1.
Crane (bird)
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Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the group Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera, unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back. Cranes live on all continents except Antarctica and South America and they are opportunistic feeders that change their diet according to the season and their own nutrient requirements. They eat a range of items from suitably sized small rodents, fish, amphibians, and insects to grain, berries, Cranes construct platform nests in shallow water, and typically lay two eggs at a time. Both parents help to rear the young, which remain with them until the breeding season. Some species and populations of cranes migrate over long distances, others do not migrate at all, Cranes are solitary during the breeding season, occurring in pairs, but during the non-breeding season they are gregarious, forming large flocks where their numbers are sufficient. Most species of cranes have been affected by human activities and are at the least classified as threatened, the plight of the whooping cranes of North America inspired some of the first US legislation to protect endangered species. The cranes are large to large birds, including the worlds tallest flying bird. They are long-legged and long-necked birds with streamlined bodies and large rounded wings, the males and females do not vary in external appearance, but on average males tend to be slightly larger than females. The plumage of the cranes varies by habitat, species inhabiting vast open wetlands tend to have more white in the plumage than do species that inhabit smaller wetlands or forested habitats, which tend to be more grey. These white species are generally larger. Most species of crane have some areas of skin on the face. This skin is used in communication with other cranes, and can be expanded by contracting and relaxing muscles, feathers on the head can be moved and erected in the blue, wattled and demoiselle cranes for signalling as well. Also important to communication is the position and length of the trachea, in the two crowned-cranes the trachea is shorter and only slightly impressed upon the bone of the sternum, whereas the trachea of the other species is longer and penetrates the sternum. In some species the entire sternum is fused to the plates of the trachea. The cranes have a distribution, occurring across most of the world continents. They are absent from Antarctica and, mysteriously, South America, east Asia is the centre of crane diversity, with eight species, followed by Africa, which holds five resident species and wintering populations of a sixth. Australia, Europe and North America have two species, the remaining genus, Grus, contains the most species and is the most widespread genus, although only a single species occurs in Africa as a wintering migrant
2.
Great Mosque of Kairouan
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The Great Mosque of Kairouan, also known as the Mosque of Uqba, is one of the most important mosques in Tunisia, situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan. The Great Mosque of Kairouan is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic monuments in North Africa and this vast space contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a huge marble-paved courtyard and a massive square minaret. In addition to its prestige, the Mosque of Uqba is one of the masterpieces of both architecture and Islamic art. Under the Aghlabids, huge works gave the mosque its present aspect, the fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and repopulate increasingly. The university, consisting of scholars who taught in the mosque, was a centre of both in Islamic thought and in the secular sciences. Its role can be compared to that of the University of Paris in the Middle Ages, with the decline of the city of Kairouan from the mid 11th century, the centre of intellectual thought moved to the University of Ez-Zitouna in Tunis. Located in the north-east of the medina of Kairouan, the mosque is in the district of Houmat al-Jami. This location corresponded originally to the heart of the fabric of the city founded by Uqba ibn Nafi. But because of the nature of the land, crossed by several tributaries of the wadis. Then there are the upheavals of Kairouan following Hilalians invasions in 449 AH, for all these reasons, the mosque is not any more situated in the center of the medina, and is thereby positioned on the extremity, near the walls. The building is a vast irregular quadrilateral, longer from the side than on the opposite side. It covers a area of 9000 m2. More than a role, the buttresses and towers full serve more to enhance the stability of the mosque built on a soil subject to compaction. At the foundation of Kairouan in 670, the Arab general and conqueror Uqba Ibn Nafi chose the site of his mosque in the center of the city, near the headquarters of the governor. Around 690, shortly after its construction, the mosque was destroyed during the occupation of Kairouan by the Berbers and it was rebuilt by the Ghassanid general Hasan ibn al-Numan in 703. In view of its expansion, he pulled down the mosque and it was under his auspices that the construction of the minaret began. In 774, a new reconstruction accompanied by modifications and embellishments took place under the direction of the Abbasid governor Yazid Ibn Hatim, under the rule of Aghlabid sovereigns, Kairouan was at its apogee, and the mosque profited from this period of stability and prosperity. In 836, Ziadet-Allah I reconstructed the mosque once more, this is when the acquired, at least in its entirety
3.
