Acanthus #5- Roll me over and do it again!

All right! If you've been doing the homework, you have now drawn out a flat acanthus leaf with all of the necessary components of its design. Way to go! However, acanthus ornament is very rarely depicted as flat. ("You mean I did all this work and I'm not even going to use it?!") You will use it, but we will now modify the leaf shape to fit different purposes.

Probably the first thing most people will associate with the acanthus is the decorative foliage of a Corinthian style capital, as seen in this beautiful Beaux-Arts print from Camillo Boito's book, Gli Stili dell'Ornamento (1882). As you can see, the leaves of the capital lean out and bend over, which is the norm for a Corinthian capital. Look also at the stylization of the eyelets on this leaf; they look almost like the metal-ringed eyelets on a workboot. This is again a stylization: it would not occur in nature, but it looks clean, and it attracts the eye by creating a highlight around the dark of the eye, making a clear punctuation of the leaf's rhythm.

Top capital is from the Temple of Apollo at Didyma (present day Turkey), the bottom acanthus leaf is from the Temple of the Winds in Athens.

Below is an acanthus leaf applied to the bottom side of a modillion, or soffit bracket, from the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. Again the top is bent forward. Also look at the eyelets on this one; cut very squarely with tiny leaflets hanging down, and the deep grooving of the leaflets, a characteristic that is seen in many examples from Greece and Asia Minor.

Modillion from the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. From Hector d'Espouy's Fragments Antiques (1905)

So here's a quick run down on how to do this bending, taken from James Page's Guide for Drawing the Acanthus, (1840). I won't go into too much detail, as I think the drawings are pretty self-explanatory. 

Step one- fold over the general form of the leaf with the eyelets drawn in.

Step two- elaboration of the lobes and leaflets. Observe carefully the reversing of the curves of the lobes that are folded over. 

Step three- the leaf rendered

Corinthian Capital from the Temple of Mars Ultor. From Hector d'Espouy's Fragments Antiques (1905)

Corinthian Capital from the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. From Hector d'Espouy's Fragments Antiques (1905)

All of the examples of capitals that I have shown here are in the more "olivine" style (leaves that look like an olive tree's), another variant on the acanthus leaf which can be found in many places. Look at it carefully, and draw a section, so that you can recognize it and be ready to design with it, noting the cleaner, more linear, more geometric style by comparison to the frillier, more organic style that we have been using for the lessons. Each has its purpose, in accordance with the architecture it enhances.

Next up: Twisting the Night Away!

Acanthus Lesson 1: A Proper Leaf, Part One (The Roots!)

Prelude:

This is the first lesson of several that I will post here on the origin, usage, and construction of acanthus leaf ornament in Western classical decoration. Ever since the classical Greeks, acanthus leaves, and their variant forms, have been used to enhance everything from temples to pickle forks. The form of the leaf has become so transformed by usage that most do not recognize the origin of its plant based shape, even if they are familiar with the plant, seen often in temperate climates as a garden specimen.

The leaf of the Acanthus Mollis plant, regularly used as a model for plant based ornament

Part One: Roots

When Louis Sullivan created his book on ornament*, he began with the organic, as conveyed by the shapes of leaves. He listed 14 basic shapes, somewhat less than the myriad collection in this illustration from Wikipedia, which pretty much covers the gamut of just about anything you could find on the planet, at least above the oceans. I also love being able to describe a leaf as a 'doubly serrated dichotomous flabellate"!

Leaf shaped ornaments have been covering man made objects for thousands of years, found on items from around the globe, and the shapes seen in the chart above are doubtlessly an early source of many decorative patterns, translated into other materials by busy hands. The illustration below shows a variety of capitals from Egypt, with ornaments derived from the leaves and blooms of palms, lotus, and papyrus plants. 

Plate 45 from Denon, Dominique Vivant - Voyage dans la basse et la haute Égypte, pendant les campagnes du général Bonaparte (1802)

The Greek sculptor Callimachus is apocryphally credited with inventing the Corinthian capital by Roman writer Vitruvius, as illustrated by this page of Claude Perrault's book on the Five Orders from 1683. According to Vitruvius, the sculptor came across a votive basket left at the tomb of a young girl, with a stone slab on top to protect the offerings inside. An acanthus plant had begun to grow under the basket, and thus became the basket form covered in leaves that we recognize today as the Corinthian order.

Perrault's illustration of the origin of the Corinthian capital, 1683

The earliest known example of a Corinthian capital is found at the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae (Greece), dated around 450 BC (incidentally , more than 100 years before Callimachus was even born), but it is thought to be a one-off, somewhat of an oddity in a temple that is mostly in the Doric and Ionic orders. A beautifully preserved early example was found in the tholos at Epidaurus, dated to the 4th century BC also.

