You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Animations, cartoons and graphic novels’ category.
How to make a thaumatrope (what’s a thaumatrope and why would you want to make one?) and the illusion of movement in the prehistoric and historic. A guest feature by Littlestone.
Dirk Huds explains that, “A thaumatrope is a simple manual animation device. A piece of card is attached to pieces of string that, when manipulated, cause the card to rapidly flip over. Illustrations on each side of the card appear to merge into a single image as the thaumatrope is spun.” For example the dog below seems to be chasing the birds when the thaumatrope is spun.
The 1825 thaumatrope above is by John Ayrton Paris, which was shown in the Exhibit of Optical Toys (from the collection of Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman) at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in 1996. “The invention of the thaumatrope, whose name means “turning marvel” or “wonder turner,” has often been credited to the astronomer Sir John Herschel. However, it was a well-known London physicist, Dr. John A. Paris, who made this toy popular. Thaumatropes were the first of many optical toys, simple devices that continued to provide animated entertainment until the development of modern cinema.” More examples of thaumatropes (and other optical toys) can be found on the wonderful The Richard Balzer Collection website here.
Auroch roundel found in the Mas d’Azil cave, southern France
Musée d’Archéologie nationale et Domaine national de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris
What’s really interesting is that there seems to be a thaumatrope in the Ice Age art exhibition now showing at the British Museum. The thaumatrope shows an auroch calf on one side and an auroch cow on the other so, when spun, the calf morphs into a cow (or vice versa). It’s astonishing that people 13,000-14,000 years ago had such and appreciation of movement and were able to depict it so ingeniously, not only in the thaumatrope (if that really is what it is) but also much earlier in the poise of animals, the representation of multiple legs, heads and whole body forms in their cave paintings and engravings. Movement was obviously very important to these early painters but was it important because it helped them understand how an animal ran or was it important as an appreciation of the beauty of an animal in motion (or both, or more).
The Horse Panel, Chauvet Cave, southern France
Until relatively recently (not until Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase of 1912) we seemed to have lost the ability to depict movement in our paintings – was that a result of placing too much emphasis on our ‘still life’ and portraiture paintings? Our attempt to freeze a thing or a person in the present rather than depicting them forever moving forward as our ancient painter ancestors were so adept at doing.
Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art
I say we seemed to have lost the ability to depict movement in our paintings until Duchamp, but perhaps not that recently; there is this example from the early 13th century showing a Taoist hermit at the court of a Chinese emperor (original in colour) lowering his eyes in deference. The effect of movement here, and the emotion that it conjures up is stunning, and perhaps not so far removed in intent from thaumatropes of 13,000-14,000 years ago and cave paintings from even earlier times.
A Taoist hermit from a mural in a 13th century Chinese Taoist temple
Caveman and shopping trolley by street artist Banksy
An unverified report found on Facebook claims the above (allegedly by Banksy) was, “…secretly placed in one of the British Museum’s galleries, where it hung for three days. After its discovery the Museum took the unusual step of cataloguing the piece and later adding it to its collections.”
True or not it brought a smile to our lips.
Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent for BBC News Science & Environment reports that -
The length of time modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) overlapped in Europe has been a keenly debated topic in recent times. A long overlap raises important questions about the extent to which we might have interbred with them, and possibly even contributed to their eventual demise.
Research published in 2011 indicated modern humans were living in the lands now known as Italy and the UK as far back as 41,000-45,000 years ago. This may have put them in contact with European Neanderthals who, according to previous dating studies, persisted on the continent for many millennia after these dates. On the Rock of Gibraltar, for example, it has been suggested that Neanderthals could possibly have hung around until as recently as 28,000 years ago before finally dying out.
Full story here.
Amanda Crum writing in WebProNews reports that -
News out of France concerning Prehistoric cave drawings that were animated by torch-light is taking the art history world by storm, and has overwhelmed this artist to the point of awe.
The cave drawings were found by archaeologist Marc Azema and French artist Florent Rivere, who suggest that Palaeolithic artists who lived as long as 30,000 years ago used animation effects on cave walls, which explains the multiple heads and limbs on animals in the drawings. The images look superimposed until flickering torch-light is passed over them, giving them movement and creating a brief animation.
“Lascaux is the cave with the greatest number of cases of split-action movement by superimposition of successive images. Some 20 animals, principally horses, have the head, legs or tail multiplied,” Azéma said.
Full article here. See also our earlier feature on the bowl discovered in a grave at the 5,200 year-old Burnt City in Iran.
A guest feature by Littlestone.
Reporting in The Guardian on the 15 August last year, Mike Pitts writes that, “With its crumbling pillars and fading frescoes, the British Museum isn’t the first place you’d associate with Japanese graphic novels. So it’s a slight surprise to learn that the museum will soon publish its own manga-based book.”
