Openwork

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bow porcelain
, c. 1754–1755
A gold bracelet with a pattern and writing created by making holes in the bracelet
Ancient Roman gold bracelet from the Hoxne Hoard. JULIANE is spelled out in opus interrasile openwork.[1]
Sidi Saiyyed mosque in Ahmedabad, India. From the inside

Openwork or open-work is a term in art history, architecture and related fields for any technique that produces decoration by creating holes, piercings, or gaps that go right through a solid material such as metal, wood, stone, pottery, cloth, leather, or ivory.[2] Such techniques have been very widely used in a great number of cultures.

The term is rather flexible, and used both for additive techniques that build up the design, as for example most large features in architecture, and those that take a plain material and make cuts or holes in it. Equally techniques such as casting using moulds create the whole design in a single stage, and are common in openwork. Though much openwork relies for its effect on the viewer seeing right through the object, some pieces place a different material behind the openwork as a background.

Varieties

Techniques or styles that normally use openwork include all the family of

Shang Dynasty of c. 1600 to 1046 BC.[4] On a larger scale in metal, wrought iron and cast iron
decoration more often than not have involved openwork.

Scythian metalwork, which was typically worn on the person, or at least carried about by wagon, uses openwork heavily,[5] probably partly to save weight. Sukashibori (roughly translating to "see-through work") is the Japanese term covering a number of openwork techniques, which have been very popular in Japanese art.[6]

In ceramics, if objects such as

Korean ceramics especially fond of the technique from an early date.[7]
Frequently, these ceramics are double walled allowing the solid inner surface to still hold liquid.

There was little use of it in European ceramics before the 18th century, when designs, mostly using lattice panels, were popular in rococo ceramic "baskets", and later in English silver trays. Openwork sections can be made either by cutting into a conventional solid body before firing, or by building up using strips of clay, the latter often used when loose wickerwork is being imitated. In glass openwork is rather less common, but the spectacular Ancient Roman cage cups use it for a decorative outer layer.

Some types of objects naturally suit or even require openwork, which allows a flow of air through screens, censers or

incense burners, pomanders,[8] sprinklers, ventilation grilles
and panels, and various parts of heating systems. For exterior screens openwork designs allow looking out, but not looking in. For gates and other types of screens, security is required, but visibility may also be wanted.

Collection of mostly double-open work celadon vases including moon jars.

Double-openwork and triple-openwork

The terms double-openwork and triple-openwork, also called reticulated, are typically associated with ceramic pieces that are created with two or three walls. Korean ceramist Kim Se-yong produces openwork pieces.[9]

Architecture

The secondary spires at Freiburg Minster

In

wind resistance.[10]

Beginning with the early fourteenth-century spire at

Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Família in Barcelona
represent an outgrowth of this Gothic tendency. Designed and begun by Gaudi in 1884, they remained incomplete into the 21st century.

