Rc 4a.images.cartoons
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•1,726 views
This document provides an overview of the history of images and editorial cartoons from ancient times to the modern digital age. It discusses early forms of durable media like ceramic inscriptions and stone tablets. It then covers the development of illuminated manuscripts, woodblock printing, and moveable type. Specific artists highlighted include Albrecht Durer, William Hogarth, James Gillray, and Thomas Nast. Various printing techniques are examined such as etching, engraving, lithography, and photography. The document serves as a reference for understanding the evolution of visual communication technologies.
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (20)
Similar to Rc 4a.images.cartoons
Similar to Rc 4a.images.cartoons (20)
More from Bill Kovarik
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Rc 4a.images.cartoons
- 1. Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik Revolutions in Communication Chapter 4a – Images and editorial cartoons
- 2. Web site & textbook Textbook: 1st edition – 2011 2nd edition – 2016 http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com
- 4. Durable media Ceramic inscription, Assyria, 800 BCE shows a bird-man figure. Here Assurpanipal II is proclaiming that he was beloved of the gods, that he was fearless in battle, victorious over all… Stone and clay tablets like these demonstrate what Harold Innis called durable time-biased forms of durable media.
- 5. Cylinder seal, 2500–2400 BCE (left) and impression (right)
- 6. Diamond Sutra, 686 CE
- 7. Illuminated manuscripts Note the monk here is using both ink pen and paint brush, indicating that both words and pictures are important.
- 10. Columbus - 1490s Printed cover image from Letters of Columbus circulated throughout Europe in early 1500s Because of printing, there is only one version of Columbus’ letters describing his explorations, unlike Marco Polo two centuries beforehand. Columbus also goes into gory detail about his genocidal acts against the Caribbean natives.
- 11. Nuremberg Chronicles 1493 A fascinating glimpse into the Medieval mindset, the Chronicles depict five Biblical ages from creation to the birth of Christ, then one age to the present and a seventh age leading to the Last Judgment.
- 13. Albrecht Dürer – 1518
- 14. William Hogarth 1751 Hogarth (1697–1764) especially, is noteworthy as taking advantage of an age in which the visual environment was becoming increasingly complex.
- 17. Hokusai Katsushika, c. 1790
- 18. Lithography process - 1796
- 21. Honoré Daumier, 1832 Caricature of French King Louis Philippe as Gargantua.
- 22. Currier & Ives – 1840
- 23. Currier & Ives – 1840
- 25. Currier & Ives c. 1869 (Opposing women’s rights)
- 26. Belle Star 1886 Myra Maybelle Shirley Star escapes from jail in this 1886 depiction from the National Police Gazette. Even before photography, television and the internet, people enjoyed sensational stories of rebellion and wild characters.
- 27. Thomas Nast (1840 – 1902)
- 29. Minneapolis c. 1902 TR taking the railroad “trust” by the horns
- 32. Jules Feiffer, 1970 Portrait of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale during the Chicago Eight trial
- 33. Velvet revolution cartoon Czech Republic, 1989, mimeograph Beat them, Rudolph. The nation is standing behind
- 34. Review: People Albrech Drurer, William Hogarth, James Gillray, Honoré Daumier, Currier & Ives, Hokusai Katsushika, Thomas Nast, Louis Raemaekers, Bill Mauldin,
- 35. Review: Issues Cave paintings, cylinder seals, durable media, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, scriptorium, Diamond Sutra, etching, engraving, Nuremburg Chronicles, Biblia pauperum, Thirty- Six Views of Mount Fuji, Prometheus, lithography
Editor's Notes
- Going back into distant pre-history, we find all kinds of statues and cave paintings. This shows that people have always had a knack for symbol making. According to famed 20th century psychologist Carl Jung, a person “unconsciously transforms objects or forms into symbols, thereby endowing them with great psychological importance, and expresses them in both his religion and his art.” An example is Altamira cave paintings were the first to be discovered in 1880. Today we know of about 340 caves with paintings that go back 20,000 to 40,000 years. Visual images are the keys to memory and the guideposts to the terrain of human psychology
- Danish national museum Assyrian, 800 BC, from Assurpanipal II's (ruled Assryia 875-860 BCE) Northwest Palace in Nimrud. Stone and clay tablets like these demonstrate the concept of durable media, and this is also reflected in the message where a king proclaims his greatness to history and to God: “Palace of Assurnasirpal, vice-regent of Aššur, chosen one of the gods Enlil PGP and Ninurta, beloved of the gods Anu PGP and Dagan PGP , destructive weapon of the great gods, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Tukulti-Ninurta PGP, great king, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Adad-nerari PGP , great king, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria; valiant man who acts with the support of Aššur, his lord, and has no rival among the princes of the four quarters, marvellous shepherd, fearless in battle, un-opposable mighty floodtide, king who subdues those insubordinate to him, he who rules all peoples, strong male who treads upon the necks of his foes, trampler of all enemies, he who smashes the forces of the rebellious, king who acts with the support of the great gods, his lords, and has conquered all lands, gained dominion over all the highlands and received their tribute TT, capturer of hostages, he who is victorious over all countries...”. See also: http://samlinger.natmus.dk/AS/8699). The standard inscription is known in long and short versions. The short version gives the kings ancestry and epithets (beloved of the gods, strong king, king of the universe, that sort of thing). But given how far down in the text Assurpanipal's name appears - and the fact that the museum says his military conquests are also described -- This excerpt probably comes from the standard version of his annuals (much longer), which were also commonly used on these reliefs. (Thanks to Elizabeth E. Payne, PhD.)
