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Books > Arts & Architecture > Architecture > Public buildings: civic, commercial, industrial, etc > Memorials, monuments
Drawing on material from Europe, America and the Middle East, leading scholars of twentieth century history address the issue of how wars, and the loss of life in wars, have been remembered collectively in the aftermath of conflicts such as the First and Second World Wars, the Spanish Civil War and the Algerian War. However, rather than focus on whole societies or ruling groups alone, this volume adopts a "social agency" approach to highlight the behavior of small groups and individuals who do the work of remembrance.
The aim of this book is to explore the significance of the concept of 'monument' in the context of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC), with particular reference to the Royal Ensemble of Persepolis, founded by Darius I and built together with his son Xerxes. While Persepolis was built as an 'intentional monument', it had already become an 'historic monument' during the Achaemenid period. It maintained its symbolic significance in the following centuries even after its destruction by Alexander of Macedonia in 330 BC. The purpose of building Persepolis was to establish a symbol and a common reference for the peoples of the Empire with the Achaemenid Dynasty, transmitting significant messages and values such as peace, stability, grandeur and praise for the dynastic figure of the king as the protector of values and fighting falsehood. While previous research on Achaemenid heritage has mainly been on archaeological and art-historical aspects of Persepolis, the present work focuses on the architecture and design of Persepolis. It is supported by studies in the fields of archaeology, history and art history, as well as by direct survey of the site. The morphological analysis of Persepolis, including the study of the proportions of the elevations, and the verification of a planning grid for the layout of the entire ensemble demonstrate the univocal will by Darius to plan Persepolis following a precise initial scheme. The study shows how the inscriptions, bas-reliefs and the innovative architectural language together express the symbolism, values and political messages of the Achaemenid Dynasty, exhibiting influence from different lands in a new architectural language and in the plan of the entire site.
One of the most visited sites in Italy, the Roman Forum is also one of the best-known wonders of the Roman world. Though a highpoint on the tourist route around Rome, for many visitors the site can be a baffling disappointment. Several of the monuments turn out to be nineteenth- or twentieth-century reconstructions, while the rubble and the holes made by archaeologists have an unclear relationship to the standing remains, and, to all but the most skilled Romanists, the Forum is an unfortunate mess. David Watkin sheds completely new light on the Forum, examining the roles of the ancient remains while revealing what exactly the standing structures embody--including the rarely studied medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, as well as the nearby monuments that have important histories of their own. Watkin asks the reader to look through the veneer of archaeology to rediscover the site as it was famous for centuries. This involves offering a remarkable and engaging new vision of a well-visited, if often misunderstood, wonder. It will be enjoyed by readers at home and serve as a guide in the Forum.
The Acropolis in Athens has captured the imaginations of readers,
writers and travellers for centuries and every year draws crowds
from all over the world. One of the world's most famous heritage
sites, it has long been a national monument of Greece and a potent
symbol of western civilization. But the Acropolis is typically
viewed in the context of 5th-century-BC Athenian society, while the
multiple local and international meanings and identities that the
site shapes today are overlooked.
The Acropolis in Athens has captured the imaginations of readers,
writers and travellers for centuries and every year draws crowds
from all over the world. One of the world's most famous heritage
sites, it has long been a national monument of Greece and a potent
symbol of western civilization. But the Acropolis is typically
viewed in the context of 5th-century-BC Athenian society, while the
multiple local and international meanings and identities that the
site shapes today are overlooked.
Monumental cares rethinks monument debates, site specificity and art activism in light of problems that strike us as monumental or overwhelming, such as war, migration and the climate crisis. The book shows how artists address these issues, from Chicago and Berlin to Oslo, Bucharest and Hong Kong, in media ranging from marble and glass to postcards, graffiti and re-enactment. A multidirectional theory of site does justice to specific places but also to how far-away audiences see them. What emerges is a new ethics of care in public art, combined with a passionate engagement with reality harking back to the realist aesthetics of the nineteenth century. Familiar questions can be answered anew: what to do with monuments, particularly when they are the products of terror and require removal, modification or recontextualisation? And can art address the monumental concerns of our present? -- .
A history of U.S. Civil War monuments that shows how they distort history and perpetuate white supremacy The United States began as a slave society, holding millions of Africans and their descendants in bondage, and remained so until a civil war took the lives of a half million soldiers, some once slaves themselves. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves explores how the history of slavery and its violent end was told in public spaces-specifically in the sculptural monuments that came to dominate streets, parks, and town squares in nineteenth-century America. Looking at monuments built and unbuilt, Kirk Savage shows how the greatest era of monument building in American history took place amid struggles over race, gender, and collective memory. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves probes a host of fascinating questions and remains the only sustained investigation of post-Civil War monument building as a process of national and racial definition. Featuring a new preface by the author that reflects on recent events surrounding the meaning of these monuments, and new photography and illustrations throughout, this new and expanded edition reveals how monuments exposed the myth of a "united" people, and have only become more controversial with the passage of time.
