Upon seeing this, her father filled in the outline, by compressing clay upon the surface, and so made a face in relief, which he then hardened by fire along with other articles of pottery.” In accord with the myth, Greek Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic (Greek, μελανόμορφα, melanomorpha, common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC) employs the silhouette and characteristic profile views of figures and objects on pottery forms.
It was through his daughter that he made the discovery who, being deeply in love with a young man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp. “Butades, a potter of Sicyon, was the first who invented, at Corinth, the art of modelling portraits in the earth which he used in his trade. In Chapter 15, he tells the story of Butades of Corinth: As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece a vain boast, it is very evident. “We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (circa 77–79 AD) Books XXXIV and XXXV, recounts the origin of painting. The silhouette is closely tied in mythology to the origins of art. History Mythological origins Īttic Greek Black-figure Neck Amphora attributed to the Princeton Painter, ca. “cut and paste” where the figure was cut out of dark paper (usually free-hand) and then pasted onto a light background.“hollow-cut” where the negative image was traced and then cut away from light colored paper which was then laid atop a dark background and.painted on ivory, plaster, paper, card, or in reverse on glass.In the 18th and early 19th century, “profiles” or “shades” as they were called were made by one of three methods: The term silhouette, although existing from the 18th century, was not applied to the art of portrait-making until the 19th century. Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person's appearance. Because of de Silhouette's austere economies, his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply and so with these outline portraits. The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who, in 1759, was forced by France's credit crisis during the Seven Years' War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy. 3 The silhouette in art, media and illustrations.2.3 Rise of popularity and development in the nineteenth century.Because a silhouette emphasises the outline, the word has also been used in the fields of fashion and fitness to describe the shape of a person's body or the shape created by wearing clothing of a particular style or period. Anything that appears this way, for example, a figure standing backlit in a doorway, may be described as "in silhouette". Other artists, especially from about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, which could be equally quick.įrom its original graphic meaning, the term silhouette has been extended to describe the sight or representation of a person, object or scene that is backlit, and appears dark against a lighter background. They represented a cheap but effective alternative to the portrait miniature, and skilled specialist artists could cut a high-quality bust portrait, by far the most common style, in a matter of minutes, working purely by eye.
Silhouette images may be created in any visual artistic media, but were first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour, and often framed.Ĭutting portraits, generally in profile, from black card became popular in the mid-18th century, though the term silhouette was seldom used until the early decades of the 19th century, and the tradition has continued under this name into the 21st century. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouette is usually presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all. Goethe facing a grave monument, cut paper, 1780Ī silhouette ( English: / ˌ s ɪ l u ˈ ɛ t/ SIL-oo- ET, French: ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject.