Showing posts with label European Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European Art. Show all posts

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Trundholm Sun Chariot


We just learned about the ancient sculpture the Gundestrup Cauldron.

Another ancient sculpture is called the Trundholm Sun Chariot.

This sculpture was made out of bronze, with some gold parts on one side, which is called gilding.

It was made using something called lost wax casting.
This means someone started off with a sculpture made of wax, made a shell of sand, and used hot ovens to pour melted metal into the shell to make the sculpture.

The horse is pulling a circle that looks like the sun.
Long ago people did not know about how the planets and stars worked, so some people believed stories about the sun being pulled across the sky by a magical horse.


(from: wikipedia - trundholm sun chariot)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Night Watch - Rembrandt

Friday, February 12, 2016

Gundestrup Cauldron


We just learned about the sculpture Guennol Lioness.

Another sculpture is the Gundestrup Cauldron.

This is a large metal bowl that was made thousands of years ago, and has many carvings on the side of people and animals.

In order to make this bowl, they had to find some rocks that had silver in them, and put them in a hot fire where everything burned away except the silver.
This is called cupellation.

Then they took the silver bars and pounded them flat, then heated them up again so they could pound some shapes and pictures into the silver.
This is called annealing and repoussé.

Next they used some hard tools called punches and tracers to poked holes, make dents and lines on the metal for pictures.
They added some other metals on the outside like gold and silver to make it look nice.
This is called gilding.

Last they put some pieces of glass into the carvings on the bowl.
This is called inlay.


(from: wikipedia - gundestrup cauldron)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Campbell's Soup Cans

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Swimming Reindeer


We just learned about the prehistoric art Lion Man
.
Another work of prehistoric art is the sculpture Swimming Reindeer.

This is a carving of two reindeer swimming, made out of mammoth tusk.
It was found in France in 1866 buried 23 feet underground.

It was very interesting because reindeer don't live in France anymore, and it was carved from the mammoth which is now extinct.


(from: wikipedia - swimming reindeer)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - Georges Seurat