Appropriate for Jr. High or High School students, short powerpoint with history of calligraphy and examples from different cultures.

2. • Origins in Ancient Egypt (that got pictographs from Ancient Sumer)
• Hieroglyphics (picture writing) carved into clay tablets, sculptures, and walls.
• Calligraphy means ‘beautiful writing.”
• This is the Book of the Dead, which was a religious book meant to help guide
people in passing into the Afterlife.
Origins of Calligraphy

3. CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY
•Calligraphy has traditionally been
considered the highest art form.
•Origins back to 3000 BCE or earlier
•Calligraphers have different styles and
spend years perfecting the techniques.
•Japanese calligraphy developed from
Chinese calligraphy, and continues today.
•Calligraphers have different styles,
ranging from very simply to highly artistic.

4. Knight Shining White, Tang Dynasty,
(750 CE)
Scroll paintings were unrolled and “read”. Poems were
sometimes included, and viewers wrote comments too.
The Quingbian Mountains, Dong Qi
Chang, painter, calligrapher, art scholar
of Ming Dynasty (1612 CE)

5. Arabic Calligraphy
In many Islamic
cultures, calligraphy is
the highest art form.
It is used as surface
decoration for both
religious buildings and
everyday art.
Below is the logo of
today’s Al Jazeera TV.
15th Century qu’Ranic Manuscript

6. Detail of dome of
Mosque of Kalon in Uzbekistan

7. Medieval European Manuscripts
• Few people could read and
write in Medieval Europe.
• The church trained monks in
Latin reading and writing.
• Artistic monks carefully
created copies of the Bible with
lavishly illuminated capitals.
• This page is from the
Lindsfarne Gospels, from late
7th century CE. It was written
and illustrated by the monk
Eadfrithe, who later became
Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698.

8. Guess the invention….
• Johanes Gutenberg invented this during the early Renaissance.
• It made it easier to make Bibles and other books in Europe.
?

9. Contemporary
artist Malikanas
design from
Islamic Art
Magazine.
He uses digital
art and ancient
calligraphic
styles to create
lush images.
http://malikanas.deviantart.com/

10. Calligraphy Today
are
• Lots of fonts
available for Computers
Today that mimic Traditional
Calligraphy
• Where else do you commonly see
hand or computer calligraphy?
• How is calligraphy used as art
today?
Magnum Mysterium #3, Inga Dubay
• Inga Dubay, Calligrapher & Artist