Today I went to the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Of all the
exhibitions in the museum, I found the many works of silver to be most closely
related to the intersection of art and science. For example, I learned that the
production of silver products was an art form in and of itself. In an 18th
century goldsmith’s workshop, one would hear the roar of furnaces and the hiss
of metal being plunged into cooling baths. There’s an incessant staccato of
hammers on anvils of every shape and on silver sheets. These artists’ choice of
tools were big and small hammers, wooden and metal. Interestingly, contrary to
what we have learned in class in which technology has helped artists innovate
new forms of art, the techniques used in producing silver products in the 18th
century are still in use today. Modern technology has done little more for the
artists than provide a few powered mechanical aids. The artists still require
pure skill and traditional techniques aging all the way back to the third millennium
B.C., when silversmithing was fully developed. Modern technology has actually
led to the devaluation of the art.
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| Cup in the Form of a Horse |
A particular silver product I found intriguing was the
coffee pot (I promise the fact that I’m addicted to coffee has nothing to do
with this). Coffee and tea had become popular by the mid-17th
century in Europe. Guided by Protestant ideas of sobriety, the newly prosperous
middle class found coffee an “exotic” alternative to drinking. The silversmith’s
work was revolutionized by the demand for new vessels suited to these drinks. Containers
had to retain heart and yet stand on a tabletop without damaging its surface.
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Silver Coffee Pot |
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| Me in Front of Fowler Museum |
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