published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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This thesis examines the extent to which, in an artistic context, personifications, and allegorical figures and scenes, were embedded in the culture of Late Antiquity from AD 300 to 600. ‘Personification' can be read both as a noun and a verb, and I explore it in both senses. My examination is carried out through a series of case studies of figurative imagery on contemporary silver plate. I make an empirical study of the primary objects within my thesis in relation to texts and other objects never considered in conjunction before. The representations on the silver plate discussed in my thesis are broadly divided into three categories: secular, imperial and cultic. In the secular grouping, I discuss their links to literature, the theatre, and their place in the dining room. Imperial imagery often featured personifications and in addition was circulated throughout the known world, and so I examine the power held by these particular, and predominantly female, figures. Although pagan cults were by this time dying out, a few surviving cultic objects such as the Parabiago Plate allow an examination of this form of personification. During this period there were huge changes as the Roman Empire divided into Eastern and Western Empires and adopted the Christian faith. The former became the Byzantine Empire and the latter went into a perceived decline, particularly after the sack of Rome in AD 410. I look at how pagan personifications and allegorical groups survived this transition, and assess the significance of this form of continuity. This thesis demonstrates that in Late Antiquity the art of personification functioned in all aspects of life. It was a subliminal language, accessible in varying degrees to contemporary viewers depending on their education and status. It was a potent propaganda tool, and in what was then a patriarchal society it provided images of strong, powerful females.

The study investigates the continental influences upon the development of decorative wrought iron in England, Wales and Scotland from 1660 to 1720. The research explores the influence of ornament prints, and the work of blacksmiths and patrons in response to the social, cultural and political ideals of the time. The study analyses the role and effects of the new continental, transmutable designs upon technical practices. It explores the changing role of the architect in the design process and the implications of this for the blacksmith's craft. It examines the complex network of influences upon the evolution of English taste and demonstrates how a variety of different commissions, such as the designs for ecclesiastical, private and public buildings, created an entirely different language of decorative ironwork. The study focuses largely upon ironwork of the finest quality and innovation, located in exterior and interior sites. The physical setting of decorative ironwork is examined. In particular, the diversity and artistic innovation of Jean Tijou's work at St Paul's Cathedral is analysed in terms of the sources of continental influence. It is significant to note that the work at this cathedral spanned twenty of Tijou's twenty-four-year career in Britain. The thesis challenges conventional interpretations of stylistic change, whereby new styles replace old, arguing for an increased awareness of diversity in design styles and a high degree of liberalism in the creation and composition of new designs, until around 1710. The thesis argues that the early part of the period from 1660 to around 1690 was influenced predominantly by the French with antecedents in Italian style whereas the work from around 1690-1710 illustrates the significant impact of Louis XIV's French court style, typified by the work of Jean Tijou, and more restrained Dutch designs. A shift in patronage from royal and aristrocratic commissions to sobre public and academic buildings was reflected in a more restrained and linear style which responded to prevailing notions of English taste. Appendix I provides a catalogue of Continental and English ornament designers who created ironwork ornament prints during 1660-1720 and Appendix II summarises the period's achievements in wrought iron by collecting together for the first time a list of work by British blacksmiths of the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries.

This is the first major art historical study of Elkington & Co., the British art-metalwork company that from c.1840 invented and patented methods of electro-depositing gold and silver, which they developed artistically and commercially into the modern industrial art of electro-metallurgy. It analyses how Elkington's syntheses of science and art into industrial manufacturing processes revolutionized the design and production, replication and reproduction of precious metalwork, metal sculpture, and ornamental art-metalwork, and why the art of electro-metallurgy, the world's first electrical art, exemplifies the social, and cultural change of the mid-Victorian era. This PhD thesis studies Elkington's technical development from c.1840-1900, analyzing how they developed new methods of gilding and plating, and important collateral technologies. It identifies key people in the company, and analyses the chronology of scientific discoveries that shaped the industrial processes and artistic practices at their manufactories in Birmingham. It then analyses the development of the company's creative strategy, and identifies key people whose artistic contributions collectively shaped the evolution of the art of electro-metallurgy. It provides the first study of Elkington as non-precious metals manufacturers, identifying and analyzing the key artworks that they produced in copper and copper alloys as 'bronzists,' and examines how Elkington applied the art of electro-metallurgy to the manufacture of monumental statues. By critically analyzing key sculptures it demonstrates how Elkington became the preeminent British bronze foundry of the mid-Victorian era. It concludes with a study of Elkington & Co.'s oeuvre from 1851-1878, and analyzes how their art of electro-metallurgy was influenced by the technical and stylistic eclecticism of l'orfèvrerie française of the French 2nd Empire. It describes how, from 1853- 1899, Elkington employed three Frenchmen as their chief artists: Pierre-Emile Jeannest, Auguste Willms, and Léonard Morel-Ladeuil, who further elevated the company's artistic reputation. It concludes with a detailed analysis of Elkington's masterpiece, The Milton Shield (1867) and analyses how its publication as electrotype reproductions in America exemplified the art of electro-metallurgy.

Thesis--Ph. D., University of Hong Kong, 1985.

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