Journal articles on the topic 'Engraving, Flemish – 17th century'

The article is devoted to two engravings depicting Jesus Christ and the Mother of God in lush ornamental cartouches. They are well known to Serbian art critics and are published in the catalogs of Serbian metal engravings of the 18th century. Copper engraved boards of these engravings, which Serbian researchers attribute to the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century, are preserved in the Krka Monastery. Prints from them of the 18th-19th centuries are unknown in Serbian collections. In Serbia, the first prints from these boards were made in the 20th century. However, prints from these engravings were well known in Russia in the 17th-18th centuries. They were primarily used as illustrations in Russian manuscript books. The engravings were made by a Russian master at the end of the 17th century. According to the features of engraving, manner, and stylistics, they can be attributed to Moscow engraver Leonty Bunin. In Russian manuscripts, they were usually used as illustrations in the book The Passion of Christ along with the 14-sheet series The Passion of Christ by Leonty Bunin. Cases of using them as independent illustrations are known. In the 1730s, these engravings disappeared from the illustrations in The Passion of Christ series in Russian manuscript books. Their later prints are unknown in Russia. The history of their appearance in Serbia, in the Krka Monastery, remains unknown. Perhaps they appeared there as gifts from Russia which the monastery regularly received. In the 18th century, Serbian religious art experienced a powerful influence from Dutch graphics. As iconographic sources, Serbian masters used Flemish and Dutch engravings of the 16th and 17th centuries. They were the same ones that were used by Russian masters of the 17th century, especially of the second half of the century, as iconographic examples. The identity of the artistic processes that took place in the art of Serbia in the 18th century and Russia of the 17th century turned out to be so close that Serbian art historians regarded the Russian prints of the 17th century by Leonty Bunin as Serbian works of an unknown engraver of the late 17th - early 19th centuries. The biography of Leonty Bunin is considered in detail in the article, some facts of his life are presented for the first time.

El hallazgo de dos series de grabados flamencos del siglo XVII sobre el tema El Credo, de los artistas Adrian Collaert (1560-1618) y Johan Sadeler (1550-1600), permiten confirmar la importante presencia de los grabados europeos en los talleres de pintura de la América Hispana y su influencia decisiva en la formación de nuestros artistas. Se analizan entonces bajo esta perspectiva, las once pinturas al óleo que conforman la Serie de los Artículos de El Credo, obra del pintor quiteño Miguel de Santiago (1603-1706) que se encuentran en la Catedral Primada de Bogotá desde la época colonial.Palabras clave: Grabados europeos, pintores coloniales, Miguel de Santiago, Quito, Santafé de Bogotá. From European Engraving to American Painting. El Credo Series From The Painter From Quito Miguel de Santiago AbstractThe discovery of two engraving Flemish series from 17th century about El Credo, from the artists Adrian Collaert (1560-1618) and Johan Sadeler (1550-1600), allows proving the presence of European engravings within the painting works in the Hispanic America and the great influence on our artists’ formation. Thus based on this, are analyzed the eleven oil paintings that constitute the Series of Goods from El Credo, from the painter from Quito Miguel de Santiago (1603-1706) that are from the colonial time in the Catedral Primada de Bogotá.KeywordsEuropean engravings, colonial painters, Miguel de Santiago, Quito, Santafé de Bogotá

The images of the Transverberation of St. Teresa of Jesus originated in some of the episodes that are related by the saint, especially of the Libro de la vida in the 13th paragraph of the 29th chapter. The book had great success all over Europe after it was first published in Salamanca (Guillermo Foquel, 1588). However, the famed episode of the Transverberation was represented for the first time in the Vida gráfica (Antwerp, 1613) and this image was reproduced freely via prints. Among the most famous representation are a painting by Rubens, destroyed by fire in 1940, and the magnificent sculpture by Bernini, at the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. The scene was also accepted in New Spain with great enthusiasm and it became one of the most popular topics in religious painting. Wilson studies the image of the Transverberation not only as a mystic experience but also as a “virtual” martyrdom that is clearly expressed in a painting by Juan Correa based on a Flemish engraving by Richard Collin (17th century). Wilson recalls that both Saint Teresa and her brother Rodrigo used to read the lives of the saints during their childhood and that they even imagined themselves being martyred in the land of the Moors in North Africa. The iconography for the representations of Saint Teresa are taken from the topics that were used for illustrate the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula.

Seventeenth-century painters were masters at painting objects and beings that seem tangible. Most elaborate was painting translucent materials like skins and pulp: human flesh and grapes, for instance, require various surface effects and suggest the presence of mass below the upper layers. Thus, the viewer is more or less convinced that a volume or object is present in an illusionary space. In Dutch, the word ‘stofuitdrukking’ is used: expression or indication of material, perhaps better understood as rendering of material. In English, ‘material depiction’ probably captures this painterly means best: it includes rendering of surface effects, while revealing the underlying substance, and it implies that weight and mass are suggested. Simple strokes of paint add up to materials and things that are convincingly percieved. At first glance, material depiction hardly seems a topic in early-modern art theory, yet 17th-century painters are virtually unequalled as regards this elaborate skill. Therefore, 17th-century written sources were studied to define how these might discuss material depiction, if not distinctly. This study concerns one of many questions regarding the incredible convincingness of 17th-century material depiction: besides wondering why the illusions work (Di Cicco et al., this issue) and how these were achieved (Wiersma, in press), the question should be asked why this convincingness was sought after. Was it mere display of ability and skill? And how was material depiction perceived, valued and enjoyed? First, contemporary terminology is determined: the seemingly generic term ‘colouring’ signified the application of convincing material depiction especially — which is not as self-evident as it sounds. Second, and extensively, the reader will find that convincing or appealing material depiction was considered a reference to religion and natural philosophy.

The article reveals and introduces into scientific circulation the previously unknown artistic source of Konstantin Andreyevich Somov’s early art – Jaspar de Isaac’s engraving “Narcissus”. There is traced the course of work with this one along with other art sources (works of European masters of the 16th—18th centuries depicting hunting scenes, paintings by Antoine Watteau, Jugendstil graphics), revealed the context of reference to it, and analyzed the stylistic features of including this source in Somov’s work on the watercolor “Rest after a Walk”. These tasks are addressed in the context of the role of artistic sources from the heritage of past eras in early works of Konstantin Somov. The topic’s relevance is determined by the fact that Jaspar de Isaac’s engraving “Narcissus”, made at the very beginning of the 17th century for a French edition of the “Imagines” by Philostratus the Elder, for the first time becomes the object of research as a source of Somov’s art. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time it attempts to identify (basing on a combination of formal and contextual analysis), and to use a source from the artistic heritage of France of the beginning of the 17th century in the work of K. Somov on the themes of the 18th century. The reveal of the source — the engraving “Narcissus” by J. de Isaac — made it possible to reconstruct the artist’s work on the “Rest after a Walk”. The article examines not only the sketch for this work from the collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, but also the drawing “A Date” from the State Tretyakov Gallery. There is stated that it is a preparatory drawing for the watercolor “Rest after a Walk”, basing on the general iconography of the watercolor, sketch and engraving “Narcissus”. The author concludes that Somov’s appeal to the engraving by J. de Isaac was not conscious, it should be attributed to the phenomenon of artistic memory, and his probable acquaintance with it had taken place before the artist left for Paris in the autumn of 1897.

AbstractThis article provides an overview of the history of exegesis of the book of Job in 16th and 17th century Lutheranism. Early reformers such as Johannes Bugenhagen, Johannes Brenz, and Hieronymus Weller, a pupil of Luther, published commentaries about this philologically as well as theologically difficult narration of the Old Testament. In the 17th century, interpreters of Job made use of a variety of literary forms, including lyrical poetry (e. g. Sigmund von Birken). A highlight of the Job exegesis in baroque Lutheranism lies in the comprehensive commentary published by Sebastian Schmidt of Strasburg in 1670. The article closes by paying particular attention to the iconography of the multi-part copper engraving, created by Albert Christian Kalle for the Job exegesis by the pastor Christoph Scultetus of Stettin in 1647.

Abstract. The Flemish nation is a reality. Flanders has even become a state to some extent. Flanders no longer speaks French. French has been gradually ideologised from the language of prestige to the language of the enemy. Flanders has not chosen Flemish, but Dutch as its new language of prestige. There was no elite in Flanders speaking Flemish. Those who should have developed Standard Flemish in the 17th and 18th centuries, switched to French. After 1830, the Orangists put forward three major arguments to reject Flemish and to opt for Dutch. First, Flemish was not strong enough to compete with French. Second, Flemish was not good enough; it was corrupted by French, it was only a poor by-product of a Belgian nation-state that was dominated by French. Third, by opting for Dutch, the Flemings would link up with their history. In the second half of the 19th century, a process of dutchification gradually set in. As the importance of language as a social, economic and, therefore, political factor increased, the influence of Dutch grew stronger. Yet, there seem to be limits to the dutchification of Flemish society and, consequently, of the language of the Flemings. Even the most dedicated supporters of Pan-Netherlandic unity somehow reject the language of the Dutch as a model for Flanders.