The ancient Egyptian tomb evolved rapidly over a period of about 2,500 years, from a simple backfilled pit to an enormous stone pyramid with complex security arrangements. Much of this development was arguably driven by the ever-present threat of tomb robbery, which compelled tomb builders to introduce special architectural measures to prevent it. However, until now most scholarly Egyptological discussions of tomb security have tended to be brief and usually included only as part of a larger work, the topic instead being the subject of lurid speculation and fantasy in novels, the popular press, and cinema. In Securing Eternity, Reg Clark traces in detail the development of the Egyptian royal and private tombs from the Predynastic Period to the early Fourth Dynasty. In doing so, he demonstrates that many of the familiar architectural elements of the Egyptian tomb that we take for granted today in fact originated from security features to protect the tomb, rather than from monumental or religious considerations. Richly illustrated with more than 150 photographs and tomb plans, this unique study will be of interest to students, specialists, and general readers alike.
The commemorative tradition in early American art is given sustained consideration for the first time in Sally Webster's study of public monuments and the construction of an American patronymic tradition. Until now, no attempt has been made to create a coherent early history of the carved symbolic language of American liberty and independence. Establishing as the basis of her discussion the fledgling nation's first monument, Jean-Jacques Caffieri's Monument to General Richard Montgomery (commissioned in January of 1776), Webster builds on the themes of commemoration and national patrimony, ultimately positing that like its instruments of government, America drew from the Enlightenment and its reverence for the classical past. Webster's study is grounded in the political and social worlds of New York City, moving chronologically from the 1760s to the 1790s, with a concluding chapter considering the monument, which lies just east of Ground Zero, against the backdrop of 9/11. It is an original contribution to historical scholarship in fields ranging from early American art, sculpture, New York history, and the Revolutionary era. A chapter is devoted to the exceptional role of Benjamin Franklin in the commissioning and design of the monument. Webster's study provides a new focus on New York City as the 18th-century city in which the European tradition of public commemoration was reconstituted as monuments to liberty's heroes.
Why were there so many missing in the First World War? What do we know about the battlefield casualties, the dead and the wounded, the prisoners of war, the deserters? The Great War produced casualties on an unprecedented scale. Published to commemorate the centenary of the Cenotaph, English historian Simon Fowler describes the exhaustive hunt for servicemen, many who remain missing to this day. He describes how Britain reacted to the shocking news from the front and how grieving could be worse for relatives of the missing. This book examines how vital information gathered from the POW information bureaux, the International Red Cross, embassies and other sources in Germany were carefully pieced together in the search for bodies. It also documents the power of rumour and the shadowy world of spiritualists and conmen who exploited a nation’s grief. The poignant story of those missing in action includes conflicts that followed the Great War, including the Second World War and the Vietnam. This book reveals how bodies have been recovered and how we memorialise the missing through the Cenotaph, the Tomb of Unknown Warrior and many other monuments.
What are monuments for? and why are the inscriptions so often in Latin? What on earth is the point of communicating in a language so few understand? Peter Kruschwitz, a Classics scholar and specialist in the Latin language and its history uses these questions as his starting point in The Writing on the Wall: Decoding Reading's Latin Inscriptions. In it he reveals a fascinating range of texts chosen from the wealth of Reading's Latin inscriptions. Starting from the statue of King Edward VII outside the station, the reader embarks upon a journey of discovery through the remarkable and chequered history of this town, uncovering some of Reading's hidden treasures and recalling the individuals whoa have made the town what it is today. Whom or what should we remember? And why? Knowledge, true or false, that passes on from one generation to another, forms part of a tradition, of a legacy. We need to understand that legacy in order to preserve and appreciate the rich heritage we have been left.
English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages offers a comprehensive
survey of English church monuments from the pre-Conquest period to
the early sixteenth century. Ground-breaking in its treatment of
the subject in an historical context, it explores medieval
monuments both in terms of their social meaning and the role that
they played in the religious strategies of the commemorated.
Here lyes Buried the Body of Martha Peronneau...Departed this life December ye 14th 1746 aged 13 Years. Such an inscription was typical of 18th century grave markers in Charleston, South Carolina. Many epitaphs went on to reveal much more about the deceased: personality, religious beliefs, career accomplishments and social position. Attention to social matters was a natural part of life in Charleston, where descendants of the city's 17th century British founders sought to recreate the class-conscious culture of aristocratic England. The merging of this culture with influences from French Huguenots, German Lutherans, Scottish Presbyterians and Spanish Jews led to funeral practices unique in the American colonies. Focusing on pieces created between 1695 and 1802, this volume offers a detailed examination of the tombstones and grave markers from 18th century Charleston. It not discusses only the general trends and the symbolism of the period's gravestone art - such as skulls, portraits, ascending souls, and stylized vegetation - but also examines specific instances of these popular motifs. Tombstones from Charleston's oldest and most significant churches, including the Circular Congregational Church, St. Phillip's Anglican Church, the French Huguenot Church and the First (Scots) Presbyterian Church, are explored in detail. The work looks at how Charleston gravestones differed from funerary art elsewhere in the American colonies, and reveals them to be some of the earliest examples of American sculpture. A guide to colonial gravestone symbols and a glossary of relevant Latin terms are also included.
