E Lecture Visual Representations in Text: Illustration

E Lecture Visual Representations in Text: Illustration

Written language and pictorial representation are crowning achievements of the human race. These innovations are what make the human race significant and separate mankind from the animal kingdom. The ability to record information and convey ideas with marks, characters, or symbols’ as physical recordings of ideas is arguably the most important achievement of early mankind.

The evolution of written language and pictorial representation has transformed into many things over the span of human existence. The earliest form of writing date to the Neolithic age, also know as the Bronze age and the late 4th millennium. Since then written language has evolved from hieroglyphics to Latin to a hundreds of distinctive languages. The earliest forms of pictorial representations are cave paintings. Some paintings that appear on cave walls are some 32,000 years old. The oldest forms of writing and pictorial representation have evolved with time from the most primitive of mark making into all kinds of illustrated literary works.

Written language has been accompanied by pictorial representations in all kinds of works throughout history. If we trace the history of the written word in combination with pictorial representations we find that the practice of illustration itself ancient. Illustration of text in its earliest surviving forms are handwritten manuscripts. Scrolls and illuminated manuscripts are some of the earliest forms of illustration, done by hand. Today illustration is everywhere from the media to children's books and graphic novels. What other kinds ways are pictures and texts combined and used?

Scrolls

The Joshua Roll: 10th century, illuminated manuscript. Illustrations of the Old Testament Book of Joshua.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Roll

A scroll is a roll of paper or other material that has been written on and/or illustrated. Scrolls were first used in ancient civilizations for documenting information and communicating information, ideas, or stories. Scrolls originated as a way of recording and keeping information much like a book is to keep text.

People of ancient Egypt used scrolls made of material from the papyrus plant. Jewish people in Syria and Babylon used scrolls made of deerskin. Moses copied Hebrew religious texts onto a scroll made from kosher animal around the year 3300 BCE. Scrolls continued to be used throughout the Mediterranean by Greeks, Romans and the Early Christian Era. Scrolls remained the primary way of recording written language until the Middle Ages as books and print became more widely used. In Asia, scrolls were used Islamic religious text such as the Koran and were sometimes colorfully decorated and embossed with gold.

In modern times, Jack Kerouacs story ‘On the Road’ was originally typed on a 120-foot roll or paper and rolled into a scroll. A piece of literature that has defined america at the time and the beat generation.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11709924

Books

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around the year 1440. Up until this time people hand wrote books. Illuminated manuscripts and the practice of decorating and illustrating of books became a respected art form and trade, usually reserved for monks.

Illumined manuscripts are simply pieces of literature decorated with borders, decorative initials and other illustrations. Some scholars refer only to illuminated manuscripts only to those which have been painted with god or silver. Books of Hours are the most common type of medieval illuminated manuscript. Books of Hours contain religious text, prayers and psalms. Decorated with capital letters, borders, and illustrations and written in Latin

Illuminated manuscripts from medieval Europe are some of the finest examples of western calligraphy. Books such as the Book of the Kells, the Book of the Durrow, and The Lindisfarne Gospels are illuminated manuscripts that have survived since the middle ages, hand written and illustrated by catholic monks in the British Islands. These illuminated manuscripts are religious texts of Christianity containing the books of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible as well as other texts such as hymns and notes.

The Book of the Kells is one of the most widely known illuminated manuscripts. It is now on permanent display at the Trinity College Library in Dublin Ireland. The Book of the Kells consists of the four gospels of the New Testament written in Latin and was transcribed by Celtic monks around the year 800. The Book of the Kells is an example of Insular art Insular art is also known as Hiberno-Saxon and referees to the style of arts produced by the people of the British Islands in post-Roman medieval Europe.

Book of the Kells

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

Book of the Durrow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Durrow

In modern times text is combined with illustrations in everything from children’s books to graphic novels. What kinds of books are popular today? name examples of illustrations and texts. What kinds of books do you enjoy and why?

Lesson Idea: Hand Illustrated Manuscripts: Scrolls and Books

-Have students research scrolls of different cultures. Then have them transcribe and illustrate a story about themselves onto a scroll to resemble their chosen culture and time period.

-Have students study hieroglyphics and let them come up with their own hieroglyphics to represent themselves. Have them use their own hieroglyphics in their scroll.