The article explores the development of art decoration tradition in Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra old-printed Akaphistus-books editions of 17-18th cc. The essential elements of art decoration in these Akaphisthus-books are gravures with iconographic images of prayer addressees, corresponding to certain parts of the akaphistus text. The prayer addressee engravings are located in two positions: before or inside of the akaphistus text part. Frontispiece engravings initiate each part of Akaphistus-book. Iconographic posture of prayer addressee in such gravures directs the reader’s attention to the main topic of preceding text – glorification of God, angels or a saint. The frontispiece engraving in Kyiv-Pechersk Akaphistus of the 17th c. are often accompanied with verbal inscriptions, i. e. citations from the well-known church hymns. Quite often baroque poetic texts, which belong to the genre of Ukrainian baroque descriptive poetry, are placed below the frontispiece engraving. Such verbal inscriptions describe images of the engraving, verbalizing the general features of prayer addressee image. The lack of verbal inscriptions on frontispiece engraving in Akaphistus-books of 18th century is compensated by higher quality of the engraving, due to the usage of xylography technique. The image of prayer addressee is frequently used in the center of headset engraving, which precedes the title of each akaphistus text part. The miniatures inside the text part of akaphistus provide visual enrichment of the prayer process. The tradition of small plot illustrations insertion, corresponding to each of the 12 kondaks and ikoses of akaphistus, was initiated by the first Akaphistus editions of 1625 and 1629. This tradition was quite productive during the 17th – early 18th cc. Since the Akaphistus edition of 1731, the miniatures were substituted by engraved initials. The other peculiarity of this edition, which emerged in the subsequent editions of the 18th c., was the usage of engraved frame on each page. Such elements of the artistic decoration enable simultaneous visual and mental perception of akaphistus, declared in introductions to the first Kyiv-Pechersk Akaphistos editions. This masterpiece contamination of verbal and graphic aids in book artistic decoration presents the distinctive feature of the baroque style that influenced the Ukrainian book culture of the 17-18th centuries.

Landscape painting in Peru typically does not receive much attention from critical dis-course, even though the adoption of the Flemish landscape by Andean viceregal painters became a distinctive feature of Peruvian painting of the second half of the 17th century. Considered a consequence of a change in the artistic taste of viceregal society, the landscape was perceived as a secondary element of the composition. In this article, we will analyze the inclusion of the Flemish landscape in Andean religious painting from another critical perspective that takes into account different spiritual processes that colonial religiosity goes through. We analyze how the influence of the Franciscan and Jesuit mysticism created a fertile ground where landscape painting could develop in Peru. The Andean viceregal painters found in the landscape an effective way to visualize suprasensible spiritual experiences and an important device for the development in Peru of a painting with visionary characteristics.

In 1987 the Old Masters Collection was founded at the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka, comprising about one hundred and thirty paintings. It mainly consists of artworks once belonging to prominent Rijeka families that were acquired during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Only a smaller portion of the Collection came from the city’s religious institutions. These are all works of relatively modest artistic quality, thus the initial research revealed that quite a few were made after prints or more or less famous paintings. Since no systematic study of these models has hitherto been conducted, a number of questionable attributions and dates of execution concerning the paintings belonging to the Collection was proposed during the last decade of the 20th century. As far as the 17th-century paintings are concerned, the author has identified models for the paintings representing the Annunciation, Our Lady of the Rosary, the Marriage at Cana, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Flagellation of Christ. The Annunciation was inspired by a print executed by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Verona, ca. 1505 – Krakow, 1565) or its later derivation, while Our Lady of the Rosary was made after a print by Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna, 1626-1684). The Marriage at Cana was painted after an engraving by Giovanni Battista Vanni (Florence/Pisa, 1599 – Florence, 1660) dating in 1637 or one of its later derivations. The engraving was, in its turn, made after the famous painting by Veronese (Verona, 1528 – Venice, 1588) exhibited today at the Louvre, while the Adoration of the Shepherds was made after an engraving by Jan (I) Sadeler (Brussels, 1550 – Venice, 1600). The Flagellation of Christ is a combination of a print of the same title and one depicting the Mocking of Christ. Both are work of Jan (I) Sadeler or by his copyist.

In the East Slavic art of the 17th century images of the trees of the spiritual genealogy of Russian princes and tsars became widespread. Such compositions were present in book engraving, icon painting and fresco. Despite the general similarity, they differ in sets of images and micro-plots. The differences are due to the specific intent of each of the works. The article examines the micro-plot of the “planting” of the family tree as the most sapid and with its own variations. It’s included in the iconographic composition of five works of art from the second half of the 17th – early 18th centuries. In the paper, special attention is paid to the peculiarities of the depiction of the “gardeners” of the dynastic trees (Princess Olga, Prince Vladimir, Prince Ivan Kalita and Metropolitan Peter) and some other characters, as well as their attributes. With all the diversity of the personifications of “gardeners”, “body language” and symbols used by artists, iconographic solutions in each case worked for the one general idea. The czar dynasties of the Russian state were presented as clans founded by “right” rulers who gave their subjects state establishment and order, and also “enlightened” them with the Christian faith.

The Rubenianum is an internationally renowned research centre for the study and documentation of 16th- and 17th-century Flemish art, especially art by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens the elder. Located next to the historic garden of Rubens House in the centre of Antwerp, it was created in 1947 to house the documentation that was generated during the renovation of the site. In 1963 its collection was considerably enriched by the archives of the art historian Ludwig Burchard. The Rubenianum also houses the ‘Centrum voor de Vlaamse Kunst van de 16e en de 17e eeuw’ which publishes the Corpus Rubenianum. A major project since 2004 has been the digital resource ‘Rubensonline’, which includes all known works by Rubens in public collections in Belgium.

Abstract Professor Andrzej Borowski from the Jagiellonian University, whose 70th anniversary we celebrate this year, is a very well known scholar and literature historian, specialised in Old Polish Literature (Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque) - and with a background from Classical studies. A lesser known fact is that he also is a scholar active in the field of the Netherlandish (Dutch and Flemish) literature and culture: as author of numerous books and articles about (South) Netherlandish figures from the 16th and 17th century, as supervisor of numerous dissertations or habilitations in the field of the Netherlandish literature and as an inspiring personality in the field of the Netherlandish studies at Polish universities. He can indeed be seen as the Spiritus Litterarum Neerlandicorum in Poland.

In May 1968, 83 seals were excavated from the tomb of Hong Seok-gu, one of the literati in the mid-Joseon dynasty. Hong was a literator who designed and engraved the seal by himself in the 17th century. The lifetime of Hong Seok-gu was reorganized through the Buried Epitaph(墓誌銘) by Lee Dan-ha(李端夏) and the Tombstone Inscription(墓碣銘) by Jeong Ho(鄭澔). which revealed that he was often dismissed from the public office and assigned to the local government. Therefore, he repeatedly resigned and retired from his office. It is assumed that his personal misfortune allowed him to devote his time and space in engraving the seals. The style of his seals was influenced from the famous Andong Kim clan(安東 金門). He carved high-quality seals using various ancient seal script(古篆體) introduced in the calligraphy circles(書壇) with 38 seal script(篆書) including small seal script(小篆) and jade chopsticks seal script(玉筯篆). In addition, he applied composition techniques(章法) which were creatively transformed from the method of putting both depressed and embossed engraving into one seal(朱白相間法), a popular way in the 17th century. He also held his experimental point of view in the composition techniques of the seals shaped of an ancient coin(孔方錢). Regarding the poetry seal(詞句印), his brilliant sense of modeling is noticeable in combining literature with figuration. Shapes such as a small table for a incense burner(香佐兒), a liquor bottle(酒甁), and an arrow throwing pot(投壺) implied literature, while seals carved with Jeilgangsan (第一江山)>, Gyosang-noin (橋上老人)> and Daimyoung-cheonha-ilseosaeng (大明天下一書生)> were employed to attempt shaping with literature. The characteristic of this style is recognized as an artistic accomplishment of the seals in the Joseon dynasty, which was different from the seals of Ming dynasty following the style of the Han dynasty.

Religious conversion revolutions the boundaries which delimit personal identity. Therefore, the main semiotic problem of mental and cultural representations of this religious phenomenon is to convey simultaneously a feeling of sameness and otherness, identity and change. In the present paper, mirrors are analysed as cultural mechanisms which enable representations to accomplish this paradoxical task. After a brief survey concerning literature on mirrors, some early-modern religious texts using these optical instruments as representative devices are analysed in-depth: a painting of the Magdalene’s conversion by Artemisia Gentileschi, an engraving representing conversion from a 17th-century French book, a fragment from Sainte Theresa’s spiritual autobiography, a passage from John Calvin’s Institution de la religion chrétienne. In its conclusion, the paper underlines the importance of Saint Paul’s metaphoric conception of mirrors for the cultural history of these objects, and tries to define the role which cultural semiotics should play concerning this kind of representative mechanisms.

Цель статьи - раскрыть понятие «греческая религиозная гравюра», а именно выявить, что это за гравюры, для чего они предназначались, какая историческая ситуация спровоцировала их распространение, а также определить их роль и значение для обителей, расположенных на оккупированных Османской империей территориях. На гравюрах изображаются образы святых и виды монастырей, которые распространялись монахами взамен на милостыню среди паломников. В условиях оккупации распространение гравюр было существенным источником дохода для обедневших монастырей Афона. Первые афонские гравюры выпускались в Европе, но с XIX в. афонские монахи создают гравюры самостоятельно. Статья раскрывает историю создания греческих религиозных гравюр и определяет место среди них гравюр из собрания Музея Московской духовной академии «Церковно-археологического кабинета», также выявляя уникальные образцы гравюр из коллекции музея. The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Greek religious engravings. There are an easel engraving with images of saints and views of monasteries, which distributed among pilgrims to promote Christian monasteries of the Orthodox Church of the East. When and why were they become used? A lot of Orthodox monasteries became poor after occupation by Ottoman Empire. Moreover, The Mount Athos had not been known in Europe until sixteenth century. The monks of the Saint Catherine’s Monastery found that the views of the Monastery mast be interesting for pilgrims and contributed to fame of their monastery. First woodcuts printed in a large number in Leo police in the middle of the 17th century. It was a great success. The monks exchanged this engraving on charity. And the Athos’s monks followed the example of Sinai’s monks. The first engravings for The Mount Athos were printed in Europe, in such cities as Vienna, and Venice. From the end of the 18th century metal plates engraved on the Mount Athos and in the 19th century the printing of engravings was amazingly extended. The most part of engravings from the collection of Moscow Theological Academy Museum printed in the middle of the 19th century in The Mount Athos. Also, this collection has some unique prints, such as the Burning Bush. This article shows the importance of the Greek engravings for the orthodox world such the instrument for advertising the most holy places for pilgrims. This etching made a great influence on our imagination nowadays about this holly places.