Gallery

  • Chinese bronze axe head, Shang dynasty
    Chinese bronze axe head, Shang dynasty
  • Cast Luristan bronze openwork pinhead, Iran, circa 1000–650 BC
    Cast Luristan bronze openwork pinhead, Iran, circa 1000–650 BC
  • Celtic ornamental gold mounts, about 420 BC
    Celtic ornamental gold mounts, about 420 BC
  • Bronze Ordos culture plaque, from the eastern end of Scythian art, 4th century BC; a deer attacked by a wolf
    Bronze
    Scythian art
    , 4th century BC; a deer attacked by a wolf
  • 4th-century Roman glass cage cup found in Montenegro
    4th-century Roman glass cage cup found in Montenegro
  • Bronze buckle, Georgian, 1st to 4th century AD
    Bronze buckle, Georgian, 1st to 4th century AD
  • Japanese canopy ritual banner, gilt-bronze, 7th century
    Japanese canopy ritual banner, gilt-bronze, 7th century
  • Tōdai-ji, 8th century
    Tōdai-ji, 8th century
  • Anglo-Saxon brooch from the Pentney Hoard
    Anglo-Saxon brooch from the Pentney Hoard
  • Fragrance box with openwork lid, Korea, Goryeo dynasty, 11th–12th century, bronze
    Fragrance box with openwork lid, Korea,
    Goryeo dynasty
    , 11th–12th century, bronze
  • Chinese jade ornament with vines, Jin dynasty
    Chinese jade ornament with vines, Jin dynasty
  • Persian incense burner, c. 11th century
    Persian
    incense burner
    , c. 11th century
  • French pyx, 1220–1240
    French pyx, 1220–1240
  • Head of an Ethiopian processional cross, 13th or 14th century
    Head of an Ethiopian processional cross, 13th or 14th century
  • Ivory casket, Islamic Spain or Egypt, 13th or 14th century
    Ivory casket, Islamic Spain or Egypt, 13th or 14th century
  • Detail of Armenian khachkar at Goshavank, 1291. The decoration does not cut right through the slab, so this is strictly relief giving the impression of openwork.
    Detail of Armenian khachkar at Goshavank, 1291. The decoration does not cut right through the slab, so this is strictly relief giving the impression of openwork.
  • Chinese wood and lacquer screen
    Chinese wood and lacquer screen
  • Steel plaque from Iran. One of a set of 8, probably for fixing to wood, perhaps in a royal tomb, 17th century
    Steel plaque from Iran. One of a set of 8, probably for fixing to wood, perhaps in a royal tomb, 17th century
  • Openwork Hexagonal Ko-Kiyomizu Ware Bowl, c. 1731–1752, Japan, artist unknown, stoneware with overglaze enamels
    Openwork Hexagonal Ko-Kiyomizu Ware Bowl, c. 1731–1752, Japan, artist unknown, stoneware with overglaze enamels
  • American chair, 1760–80, to a design by Thomas Chippendale
    American chair, 1760–80, to a design by Thomas Chippendale
  • Lotus-shaped cup with openwork handle, China, probably 19th century AD, rhinoceros horn
    Lotus-shaped cup with openwork handle, China, probably 19th century AD, rhinoceros horn
  • Japanese tsuba, early 19th century
    Japanese
    tsuba
    , early 19th century
  • African dancer's headpiece, wood
    African dancer's headpiece, wood
  • Detail of handkerchief in button-hole embroidery. Germany or Switzerland, 19th century.[12]
    Detail of handkerchief in button-hole embroidery. Germany or Switzerland, 19th century.[12]

Architecture gallery

  • At Borobudor hundreds of Buddha statues sit inside openwork stupas; here the nearest is partly deconstructed
    At
    Borobudor
    hundreds of Buddha statues sit inside openwork stupas; here the nearest is partly deconstructed
  • West front of Chartres cathedral. The tower on the left is largely openwork
    West front of
    Chartres cathedral
    . The tower on the left is largely openwork
  • Window in the Alhambra
    Window in the Alhambra
  • Hardwick Hall, England, 1590s
    Hardwick Hall, England, 1590s
  • Brick windows on an Austrian barn
    Brick windows on an Austrian barn
  • Gothic Revival balustrade in Germany
    balustrade
    in Germany
  • Cast iron bracket for a gas lamp, Vienna
    gas lamp
    , Vienna
  • Opernwork fasade of Prosta Tower, Warsaw
    Opernwork fasade of Prosta Tower, Warsaw

See also

References

  1. ^ British Museum Ref:1994,0408.29
  2. OED
    "Openwork", 1, where all examples cited from earlier than 1894 are hyphenated, though this is now less common than the single word.
  3. ^ Diane Favro, et al. "Rome, ancient, s 5, ii." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed May 27, 2015, subscription required
  4. ^ Department of Asian Art. "Shang and Zhou Dynasties: The Bronze Age of China". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004)
  5. ^ Timothy Taylor. "Scythian and Sarmatian art." Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed May 27, 2015, subscription required
  6. ^ Tokyo National Museum (1976). 和英対照日本美術鑑賞の手引(An Aid to the Understanding of Japanese Art). pp. 132/133. (revised edition; 1964 first ed.), p.132/133
  7. ISBN 0-7141-1430-8, 9780714114309. Openwork bases and pedestals "became the characteristic and dominant forms in ceramics" in the Gaya confederacy
    period.
  8. ISBN 1101614684, 9781101614686, p. 129
  9. ^ Lim, Man-taek (2023-09-07). "MR O Commerce-Mirae Asset Securities hold September Finance & Art Tech Seminar Invitational! 엠알오커머스-미래에셋증권, 9월 금융 & 아트테크 세미나 초대전 개최!". 미디어피아 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  10. ISBN 0236400363
    .
  11. ^ Robert Bork, "Into Thin Air: France, Germany, and the Invention of the Openwork Spire" The Art Bulletin 85.1 (March 2003, pp. 25–53), p 25.
  12. ^ The whole piece, LACMA

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Openwork.

Video of Kim Se-yong creating double-openwork

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