections. The one on display in the Wedgwood museum is made of white jasper, which has received a mid-blue dip, with white bas-relief figures. A superb specimen of the same subject, in a greenish-buff jasper dip, with the Pegasus or winged-horse finial in white, on solid pale blue jasper clouds, is retained by the Castle Museum, Nottingham.

During the 19th century examples of the vase appeared in black basalt. Subsequently smaller-size versions of the vase were issued by Wedgwood in jasper (of varying colours, usually with white bas reliefs) and in more recent times in black with the raised bas-relief ornamentation enhanced by the addition of exquisite gilding. This form of decoration has its source in the latter decades of the 19th century, when exquisite ornamental wares were made in black basalt with the bas-relief figures enhanced by bronzing and gilding.

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text and image source : http://www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/
secondary source :http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/

PRONK, CORNELIS - Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) draws Noord-Holland and a very small history of porcelain

PRONK, CORNELIS - Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759)

Nederlandse kunstenaar De Nederlandse kunstenaar Cornelis Pronk werd in 1691 geboren. Hij was de zoon van een korenhandelaar, die later een administratiekantoor had. Nadat hij enkele jaren op het kantoor van zijn vader had gewerkt ging Cornelis, op aanraden van de kunstkenner Lambert ten Kate Hermansz. lessen nemen bij Jan van Houten. Later was hij ook in de leer bij de portretschilder Arnold Boonen.

Belangrijk portretschilder

Pronk werd een belangrijk portretschilder, maar werd voornamelijk bekend vanwege zijn toneelscènes. Later ging Cornelis Pronk topografische tekeningen maken. Hij werkte vijf jaar in opdracht van Andries Schoemaker, waarmee hij reizen maakte door Noord-Holland, Gelderland, Overijssel, Drente en Friesland.

Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie

Van 1734 tot 1737 was Pronk in dienst van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie voor de levering van ontwerpen voor porselein. Vanaf 1742 werkte Pronk in opdracht van de Amsterdamse uitgever Isaac Tirion aan de uitgave "Verheerlykt Nederland of Kabinet van hedendaagsche gezigten".

Topografisch tekenaar

Cornelis Pronk was vooral een gevierd topografisch tekenaar en belangrijk als oprichter van een topografische tekenschool. Jan de Beijer (of Beyer) was de voornaamste leerling van Pronk.

Cornelis Pronk overleed in 1759.

Lady with umbrella // Dame met parasol

Pronk, Cornelis (drawer / tekenaar), period 1734 - 1736

(More) Ladies with umbrella // (Meerdere) Dame(s) met parasol

(Copying from) Het porseleinkabinet van Age Looxma Ypeij

Sinds januari 2007 is in het Keramiekmuseum Princessehof een spectaculair kabinet met hierin een overdaad aan Chinees en Japans porselein uit de collectie van Age Looxma Ypeij (1833-1893) te zien. Maar liefst 3.000 voorwerpen zijn gebruikt voor deze overdaad aan porselein.

Age Looxma Ypeij

Age Looxma Ypeij was een eigenzinnige Friese negentiende eeuwer. Nooit getrouwd en een van de rijkste mensen van de provincie Friesland, bracht hij een omvangrijke verzameling Aziatische keramiek bijeen. Looxma legateerde zijn collectie aan de provincie Friesland en liet dit legaat vergezeld gaan van een geldbedrag van vijftigduizend gulden. Na verloop van tijd werden grote delen van de porseleincollectie opgenomen in de vaste opstelling van het Fries Museum.

De verzameling

Vanaf het moment dat de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) Chinees porselein vanuit China naar Europa verscheepte, ontstond er in Azië een keramiekproductie die specifiek bedoeld was voor de Westerse markt. Niet alleen de vormen, maar ook de decors en de toegepaste kleuren werden afgestemd op de smaak van de Europese clientèle. Dit porselein noemt men ook wel Chine de commande.
De omvangrijke collectie Looxma Ypeij telt maar liefst 5.300 objecten en bestaat voor het overgrote deel uit deze speciaal voor de Westerse markt geproduceerde Aziatische keramiek. Daarnaast is er ook nog een deel zogenoemd Japon de commande, Japans porselein dat speciaal werd vervaardigd voor Europa.
Binnen de Looxma verzameling bestaat een verbazingwekkende variëteit: naast het voor Nederlandse verzamelingen gebruikelijke Chine de commande porselein, zijn er ook voorwerpen die sterk opvallen hetzij door een afwijkende decoratie of door een bovengemiddelde kwaliteit in de beschildering.

Bij raadpleging van de rubriek 'Zoeken in de collectie' staan onder de rubriek 'Collectie' alle voorwerpen uit de verzameling Looxma Ypeij.

Apostolos Ntelakos werkt met tekeningen, keramiek en sculpturen.

Voor het diner bij de opening van de expositie heeft hij een servies gemaakt, waarvoor de ontwerpen gekopieerd zijn uit een catalogus van pre-industrieel aardewerk. Hoewel de vormen archetypisch zijn, is een servies ontstaan waarvan elk deel uniek is.