This article examines the changing approach towards the representation of the senses in 17th-century Flemish painting. These changes are related to the cultural politics and courtly culture of the Spanish sovereigns of the Southern Netherlands, the Archdukes Albert and Isabella. The 1617–18 painting-series of the Five Senses by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens as well as the pendant paintings on the subject are analyzed in relation to the iconography of the five senses, and in regard to Flemish genre themes. In this context, the excess of objects, paintings, scientific instruments, animals, and plants in the Five Senses are read as an expansion of the iconography of the senses as well as a reference to the courtly material culture of the Archdukes. Framing the senses as part of a cultural web of artifacts, Brueghel and Rubens refer both to elite lived experience and traditional iconography. The article examines the continuity between the iconography of the senses from 1600 onwards, as developed by Georg Pencz, Frans Floris, and Maerten de Vos, and the representation of the senses in the series. In addition, the article shows how certain elements in the paintings are influenced by genre paintings of the courtly company and collector’s cabinet, by Frans Francken, Lucas van Valckenborch and Louis de Caullery. Through the synthesis of these two traditions the subject of the five senses is reinvented in a courtly context

Dating the wood from historical art objects is a crucial step to ascertain their production time, and support or refute attribution to an artist or a workshop. Dendrochronology is commonly used for this purpose but requires access to the tree-ring pattern in the wood, which can be hindered by preparatory layers, polychromy, wax, or integrated frames. Here we implemented non-invasive dendrochronology based on X-ray computed tomography (CT) to examine a painting on panel attributed to Rubens’ studio and its presumed dating around 1636 CE. The CT images achieved a resolution of 37.3 micron and revealed a double panelling, which was concealed by oak strips covering all four edges. The back (visible) board is made of deciduous oak (Quercus subg. Quercus), the most common type of wood used in 17th-century Netherlandish workshops, and was dated terminus post quem after 1557 CE. However, the front (original) board used for the painting has been identified through examination of the wood anatomy as a tropical wood, probably Swietenia sp., a species seldom used in Netherlandish paintings, and remains undated. Its very presence attests the global character of 17th-century trade, and demonstrates the use of exotic species in Flemish studios. The date of the oak board refutes previous results and suggests that this board was trimmed to meet the size of the tropical one, having been glued to it for conservation purposes or with deceiving intentions to pretend that the painting was made on an oak panel. These revelations have opened new lines of art historical inquiry and highlight the potential of X-ray CT as a powerful tool for non-invasive study of historical art objects to retrieve their full history.

Abstract. This paper is a review of the modelling of two edifices located in a city which developed on the vestiges of a Roman city during antiquity endowed in the 4th century with a military camp. The term castellum is used for the first structure. A second structure concerns the remains of a castle dismantled at the end of the 17th century, which was generally known only by an engraving in perspective made shortly before its demolition, and the cadastral matrix that had preserved the traces of its right-of-way. It is a Renaissance castle built in the 16th century by the Württemberg family in the northeast corner of the ruins of the castellum. The projects contain a first part of data analysis and interpretation based on available documents. Similar sites close in terms of architecture, geographical location and construction period were also visited to get inspiration from them and to be able to make proposals for restitution. Despite the lack of data available, the multidisciplinary aspect of these projects is very important. In fact, the experience of archaeologists and the monitoring of modelling throughout its progress is essential to work out models that are both justifiable, at the level of the proposals made and sufficiently complete to be able to be highlighted. Once the models validated, they are integrated in a virtual way into the contemporary urban environment, through an interactive virtual tour. This paper reviews the principles implemented during the modelling, the rendering and the valorisation of the models thru virtual tours and AR/VR implementation.

Purpose. We describe a saber from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums (Inventory no. 4427). Results. The total length of the saber is 101.5 cm including the length of the blade 87.5 cm. When in the scabbard, the length is 106.5 cm. The grip and metal elements of the scabbard are made of gilded silver. Their surface is decorated with floral engraving. Mounts and big bezels contain pieces of turquoise and jade. The grip is inlaid with jade plates, gold and mounted rubies. We analyzed the construction and decoration of the saber and the scabbard and concluded that they were made by Ottoman masters in the first half of the 17th century. The closest analogues of the saber are stored in the Moscow Kremlin Armory, the State Hermitage Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc. According to the inscription on the blade, we refer the weapon to the type of insignia, which were given to Kazakh rulers who became Russian citizens and were approved as khans. A common historiographical attribution of the saber as belonging to Erali Khan (1729) has been proved wrong. According to the documents of the 18th century available, the saber initially was to be given to a famous Kazakh khan of the Middle jüz of Kazakhstan Ablai Khan (1711–1780). In 1778, the blade of the 17th century was signed in Russian and Arab, the scabbard was covered with red tissue, the gilded elements were freshened up, and a shoulder harness made of silk of two colors was added, together with a case. In the second half of 1778, the saber was delivered to the Peter and Paul Fortress of the Novyi Ishim defense line, where it was to be handed to Ablai Khan. However, due to some political disagreements he refused to accept the signs of the power, and the saber, along with other gifts, was left to be stored in the fortress. In May 1781, Ablai’s son, a newly elected Vali Khan (1744–1821), addressed Russian authorities asking them to pass him the signs of the khan’s power and Ablai’s allowance. As the insignia was to be given to the new owner, the inscription had to be changed. The saber was sent to Orenburg, where a local master changed the khan’s name and the year. During an official ceremony in the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was held on 1 November, 1782, the weapon was awarded to Vali Khan. Later on, the saber was passed on and stored by some families of noble Kazakhs. Conclusion. The saber is of a high scientific value as it is the only surviving and almost undamaged symbol of Kazakh khans’ power. It is a unique relic of Russian-Kazakh relations in the 18th century.

‘Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing.’ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle When authors submit an article for publication, most publishers will ask for a signature from the author on a copyright form. The relationship between an author and the publisher is then a partnership but one that many authors are reluctant to enter into. After all, why should a publisher take copyright from an author of an article when the author had the idea and has done all the hard work for the content of the article? In response to this question, publishers will generally claim that copyright transfer agreements protect authors from copyright infringements such as plagiarism, libel and unauthorised uses as well as protecting the integrity of the article. Copyright in the UK was originally concerned with preventing the unlawful copying of printed material in the 17th century in response to the then new technology of book printing. The first copyright act in the UK, the Statute of Anne in 1710, was subtitled ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’, and granted privileges and monopolies to book printers. Since then, copyright law has evolved to incorporate many forms of communication, including photography, film, music, computers, engraving, designs on t-shirts and digital technology among other forms of media. The most recent act in the UK is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. While copyright covers an author’s right to copy, distribute and revise the work, it does not protect ideas – just their fixation or expression. The moment that an idea is fixed or expressed physically, copyright starts and does not have to be registered. In this article, Pippa Smart provides an overview of the legal framework that protects authors and publishers. Jyoti Shah, Commissioning Editor

The purpose of the study is to identify the figurative and symbolic parallels of the depiction of flowers in the art of China and Europe. Methodology. The study made use of the methods: historical-cultural, comparative, artistic-stylistic, iconological, iconographic. Results. It is shown that in the art of China and Europe, the image of flowers is interconnected with the embodiment of the ideal, beautiful. In our figurative and artistic analysis of the masterpieces of Chinese painting, it is shown that the masters of the “flowers and birds” genre, in the content and form of embodiment, follow the law of the universe formed in Taoism, according to which a cycle occurs in life, as in nature. In the genre of European floral still life of the 17th century, a philosophical, cognitive attitude of a person to the real world surrounding him is expressed. For the Dutch and Flemish still life, associated with the spiritual culture of Christianity, instructive meaning is important. Artists glorify the beauty of the world created by the Creator and, at the same time, adjusts the viewer to reflect on the transience of life. It can be seen that the formation of the European flower still life as an independent genre was influenced by the fine and decorative art of China, in particular, the “flowers and birds” (huanyao) genre. Common features with the style of gunbi (thorough paintbrush) are manifested in a careful study of colors, in a harmonious combination of realistic authenticity with the decorative and linear conventionality of the artistic image. The image of flowers in European painting and art in China is associated with the idea of harmony of the world, presented in the elements. The Baroque floral still life, like the huanyao genre, contain a deep symbolic meaning. The scientific novelty of the publication lies in the fact that for the first time it compares the huanyao genre with baroque bouquets, figurative and symbolic parallels of the image of flowers in the art of China and Europe are found. Practical significance validated the possibility of using the results of the study to develop textbooks and programs for the in-depth study of the art of China and Europe.