It’s uncertain which crumbling pillars and fading frescoes Mike’s referring to as the structure of the Museum itself is sound and any light-sensitive objects are kept and exhibited in controlled environments. That aside, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the British Museum is associated with Japanese graphic novels (in this case with the publication of Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure). Japanese graphic novels (manga) have been around for nearly 140 years, but their origins (outlined in Part I of this series) stretch back some two millennia in the form of handscrolls and, since the beginning of the 17th century, in the form of woodblock prints of the Ukiyo-e tradition. The British Museum’s collection of Japanese prints is world famous, but perhaps less famous is its collection of Chinese prints – ranging from early Buddhist texts to Communist revolutionary posters, and later still of prints by modern Chinese artists. With this in mind it’s again to the Chinese pictorial tradition that we look for more recent links to the phenomena of manga, cartoons and graphic novels.
Walk into any craft or artist materials shop today and you’ll be confronted with at least half a dozen ‘How to Draw Manga’ books. Before how to draw manga there were books on how to draw cartoons, but long before either of those there was the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (Jieziyuan Huazhuan 芥子園畫傳). The manual was first published in Jinling between 1679-1701 and became a well-known teaching aid for painters throughout the Far East.
How to draw figures from the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. Author’s collection
Chinese calligraphy and ink painting are very closely linked; the same brushes, ink and paper (or silk) are used, and the same surety of execution is required for both. It’s not an exaggeration to say that a good calligrapher will also be a good painter (though not necessarily a good artist) as they are working within the same graphic tradition. The ink painting below is an outstanding example of an ancient graphic art tradition brought to fruition in the hands of a consummate artist, and it’s that same tradition that gave birth to the art of manga in Japan.
Woman with a saké cup. Attributed to Hokusai. Private collection
Hokusai was only five years old when William Stukeley died in 1765. Many readers here will be familiar with Stukeley’s accurate illustrations of Avebury and its surrounding area, so what to make of his 1759 sketch below – surely slightly tongue-in-cheek but if not definitely winning first prize in the oldest megalithic cartoon category!
The Druid Sacrifice of Yule-Tide by William Stukeley (inset). Note Avebury and Silbury in the background
Putting aside the strict definition of the word cartoon (ie a draft for a painting) and focusing on Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, we have in the cartoon, “…a piece of art, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843 when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages, particularly sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster. The original title for these drawings was Mr Punch’s face is the letter Q and the new title “cartoon” was intended to be ironic, a reference to the self-aggrandizing posturing of Westminster politicians.”*
In Part I of this series we featured an 1879 cartoon from Punch of Stonehenge by Edward Tennyson Reed. Japan’s first manga magazine, the Eshinbun Nipponchi, appeared in 1874. The Eshinbun Nipponchi was heavily influenced by Japan Punch, founded in 1862 by the British cartoonist Charles Wirgman. In other words, it seems there might have been a cross fertilization of Japanese/Far Eastern graphic art traditions and Western satirical cartoons at play during this period, leading eventually to the Western cartoon and Japanese manga traditions we’re familiar with today. That cross fertilization is still at play. The British Archaeology magazine usually has a cartoon in each of its editions and, bringing the megalithic cartoon phenomenon up-to-date, this brilliant cartoon by Bill Brown in a Guardian Money supplement illustrates the on-going creativity of the manga tradition and the role that megaliths continue to play in it.
Illustration by Bill Brown
Links and further reading.
* Wikipedia.
The Tao of Painting – A study of the ritual disposition of Chinese painting by Mai-mai Sze. This is an English translation of the Jieziyuan Huazhuan (Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting). Bollingen Foundation, Series XLIX. Princeton University Press, New York, 1956.
Reconstructed animation of a wild goat (Capra aegagrus) on a bowl discovered in a grave at the 5,200 year-old Burnt City in Iran
8 March 2008 CAIS News reports that -
The Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) announced on Monday that it has recently completed the production of a documentary about the ancient Iranian earthenware bowl bearing the world’s oldest example of animation. Directed by Mohsen Ramezani, the 11-minute film gives viewers an introduction to the bowl, which was discovered in a grave at the 5200-year-old Burnt City by an Italian archaeological team in late 1970s. The artefact bears five images depicting a wild goat jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree, which the members of the team at that time had not recognised the relationship between the pictures.
Ancient Iranian earthenware bowl bearing possibly the world’s oldest example of animation
Several years later, Iranian archaeologist Dr Mansur Sadjadi, who became later appointed as the new director of the archaeological team working at the Burnt City discovered that the pictures formed a related series.
