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March 8, 2014 |
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Calligraphy (from Greek language|Greek καλλι calli "beauty" + γραφος graphos "writing") is the art of decorative writing. A style of calligraphy is described as a hand. Calligraphy should be distinguished from the studies of epigraphy or palaeography. The study of permanent inscriptions engraved in metal or chiselled into stone and the forms of letters used in them is called epigraphy. Epigraphy is a branch of the broader study of ancient handwriting in more general terms, called palaeography. Examples of ancient Roman graffiti are of interest to both calligraphers and palaeographers. merge Western calligraphy. Image:Mark name.png|thumb|right|250px|The name 'Mark' in calligraphy Western calligraphy is the calligraphy of the Latin writing system, and to a lesser degree the Greek and Cyrillic writing systems. Early alphabets had evolved by about 3000 BC. From the Greek alphabet evolved the Latin alphabet. Capital letters were developed first and lower case letters were invented considerably later. Long, heavy rolls of papyrus were replaced by the Romans with the first books, initially simply folded pages of parchment made from animal skins. Reed pens were replaced by quill pens. Christianity gave a boost to the development of writing through the prolific copying of the Bible and other sacred texts. Uncial letters were used by monks in Ireland, Scotland, and other places, hence the name "Insular style" for this type of writing. This was also the heyday of the illuminated manuscript. Charlemagne made a big difference to the spread of beautiful writing by bringing Alcuin, the Abbot of York, to his capital of Aachen. Alcuin undertook a major revision of all styles of script and all texts. He then developed a new "hand" named after his patron Charlemagne: "Carolingian minuscule style". The Fraktur followed in the 11th century, and Italy contributed Chancery and Italic scripts. What followed was the heyday of the illuminated manuscript. Hand-written and hand-decorated books became less common after the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg in the 15th century. However, at the end of the 19th century, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement rediscovered and popularised calligraphy. Many famous calligraphers were influenced by Morris, especially Edward Johnston, Eric Gill and others. Some important contemporary calligraphers are Arthur Baker (calligrapher)|Arthur Baker and Hermann Zapf. As handwritten forms of communication have become more rare, calligraphy is often reserved for special occasions and events, most notably the addressing of wedding invitations and announcements. However, graffiti-style lettering, a dramatic, angular, block hand, has become common in various media since the 1970s. Graffiti is especially associated with Hip hop|hip-hop, being one of its "four elements". In the United Kingdom many calligraphers belong to the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, which provides training and devlopment to members. merge East Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy is an art dating back to the earliest day of history, and widely practiced throughout China to this day. Although it uses Chinese words as its vehicle of expression, one does not have to know Chinese to appreciate its beauty. Because in essence, Calligraphy is an abstract art. East Asian calligraphy typically uses ink brushes to write Chinese characters (called Hanzi in Chinese, Kanji in Japanese language|Japanese, and Hanja in Korean language|Korean). Calligraphy (in Chinese, Shufa 書法, in Japanese Shodo|Shodō 書道, in Korean language|Korean, Seoyae 書藝, all meaning "the way of writing") is considered an important art in East Asia and the most refined form of East Asian painting. Image:Su shi-calligraphy.jpg|frame|left|This piece of Chinese calligraphy was penned by Song Dynasty official Su Shi. For centuries, Chinese literati were expected to master the art of calligraphy. The style of Chinese calligraphy has evolved continually for thousands of years. About 213 B.C., under the famous Qin Shi Huangdi, who perpetrated the 'burning of the books', the Prime Minister Li Si drew up an official index of characters and unified the written form for the use of scholars. This is chuan-shu and contained more than 3,000 characters. From that time to the present, there have been five major styles of calligraphy. Using their Japanese names, they are tensho (seal style), reisho (scribe's style), kaisho (block style), gyosho (semi-cursive style), and sosho (cursive style, literally "grass writingstyles"). All five styles of writing are still in use today. In addition to these, the Japanese developed the kana characters during the eighth century. In contrast to Chinese characters, which express both sound and meaning ideographically, kana express only sound without regard to meaning. Three types of kana have been developed, manyogana, hiragana, and katakana. The manyogana are a subset of the Chinese characters used phonetically to represent the syllables of Japanese, and are named after the eighth century poetry collection Manyoshu. Manyogana is now obsolete. At the time this collection was compiled the Japanese had no writing system of their own. Some of the Japanese poems were rendered in Chinese characters used phonetically, and in others the Chinese characters were used sometimes phonetically and sometimes ideographically. Using the kanji manyogana as a guide, hiragana and katakana were developed from simplified cursive versions of characters. In the hands of Japanese noblewomen, hiragana developed into a beautiful script which is the unique calligraphic style of Japan. In contrast to the loops and curves of hiragana, katakana is more angular and relies on sharp angles. Written Japanese uses both scripts along with Chinese characters, and basic calligraphy instruction is still common in Japanese lower education. Calligraphy has influenced most major art styles in East Asia, including sumi-e, a style of Japanese painting using indian ink. merge Arabic calligraphy. Image:Tugra Mahmuds II.png|thumb|right|250px|The Tughra of sultan Mahmud II. It reads Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious and is color-coded to show the hand-strokes The North Arabic script, which was influenced by the Nabatian script, was established in north-eastern Arabia and flourished in the 5th century among the Arabian tribes who inhabited Hirah and Anbar. It spread to Hijaz in western Arabia, and its use was popularized among the aristocracy of Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet Muhammad, by Harb ibn Ummayyah. Although early Arabic sources mention several calligraphic styles in reference to the cities in which they were used, they generally fit into two broad categories with some minor variations, these are the dry styles," the early predecessors of Kufic, and the "moist styles", the early predecessors of the cursive family or scripts. Cursive scripts coexisted with Kufic and date back to before Islam, but because in the early stages of their development they lacked discipline and elegance, they were usually used for secular purposes only. Under the Ummayads and Abbasids, court requirements for correspondence and record keeping resulted in many developments to the cursive scripts, and several styles were devised to fulfill these needs. Abu Ali Muhammad Ibn Muqlah (d. 940), along with his brother, became accomplished calligraphers in Baghdad in an early age. Abu Ali became a Wazir to three Abbasid caliphs, and is credited with developing the first script to obey strict proportional rules. His system utilized the dot as a measuring unit for line proportions, and a circle with a diameter equals to the Alef's height as a measuring unit for letter proportions. Ibn Muqlah's system became a powerful tool in the development and standardization of cursive scripts, and his calligraphic work elevated the previous cursive styles into a place of prominence, and made them acceptable as worthy of writing the Quran. Arabic calligraphy is often displayed in Muslim art, because it serves as an inspiration. The practice of calligraphy is a topic of much Islamic philosophy. When used decoratively, the writing is so ornate and complex as to be almost unreadable. Calligraphy grew in part because of religious restrictions on representational art.
Category:Calligraphers|* Category:Calligraphy|* de:Kalligraphie es:Caligraf?a eo:Kaligrafio fr:Calligraphie it:Calligrafia nl:Kalligrafie ja:書 (造形芸術) hu:Kaligr%C3%A1fia sv:Kalligrafi tr:Hat Sanatı wa:Caligrafeye zh-cn:书法 This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Calligraphy".
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