Showing posts with label Iconography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iconography. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Silver Filigree Dog Tags by Lindsay Zike

Lindsay Zike, Collection of Service Dog Tags, Fine and Sterling Silver, 2015 (Private Collection). [Pin on Pinterest]
A simple piece of machine-pressed aluminum, nearly identical to millions of others. A practical solution to a grim problem; just before the turn of the last century it became apparent to the Quartermaster of Identification, Capt. Chaplain Charles C. Pierce, that the fighting in the Philippines had left the Army with too many unidentified fallen. His solution was to outfit each solider with an identity disk made of cheap pressed aluminum. A few years before the US entered the Great War the Army adopted this policy, and with a few minor design changes the modern dog tag came into existence.

Over the years the dog tag has become an icon of the military. In the movies the visual symbolism to indicate that a character was, at any time, associated with the service is the ever-present dog tags around their necks. Personally, a decade after my service ended, I still carry mine with me every day. So associated with the military, the dog tags have also became a symbol of bad-ass-ness; every wannabe, from Justin Bieber to the armchair commandos that answer the call of duty with a controller in their hands have a far nicer set than those in my pocket.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Prelude to a Catholic Wedding

          This paper will offer a formal analysis of “The Visitation,” dated 1496-97, the oil on wood panel painting by the Master of the Retablo of the Reyes Catholicos (Master of the Catholic Kings).i Currently in the University of Arizona Museum of Art's collection, the painting is a vertical panel that stands 60.96 inches tall and is 37.48 inches wide.ii While the identity of the artist is unknown, the name is inspired by the overall eight-panel set, “The Altarpiece of the Catholic Kings,” of which this is one panel.iii
          Surrounded the painting is a thick wooden frame in an architectural motif carved in low relief. The frame has hexagonal engaged columns, or maybe pilasters, with ornate sectional bases and reliefs of repeated Gothic arches pointing upward toward a twisting helical sectional shaft with flower embellishments. Those support smooth shafts bearing ornately decorated spire capitals topped with blossoming flowers. The entire piece is capped by an exaggerated Ionic architrave. Bridging the two columns is a lattice of repeating arches. The organically curved high vaults vary in size, but maintain a relative scale among them. The lattice is segmented into three equidistant sections by two additional floating spire capitals, which give the impression of a colonnade without intruding into the painting's space. The lattice is also embellished with leaves, some in the fleur-de-lis style, and some in a stylized rhomboid pattern, specifically those acting at the decorative tips of semicircle embellishments descending from the main arches.