- Made from hard stone, glass or ceramic materials, cylinder seals were rolled across wet clay or textiles to create repeating patterns. These had decorative, authoritative or symbolic uses, or occasionally all three. This seal, from Mari, Syria, is at the Louvre museum in Paris, and depicts a battle between heroes and animals.
- In China and Japan, wood block prints of Buddhist images were printed on silk earlier than 400 CE. Buddhist woodblocks combining text and images are known from about 627 onward. Woodblocks were often used for printing books on silk from 1000, and while moveable type was known, woodblocks of full pages were used because of the complexity of the Chinese character set, with thousands of pictographic images. The world’s earliest surviving woodblock printed book, the Diamond Sutra, is a Chinese scroll dating from 868.
- The Monk Eadwine. Canterbury, around 1150 CE. The term “illuminated” means illustrated, not lit up with candles or a lamp. Most monasteries had some form of scriptorium associated with their libraries, and the work of copying Bibles and other texts was considered to be as arduous as agricultural labor. Copying texts made money for the monasteries, but the religious practice was already falling off before the invention of printing, especially after the plague years in the mid-1300s.
- The “Pauper’s Bible” told stories with pictures and very simple text. Here we see Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Annunciation, and the Old Testament prophet Gideon giving thanks after a victory. At least 18 different incunabulum (1455 – 1500) editions were printed.
- News of the discovery of a route to the Orient spread quickly in Europe, even though, as some were beginning to suspect, there was some other great continent in the way. Illustrations helped make the concept tangible. Here we see the King of Spain sending out Columbus in his ships to subdue the apparently gigantic Caribbean natives – a faint hint at the massive genocide that was already underway.
- A crowning achievement in the earliest years of printing, the illustrated Nuremburg Chronicles (Die Schedelsche Weltchronik) provides a fascinating glimpse into the Medieval sense of history, following five Biblical ages from creation to the birth of Christ, then one age to the present and a seventh age leading to the Last Judgment. With over 1,800 woodcuts, the Chronicles was a crowning achievement in the earliest years of printing (Library of Congress)
- Flat metal plates can be carved with engraver’s tools, as in the engraving of Benjamin Franklin (right), or for more subtle shades, the plates can be “bitten” with acid, like this closeup of a Durer etching on the left. Both techniques led to widespread use of images from the 1500s on.
- 1518 AD “Landscape with cannon” -- An early etching of a Turkish commander looking at a large cannon on a four-wheeled gun carriage. At this time, the Ottoman Empire was beginning to pose a military threat to the West, and Durer is essentially warning about the Turkish menace and perhaps suggesting artillery as the best way to fight it.
- By the 1700s, artistic prints were widely circulated and shown on walls in homes, taverns, shops and public buildings. Like many others before him, William Hogarth used printing and engraving to tell stories. “My picture was my stage,” he once said. Hogarth was known for heavy-handed moral tales such as the Harlot’s Progress, the Rake’s Progress, Marriage, Industry and Idleness, Beer Street, Gin Lane, and the Four Stages of Cruelty. The Gin Lane engraving led to the Gin Act of 1751 and official encouragement of beer and ale.
- Colonial Unity—the message in Ben Franklin’s 1754 wood block print was that the colonies could not survive if separated. (Library of Congress)
- Great wave off Kanagawa is a wood block print published sometime between 1830 and 1833 in the late Edo period. It was the first of Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
- Teahouse at Koishikawa the morning after a snowfall, by Katsushika, Hokusai, 1760-1849. Another of the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.
- The invention of lithography in 1796 fueled an explosion of visual images among the public. Lithography is a more flexible type of printing, easier to create than engravings or etchings, and far more durable than wood block printing. Lithography was the basis for the 20th century development of offset printing – oil based inks stick to the rougher parts of the surface, while water washes off the smooth parts of the surface. In the photo above, we see a slab of limestone with the image drawn onto the surface (left0, and the print from it on the right. (Wikimedia Commons - Picture taken as part of the Lange Nacht der Museen in Munich).
