CALLIGRAPHY

Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering. Hand done, calligraphy is on a whole other level to handwriting, it is purely decorative.

A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner

‘The story of writing is one of aesthetic evolution framed within the technical skills, transmission speed(s) and materials limitations of a person, time and place ‘ (Diringer 1968: 441).

A style of writing is described as a script, hand or alphabet.

Modern calligraphy ranges from functional hand-lettered inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the abstract expression of the handwritten mark may or may not compromise the legibility of the letters.

‘Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may create all of these; characters are historically disciplined yet fluid and spontaneous, improvised at the moment of writing’  (Pott 2006 and 2005; Zapf 2007 and 2006).

Calligraphy continues to flourish in the forms of wedding and event invitations, font design/typography, original hand-lettered logo design, religious art, announcements/graphic design/commissioned calligraphic art, cut stone inscriptions and memorial documents. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, and other works involving writing.

Calligraphy is the art of writing script in such a way as to express the beauty of what is being written in the formation of the letters themselves.

Calligraphy claims ancient roots in the first recorded forms of expression: the cave paintings of our ancestors some 25,000-30,000 years ago.

Latin brings us to the beginnings of what many people think of as modern calligraphy. It was the language of the all-powerful churches of the Middle Ages when monks were among the only literate members of society. One of their tasks was committing the word of God to paper, by scribing ancient texts into ornamental volumes to be read by holy elite and royalty. The monks infused the script with a flourishing style that would add glory to the letters themselves as if to make the inscriptions worthy of the holy words they were conveying. The style was also economically narrow to save expensive paper. It became known as Gothic and was the original form of European calligraphy as we think of it today.

By the mid-15th century the printing press was rolling out Bibles in Gothic print preempting the need for monks' calligraphy skills. Beautiful penmanship became vogue among educated society for personal correspondence, formal business and social invitations. As the Renaissance took root and flourished, so did the art of calligraphy and Italians contributed their own script, italic. Then, like the printing press before, engraved copperplates imitated the new italic script and interest in calligraphy once again waned.

By the 19th century the flat-edged pen we associate with calligraphy had been replaced with round-tipped pens, making it difficult to produce the artistic lines needed for calligraphy. The art of calligraphy all but died until British artist and poet, William Morris (1834-1896), took an interest in the lost art of beautiful penmanship. Towards the end of his life he reintroduced the flat-edge pen, reviving the art of calligraphy to its former glory.

I think calligraphy is so good, there is such detail and skill in crafting. It is handwriting, but decorative handwriting, I think that might be why I like handwriting so much because I think it looks so good already and its not even trying to be decorative.