World Arts Gallerythe exclusive collection of world’s most valuable arts

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the Champ-de-Mars

The Eiffel tower and the Seine at night

The Eiffel Tower is Paris’ most-recognized icon. Built for the World Exposition of 1889, the tower is a relative newcomer to a city whose history stretches back to over a millennia.

Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris and one of the most recognized structures in the world. More than 200,000,000 have visited the tower since its construction in 1889,[2] including 6,719,200  in 2006, making it the most visited paid monument in the world. Including the 24 m (79 ft) antenna, the structure is 325 m (1,063 ft) high (since 2000), which is equivalent to about 81 levels in a conventional building.

Basilique Saint-Denis, or the Church of St. Denis, in Paris

The church would have “the most radiant windows” to “illuminate men’s minds so that they may travel through apprehension of God’s light.”
–Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis

The Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis wanted to create a church that would be even greater than the famous Hagia Sophia Church in Constantinople. The church he commissioned, Basilique Saint-Denis, became a model for most of the late 12th-century French cathedrals, including those at Chartres and Senlis. The facade is primarily Romanesque, but many details in the church move away from the low Romanesque style. The Church of Saint-Denis was the first large building to use the new vertical style known as Gothic.

Originally the Church of Saint-Denis had two towers, but one collapsed in 1837.

The term “Batik” is an Indonesian-Malay word (Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malay are the official languages of Indonesia and Malaysia and are linguistically similar). Batik has come to be used as a generic term which refers to the process of dyeing fabric by making use of a resist technique; covering areas of cloth with a dye-resistant substance to prevent them absorbing colors. The technique is thought to be over a thousand years old and historical evidence demonstrates that cloth decorated with this resist technique was in use in the early centuries AD in Africa, the Middle East and in several places in Asia. Although there is no sure explanation as to where batik first was “invented”, many observers believe that it was brought to Asia by travelers from the Indian subcontinent.

Despite the fact that batik may have originated elsewhere, most observers believe that batik has reached its highest artistic expression in Indonesia, particularly in Java. The art of Batik was later spread to the rest of the Indonesian archipelago and to the Malay Peninsula where the popularity of the cloth led to the establishment of many other production centers. Batik has become a very central means of artistic expression for many of the areas of Asia and a deeply integrated facet of Asian culture.

It would be impossible to visit or live in Indonesia and not be exposed to one of the country’s most highly developed art forms, batik. On your first visit to a batik store or factory you will undoubtedly experience an overwhelming stimulation of the senses - due to the many colors, patterns and the actual smell of batik. Only through repeated visits and a bit of study will the types of designs and their origins become apparent.

The word batik is thought to be derived from the word ‘ambatik’ which translated means ‘a cloth with little dots’. The suffix ‘tik’ means little dot, drop, point or to make dots. Batik may also originate from the Javanese word ‘tritik’ which describes a resist process for dying where the patterns are reserved on the textiles by tying and sewing areas prior to dying, similar to tie dye techniques. Another Javanese phase for the mystical experience of making batik is “mbatik manah” which means “drawing a batik design on the heart”.

A Brief History

Although experts disagree as to the precise origins of batik, samples of dye resistance patterns on cloth can be traced back 1,500 years ago to Egypt and the Middle East. Samples have also been found in Turkey, India, China, Japan and West Africa from past centuries. Although in these countries people were using the technique of dye resisting decoration, within the textile realm, none have developed batik to its present day art form as the highly developed intricate batik found on the island of Java in Indonesia.

Although there is mention of ‘fabrics highly decorated’ in Dutch transcripts from the 17th century, most scholars believe that the intricate Javanese batik designs would only have been possible after the importation of finely woven imported cloth, which was first imported to Indonesia from India around the 1800s and afterwards from Europe beginning in 1815. Textile patterns can be seen on stone statues that are carved on the walls of ancient Javanese temples such as Prambanan (AD 800), however there is no conclusive evidence that the cloth is batik. It could possibly be a pattern that was produced with weaving techniques and not dying. What is clear is that in the 19th century batik became highly developed and was well ingrained in Javanese cultural life.

Some experts feel that batik was originally reserved as an art form for Javanese royalty. Certainly it’s royal nature was clear as certain patterns were reserved to be worn only by royalty from the Sultan’s palace. Princesses and noble women may have provided the inspiration for the highly refined design sense evident in traditional patterns. It is highly unlikely though that they would be involved in any more than the first wax application. Most likely, the messy work of dyeing and subsequent waxings was left to court artisans who would work under their supervision.

Javanese royalty were known to be great patrons of the arts and provided the support necessary to develop many art forms, such as silver ornamentation, wayang kulit (leather puppets) and gamelan orchestras. In some cases the art forms overlap. The Javanese dalang (puppeteer) not only was responsible for the wayang puppets but was also an important source of batik patterns. Wayang puppets are usually made of goat skin, which is then perforated and painted to create the illusion of clothing on the puppet. Used puppets were often sold to eager ladies who used the puppets as guides for their batik patterns. They would blow charcoal through the holes that define the patterns of clothing on the puppets, in order to copy the intricate designs onto the cloth.

Other scholars disagree that batik was only reserved as an art form for royalty, as they also feel its use was prevalent with the rakyat, the people. It was regarded an important part of a young ladies accomplishment that she be capable of handling a canting (the pen-like instrument used to apply wax to the cloth) with a reasonable amount of skill, certainly as important as cookery and other housewifery arts to Central Javanese women.

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“The Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci. Painted c.1503-6. Oil paint on wood. Size: 30×20″ (77×53cm). In the collection of the Louvre in Paris.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, in the Louvre in Paris, is arguably the most famous painting in the world. It is probably also the best known example of sfumato, a painting technique partly responsible for her enigmatic smile.

You’ll have to elbow your way through the crowds to see it “in the flesh” rather than as a reproduction. Is it worthwhile? I’d have to say “probably” rather than “definitely”. I was disappointed the first time I saw it as I’d never truly realized just how small a painting it was because I’m used to seeing it poster-sized.

But that said, could you really visit the Louvre and not go to see it at least once? Just patiently work your way towards the front of the admiring horde, then take your time looking at the way the colors have been used. Simply because it’s such a familiar painting, doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile spending time with it.

There’s been a lot of speculation about who the woman in the painting was, but it’s not known for definite. It’s thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant called Francesco del Giocondo. (The 16th-century art writer Vasari was among the first to suggest this, in his Lives of the Artists.)

Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh (1886/7). 41×32.5cm, oil on artist’s board, mounted on panel. In the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

This portrait by Vincent van Gogh is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was painted using a style similar to Pointillism, but doesn’t stick strictly to dots only.

In the two years he lived in Paris, from 1886 to 1888, Van Gogh painted 24 self-portraits. The Art Institute of Chicago described this one as employing Seurat’s “dot technique” not as a scientific method, but “an intense emotional language” in which “the red and green dots are disturbing and totally in keeping with the nervous tension evident in van Gogh’s gaze”.

In a letter a few years later to his sister, Wilhelmina, Van Gogh wrote: “I painted two pictures of myself lately, one of which has rather the true character, I think, although in Holland they would probably scoff at the ideas about portrait painting that are germinating here. … I always think photographs abominable, and I don’t like to have them around, particularly not those of persons I know and love…. photographic portraits wither much sooner than we ourselves do, whereas the painted portrait is a thing which is felt, done with love or respect for the human being that is portrayed.”
(Quote source: Letter to Wilhelmina van Gogh, 19 September 1889)