The ‘rolled-out’ image of a wild goat (Capra aegagrus) on the bowl
The image is a simple depiction of a tree and wild-goat (Capra aegagrus) also known as ‘Persian desert Ibex’, and since it is an indigenous animal to the region, it would naturally appear in the iconography of the Burnt City. The wild goat motif can be seen on Iranian pottery dating back to the 4th millennium BCE, as well as jewellery pieces especially among Cassite tribes of ancient Luristan. However, the oldest wild goat representation in Iran was discovered in Negaran Valley in Sardast region, 37 kilometers from Nahok village near Saravan back in 1999. The engraved painting of wild goat is part of an important collection of lithoglyphs dating back to 8000 BCE. However, wild goat representation with a tree is associated with Murkum, a mother goddess who was worshipped by all the Indo-Iranian women of the Haramosh valley in modern Pakistan, which culturally had closer ties with Indus and subsequently the Burnt City civilisations, than Mesopotamia, which could have influenced the ancient potter who made this unique piece.
Full article here. See also our earlier feature on Megalithic manga, cartoons and graphic novels: Part I below.
What are Britain’s most secret treasures? One of the finds from the Staffordshire Hoard (above) or a human tool found in Norfolk dating back 700,000 years? In a new television series, Britain’s Secret Treasures, beginning on Monday, 16 July and running consecutively for six days, ITV1 has joined forces with the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme to -
…unveil the 50 greatest treasures discovered by the British public, extraordinary items and historical artefacts discovered by ordinary people that have shed light and in some cases dramatically changed our understanding of British history.
Transmitting on ITV1 across six nights, Britain’s Secret Treasures is presented by award-winning journalist Michael Buerk in his broadcasting debut for ITV, alongside historian and author Bettany Hughes, winner of this year’s distinguished Medlicott Medal for History.
The series will map out the 50 key artefacts found by members of the public and recorded by the British Museum’s scheme in the past 15 years. Facing the daunting task of selecting which discoveries were included and determining their ranking on the list, was a panel of experts from the British Museum and The Council for British Archaeology. They have sifted through almost one million items to judge each one on its national importance, beauty and cultural and historic significance. From a human tool found in Norfolk dating back 700,000 years, to the Silverdale Hoard of Viking Treasure, these items hold incredible stories, many of which revolutionise our understanding of the past.
New ale launched for the Staffordshire Hoard
“I thought they were unusually keen to form an archaeological group to find more Staffordshire Gold – it’s a new beer…!”
©
Writing in The Guardian in March of this year, Maev Kennedy also reports that -
All the objects, from the most corroded Roman hob-nailed boot stud or lumpy fire-blackened pot to the gold and garnet glory of the Anglo-Saxon jewellery, are logged in the now vast treasure and portable antiquities databases held at the British Museum. Since the antiquities scheme was launched 15 years ago thousands of amateurs using metal detectors have been encouraged to report everything they find through a network of officers covering the country.
Although Roger Bland, keeper of portable antiquities and treasure at the British Museum, said they were excited about the chance to highlight the success of the scheme, the programmes will also inevitably revive the passionate debate about the ethics of metal detecting for antiquities, which some archaeologists regard as no better than looting.
Obelix, from Asterix the Gaul. Image credit Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny
With the rise of manga, cartoons and graphic novels featuring megaliths as their central theme it might be of interest to look at some of the origins of this genre – starting not with manga, cartoons or graphic novels at all, but with a 13th century Japanese handscroll which portrays animals (mainly hares, monkeys and frogs) in a satirical, manga-style. The scroll is known as the Chōjū-giga (鳥獣戯画) and the Wikipedia entry describes it as -
Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga (鳥獣人物戯画?, lit. “Animal-person Caricatures”), commonly shortened to Chōjū-giga (鳥獣戯画?, lit. “Animal Caricatures”) is a famous set of four picture scrolls, or emakimono, belonging to Kōzan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. The Chōjū-giga scrolls are also referred to as Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans in English. Some think that Toba Sōjō created the scrolls, however it is hard to verify this. The right-to-left reading direction of Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga is still a standard method seen in modern manga and novels in Japan. Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga is also credited as the oldest work of manga. The scrolls are now entrusted to the Kyoto National Museum and Tokyo National Museum.
Scene from the 13th century Chōjū-giga Japanese handscroll showing a monkey priest paying homage to a frog Buddha
Detail of the frog Buddha from the 13th century Chōjū-giga handscroll
Japanese handscrolls have their origin in Chinese handscrolls (usually depicting long landscape scenes which the viewer ‘travels’ through as he or she unrolls the scroll. The Chinese may in turn owe the origins of their own handscrolls to an even earlier Indian tradition (see the horizontal cross members of the 3bce Sanchi Gate in central India which show scenes carved in stone in the form of a formalised handscroll). What all these traditions, from the earliest handscrolls to the modern manga and graphic novels, have in common is an element of progression - from one scene, or frame, to another, pictorially and sequentially (see Links and further reading below, Far Eastern Pictorial Art: Form and Function).