This book is the first major study of the themes which were used in the decoration of sarcophagi made for children in Rome and Ostia from the late first to early fourth century AD. It provides a selective catalogue of examples of each type, followed by discussion of how these fit into the general pattern. This allows certain themes to be identified which are virtually exclusive to children's sarcophagi. The second part of the book discusses the choice of subjects and how these reflect the standing of children in Roman society: to what extent, for instance, was childhood shown as a differentiated stage in life, or was it dominated by aspirations of the adult world? How is the death of a child treated in art? There are separate sections on the role of workshops and customers in the development of child specific imagery, and on material from the early Christian era, providing some interesting distinctions resulting from differing attitudes towards children and beliefs about life and death.
Jenny Edkins explores how we remember traumatic events such as wars, famines, genocides and terrorism. She argues that remembrance does not have to be nationalistic but can instead challenge the political systems that produced the violence. Using examples from the World Wars, Vietnam, the Holocaust, Kosovo and September 11th, Edkins analyzes the practices of memory rituals through memorials, museums and remembrance ceremonies. This wide-ranging study embraces literature, history, politics and international relations, in an original contribution to the study of memory.
This book introduces the reader to the statues, busts, and memorial plaques of scientists, explorers, medicine men and women, and inventors found in the bustling capital of the United Kingdom, London. The former capital of the British Empire, London remains a world center of trade, navigation, finance and many more. It is also a hub of science, the seat of the Royal Society, Royal Institution, Science Museum, British Museum, Natural History Museum, and of great institutions of higher education. The historical figures depicted in these memorials are responsible for creating great institutions, milestone discoveries, contributions to the scientific and technological revolutions, fighting against epidemics, advancing medicine, and contributing to the progress seen during the past four hundred years. This is a guidebook for the visitor and the Londoner alike. It presents memorials that everybody is familiar with and others that the authors discovered during their years of painstaking research. The 750 images and the text, interlarded with anecdotes, is both informative and entertaining.
This innovative study of memorial architecture investigates how design can translate memories of human loss into tangible structures, creating spaces for remembering. Using approaches from history, psychology, anthropology and sociology, Sabina Tanovic explores purposes behind creating contemporary memorials in a given location, their translation into architectural concepts, their materialisation in the face of social and political challenges, and their influence on the transmission of memory. Covering the period from the First World War to the present, she looks at memorials such as the Holocaust museums in Mechelen and Drancy, as well as memorials for the victims of terrorist attacks, to unravel the private and public role of memorial architecture and the possibilities of architecture as a form of agency in remembering and dealing with a difficult past. The result is a distinctive contribution to the literature on history and memory, and on architecture as a link to the past.
This is a book for people who are interested in statues . . . and for people who aren't. It explores those immortalised in marble and bronze - and what the rest of us think about them. As Roger Lytollis travels Britain he encounters a man at Liverpool's Beatles statue convinced that Rod Stewart was in the Fab Four. In Edinburgh he walks into a row over Greyfriars Bobby's nose and in Glasgow learns why the Duke of Wellington wears a traffic cone on his head. London brings a controversial nude statue and some hard truths about racism. Elsewhere, Roger sees people dancing with Eric Morecambe, finds a statue being the backdrop to a marriage proposal and, everywhere he goes, pigeons. Always pigeons . . . On a Pedestal is the first book to examine public statues around the nation. It looks at their emergence into our culture wars; the trend for portraying musicians, sports stars and comedians rather than monarchs, politicians and generals; the amazing tales of many of those commemorated on our streets. It also features interviews with sculptors, including Sir Antony Gormley, telling the stories behind some of our most popular modern statues. Part history book, part travelogue, On a Pedestal brings statues to life. Informative and entertaining, it's a book that - ultimately - is more about blood than bronze.
This is the seventeenth volume in the series the Public Sculpture of Britain, part of the PMSA National Recording Project, which will eventually cover the whole of the country. The introduction considers the ways in which the rural and urban landscapes of Sussex, from market town, rural village and country estate, to city, major seaside resort and new town development, are reflected in the county's public sculptures. The historical period covered ranges from the allegedly pre-historic (the Long Man of Wilmington) to the present day (the most recent entry is Maggi Hambling's The Resurrection Spirit, 2013). There is a high proportion of nineteenth- century sculptures, including significant works by John Flaxman, Michael Rysbrack, Frances Chantrey and John Edward Carew; the 'statuemania' that characterised the last part of this century is well illustrated by Thomas Brock's imposing statue celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on Hove seafront. The achievements of major twentieth and twenty-first century sculptors are represented by Elisabeth Frink and William Pye among others. Many works from this period are the result of public art initiatives by local councils, often as part of more wide-ranging regeneration schemes for Sussex towns. The patronage of health authorities, influenced by new thinking about the calming and healing qualities of art in public places has also benefitted both local sculptors and those based elsewhere in the country. Each individual work is catalogued, with precise details of location, condition and history, including commissioning, opening ceremonies and re-siting. Most are individually illustrated in black and white. Biographies of local and less well-known sculptors, together with a selected bibliography are included at the end of the volume.
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