The subject of the research is the developments of the modern Ukrainian artist Evgeniya Gapchinskaya, who is now successfully working in various fields of art and design, ranging from jewelry and book graphics to monumental mural art. The purpose of the work is to investigate the specifics of the artistic language of the named artist in the context of the development of modern mass culture. The methodology of the work is based on a combination of chronological and the principle of scientific comprehensiveness, art history, design and culturological approaches, ontological, axiological, hermeneutic, historical-comparative, cross-cultural and art history analysis methods. The results of the work allow us to understand the secrets of E. Gapchinskaya's success in the field of contemporary art and design. The scope of application of the results – artistic and design practices of the present, history, theory and criticism of art, teaching activities for students and graduate students of creative specialties. Findings. It was found that the artistic language of Yevhenia Gapchinskaya was formed under the influence of Ukrainian and German artistic traditions. Taking into account the one-year internship in Nuremberg at the beginning of the formation of the artistic language, the author was inspired in her artistic searches by the impulses of the high art of the Northern Renaissance and mannerism. In particular, the work of I. Bosch and P. P. Bruegel the Elder (Peasant), whose phantasmagoric language still has a significant impact on the work of young European artists. Also, the formation of the artistic originality of Evgenia Gapchinskaya's handwriting was significantly influenced by the Dutch and Flemish art of the 17th – 18th centuries, headed by Frans Halls and Rembrandt van Rijn, and individual searches for Baroque-Rococo artists from other European countries – J. B. Greuze and T. Gainsborough. In general, the specific artistic and figurative manner of E. Gapchinskaya was influenced by the artist's appeal to related areas of knowledge – nail design, creative work with plastic, environmental design, advertising, image-making, art gallery business, restoration, art management, marketing, logistics and the like.Key words: artistic manner of creativity, Evgeniya Gapchinskaya, Ukraine, the beginning of the XXI century.

AbstractIn the first half of the 17th century penmanship in the Dutch Republic flourished as never before or since. Responsible for this flowering were a number of schoolmasters from Brabant and Flanders who in the 1570s and 80s had fled to the North and had settled there as writing-masters. To what level they had raised calligraphy may be seen from a large number of manuscript and printed writing-books that have been preserved. Just as they inspired their followers in years to come they had themselves found a source of inspiration in the two copy-books of Clemens Perret, brought out in 1569 and 1571. The earlier of these, the Exercitatio alphabetica, was not only the first ever to be reproduced entirely by copper engraving, but also the first with examples in seven languages, all of them written in the appropriate hands. Moreover in this book, the first to be produced in the Low Countries in such a large, oblong size, all plates had lavishly executed borders, designed on an architectural framework on which a variety of objects, human figures, grotesques, animals and so on were depicted. The book was obviously designed for collectors, wealthy connoisseurs and fellow writing-masters. The later book, the Eximiae peritiae alphabetum, although containing an equal number of plates, likewise in seven languages and in various hands, lacks the beautiful borders and is of slightly smaller size. It is altogether a more modestly conceived book, surely intended for use at school. Little is known about Perret's life. The title-pages of his books tell us that he was born in Brussels in 1551. A poem in a writing-book by Jacobus Houthusius, published in 1591, refers to his death. A contemporary manuscript note in a pamphlet of 1583 states that the writer Etienne Perret was his father. In the Plantin archives it is recorded that he had a brother, named Paul, and a sister. In a pamphlet of 1599 the writing-master Jan van den Velde states that Perret went to England to serve Queen Elizabeth's Chancellor as writing-master and teach the Queen the Italian hand. This seems unlikely as the Queen is known to have learned italic handwriting from Roger Ascham, while still a girl. The author has examined 26 copies of the Exercitatio in public collections and distinguishes two different editions. The first was probably brought out by Perret himself. Nearly all its plates contain errors in spelling, punctuation and word division. When Plantin took the distribution of the book in hand these mistakes were corrected and another plate added, containing within an engraved border a privilege with the text in letterpress: the 2nd edition. A variant of this edition is identical but for the privilege which is now engraved. The 2nd edition, corrected

Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje problematykę artystycznego naśladownictwa na przykładzie przedstawień małp jako malarzy, rzeźbiarzy i koneserów sztuki, autorstwa Davida Teniersa Młodszego, Antoine’a Watteau i Jeana Chardina. Sceny te należały do gatunku satyrycznych przedstawień funkcjonujących w języku francuskim pod nazwą singerie (fr. singe - małpa, singerie - dosł. małpiarnia), ukazujących małpy podczas parodiowania przeróżnych ludzkich czynności. Niekwestionowanym mistrzem gatunku stał się flamandzki malarz David Teniers Młodszy, który spopularyzował temat małp w rolach artystów, a za nim, prawie stulecie później, podążyli Antoine Watteau i Jean Chardin. Skłonności naśladowcze, przypisywane małpie od starożytności, zaowocowały skojarzeniem zwierzęcia z mimetyczną rolą sztuki, a dosłownym wyrazem tej analogii stała się metafora ars simia naturae (sztuka małpą natury). Singeries wymienionych twórców nie tylko nawiązują do toposu naśladowania rzeczywistości, ale i przewrotnie go przekształcają w charakterystyczny dla tego tematu, ironiczny sposób. Małpa uwikłana zostaje w toczące się od czasów renesansu spory teoretyczno-artystyczne, których omawiane przedstawienia stanowią niejako kontynuację. Za pośrednictwem zwierzęcia artyści dotykają problemu imitatio i inventio, co w przypadku Watteau i Chardina przyjęło formę sprzeciwu wobec tendencji akademickich. Te, na pozór jedynie zabawne przedstawienia, niosą ze sobą znaczenie o wiele poważniejsze – poruszają kwestie oryginalności i artystycznej tożsamości. Podobnie jak sztuka „małpowała” naturę, tak dla malarzy małpa stała się ich alter ego, dlatego w artykule zaznaczony został także kontekst autoportretu. Summary: This article presents the issue of artistic imitation on the example of monkeys that are depicted as painters, sculptors and art connoisseurs by David Teniers the Younger, Antoine Watteau and Jean Chardin. These scenes were a part of a visual art genre called singerie. The name has been given from French word singe – monkey, ape. Although the practise dates back to medieval drôlerie, their greatest popularity in European art fell in the 17th and 18th century. The depictions of monkeys imitating human behaviours were a perfect parody of human nature, not only in a moral way, but also in connection with creativeness. The Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger popularised the subject of the artist as an ape. This tradition was subsequently adopted by Antoine Watteau and Jean Chardin in France. The monkey was an important symbol of imitation. In result, this meaning of an animal was associated with the art imitating reality and the expression of this analogy was the metaphor ars simia naturae (art is an ape of nature). The singeries of the mentioned artists refer to the topos of imitating nature and have strong historical significance that continues the aesthetics discussions about the mimetic role of art. These, apparently funny depictions, carry much more serious meaning – emphasize the questions of originality and artistic identity. Like an art „apes” nature that the monkey became an alter ego of the painters.