Tunisia
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Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa, covering 165,000 square kilometres. Its northernmost point, Cape Angela, is the northernmost point on the African continent and it is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisias population was estimated to be just under 11 million in 2014, Tunisias name is derived from its capital city, Tunis, which is located on Tunisias northeast coast. Geographically, Tunisia contains the end of the Atlas Mountains. Much of the rest of the land is fertile soil. Tunisia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic and it is considered to be the only full democracy in the Arab World. It has a human development index. In addition, Tunisia is also a state of the United Nations. Close relations with Europe – in particular with France and with Italy – have been forged through economic cooperation, privatisation, in ancient times, Tunisia was primarily inhabited by Berbers. Phoenician immigration began in the 12th century BC, these immigrants founded Carthage, a major mercantile power and a military rival of the Roman Republic, Carthage was defeated by the Romans in 146 BC. The Romans, who would occupy Tunisia for most of the eight hundred years, introduced Christianity. After several attempts starting in 647, the Arabs conquered the whole of Tunisia by 697, the Ottomans held sway for over three hundred years. The French colonization of Tunisia occurred in 1881, Tunisia gained independence with Habib Bourguiba and declared the Tunisian Republic in 1957. In 2011, the Tunisian Revolution resulted in the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country voted for parliament again on 26 October 2014, and for President on 23 November 2014. The word Tunisia is derived from Tunis, an urban hub. The present form of the name, with its Latinate suffix -ia, the French derivative Tunisie was adopted in some European languages with slight modifications, introducing a distinctive name to designate the country. Other languages remained untouched, such as the Russian Туни́с and Spanish Túnez, in this case, the same name is used for both country and city, as with the Arabic تونس, and only by context can one tell the difference. The name Tunis can be attributed to different origins and it is generally associated with the Berber root ⵜⵏⵙ, transcribed tns, which means to lay down or encampment
4.
Woodworking
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Woodworking is the activity or skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans, microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood. The development of civilization was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater degrees of skill in working these materials, among early finds of wooden tools are the worked sticks from Kalambo Falls, Clacton-on-Sea and Lehringen. The spears from Schöningen provide some of the first examples of hunting gear. Flint tools were used for carving, since Neolithic times, carved wooden vessels are known, for example, from the Linear Pottery culture wells at Kückhofen and Eythra. Examples of Bronze Age wood-carving include tree trunks worked into coffins from northern Germany and Denmark, there is significant evidence of advanced woodworking in Ancient Egypt. Woodworking is depicted in extant ancient Egyptian drawings, and a considerable amount of ancient Egyptian furniture has been preserved. Tombs represent a collection of these artefacts and the inner coffins found in the tombs were also made of wood. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was originally copper and eventually, commonly used woodworking tools included axes, adzes, chisels, pull saws, and bow drills. Mortise and tenon joints are attested from the earliest Predynastic period and these joints were strengthened using pegs, dowels and leather or cord lashings. Animal glue came to be used only in the New Kingdom period, Ancient Egyptians invented the art of veneering and used varnishes for finishing, though the composition of these varnishes is unknown. Woodworking was essential to the Romans and it provided, sometimes the only, material for buildings, transportation, tools, and household items. Vitruvius dedicates a chapter of his De architectura to timber. Pliny, while not a botanist, dedicated six books of his Natural History to trees and woody plants which provides a wealth of information on trees, the progenitors of Chinese woodworking are considered to be Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun, from the Spring and Autumn period. Lu Ban is said to have introduced the plane, chalk-line and his teachings were supposedly left behind in the book Lu Ban Jing. Despite this, it is believed that the text was written some 1500 years after his death. This book is filled largely with descriptions of dimensions for use in building various items such as pots, tables, altars, etc. It mentions almost nothing of the intricate glue-less and nail-less joinery for which Chinese furniture was so famous, with the advances in modern technology and the demands of industry, woodwork as a field has changed
5.
Chisel
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The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or of wood with a sharp edge in it. Chiselling use involves forcing the blade into some material to cut it, the driving force may be applied by pushing by hand, or by using a mallet or hammer. In industrial use, a ram or falling weight drives a chisel into the material. A gouge, one type of chisel, serves - particularly in woodworking, woodturning, gouges most frequently produce concave surfaces. A gouge typically has a U-shaped cross-section, chisel comes from the Old French cisel, modern ciseau, Late Latin cisellum, a cutting tool, from caedere, to cut. Chisels have a variety of uses. Many types of chisel have been devised, each suited to its intended use. Different types of chisel may be constructed differently, in terms of blade width or length, as well as shape. They may have a wooden or plastic handle attached using a tang or socket, woodworking chisels range from small hand tools for tiny details, to large chisels used to remove big sections of wood, in roughing out the shape of a pattern or design. Typically, in woodcarving, one starts with a larger tool, one of the largest types of chisel is the slick, used in timber frame construction and wooden shipbuilding. There are many types of woodworking chisels used for specific purposes, such as, Butt chisel, short chisel with beveled sides and straight edge for creating joints. Carving chisels, used for designs and sculpting, cutting edges are many, such as gouge, skew, parting, straight, paring. Corner chisel, resembles a punch and has an L-shaped cutting edge, cleans out square holes, mortises and corners with 90 degree angles. Bevel edge chisel, can get into acute angles with its bevelled edges, flooring chisel, cuts and lifts flooring materials for removal and repair, ideal for tongue-and-groove flooring. Framing chisel, usually used with mallet, similar to a chisel, except it has a longer. Slick, a large chisel driven by pressure, never struck. Mortise chisel, thick, rigid blade with cutting edge and deep, slightly tapered sides to make mortises. Paring chisel, has a long blade ideal for cleaning grooves, skew chisel, has a 60 degree cutting angle and is used for trimming and finishing
6.