- At a time when an invasion of Britain by French troops was a very real possibility, the British took heart in a caricature of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Gillray (1756 -- 1815) was famous for his social and political satires.
- Considered masterpieces of lithography today, John James Audubon’s bird paintings were not initially popular in America. However, British art publishers and scientific circles received them enthusiastically, and his paintings were transferred to lithographs and published in London in 1827, with subsequent volumes over the years. Original copies of Birds of America are the second most valuable printed book in the world, after the Gutenberg Bible. (Library of Congress)
- Even though the king had abolished censorship, Daumier was indicted for “arousing hatred of and contempt of the King’s government, and for offending the King’s person.” He spent six months in jail. In his lifetime, (1808 –1879) Daumier created over 4000 lithographs, 1000 wood engravings and 1000 drawings, along with a variety of paintings and sculptures.
- Currier & Ives. The company produced over 7,000 titles, with millions of copies, depicting everyday life, battle scenes, famous people and usually conservative political commentary. Depictions of women and African Americans were often highly objectionable by modern standards, although at the time they were usually more clownish than hateful. The company’s low prices and wide circulation meant that they outlasted many of their competitors, but the company closed when the photo halftone processes became widely adopted.
- Currier & Ives. The company produced over 7,000 titles, with millions of copies, depicting everyday life, battle scenes, famous people and usually conservative political commentary. Depictions of women and African Americans were often highly objectionable by modern standards, although at the time they were usually more clownish than hateful. The company’s low prices and wide circulation meant that they outlasted many of their competitors, but the company closed when the photo halftone processes became widely adopted.
- From Cologne, Germany, at a time of press censorship. This may be a depiction of Karl Marx, an editor of the Rheinische Zeitung, and (at the time) a believer in freedom of the press. The historical touchstone is to Prometheus, the Greek Titan who stole the fire of the Gods and brought it to earth for mankind. He was punished by being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten out every day by an eagle.
- Stereotyped image of women—this 1869 perspective on the right of women to vote is part of the Currier & Ives lithographic portfolio of 7,000 subjects and millions of copies. The firm went out of business after photo halftone printing was developed in the late 1800s. Many of its older ideas were also going out of fashion. Women finally overcame stereotypes like this one and secured the right to vote in 1918 in Canada, in 1920 in the United States, and in 1928 in Britain. (Library of Congress)
- The Wild West—the exuberant image of the “wild West,” and its appeal to newspaper readers back East, is reflected in this 1886 Police Gazette account of the jailbreak of real-life outlaw “Belle” Myra Maybelle Shirley Star. (Library of Congress). While demands of women for the vote and social equality were often seen as ludicrous (as in the previous Currier & Ives print), others believed that women were just as capable as men, even in the Wild West.
- Images can become icons and icons can become cultural institutions.
- Fairly high quality cartoons typical of newspapers in the 1890s, just as the technology to print photos was emerging. Wilde was tried for the “crime” of homosexuality and spent two years in prison, which broke his health and prematurely ended his life.
- In this cartoon, Teddy Roosevelt, the new president, takes the railroad trust by the horns (an old saying), and in the process, rescues a woman in a tree labeled “Northwest Trade.” Railroads at the time were attempting to control all kinds of interstate commerce.
- Louis Raemaekers worked as a cartoonist at De Telegraaf in Amsterdam. He opposed alliances with Germany during WW I. This same theme, dancing with death, shows up rather frequently in editorial and social cartooning, but few could pull it off like Reaemaekers.
- Bill Mauldin (1921 – 2003) was one of the best-loved editorial cartoonists in the WWII era, especially by soldiers for his “Willie and Joe” series that depicted the human side of American troops. General George Patton hated Mauldin’s cartoons and threatened to have him arrested, although never did. Mauldin won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for this cartoon depicting the exhaustion of war.
- Bobby Seale, a Black Panther leader on trial for conspiracy following the Chicago riots of 1968, called the judge a “pig” and was chained and gagged in the courtroom, where Jules Feiffer drew this portrait. The judge sentenced Seale to four years in prison for contempt; he served two. Since photography is usually not allowed in courtrooms, artists are called on to capture the likenesses of participants and impressions of moments.
- This is one of a series of cartoons and papers produced on primitive printing equipment (such as mimeographs) and exchanged around Czechoslovakia during the 1989 Velvet Revolution against Russian communist control of Eastern Europe. The cartoons were collected by a courier named Tomas Jane and given to the author for safekeeping in 1990.