Copy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Copy may refer to:

• Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact.
  • Copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing
  • Photocopying, a process which makes paper copies of documents and other visual images
  • Fax, a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies of documents, especially over the telephone network
  • Facsimile, any copy or reproduction which bears a close resemblance to the original
  • Replica
  • Term of art in US copyright law meaning a material object in which a work of authorship has been embodied, such as a book
• Copy (command), a shell command.
• Copy (written), written content in publications, in contrast to photographs or other elements of layout
• Copy (album), the debut album of the electronica artist Mitsuki Aira

See also

• Duplication
• Equality (objects)
• Koppie or Kopje (isolated rocky hill in Africa)
• List of duplicating processes

about the ceiling

"Iliou Melathron" (Schliemann's Mansion, today the Nomismatic Museum)

Area: 12, Panepistimiou Street, Athens, Greece
Year: 1878-1880

The Numismatic Museum of Athens is a museum in Athens. It is housed in a neoclassic building, the Iliou Melathron ("Palace of Ilium") which used to be the residence of the renowned archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. The building was designed by the notable German architect Ernst Ziller.

The main exhibitions of the museum on the first floor narrate the history of coinage; the construction, dissemination, usage and the different iconography of coins in the Ancient Greek world. On the second floor there are exhibitions of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Medieval and of the modern era.

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text source : http://www.eie.gr/

image source : http://www.apostolos-ntelakos.com

W. G. Sebald

interviewed (here) by Michael Silverblatt for Bookworm radio. Sebald is being interviewed on a quite general level about his writing practice, about what influenced him and about which writers he loved.

At some point Sebald gets into a quite detailed discussion of the structure of his book The Rings of Saturn and it's relation to the tradition of the writings of the so-called solitary walker.



Sebald ziet in het 'vermogen tot synthese' een van de sterkste kanten van de literatuur zoals hij die voorstaat. “In de literatuur kan alles een plaats krijgen. Een sociaal-historicus mag niet plotseling over theologie gaan schrijven, en een bioloog niet over metafysica, maar een schrijver mag alles.” Sebald, die zich zelf een literaire verhalenverteller noemt, probeert in zijn boeken informatie uit zo veel mogelijk disciplines en genres te verwerken. “Ik vertel verhalen, maar verhalen van zeer uiteenlopende aard.” Vondsten uit handboeken en encyclopedieën kan hij aanvullen met gegevens uit toeristische foldertjes, en pamfletten van actiegroepen met verhalen van mensen die hij onderweg tegenkomt.

Hij wijst er met klem op dat zijn verteller uit Die Ringe des Saturns geen realistische pretenties heeft. Hij is het niet zelf. “De ik in mijn boek is een kunstmatige figuur. Hij is geen academicus die zich beperkt tot zijn eigen vak. Hij interesseert zich voor veel meer. Hij is historicus, politiek geïnteresseerd, weet wat van biologie, literatuurwetenchap, hij verdiept zich in het water, het zand, en de wind, en hij is in persoonlijke zaken geïnteresseerd. Op zijn tocht door de provincie verdiept hij zich steeds in de emoties van de mensen op zijn pad.”


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text source : http://www.nrcboeken.nl/
sound source : http://www.kcrw.com/
image source : www.penguinclassics.com/

the front, the back, the herbs and what might be the difference

Introduced to Europe in the fourteenth century, Chinese porcelains were regarded as objects of great rarity and luxury. //////

The position of the wares and the neighbours :

Porcelains though, were only a small part of the trade—the cargoes were full of tea, silks, paintings, lacquerware metalwork, and ivory.

The porcelains were often stored at the lowest level of the ships, both to provide ballast and because they were impervious to water, in contrast to the even more expensive tea stored above.



READING 35-1 : Source: H. Hobhouse. 1986. Seeds of Change: Five Plants that Transformed Mankind. Harper & Row, New York.

The words to describe it and the countries that borrowed those words:

The blue-and-white dishes that comprised such a significant proportion of the export porcelain trade became known as kraak porcelain, the term deriving from the Dutch name for caracca, the Portuguese merchant ship. Characteristic features of kraak dishes were decoration divided into panels on the wide border, and a central scene depicting a stylized landscape.

When objects are specifically made for export to the West (part one)

The examples that appeared in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were often mounted in gilt silver, which emphasized their preciousness and transformed them into entirely different objects.

By the early sixteenth century—after Portugal established trade routes to the Far East and began commercial trade with Asia—Chinese potters began to produce objects specifically for export to the West and porcelains began to arrive in some quantity. An unusually early example of export porcelain is a ewer decorated with the royal arms of Portugal; the arms are painted upside down, however—a reflection of the unfamiliarity of the Chinese with the symbols and customs of their new trading partner.

I wonder what the painter was thinking.

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text source: http://www.metmuseum.org/

image source : http://www.hort.purdue.edu/