King Louis XIV – history of France
King Louis XIV of France Louis XIV becomes king of France When Anne of Austria decided to retire, in 1661 AD, her son Louis XIV took over ruling France. Anne of Austria All [...]
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08, 2017
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07, 2017
Medieval Islamic pottery – Islamic art
A tin-glazed plate Just about the time of the Arab conquests (about 600-700 AD), potters started to use metal-based glazes on their pots. So Islamic pottery looks very different from the Roman pottery that came [...]
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07, 2017
Medieval Islamic art history
Islamic art: Mosaic from the Great Mosque in Damascus (about 710 AD) Umayyad art: no people or animals As soon as the Islamic Empire formed, under the Umayyad dynasty, artists began exploring the [...]
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07, 2017
Spices and cotton: Mughal Indian economy
Japanese painting of Portuguese bringing Indian cargo to Japan (1500s AD) - the Mughal Indian Economy Trade under the Mughals Under the Mughal Empire, India continued to make a lot of money [...]
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06, 2017
Feldspar rock – a kind of igneous rock
A feldspar rock quarry in India Is feldspar rare? Feldspar is a very common igneous rock. More than half of the Earth's crust is made of feldspar. What are igneous [...]
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06, 2017
Tang Dynasty Chinese Pottery – Medieval China
T'ang Dynasty cup (Musee Guimet, Paris) Who invented porcelain? About 700 AD in China, plain white porcelain pottery first begins to appear, like these cups and these bowls. What is [...]
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06, 2017
Song Dynasty Chinese Art – Medieval China
Fan Kuan, "Traveling amid Streams and Mountains" (National Palace Museum, Taipei) Landscape painting got even better under the Song Dynasty than it had been under the T'ang Dynasty that came [...]
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06, 2017
Sui Dynasty Art – Painting and porcelain in Medieval China
Sui Dynasty art: a clay camel, ca. 600-650 AD What came before the Sui Dynasty? In the Three Kingdoms period, Chinese artists had learned a lot about Indian and West [...]
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06, 2017
Yuan Dynasty Chinese art – Mongols in China
Yuan Dynasty china bowls Mongols and Chinese art You might think that the invasion of the Mongols in 1279 AD would have killed off a lot of artists and there wouldn't [...]
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06, 2017
Ming Dynasty Chinese art – Medieval China
Ming Dynasty Chinese art Ming emperors unify Chinese art After the Mongols were thrown out of China, and the Chinese emperors took over again in the Ming Dynasty of the [...]