AbstractThe precise relationship of The Three Maries at the Tomb (Fig. 1) in the Boymansvan Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam to the work of Hubert and/or Jan van Eyck has proved difficult to establish, mainly because relatively little is known about their output apart from Jan van Eyck's signed paintings of 1432-41. The provenance of the Rotterdam picture has been traced back to the mid 18th century (Note 2), while the coat of arms, a later addition at bottom right, has been identified as that of Philippe de Commines, who has thus been posited as the earliest known owner (Note 3). Since the beginning of this century the panel has generally been ascribed to Hubert van Eyck on the basis of a comparison with his contribution to the Ghent Altarpiece, but doubts have also been expressed about the attribution to the Van Eycks (Note 5), while later dates have been suggested on the grounds of the view of Jerusalem (Note 6, 7) or the arms and armour (Notes 8, 9) . However, Panofsky remained convinced of the early date and kept to the attribution to Hubert, while suggesting that Jan had worked over certain details (Note 10). The restoration of 1947 (Note 11) revealed some gilded rays on the right side, which gave rise to suggestions that the panel had once formed part of a friezelike composition or a triptych (Notes 12-14). Recent opinion still remains divided, Sterling seeing the panel as having been painted by Jan van Eyck after 1426 (Note 15), Dhanens as the work of a follower around 1450-60 (Note 16). Scientific examination appeared to be the only way of obtaining new data, while the recently published results of a similar examination of the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 17) offered an additional incentive. An earlier scientific examination was carried out by Coremans in 1948 (Note rg), while the work had previously been examined by infrared reflectography by the authors in 1971 (JV ote zo) . Tfie 1)(inel on which the picture is painted consists rf three horizontal planks with dowelled joints (Note 21). The four corners are bevelled off at the back, which suggests that any later reduction in the panel can only have been slight. On the back is a sealed statement by D. G. van Beuningen to the effect that the painting had not suffered from being stored underground during the war (Fig. 2, Appendix 2) . The paint surface is in a reasonably good state, but exhibits heavy craquelure, which has played a part in the aesthetic assessment of the picture (Note 23) . Dendrochronological examination (Appendix I) showed that the two oaks from which the planks came were probably not felled before 1423. Since recent research has shown that the gap between felling and usage was not likely to have been much more than fifteen years in the 15th century (Note 25) and there is nothing to support the hypothesis that an old panel was reused here (Note 26), it is highly improbable that the picture was painted at the end of the 15th century. The most likely date is C. 1425-35 i.e. the period when the Ghent Altarpiece was painted or slightly later. No other results of dendrochronological examination on Van Eyck panels are available for comparison as yel. Examination by infrared reflectography (Note 28) revealed detailed underdrawing in virtually all parts of the picture and this was very carefully followed during painting with changes only in small details (cf. Figs.3, 5, 7). Stylistically the underdrawing accords with what is known about underdrawing in Van Eyck paintings today, this exhibiting a considerable difference from that of other Flemish Primitives, so that the Rotterdam panel is certainly a Van Eyck work. Among the most striking similarities to the central panel (x) and that with the Knights of Christ (IX) in the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 30) are the underdrawing of the drapery of the angels (Figs. 7-9), the city in the distance (Figs. 3,4, Note 31) and the minutely detailed armour (Figs. 14, 15, Note 33). Types of hatching that appear to be characteristic of the Van Eyck style are that of the shadows, which is sometimes overlapping and generally parallel to the main contours (Figs. 5,8) and a more rarely used type with short lines at an angle to contours (Fig. 9). The x-radiographs (Note 35) give a good idea of the damage to the paint surface (Figs. 16, 17) , which isfound mainly in the sky, along the crack in the top plank and on the bottom edge on the left. There is also a great deal of abrasion on the edges of the craquelure. The x-radiographs confirm the fact that no radical changes were made in the original, generally underdrawn, composition and reveal that the soldiers and their arms were left in reserve during the painting of the rocks and ground, a detail which likewise indicates continuity during the painting process. The underpainting of the rocks in large light blocks with simple contours shown up by x-ray photography is very close to that in panel IX in the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 38). Examination by stereomicroscope (Note 40) generally already gave an impression of the layered structure of the paint. It also showed up some minute details scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye : two horsemen and somefigures in tlae square on tlte leji qlthe city, a .slalue in a niche in the doorway in the zvall in tlae certtre (Fig. 18; possibly a reminiscence of the Golden Gate, Note 56) and a number of ship's masts with crow's nests on the horizon on the right (Fig. 19). Part of the vegetation was shown to be very finely and precisely rendered (Figs. 20, 21), while the rest was not so fine. Similar differences appear in the two bronze-coloured ointment jars in this painting and also in the bottom zone of the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 41). These may reveal two different hands or the somewhat hasty finishing of some areas. The paint samples (Note 42) revealed the presence of an oleaginous isolating layer over the chalk and glue ground comparable to, but thinner than that on the Ghent Altarpiece (Note 45). The only other Flemish Primitive in whose work such a layer is found is Dirc Bouts (Note 50). The paint layer also exhibits many similarities to that of the Ghent Altarpiece, not only in the number and thickness of the layers, but in the composition and overall structure of the paint. For example, the skies in both works are built up in three layers from light to dark on the basis of lead white with increasing amounts of azurite and sometimes a bit of lapis lazuli, the vegetation consists of two layers of green with a glaze over them and the structure of the red mantle of one of the Maries resembles similar areas in the Ghent Altarpiece. This technique again makes it very unlikely that the panel was painted at the end of the 15th century or later. A final point is that the gilded rays ( Fig. 22), like the coat of arms (Fig. 23), prove to be a later addition. Finally, renewed consideration was given to certain iconographical aspects which have been used as dating criteria. The arms and armour have been seen as grounds for a later dating by Squilbeck in particular, but it seems quite likely that many of the forms are purely imaginary, while other experts do not agree with Squilbeck in dating certain elements to the 16th century (Note 53). The arms and armour are in any case an integral part of the painting. The detailed view of Jerusalem is regarded by some as impossible before Erhard Reuwich's print of 1486, while others express surprise that it was not copied by other artists. In fact, however, it is strikingly close in many details to the view in the Ghent Altarpiece, although the latter is firmer in its spatial construction and more convincing. Whole sentences have been read into the texts on the hems of two of the Maries' garments and the soldier's cap (Note 57 ) and it has been argued that the letters are Roman, not Hebrew (Note 58), but in fact they are indispulably Hebrew and although words can sometimes be recognized, they do no form a sentence or text (Note 59). The coat of arms is certainly that of a nobleman of the Order of St. Michael, but whether he was Philippe de Commines is uncertain. The Van den Woesteyne and Van Meaux van Vorsselaer families also bore these arms, albeit in different tinctures (Note 6o). Since the arms are done, in a brownish-grey, they cannot be more precisely identified. The presence of no less than five layers of varnish between the green meadow and the coat of arms could indicate that the arms were added much later than previously thought, possibly in the 16th or even the 17th century (Note 47). While the present study has shown that the Rotterdam painting is quite an early Van Eyck, its precise position in the Van Eyck oeuvre cannot be determined until results of examinations of other works in the group are available.

