The lower edges of the roof slope extending beyond the side of a building and overhang the face of the wall to protect it from rainwater running off. “The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural style, such as the Chinese dougong bracket systems. […] The eaves may also protect a pathway around the building from the rain, prevent erosion of the footings, and reduce splatter on the wall from rain as it hits the ground” (“Eaves” 2021).
In wooden constructions, eaves can also form a canopy (drip), a narrow, single-pitched roof, overhang at a certain height on the external walls of the building, most often between the gable and the wall (in Poland). It can also be based on the ends of the beams or logs or on special short corbels, called crosses. In taller wooden buildings, eaves protect the wall or its fragments, most often the foundation, against rainfall, and also act as an architectural division.
A single-pitched or gable roof over a gate, wicket, wall or fence is also called a drip or eaves canopy.
Featured image: The eaves canopy protects the foundation in the church of Saints Peter and Paul in Mikołów-Paniowy (Poland). Photo by EwkaC (2008). CC BY-SA 3.0. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Daszek okapowy” (2020). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Daszek okapowy” (2020). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2ZFGNsA>. [Accessed 22nd February, 2021].
“Eaves” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/37yoKsD>. [Accessed 22nd February, 2021].
“Obdaszek” (2016). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3pF93WV>. [Accessed 22nd February, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, pp. 281, 285. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
The Doric order “was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian” (“Doric order” 2021). It is characterized by heavy proportions, austerity and monumentality.
Classical Greek Architecture. Example of the Doric Order: 1. Tympanum, 2. Acroterion, 3. Sima, 4. Cornice, 5. Mutule, 7. Frieze, 8. Triglyph, 9. Metope, 10. Regula, 11. Gutta, 12. Taenia, 13. Architrave, 14. Capital, 15. Abacus, 16. Echinus, 17. Column, 18. Fluting, 19. Stylobate. Drawing by Napoleon Vier (2005). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo and caption source: “Sima (architecture)” (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Doric columns do not have a base and are directly supported on a stylobate. They either have a fluted shaft: from 18 to 20 sharply cut grooves or a smooth-surfaced shaft. In any case it is tapered upwards, with a slight bulge (enthase) at 1/2 or 2/3 of its height. It has a head consisting of echinus and abacus.
Doric entablature consists of a smooth architrave, a frieze is divided into triglyphs and metopes (square spaces for either painted or sculpted decoration). Beneath each triglyph and below a flat band (taenia), separating the architrave from the frieze, there is the so-called regula (a row of six gutae). “[In] the frieze, […] the two features originally unique to the Doric [are] the triglyph and guttae; [they] are skeuomorphic memories of the beams and retaining pegs of the wooden constructions that preceded stone Doric temples. [But in] stone they are purely ornamental” (“Doric order” 2021). Above the frieze, there is, in turn, a flattened plate (modillion) with looking like water drops, three rows of mutules, supporting the cornice. A cornice (geison) often ends with a gutter (sim) with spouts and antefixes, located above.
Mandatory in the Doric order is the so-called triglyph rule (a correct spacing of the triglyphs), which strictly defines the arrangement of triglyphs on the frieze. It was, however, difficult to apply in monumental structures, which eventually may have caused the abandonment of the Doric architectural order in the Hellenistic period.
The Doric order was initiated “on the Greek mainland in the late seventh century [BC.] and remained the predominant order for Greek temple construction through the early fifth century [BC.], although notable buildings built later in the Classical period—especially the canonical Parthenon in Athens—still employed it” (Khan Academy 2021).
After Vitruvius (81-15 BC.), a Roman author and architect, “the height of Doric columns is six or seven times the diameter at the base, [which] gives the Doric columns a shorter, thicker look than Ionic columns, which have 8:1 proportions. It is suggested that these proportions give the Doric columns a masculine appearance, whereas the more slender Ionic [or Corinthian] columns appear to represent a more feminine look. This sense of masculinity and femininity was often used to determine which type of column would be used for a particular structure” (“Doric order” 2021).
Featured image: Two early Archaic Doric order Greek temples at Paestum (Italy) with much wider capitals than later. Photo by Miguel Hermoso Cuesta – Own work (2013). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo and caption source: “Doric order” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Sima (architecture)” (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2PSDVaC>. [Accessed on 6th May, 2021].
“Doric order” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3b7TORX>. [Accessed on 6th May, 2021].
