Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:27:31.526Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Up Close: Laboratoire de Recherche des Musées de France: Materials Science in the Service of Art History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Get access

Extract

Until the 18th century, the word “art” meant the product of the artisan (not the artist) and, by extension, also meant the product itself. Objects manufactured by craftsmen had, first of all, a useful function, although they might also have had a symbolic or aesthetic meaning. The concept of aesthetics is actually much older, considering the antiquity of Rome and Greece. And in Egypt, 3,500 years ago, at Saqqara, the first stone pyramid was engraved by scribes expressing their admiration for it.

These artisans were famous for the quality of their work, for their genius in mastering their knowledge. One is reminded of Phidias in Athens, Michelangelo and Julius II, or Leonardo da Vinci and Francois the 1st.

However, the social status of such artists was probably not very different from the status of other exceptional artisans in fields such as jewelry, metallurgy, clothing, music, etc. “Ĺart pour l'art,” a tenet which ignored the function of the object, arose only during the last century. In other words, almost all objects or artifacts in museums were originally devised and built to achieve a very specific and useful function.

Type
Up Close
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Martin, E., Un autre regard, catalogue de l'exposition Georges de la Tour ou les chefs d'oeuvre révéles (Vic sur Seille, Septembre-Novembre 1993, Editions Serpenoise).Google Scholar
2.de Saizieu, B. Barthelemy and Bouquillon, A., Les parures en pierre de Mundigak (Afghanistan) (Paleorient, 1994) in press.Google Scholar
3.Tite, M.S. and Bimson, M., “Glazed Steatite: An Investigation of the Methods of Glazing Used in Ancient Egypt” (World Archaeology 21 (1) (1989) p. 87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Bouquillon, B., Querre, C., and Poirot, J.P., “Natural Stones and Man-Made.Materials Used for Egyptian Jewelry: Example of Three Pectorals of the Louvre Museum” (XXIV International Gemmology Congress, Paris, 1993).Google Scholar