AbstractAs was the case with silversmiths (Note 3), many more cabinet-makers were wcrking in Amsterdam during the second half of the 18th century than in any other city in the Dutch Republic, the names of 195 of them being now known as opposed to 57 in The Hague and 32 in Rotterdam (Note 2). Most of those 195 names have been culled from the few surviving documents of the Guild of St. Joseph in Amsterdam, to which the cabinet-makers belonged (Note 4), supplemented by other sources, such as printed registers of craftsmen and shopkeepers (Note 6). Another important source is the newspaper the Amsterdamsche Courant with its advertisements placed by craftsmen themselves, with notices of sales, bankruptcies, lotteries and annual fairs and with advertisements concerning subsidiary or related trades. Since these advertisements were directed at the consumer, they often contain stylistic descriptions such as are not found elsewhere. Moreover, they aford valuable clues to archival material. Hence an investigation of all the advertisements from the years 1751-1800 has formed the basis for a study of Amsterdam cabinet-making, some results of which are presented here. Such a study is doomed largely to remain theoretical. The records can hardly ever be linked with surviving pieces, as these are virtually always anonymous since Amsterdam cabinet-makers were not required to stamp or sign their work. Moreover, only a few pieces of Dutch 18th-century furniture have a known provenance, so that it is only rarely possible to link a piece with a bill or another document and identify its maker. Thus it is not yet possible to form a reliable picture of a local Amsterdam style, let alone embark on attributions to individual makers (Note 8). In this light special importance may be attached to two commodes of the third quarter of the century which are exceptional in that they bear a signature, that of Andries Bongen (Figs. 1, 2, Notes 10, 11). These commodes, being entirely French-inspired, illustrate a specific and little-known aspect of Amsterdam cabinet-making. French furniture was so sought after in Amsterdam at that period that in 1771 a strict ban was imposed on its importation in order to protect local cabinet-makers (Note 12). It had begun to be imitated even before that and the commodes by Bongen exemplify this development. Andries Bongen, who was probably born in Geldern, south of Cleves and just east of the border of the Dutch Republic, is first recorded in Amsterdam in May 1763 on his marriage to Willemina, daughter of the smith Lambert van der Beek. He registered as a citizen on 5 July 1763 and became a master cabinet-maker some time between March 1763 and March 1764 (Note 19), so that, accordirtg to the Guild regulations, he must previously have trained for two years under an Amsterdam master (Note 20). At the time of his marriage he was living in St. Jorisstraat, but by the end of 1766 he had moved to Spui and between 1769 and 1771 he moved again, to Muiderpleinlje. When he and his wife made their will in 1772, their possessions were worth something under 8000 guilders (Note 23). This suggests that the business was quite flourishing, which seems to be confirmed by the fact that Bongen received a commission from the city of Amsterdam in 1771. Two more pieces were made for the city in 1786 and 1789, but in the latter year Bongen was declared bankrupt. The inventory of his possessions drawn up then (see Appeytdix) shows how parlous his conditions had become, his goods being valued at only 300 guilders. The reference to a shop indicates that Bongen sold his own furniture, although he had no stock to speak of at that point. The mention of eight work-benches, however, sugests that his output had previously been quite large. This is confirmed by the extent of his debts, notably that to the timber merchant Jan van Mekeren (Note 27). Other creditors included 'Rudolfeus Eyk', who probably supplied iron trelliszvork for bookcases and the like (Note 28), and the glass merchants Boswel en Zonen (Note 29) No debtors are listed and the only customer who can tentatively be identified is a 'Heer Hasselaar' who might be Pieter Cornelis Hasselaer (1720-95), several times burgomaster of Amsterdam between 1773 and 1794 (Note 30). Bongen died three years after his bankruptcy, at which time he was living in Nieuwe Looiersstraat. He appears to have continued working as a cabiytet-maker up to his death and his widow probably carried on the business until her own death in 1808, but nothing is known of this later period. The clearest insight into the character of part of Bongen's output is aforded by the advertisement he placed in the Amsterdamsehe Courant of 4 December 1766, describing three pieces of furniture 'in the French manner'. This is the first announcement by an 18th-century Amsterdam cabinet-maker of work in the French style. Bongen mentions two commodes decorated with floral marquetry, a technique which had flourished in Amsterdam in the late 17th and early 18th centuries (Note 34), but which had largely fallen into disuse on the advent around 1715 of a more sober type of furniture with plain walnut veneers on the English model (Note 36). In France a form of floral marquetry reappeared in the 1740s, being further developed in the following decade under the influence of Jean-François Oeben (1721-63). From the late 1750s there are indications of the presence of pieces of French marquetry furniture in the new style in Amsterdam (Notes 42, 43). The earliest explicit description of floral marquetry appears in a sale catalogue of 5 June 1765 (Note 44), while in another of 25 March 1766 (Note 46) many French pieces are detailed. Obviously, then, Bongen was endeavouring to capture a share, of this new market. The reappearance of elaborate marquetry on Amsterdam-made furniture was the result of a desire to emulate the French examples. The two commodes described in Bongen's advertisement can be identified with the one now in Amsterdam (Fig.2) and the one sold in London in 1947 (Fig.1). The latter still had more of its original mounts at the time nf the sale (Fig. 4) and the two probably formed a pair originally. The unusual fact that they are signed indicates that Bongen intended them to serve as show-pieces to demonstrate his skill at the beginning of his career (cf. Note 51, for another craftsman from abroad who began his career in Amsterdam by similarly advertising a spectacular piece). The commode in Amsterdam, with all its original mounts, demonstrates most clearly how close Bongen came to French prototypes, although his work has many personal traits nonetheless. In the marquetry the vase on a plinth on the front and the composition of the bouquets on the sides are notable (Fig.5), as are the large, full-blown blooms. The carcase, made entirely of oak, is remarkably well constructed and has a heavy, solid character. The commodes are outstanding for the complete integration of the marquetry and the mounts, in the manner of the finesl French furniture. The mounts presenl a problem, as it is not clear where they were made. They do not appear to be French or English, but one hesitates to attribute them to Amsterdam, as it is clear from documentary material that ornamental furniture-mounts were hardly ever made there in the second half of the 18th century. The mounts advertised by Ernst Meyrink in 1752 (Note 53) were probably still of the plain variety of the early part of the century and there is no further mention of mounts made in Amsterdam in the Amsterdamsche Courant. Once, in 1768, the silversmith J. H. Strixner placed an advertisement which refers to their gilding (Note 55). There is virtually no indication either of French mounts being imported and there is little Dutch furniture of this period that bears mounts which are indisputably French. In contrast to this, a large number of advertisements from as early as 1735 show that many mounts were imported from England, while among English manufacturers who came to sell their wares in Amsterdam were Robert Marshall of London (Note 60), James Scott (Note 61), William Tottie of Rotterdam (Note 62), whose business was continued after his death by Klaas Pieter Sent (Note 64), and H. Jelloly, again of Rotterdam (Notes 66, 67). It seems surprising that in a period when the French style reigned supreme so many mounts were imported from England, but the English manufacturers, mainly working in Birmingham, produced many mounts in the French style, probably often directed expressly at foreign markets. On the two commodes by Bongen only the corner mounts and the handles are of types found in the trade-catalogues of the English manufacturers (Figs. 7, 8, Notes 65, 70). The corner mounts are of a common type also found on French furniture (Note 71), so they doubtless copy a French model. The remaining mounts, however, are the ones which are so well integrated with the marquetry and these are not found elsewhere. Recently a third commode signed by Bongen has come to light, of similar character to the first two (Fig.3). Here all the mounts are of types found in the catalogues (Figs.7-10, Note 72). Apparently Bongen could not, or did not choose to, obtain the special mounts any more, although he clearly wanted to follow the same design (Fig. 6). This third commode was undoubtedly made somewhal later than the other two. The marquetry on it is the best preserved and it is possible to see how Bongen enlivened it with fine engraving. Because this piece is less exceptional, it also allows us to attribute some unsigned pieces to Bongen on the basis of their closeness to it, namely a commode sold in London in 1962 (Fig.11, Note 73) and two smaller, simpler commodes, which may originally have formed a pair, one sold in London in 1967 (Fig.12, Nole 74) and the other in a Dutch private collection (Figs.13, 14). The first one has a highly original marquetry decoration of a basket of flowers falling down. On the sides of this piece, and on the front of the two smaller ones, are bouquets tied with ribbons. These were doubtless influenced by contemporary engravings, but no direct models have been identified. The construction of the commode in the Netherlands tallies completely with tltat of the signed example in Amsterdam. The mounts are probably all English, although they have not all been found in English catalogues (Fig.15, Note 76). A seventh commode attributable to Bongen was sold in Switzerland in 1956 (Fig.16, Note 