Corinthian capital found at Epidaurus, Greece, 4th c. BC

As you can see above, the leaf shape used to ring the capital is a fully developed acanthus leaf, clearly derived from the plant itself, although regularized and codified in a way to make it something between a natural form and a geometric shape. That is where we will pick up in the next installment.

*Sullivan, Louis, A System of of Architectural Ornament According with a Philosophy of Man's Powers, New York 1924. Published posthumously by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Pic o' the Day #1311- Quails' Eggs and Darts

One of the fun things about studying ornament is finding common threads and unusual variations on a theme. One that I noticed in Pompeii last summer was this Corinthian column in the Basilica, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the columns in the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, and is the only other place that I have seen this type of capital (other than modern variations). It's the ruffled and curled over vertical edges of the acanthus leaves that makes them distinctive; most other acanthus leaves have more prominent tops, while the sides are relatively flat. Here's a few images to illustrate what I'm talking about.

Corinthian capital in the Basilica at Pompeii. Notice the curly edges of the acanthus leaves.

A reconstructive drawing of the capital from Francois Mazois' Les Ruines de Pompeii, (1820).

Capital at the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli also has the ruffled edges of the acanthus leaves. It also has flutes that end  without being rounded

A more typical Roman style corinthian capital, as seen at the Pantheon. Here the tops of the acanthus leaves are the most pronounced part of the bell. 

The Ionic style capitals also have an interesting variant with "Quail egg" and dart, a style I have not seen elsewhere. This is also in the Basilica. 

Day Two 2014- Recovery Mode

Was rousted from a deep dream state this morning to find that Marianne (the Miraculous) (aka the wife) had overcome her usual lack of inner map to make it all the way from the Rome airport to the door of the apartment here. This was a good thing, since she also had no other real way of contacting me or our friends. She had not run into any of the blocks that I did, and made it straight through LA-DC-Rome.

It's Artichoke season!!

 Took a few cups of coffee to get my motor to idle correctly, then we took the little puppy (Bella, a Yorkie) out for an excursion to the market at Campo di Fiori, which is literally about 10 steps away from the front door. OMG! I love farmers markets, and especially somewhere foreign, where there's always something different to explore. Right now is artichoke season, so we picked up a couple of fresh looking ones. They also have (real) new potatoes, which are about the size of a malted milk ball, and several great looking mushrooms.

Fresh fruits and vegetables at the Campo di Fiori

Darius and Erica's flat is very nice; not huge, but carved out of an old palazzo with exposed wooden ceilings and curious little brick niches that look like ancient ossuaries in the bathroom- perfect for storing toiletries! They actually got chosen to do one of those HGTV shows on apartment hunting a few years ago, so we had already seen it before we got here. Darius is also on TV fairly often in his professional capacity as an archeologist. They took off for an all expenses paid ski junket thanks to Erica's gig as an online reviewer for a variety of magazines, so we have the place to ourselves for a few days- whee!

little brick niches in the bathroom- perfect for shampoo and towels!

After coming back with the dog, we went down and had delicious pizza- vegan for Marianne and Gluten free for me! Been so long since I've had a nice pizza, and to have it be wheat free was fabulous! Then we moseyed on up to the Piazza Navona, poking our heads into any church door that was open. The sky was marbled with clouds that looked like rain, but it didn't, and the temperature is actually quite mild now, having risen a bit in the last week. Made the requisite stop in the Pantheon to pay our respects to all the gods (and artists and architects) of our ancestors, then had our first gelati (I got Limone and Nocciola- Hazlenut.)

Marianne sees the light in front of the Pantheon

I like this attitude! "Well, we know the pillars will have pigeons on them, so let's beat them to the punch!" On Sant'Agnese in Agone on the Piazza Navona

After a bit more wandering, taking in the Caravaggios in the Contarelli Chapel, we found ourselves once again at the Trevi fountain, which is remarkably crowded considering we're just in to March and it's still cool here. I guess there's already a pretty heavy dose of spring breakers on the loose, as we've seen the marauding bands of teens all over. We threw in our coins for returning next time, then went home as the sun faded, stopping to pick up a phone card so that I can use text and google maps here. Flat rate of $35 to put a different card in my phone and have enough phone, text, and data to easily get me  through 3 weeks. Easy Peasy! 

Saint Hilarius, patron of comedians, died in a tickle fight with the Devil.

Back to the flat to walk the dog and whip up a fab dinner of salad with some weird octopus-like green i've never seen before, leftover pizza from lunch, and our two magnificent artichokes. topped it all off with some amazing real amaretti, which are nothing like what you get in a bag in the states, and some herbal tea. Then it's now! Time to post!

These weren't ours tonight, but they may be soon! Nipples of Venus!!