[PDF] bedbound (NHB Modern Plays) by Enda Walsh at Arts-Photography

Description

Before the foundation of academies of art in London in 1758 and Philadelphia in 1805; most individuals who were to emerge as artists trained in workshops of varying degrees of relevance. Easel painters began their careers apprenticed to carriage; house; sign or ship painters; whilst a few were placed with those who made pictures. Sculptors emerged from a training as ornamental plasterers or carvers. Of the many other trades in a position to offer an appropriate background were lsquo;limningrsquo;; staining; engraving; surveying; chasing and die-sinking. In addition; plumbers gained the right to use oil painting and; for plasterers; the application of distemper was an extension of their trade. Central to the theme of this book is the notion that; for those who were to become either painters or sculptor; a training in a trade met their practical needs. This lsquo;trainingrsquo; was of an altogether different nature to an lsquo;educationrsquo; in an art school. In the past; prospective artists were offered; by means of apprenticeships; an empirical rather than a theoretical understanding of their ultimate vocation. James Ayres provides a lively account of the inter-relationship between art and trade in the late seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries; in both Britain and North America. He demonstrates with numerous; illustrated examples; the many cross-overs in the lsquo;art and mysteryrsquo; of artistic training; and; to modern eyes; the sometimes incongruous relationships between the various trades that contributed to the blossoming of many artistic careers; including some of the most illustrious names of the lsquo;longrsquo; eighteenth century.