77). It is unusual in that walnut is employed as the background for the floral marquetry, something virtually unknown in Paris, but not uncommon on German work of French inspiration (Note 78). That commodes constitute the largest group among the furniture in the French style attributable to Bongen should cause no surprise, for the commode was the most sought after of all the pieces produced by the ébénistes not only in France, but all over Europe. Two other pieces which reveal Bongen's hand are two tables which look like side-tables, but which have fold-out tops to transform them into card-tables, a type seldom found in France, but common in England and the Netherlands (Note 80). One is at Bowhill in Scotland (Figs.17, 19, 20), the other was sold in London in 1972 (Fig.18, Note 79). The corner mounts on the Bowhill table, which probably also graced the other one originally, are the same as those on the two small commodes, while the handles are again to be found in an English catalogue (Fig.21, Note 81). What sounds like a similar card-table was sold at auction in Amsterdam in 1772 (Note 82). In Bongen's advertisement of 1766 mention is also made of a secretaire, this being the first appearance of this term in the Amsterdamsche Courant and Bongen finding it necessary to define it. No secretaire is known that can be attributed to him. A medal-cabinet in the form of a secretaire in Leiden (Figs.22, 23) hasfloral marquetry somewhat reminiscent of his work, but lacking its elegance, liveliness and equilibrium. Here the floral marquetry is combined with trompe l'oeil cubes and an interlaced border, early Neo-Classical elements which were first employed in France in the 1750s, so that this piece represents a later stage than those attributable to Bongen, which are all in a pure Louis xvstyle. Virtually identical in form to the medal-cabinet is a secretaire decorated solely with floral marquetry (Fig. 24, Note 87). This also appears not to be by Bongen, but both pieces may have been made under his influence. The picture we can form of Bongen's work on the basis of the signed commodes is clearly incomplete. His secretaire was decorated with '4 Children representing Trade', an exceptionally modern and original idea in 1766 even by French standards (Note 88). His ambitions in marquetry obviously wentfar beyondflowers, but no piece has yet beenfound which evinces this, nor is anything known of the Neo-Classical work which he may have produced after this style was introduced in Amsterdam around 1770. Bongen may perhaps have been the first Amsterdam cabinet-maker to produce marquetry furniture in the French style, but he was not to remain the only one. In 1771 and 1772 furniture in both the Dutch and French mode was advertised for sale at the Kistenmakerspand in Kalverstraat, where all furniture-makers belonging to the Guild of St. Joseph could sell their wares (Note 89). The 'French' pieces were probably decorated with marquetry. Only a small number of cabinet-makers are known to have worked in this style, however. They include Arnoldus Gerritsen of Rheestraat, who became a master in 1769 and sold his stock, including a 'small French inlaid Commode', in 1772, and Johan Jobst Swenebart (c.1747 - active up to 1806 or later), who became a master in 1774 and advertised in 1775 that he made 'all sorts of choice Cabinet- and Flower-works', the last term referring to furniture decorated with floral marquetry. Not only French types of furniture, but also traditional Dutch pieces were now decorated with French-inspired marquetry,for example a collector's cabinet advertised in 1775 by Johan Jacob Breytspraak (c.1739-95), who had become a master in 1769-70; a bureau-bookcase, a form introduced in the first half of the century probably under English influence (Note 100), exhibited in 1772 (Note 99); and a display cabinet for porcelain supplied, though not necessarily made, by Pieter Uylenburg en Zoon in 1775 (Notes 101, 102). Even long-case clocks were enriched with marquetry, witness the one advertised by the clock-maker J. H. Kühn in 1775 and another by him which was sold by auction in Edam in 1777 (Note 104). The latter was, like the bureau-bookcase exhibited in 1772, decorated with musical instruments, again a motif borrowed from France, where it was used increasingly from the 1760s onwards (Note 105). A clock signed by the Amsterdam clock-maker J. George Grüning also has a case with marquetry of musical instruments. This must date from about 1775-80, but its maker is unknown (Fig. 25, Notes 106, 107). All four of the Amsterdam cabinet-makers known to have done marquetry around 1770 came from Germany and all were then only recently established in Amsterdam. In fact half of the 144 Amsterdam cabinet-makers working in the second half of the 18th century whose origins it has been possible to trace came from Germany, so the German element was even stronger there than in Paris, where Germans comprised about a third of the ébénistes (Note 108) and where they had again played an important role in the revival of marquetry. None qf the four in Amsterdam was exclusively concerned with marquetry. Indeed, for some of them it may only have been a secondary aspect of their work. This was not true of Bongen, but he too made plain pieces, witness the four mahogany gueridons he made for the city of Amsterdam in 1771 or the two cupboards also made for the city in 1786 and 1789 (Notes 111, 112).No marquetry is listed in his inventory either. Perhaps fashions had changed by the time of his bankruptcy. Such scant knowledge as we have of Amsterdam cabinet-making between 1775 and 1785 certainly seems to suggest this. In the descriptions of the prizes for furraiture-lotteries, such as took place regularly from 1773 onwards (Note 114), marquetry is mentioned in 1773 and 1775 (Notes 115, 116), but after that there is no reference to itfor about tenyears. Nor is there any mention of marquetry in the very few cabinet-makers' advertisements of this period. When the clock-maker Kühn again advertised long-case clocks in 1777 and 1785, the cases were of carved mahogany (Notes 121, 122). Certainly in France the popularity of marquetry began to wane shortly before 1780 and developments in the Netherlands were probably influenced by this. Towards the end of the 1780s, however, pieces described as French and others decorated with 'inlaid work' again appear as prizes in lotteries, such as those organized by Johan Frederik Reinbregt (active 1785-95 or later), who came from Hanover (Note 128), and Swenebart. The latter advertised an inlaid mahogany secretaire in 1793 (Note 132) and similar pieces are listed in the announcement of the sale of the stock of Jean-Matthijs Chaisneux (c.1734-92), one of a small group of French upholsterers first mentioned in Amsterdam in the 1760s, who played an important part in the spread of French influence there (Note 134). In this later period, however, reference is only made to French furniture when English pieces are also mentioned, so a new juxtaposition is implied and 'French' need not mean richly decorated with marquetry as it did in the 1760s. In fact the marquetry of this period was probably of a much more modest character. A large number of pieces of Dutch furniture in the late Neo-Classical style are known, generally veneered with rosewood or mahogany, where the marquetry is confined to trophies, medallions on ribbons, geometric borders and suchlike. A sideboard in the Rijksmuseum is an exceptionally fine and elaborately decorated example of this light and elegant style (Fig. 26) None of this furniture is known for certain to have been made in Amsterdam, but two tobacco boxes with restrained marquetry decoration (Fig.27, Note 136) were made in Haarlem in 1789 by Johan Gottfried Fremming (c.1753-1832) of Leipzig, who had probably trained in Amsterdam and whose style will not have differed much from that current in the capital. Boxes of this type are mentioned in the 1789 inventory of the Amsterdam cabinet-maker Johan Christiaan Molle (c.1748-89) as the only pieces decorated with inlay (Note 138). In the 1792 inventory of Jacob Keesinger (active 1764-92) from Ziegenhain there are larger pieces of marquetry furniture as well (Note 139), but they are greatly in the minority, as is also the case with a sale of cabinet-makers' wares held in 1794 (Note 141), which included a book-case of the type in Fig.28 (Note 142). Similarly the 1795 inventory of Johan Jacob Breytspraak, one of the most important and prosperous cabinet-makers of the day, contains only a few marquetry pieces (Note 144). The 1793 inventory of Hendrik Melters (1720-93) lists tools and patterns for marquetry, but no pieces decorated with it (Note 145). Melters seems to have specialized in cases for long-case clocks, the Amsterdam clock-maker Rutgerus van Meurs (1738-1800) being one of his clients (Note 146). The cases of clocks signed by Van Meurs bear only simple marquetry motifs (Note 147). The Dutch late Neo-Classical furniture with restrained marquetry decoration has no equivalent in France; it is more reminiscent of English work (Note 148). The pattern-books of Hepplewhite and Sheraton undoubtedly found their way to the Dutch Republic and the 'English' furniture mentioned in Amsterdam sources from 1787 probably reflected their influence. However, the introduction of the late, restrained Neo-Classical style in furniture was not the result of English influence alone. Rather, the two countries witnessed a parallel development. In England, too, marquetry was re-introduced under French influence around 1760 and it gradually became much simpler during the last quarter of the century, French influences being amalgamated into a national style (Notes 150, 151). On the whole, the Frertch models were followed more closely in the Netherlands than in England. Even at the end of the century French proportions still very much influenced Dutch cabinet-making. Thus the typically Dutch late Neo-Classical style sprang from a combirtation of French and English influences. This makes it difficult to understand what exactly was meant by the distinction made between ;French' and 'English' furniture at this time. The sources offer few clues here and this is even true of the description of the sale of the stock of the only English cabinet-maker working in Amsterdam at this period, Joseph Bull of London, who was active between 1787 and 1792, when his goods were sold (Notes 155, 156).