A Cricket Match from Prehistoric Peeps by Edward Tennyson Reed. Punch Magazine circa 1890
Pictorially and sequentially are the key words in manga and graphic novels, where the narrative flows from one frame to the next. Not so in standalone cartoons such as the Cricket Match above or STONEHENGE – AND WHAT IT MAY BECOME! below.
STONEHENGE – AND WHAT IT MAY BECOME! Punch Magazine 1899
Manga and graphic novels don’t necessarily need to be long (nor contain a dialogue); comic strips such as the one below featuring Herman by Jim Unger deliver their message in just four frames…
Herman by Jim Unger
…while the Tom and Jerry special edition BT phonecard does it cleverly in just two (frame one on the recto of the card and the punch-line image on the verso).
Tom and Jerry at Stonehenge. Special edition BT Phonecard (recto)
Tom and Jerry at Stonehenge. Special edition BT Phonecard (verso)
In Part II of this series we’ll be looking again at manga, cartoons and graphic novels and showing how they continue to draw on the megalithic theme.
Links and further reading:
Avebury – Graphic Novel: A short novel about the mysterious village of Avebury by Tom Manning. Tom writes that, “This is a university project that was given out in order to induct us into the second year of the Illustration course. The theme of the project was that it should be based in the strange village of Avebury, north of Stonehenge, UK. Avebury is a very mysterious and ‘weird’ place filled with standing stones, deep trenches, rampaging druids and man made hills, there’s no knowing what you might find there. With this in my mind I planned to introduce Avebury as an isolated, desolate area of wilderness, not unlike ‘the Zone’ in the 1979 Russian film ‘STALKER’.”
Hoshino Yukinobu’s British Museum Adventure: an article by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere (research director at the Sainsbury Institute, Norwich) in the September-October 2011 edition of the British Archaeology Magazine (pp. 32-35). The article provides a sneak preview of the English version of Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure (see below). Also a lecture given last year at the BritishMuseum by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere here.
hyōgu: the japanese tradition in picture conservation, Far Eastern Pictorial Art: Form and Function by P. Wills. The Paper Conservator Vol. 9. London: Institute of Paper Conservation, 1985, pp. 6-8.
MEZOLITH by Ben Haggarty and Adam Brockbank.
10,000 years ago, the Kansa tribe live on the western shores of the North Sea Basin, where danger is never far away. Each season brings new adventure, each hunt has its risks, and each grim encounter with the neighbouring tribe is fraught with threats. Poika, a boy on the verge of manhood, must play his part and trust the strength and wisdom of his elders. This is a tale of beasts and beauty, man, magic and… horror.
Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure by Hoshino Yukinobu. Published in English by the British Museum Press on 14 October 2011.
The Chōjū-giga by Tsuguro Miya. Volume III in the Japanese Scroll Paintings series. Kadokawa Publishing Co. Tokyo, Japan; 1959. In Japanese but with a three page introduction in English and five pages, also in English, of plate explanations.
The Kyoto International Manga Museum (京都国際マンガミュージアム, Kyōto Kokusai Manga Myūjiamu) is located in Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The building housing the museum is the former Tatsuike Elementary School. The museum opened on November 25, 2006. Its collection of 200,000 items includes such rarities as Meiji period magazines and postwar rental books. The museum holds many items of historical, as well as contemporary, interest. Highlights of the museum’s collection include Japan Punch. Published by Charles Wirgman in Yokohama, it ran from the year Bunkyū 2 (1862) to Meiji 20 (1887).
Japan’s first manga magazine was Eshinbun Nihonchi from 1874. The nation’s first children’s manga magazine was Tokyo Pakku (established in 1907). Source: Wikipedia.
Stonehenge by Hellman
Prof Mike Parker Pearson and the The Stonehenge Riverside Project’s new theory that, “Perhaps they [the builders of Stonehenge] saw this place as the centre of the world” and that -
Previous theories suggesting the great stone circle was inspired by ancient Egyptians or extra-terrestrials have been firmly rejected by researchers. “All the architectural influences for Stonehenge can be found in previous monuments and buildings within Britain, with origins in Wales and Scotland,” said Mr Parker Pearson. “In fact, Britain’s Neolithic people were isolated from the rest of Europe for centuries. “Britain may have become unified but there was no interest in interacting with people across the Channel.
Suggests to our interplanetary reporter that the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre could perhaps embrace, even improvise on this theory, by having stones from around the world built into the Visitor Centre itself or, alternatively, a discreet new circle created near the Centre that might act as a ‘modern place of pilgrimage’ and an alternative meeting place to the Stonehenge monument itself for those who gather there at certain times.
Standing stones from the Americas perhaps, and from the Arab world, Asia, Australia, Egypt, Europe and India to name but a few. Stones to unite the world… and beyond?
Above quote from BBC News Wiltshire.
From last week’s RadioTimes © Robert Thompson