Figurine
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A figurine or statuette is a small statue that represents a human, deity or animal, or in practice a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with pottery, metal, wood, glass, ceramic figurines not made of porcelain are called terracottas in historical contexts. Figures with movable parts, allowing limbs to be posed, are likely to be called dolls, mannequins, or action figures, or robots or automata. Figurines and miniatures are used in board games, such as chess. In China, there are extant Neolithic figurines, European prehistoric figurines of women, some appearing pregnant, are called Venus figurines, because of their presumed connection to fertility. The two oldest known examples are made of stone, were found in Africa and Asia, and are several hundred years old. Many made of fired clay have been found in Europe that date to 25-30,000 BC, Olmec figurines in semi-precious stones and pottery had a wide influence all over Mesoamerica about 1000-500 BC, and were apparently usually kept in houses. These early figurines are among the first signs of human culture, one cannot know in some cases how they were used. They probably had religious or ceremonial significance and may have used in many types of rituals. Some may have worn as jewelry or intended to amuse children. Porcelain and other ceramics are common materials for figurines, ancient Greek terracotta figurines, made in moulds, were a large industry by the Hellenistic period, and ones in bronze also very common. In Roman art bronze came to predominate, most of these were religious, and deposited in large numbers in temples as votives, or kept in the home and sometimes buried with their owner. But types such as Tanagra figurines included many purely decorative subjects, there are many early examples from China, which drove the experimentation in Europe to replicate the process. The first European porcelain figurines, produced in a process mastered in Germany were known as Meissen ware after the city where it began, soon the technique was copied in other cities, such as the one depicted from Dresden. Genre figurines of gallant scenes, beggars or figurines of saints are carved from pinewood in Val Gardena, South Tyrol, modern figurines, particularly those made of plastic, are often referred to as figures. They can encompass modern action figures and other figures as well as Precious Moments and Hummel figurines, Bobbleheads, Sebastian Miniatures. Two companies which produce porcelain figurines are Royal Doulton, Lladró, Figurines of comic book or sci-fi/fantasy characters without movable parts have been referred to by the terms inaction figures and staction figures. There is also a known as mini war gaming in which players use figurines in table top based games
7.
Sculpture
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Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
8.
Tracery
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In architecture, tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the floors on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out. There are two types, plate tracery and the later bar tracery. Romanesque church windows were normally quite small, somewhat taller than wide, from around the 1140s, the pointed-arch Gothic window started to take over. With this type of design, the spandrels are just blank wall, the rose windows of early- and high-Gothic cathedrals, such as the example in the north transept of Laon Cathedral or the west facade at Chartres, also employed plate tracery. This greatly limited the amount of light admitted to the interior by these windows. The earliest bar tracery designs were made for the windows at Reims around 1215. The cross-section of each mullion or tracery bar was important both for the integrity of the window and for the visual effect. As can be seen in Viollet-le-Ducs diagram there was normally a roll-moulding on both the inside and outside of the windows, which made the mullions appear even more slender than they actually were. The shoulder marked B on the diagram is the glazing slot, as bar tracery opened the way for more complex patterns, masons started applying those same patterns to other surfaces as well as the actual window openings. When used on an otherwise solid walls, such motifs are known as blind tracery, open tracery in particular was a key feature of the later phases of Rayonnant Gothic. Most 19th-century histories of Gothic architectural style used a series of rather arbitrary categories based on the evolution of the dominant patterns of window tracery. Such teleological models are now regarded as oversimplistic and are shunned by art historians. Because of the cost and size limitations of parchment sheets, such designs would normally be drawn by incising onto a board or a conveniently placed section of flat wall. In the latter case, the wall would be prepared with a layer of plaster. A number of churches and cathedrals still show the faint remains of these tracings, from where the compass points scratched through the plaster. A number of building sites originally had dedicated tracery chambers. This also meant that masons could carry on working through the winter season, the tracing floors themselves were covered with plaster of paris, which could be relaid and smoothed down after each set of designs were finished with
9.