Introduction Explorations of the multimedia game format within cultural studies have been broadly approached from two perspectives: one -- the impact of technologies on user interaction particularly with regard to social implications, and the other -- human computer interactions within the framework of cybercultures. Another approach to understanding or speaking about games within cultural studies is to focus on the game experience as cultural practice -- as an activity or an event. In this article I wish to initiate an exploration of the aesthetics of player space as a distinctive element of the gameplay experience. In doing so I propose that an understanding of aesthetic spatial issues as an element of player interactivity and engagement is important for understanding the cultural practice of adventure gameplay. In approaching these questions, I am focussing on the single-player exploration adventure game in particular Myst and The Crystal Key. In describing these games as adventures I am drawing on Chris Crawford's The Art of Computer Game Design, which although a little dated, focusses on game design as a distinct activity. He brings together a theoretical approach with extensive experience as a game designer himself (Excalibur, Legionnaire, Gossip). Whilst at Atari he also worked with Brenda Laurel, a key theorist in the area of computer design and dramatic structure. Adventure games such as Myst and The Crystal Key might form a sub-genre in Chris Crawford's taxonomy of computer game design. Although they use the main conventions of the adventure game -- essentially a puzzle to be solved with characters within a story context -- the main focus and source of pleasure for the player is exploration, particularly the exploration of worlds or cosmologies. The main gameplay of both games is to travel through worlds solving clues, picking up objects, and interacting with other characters. In Myst the player has to solve the riddle of the world they have entered -- as the CD-ROM insert states "Now you're here, wherever here is, with no option but to explore." The goal, as the player must work out, is to release the father Atrus from prison by bringing magic pages of a book to different locations in the worlds. Hints are offered by broken-up, disrupted video clips shown throughout the game. In The Crystal Key, the player as test pilot has to save a civilisation by finding clues, picking up objects, mending ships and defeating an opponent. The questions foregrounded by a focus on the aesthetics of navigation are: What types of representational context are being set up? What choices have designers made about representational context? How are the players positioned within these spaces? What are the implications for the player's sense of orientation and navigation? Architectural Fabrication For the ancient Greeks, painting was divided into two categories: magalography (the painting of great things) and rhyparography (the painting of small things). Magalography covered mythological and historical scenes, which emphasised architectural settings, the human figure and grand landscapes. Rhyparography referred to still lifes and objects. In adventure games, particularly those that attempt to construct a cosmology such as Myst and The Crystal Key, magalography and rhyparography collide in a mix of architectural monumentality and obsessive detailing of objects. For the ancient Greeks, painting was divided into two categories: magalography (the painting of great things) and rhyparography (the painting of small things). Magalography covered mythological and historical scenes, which emphasised architectural settings, the human figure and grand landscapes. Rhyparography referred to still lifes and objects. In adventure games, particularly those that attempt to construct a cosmology such as Myst and The Crystal Key, magalography and rhyparography collide in a mix of architectural monumentality and obsessive detailing of objects. The creation of a digital architecture in adventure games mimics the Pompeii wall paintings with their interplay of extruded and painted features. In visualising the space of a cosmology, the environment starts to be coded like the urban or built environment with underlying geometry and textured surface or dressing. In The Making of Myst (packaged with the CD-ROM) Chuck Carter, the artist on Myst, outlines the process of creating Myst Island through painting the terrain in grey scale then extruding the features and adding textural render -- a methodology that lends itself to a hybrid of architectural and painted geometry. Examples of external architecture and of internal room design can be viewed online. In the spatial organisation of the murals of Pompeii and later Rome, orthogonals converged towards several vertical axes showing multiple points of view simultaneously. During the high Renaissance, notions of perspective developed into a more formal system known as the construzione legittima or legitimate construction. This assumed a singular position of the on-looker standing in the same place as that occupied by the artist when the painting was constructed. In Myst there is an exaggeration of the underlying structuring technique of the construzione legittima with its emphasis on geometry and mathematics. The player looks down at a slight angle onto the screen from a fixed vantage point and is signified as being within the cosmological expanse, either in off-screen space or as the cursor. Within the cosmology, the island as built environment appears as though viewed through an enlarging lens, creating the precision and coldness of a Piero della Francesca painting. Myst mixes flat and three-dimensional forms of imagery on the same screen -- the flat, sketchy portrayal of the trees of Myst Island exists side-by-side with the monumental architectural buildings and landscape design structures created in Macromodel. This image shows the flat, almost expressionistic trees of Myst Island juxtaposed with a fountain rendered in high detail. This recalls the work of Giotto in the Arena chapel. In Joachim's Dream, objects and buildings have depth, but trees, plants and sky -- the space in-between objects -- is flat. Myst Island conjures up the realm of a magic, realist space with obsolete artefacts, classic architectural styles (the Albert Hall as the domed launch pad, the British Museum as the library, the vernacular cottage in the wood), mechanical wonders, miniature ships, fountains, wells, macabre torture instruments, ziggurat-like towers, symbols and odd numerological codes. Adam Mates describes it as "that beautiful piece of brain-deadening sticky-sweet eye-candy" but more than mere eye-candy or graphic verisimilitude, it is the mix of cultural ingredients and signs that makes Myst an intriguing place to play. The buildings in The Crystal Key, an exploratory adventure game in a similar genre to Myst, celebrate the machine aesthetic and modernism with Buckminster Fuller style geodesic structures, the bombe shape, exposed ducting, glass and steel, interiors with movable room partitions and abstract expressionist decorations. An image of one of these modernist structures is available online. The Crystal Key uses QuickTime VR panoramas to construct the exterior and interior spaces. Different from the sharp detail of Myst's structures, the focus changes from sharp in wide shot to soft focus in close up, with hot-spot objects rendered in trompe l'oeil detail. The Tactility of Objects "The aim of trompe l'oeil -- using the term in its widest sense and applying it to both painting and objects -- is primarily to puzzle and to mystify" (Battersby 19). In the 15th century, Brunelleschi invented a screen with central apparatus in order to obtain exact perspective -- the monocular vision of the camera obscura. During the 17th century, there was a renewed interest in optics by the Dutch artists of the Rembrandt school (inspired by instruments developed for Dutch seafaring ventures), in particular Vermeer, Hoogstraten, de Hooch and Dou. Gerard Dou's painting of a woman chopping onions shows this. These artists were experimenting with interior perspective and trompe l'oeil in order to depict the minutia of the middle-class, domestic interior. Within these luminous interiors, with their receding tiles and domestic furniture, is an elevation of the significance of rhyparography. In the Girl Chopping Onions of 1646 by Gerard Dou the small things are emphasised -- the group of onions, candlestick holder, dead fowl, metal pitcher, and bird cage. Trompe l'oeil as an illusionist strategy is taken up in the worlds of Myst, The Crystal Key and others in the adventure game genre. Traditionally, the fascination of trompe l'oeil rests upon the tension between the actual painting and the scam; the physical structures and the faux painted structures call for the viewer to step closer to wave at a fly or test if the glass had actually broken in the frame. Mirian Milman describes trompe l'oeil painting in the following manner: "the repertory of trompe-l'oeil painting is made up of obsessive elements, it represents a reality immobilised by nails, held in the grip of death, corroded by time, glimpsed through half-open doors or curtains, containing messages that are sometimes unreadable, allusions that are often misunderstood, and a disorder of seemingly familiar and yet remote objects" (105). Her description could be a scene from Myst with in its suggestion of theatricality, rich texture and illusionistic play of riddle or puzzle. In the trompe l'oeil painterly device known as cartellino, niches and recesses in the wall are represented with projecting elements and mock bas-relief. This architectural trickery is simulated in the digital imaging of extruded and painting elements to give depth to an interior or an object. Other techniques common to trompe l'oeil -- doors, shadowy depths and staircases, half opened cupboard, and paintings often with drapes and curtains to suggest a layering of planes -- are used throughout Myst as transition points. In the trompe l'oeil paintings, these transition points were often framed with curtains or drapes that appeared to be from the spectator space -- creating a painting of a painting effect. Myst is rich in this suggestion of worlds within worlds through the framing gesture afforded by windows, doors, picture frames, bookcases and fireplaces. Views from a window -- a distant landscape or a domestic view, a common device for trompe l'oeil -- are used in Myst to represent passageways and transitions onto different levels. Vertical space is critical for extending navigation beyond the horizontal through the terraced landscape -- the tower, antechamber, dungeon, cellars and lifts of the fictional world. Screen shots show the use of the curve, light diffusion and terracing to invite the player. In The Crystal Key vertical space is limited to the extent of the QTVR tilt making navigation more of a horizontal experience. Out-Stilling the Still Dutch and Flemish miniatures of the 17th century give the impression of being viewed from above and through a focussing lens. As Mastai notes: "trompe l'oeil, therefore is not merely a certain kind of still life painting, it should in fact 'out-still' the stillest of still lifes" (156). The intricate detailing of objects rendered in higher resolution than the background elements creates a type of hyper-reality that is used in Myst to emphasise the physicality and actuality of objects. This ultimately enlarges the sense of space between objects and codes them as elements of significance within the gameplay. The obsessive, almost fetishistic, detailed displays of material artefacts recall the curiosity cabinets of Fabritius and Hoogstraten. The mechanical world of Myst replicates the Dutch 17th century fascination with the optical devices of the telescope, the convex mirror and the prism, by coding them as key signifiers/icons in the frame. In his peepshow of 1660, Hoogstraten plays with an enigma and optical illusion of a Dutch domestic interior seen as though through the wrong end of a telescope. Using the anamorphic effect, the image only makes sense from one vantage point -- an effect which has a contemporary counterpart in the digital morphing widely used in adventure games. The use of crumbled or folded paper standing out from the plane surface of the canvas was a recurring motif of the Vanitas trompe l'oeil paintings. The highly detailed representation and organisation of objects in the Vanitas pictures contained the narrative or symbology of a religious or moral tale. (As in this example by Hoogstraten.) In the cosmology of Myst and The Crystal Key, paper contains the narrative of the back-story lovingly represented in scrolls, books and curled paper messages. The entry into Myst is through the pages of an open book, and throughout the game, books occupy a privileged position as holders of stories and secrets that are used to unlock the puzzles of the game. Myst can be read as a Dantesque, labyrinthine journey with its rich tapestry of images, its multi-level historical associations and battle of good and evil. Indeed the developers, brothers Robyn and Rand Miller, had a fertile background to draw on, from a childhood spent travelling to Bible churches with their nondenominational preacher father. The Diorama as System Event The diorama (story in the round) or mechanical exhibit invented by Daguerre in the 19th century created a mini-cosmology with player anticipation, action and narrative. It functioned as a mini-theatre (with the spectator forming the fourth wall), offering a peek into mini-episodes from foreign worlds of experience. The Musée Mechanique in San Francisco has dioramas of the Chinese opium den, party on the captain's boat, French execution scenes and ghostly graveyard episodes amongst its many offerings, including a still showing an upper class dancing party called A Message from the Sea. These function in tandem with other forbidden pleasures of the late 19th century -- public displays of the dead, waxwork museums and kinetescope flip cards with their voyeuristic "What the Butler Saw", and "What the Maid Did on Her Day Off" tropes. Myst, along with The 7th Guest, Doom and Tomb Raider show a similar taste for verisimilitude and the macabre. However, the pre-rendered scenes of Myst and The Crystal Key allow for more diorama like elaborate and embellished details compared to the emphasis on speed in the real-time-rendered graphics of the shoot-'em-ups. In the gameplay of adventure games, animated moments function as rewards or responsive system events: allowing the player to navigate through the seemingly solid wall; enabling curtains to be swung back, passageways to appear, doors to open, bookcases to disappear. These short sequences resemble the techniques used in mechanical dioramas where a coin placed in the slot enables a curtain or doorway to open revealing a miniature narrative or tableau -- the closure of the narrative resulting in the doorway shutting or the curtain being pulled over again. These repeating cycles of contemplation-action-closure offer the player one of the rewards of the puzzle solution. The sense of verisimilitude and immersion in these scenes is underscored by the addition of sound effects (doors slamming, lifts creaking, room atmosphere) and music. Geographic Locomotion Static imagery is the standard backdrop of the navigable space of the cosmology game landscape. Myst used a virtual camera around a virtual set to create a sequence of still camera shots for each point of view. The use of the still image lends itself to a sense of the tableauesque -- the moment frozen in time. These tableauesque moments tend towards the clean and anaesthetic, lacking any evidence of the player's visceral presence or of other human habitation. The player's navigation from one tableau screen to the next takes the form of a 'cyber-leap' or visual jump cut. These jumps -- forward, backwards, up, down, west, east -- follow on from the geographic orientation of the early text-based adventure games. In their graphic form, they reveal a new framing angle or point of view on the scene whilst ignoring the rules of classical continuity editing. Games such as The Crystal Key show the player's movement through space (from one QTVR node to another) by employing a disorientating fast zoom, as though from the perspective of a supercharged wheelchair. Rather than reconciling the player to the state of movement, this technique tends to draw attention to the technologies of the programming apparatus. The Crystal Key sets up a meticulous screen language similar to filmic dramatic conventions then breaks its own conventions by allowing the player to jump out of the crashed spaceship through the still intact window. The landscape in adventure games is always partial, cropped and fragmented. The player has to try and map the geographical relationship of the environment in order to understand where they are and how to proceed (or go back). Examples include selecting the number of marker switches on the island to receive Atrus's message and the orientation of Myst's tower in the library map to obtain key clues. A screenshot shows the arrival point in Myst from the dock. In comprehending the landscape, which has no centre, the player has to create a mental map of the environment by sorting significant connecting elements into chunks of spatial elements similar to a Guy Debord Situationist map. Playing the Flaneur The player in Myst can afford to saunter through the landscape, meandering at a more leisurely pace that would be possible in a competitive shoot-'em-up, behaving as a type of flaneur. The image of the flaneur as described by Baudelaire motions towards fin de siècle decadence, the image of the socially marginal, the dispossessed aristocrat wandering the urban landscape ready for adventure and unusual exploits. This develops into the idea of the artist as observer meandering through city spaces and using the power of memory in evoking what is observed for translation into paintings, writing or poetry. In Myst, the player as flaneur, rather than creating paintings or writing, is scanning the landscape for clues, witnessing objects, possible hints and pick-ups. The numbers in the keypad in the antechamber, the notes from Atrus, the handles on the island marker, the tower in the forest and the miniature ship in the fountain all form part of a mnemomic trompe l'oeil. A screenshot shows the path to the library with one of the island markers and the note from Atrus. In the world of Myst, the player has no avatar presence and wanders around a seemingly unpeopled landscape -- strolling as a tourist venturing into the unknown -- creating and storing a mental map of objects and places. In places these become items for collection -- cultural icons with an emphasised materiality. In The Crystal Key iconography they appear at the bottom of the screen pulsing with relevance when active. A screenshot shows a view to a distant forest with the "pick-ups" at the bottom of the screen. This process of accumulation and synthesis suggests a Surrealist version of Joseph Cornell's strolls around Manhattan -- collecting, shifting and organising objects into significance. In his 1982 taxonomy of game design, Chris Crawford argues that without competition these worlds are not really games at all. That was before the existence of the Myst adventure sub-genre where the pleasures of the flaneur are a particular aspect of the gameplay pleasures outside of the rules of win/loose, combat and dominance. By turning the landscape itself into a pathway of significance signs and symbols, Myst, The Crystal Key and other games in the sub-genre offer different types of pleasures from combat or sport -- the pleasures of the stroll -- the player as observer and cultural explorer. References Battersby, M. Trompe L'Oeil: The Eye Deceived. New York: St. Martin's, 1974. Crawford, C. The Art of Computer Game Design. Original publication 1982, book out of print. 15 Oct. 2000 <http://members.nbci.com/kalid/art/art.php>. Darley Andrew. Visual Digital Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres. London: Routledge, 2000. Lunenfeld, P. Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P 1999. Mates, A. Effective Illusory Worlds: A Comparative Analysis of Interfaces in Contemporary Interactive Fiction. 1998. 15 Oct. 2000 <http://www.wwa.com/~mathes/stuff/writings>. Mastai, M. L. d'Orange. Illusion in Art, Trompe L'Oeil: A History of Pictorial Illusion. New York: Abaris, 1975. Miller, Robyn and Rand. "The Making of Myst." Myst. Cyan and Broderbund, 1993. Milman, M. Trompe-L'Oeil: The Illusion of Reality. New York: Skira Rizzoli, 1982. Murray, J. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. Wertheim, M. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Cyberspace from Dante to the Internet. Sydney: Doubleday, 1999. Game References 7th Guest. Trilobyte, Inc., distributed by Virgin Games, 1993. Doom. Id Software, 1992. Excalibur. Chris Crawford, 1982. Myst. Cyan and Broderbund, 1993. Tomb Raider. Core Design and Eidos Interactive, 1996. The Crystal Key. Dreamcatcher Interactive, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Bernadette Flynn. "Towards an Aesthetics of Navigation -- Spatial Organisation in the Cosmology of the Adventure Game." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.5 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/navigation.php>. Chicago style: Bernadette Flynn, "Towards an Aesthetics of Navigation -- Spatial Organisation in the Cosmology of the Adventure Game," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 5 (2000), <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/navigation.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Bernadette Flynn. (2000) Towards an aesthetics of navigation -- spatial organisation in the cosmology of the adventure game. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(5). <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/navigation.php> ([your date of access]).