Khan Academy (2021). “Greek architectural orders. The Doric order”. In: Khan Academy. Available at <https://bit.ly/2PXIroq>. [Accessed on 6th May, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 327. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
In history, horses were also provided with protection against enemies’ weapons. “By the [mid-fifteenth century], armorers had devised a near-complete set of armour to protect the steed in battle. Together these formed a bard”. Although it was mostly developed in the European Middle Ages, such a body armour for war horses had been already well known in antiquity. It was either made of the hardened leather cover, or of chainmail and riveted metal plates, or larger steel plates composed of various parts.
Among the most important elements of the barding is the chanfron, designed to protect the horse’s head from the ears to the nostrils, sometimes including hinged cheek plates. “Flanges often covered the steed’s eyes. [There were also] hinged extensions to cover the [horse’s] jowls” (“Barding” 2021). Other essential elements included the criniere (crinet), a set of segmented plates protecting the horse’s neck, the peytral protecting chest, and finally the croupiere (crupper) protecting the horse’s hind quarters with a part called the tail-guard and sides around to the saddle. The legs were not covered with any armour for the horse’s easy movement.
The barding equipment equally includes the so-called “flanchards, used to protect the flank, attached to the side of the saddle, then around the front or rear of the horse and back to the saddle again. These appear to have been metal plates riveted to leather or in some cases cuir bouilli armour (which is boiled or treated leather sealed with beeswax or the like). They sometimes had openings designed to allow the rider to use spurs” (“Barding” 2021).
A set of armour with a criniere (protecting neck), peytral (protecting chest) and the croupiere (protecting hind quarters). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Photo by David Monniaux (2005). CC BY-SA 3.0. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Barding” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
It happened that the barding was enriched with decorative features, typical of chanfrons, such as “a rondel with a small spike [between the horse’s eyes or horns an other symbolic objects surmounting the steed’s heads]. Barding was often used in conjunction with cloth covers known as caparisons. These [colourful and richly decorated textile covers sometimes shielded] the entire horse from nose to tail and extended to the ground” (“Barding” 2021).
Featured image: This fifteenth-century depiction of a tournament shows fully caparisoned horses. René d’Anjou Livre des tournois France Provence XVe siècle. Image attributed to Barthélémy d’Eyck (1460). Public domain. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Barding” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Barding” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3bcux8q>. [Accessed on 18th February, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 451. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
“The word zoomorphism derives from the Greek […] (zōon), meaning ‘animal’, and […] (morphē), meaning ‘shape’ or ‘form’. [Zoomorphism] could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals” In visual arts, it is generally a depiction of deities, natural phenomena, abstract concepts and other objects in the form of real or fantastic animals, or yet animal hybrids.
Featured image: Bird-shaped oil lamp, dated late twelfth-early thirteenth century, made of bronze; cast, engraved, inlaid with silver and copper, H: 8 in. L: 9 3/8 in. W: 11 13/16 in: “Bird-shaped oil lamp”. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-11-03. This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy. CC0. Photo and caption source: “Zoomorphism” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Zoomorphism” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3roWFMn>. [Accessed on 6th March, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 455. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
The national school of painting in Japan that was founded in Yamato (the former name of Japan and the district with the capital of Nara). It is characterized by using purely Japanese themes drawn from national poetry and novels, with or without accompanying text, completely devoid of the influence of Chinese culture. The paintings “show the beauty of nature, with famous places meisho-e (…) or the four seasons shiki-e (…). Characteristic features of Yamato-e include many small figures and careful depictions of details of buildings and other objects, the selection of only some elements of a scene to be fully depicted, the rest either being ignored or covered by a ‘floating cloud’, an oblique view from above showing interiors of buildings as though through a cutaway roof, and very stylized depiction of landscape” (“Yamato-e” 2020).
Uji Bridge Screen, an example of later Yamato-e from the seventeenth century. Image by Japanischer Maler – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202. Public domain. Photo and caption source: Photo and caption source: “Yamato-e” (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
The pictures are often on scrolls that can be hung on a wall (…), handscrolls (…) that are read from right to left, or on a folding screen (…) or panel” (“Yamato-e” 2020). Inspired by Tang dynasty paintings, it developed during the Heian period (794-1185). Yamato-e paintings, however, “stand for a style and are not restricted to a particular period” (Ibid.)
Featured image: A scene (AZUMA YA: East Wing) of Illustrated scroll of Tale of Genji (written by MURASAKI SHIKIBU (the eleventh century). The multi-panel curtain at the center bottom of the image is a kichō. The decorated sliding door panels at the top of the image are fusuma. The scroll was made in about ca. 1130 ACE and is in the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya, Japan. Image by Imperial court in Kyoto – Genji Monogatari Emaki published by the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya, Japan, 1937. Public domain. Colours intensified. Photo and caption source: “Yamato-e” (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Yamato-e” (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/30ln81D>. [Accessed on 6th March, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 446. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