History of wood carving
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Wood carving is one of the oldest arts of humankind. Wooden spears from the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Clacton Spear, the North American Indian carves his wooden fish-hook or his pipe stem just as the Polynesian works patterns on his paddle. Figure-work seems to have been universal, the texture of the material, too, often proves challenging to the expression of features, especially in the classic type of youthful face. On the other hand, magnificent examples exist of the rugged features of age, the beetling brows. In ancient work the surface may not have been of such consequence, for figures as a rule being painted for protection and especially color. It is not always realized at the present day to what extent color has even from the most ancient times used to enhance the effect of wood-carving. The modern Colour prejudice against gold and other tints is perhaps because painted work has been vulgarized, the arrangement of a proper and harmonious scheme of colour is not the work of the house painter, but of the specially trained artist. In the early 20th century, the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, on much of this entry is based, commented. The work is slow and requires substantial skill, making the works expensive. Other and cheaper methods of decoration have driven carving from its former place, machine work has much to answer for, and the endeavor to popularize the craft by means of the village class has not always achieved its own end. The gradual disappearance of the individual artist, elbowed out as he has been, the extreme dryness of the climate of Egypt accounts for the existence of a number of woodcarvings from this remote period. Some wood panels from the tomb of Hosul Egypt, at Sakkarah are of the III, the carving consists of Egyptian hieroglyphs and figures in low relief, and the style is extremely delicate and fine. A stool shown on one of the panels has the legs shaped like the fore and hind limbs of an animal, in the Cairo museum may be seen the statue of a man from the period of the Great Pyramid of Giza, possibly 4000 B. C. The expression of the face and the realism of the carriage have never been surpassed by any Egyptian sculptor of this or any other period, the figure is carved out of a solid block of sycamore, and in accordance with the Egyptian custom the arms are joined on. The IV. V. and VI. dynasties cover the finest period of Egyptian sculpture, the statues found in the tombs show a freedom of treatment which was never reached in later times. They are all portraits, which the artist strove his utmost to render exactly like his model, for these are not, like mere modern statues, simply works of art, but had primarily a religious signification. As the spirits of the deceased might inhabit, these Ka statues, sometimes the animal would be carved in the round and its hollowed body used as the case itself. Of furniture, folding seats like the camp stool, and chairs with legs terminating in the heads of beasts or the feet of animals
10.
Stone sculpture
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Stone sculpture is the result of forming 3-dimensional visually interesting objects from stone. It is an ancient activity where pieces of natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Petroglyphs are perhaps the earliest form, images created by removing part of a surface which remains in situ, by incising, pecking, carving. Monumental sculpture covers large works, and architectural sculpture, which is attached to buildings. Hardstone carving is the carving for artistic purposes of semi-precious stones such as jade, agate, onyx, rock crystal, sard or carnelian, alabaster or mineral gypsum is a soft mineral that is easy to carve for smaller works and still relatively durable. Engraved gems are small carved gems, including cameos, originally used as seal rings, carving stone into sculpture is an activity older than civilization itself, beginning perhaps with incised images on cave walls. Prehistoric sculptures were usually human forms, such as the Venus of Willendorf, later cultures devised animal, human-animal and abstract forms in stone. The earliest cultures used abrasive techniques, and modern technology employs pneumatic hammers, but for most of human history, sculptors used hammer and chisel as the basic tools for carving stone. In the direct method of carving, the work usually begins with the selection of a stone for carving. The artist using the method may use sketches but eschews the use of a physical model. The fully dimensional form or figure is created for the first time in the stone itself, as the artist removes material, sketches on the block of stone, and develops the work along the way. On the other hand, is the method, when the sculptor begins with a clearly defined model to be copied in stone. The models, usually made of plaster or modeling clay, may be fully the size of the intended sculpture, once the model is complete, a suitable stone must be found to fit the intended design. The model is copied in stone by measuring with calipers or a pointing machine. This method is used when the carving is done by other sculptors. Some artists use the stone itself as inspiration, the Renaissance artist Michelangelo claimed that his job was to free the human form hidden inside the block. When he or she is ready to carve, the carver usually begins by knocking off, or pitching, large portions of unwanted stone. For this task he may select a point chisel, which is a long, hefty piece of steel with a point at one end, a pitching tool may also be used at this early stage, which is a wedge-shaped chisel with a broad, flat edge
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Crallan, Franklyn Arden (1911). "Wood-Carving". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 791–797. This contains a detailed description of classic techniques.
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