Bronze is perfect for shedding art works; it pours into all narrow openings of the mold, therefore reproducing perfectly all details of the delicate modeled sculpture. It is soft underneath the tool of the graver and excellent for repousse work.
The Greeks were not surpassed in bronze culture. The two masterpieces of the Greek sculptures are the following: The Zeus of Artemisium(National Museum) and The Delphic Charioteer (Delphi Museum). The Romans have taken numbers of bronze statues which came from Greece and have done thousands of them. They engaged bronze for furniture and doors, utensils and candelabra, wherein some have been recovered at Herculanium and Pompeii.
During the middle ages, bronzes consisted primarily of utensils, ecclesiastical and domestic ornaments. In the early Renaissance, Italian sculptors produced wonderful bronzes of different kinds. The most outstanding are Ghiberti’s doors in the baptistery of Florence and sculptures of Donatello, Giovanni Bologna, Verrocchio, Pollaiuolo and Cellini. A string of monumental effigies of some monarchs are the greatest English bronzes. France was popular in the 18th century for its gold covered bronze furniture mounts. Most important modern sculptors who worked in bronze included Rodin, Epstein, Lipchitz and Brancusi. The typical description of Renaissance bronze shedding is seen in Cellini’s Autobiography (1558-1562).
Bronze is the most famous metal in cast metal sculpture; cast bronze sculpture is frequently called “bronze”. The value of bronze in other usage is not advantageous in the preservation of sculptures, few big old bronzes have survived but plenty of them were melted in making weapons during the war or to make new sculptures in commemoration of the victors in war. Some stones and ceramic works have come through centuries, even though they are in fragments already.
History
The enormous civilizations in the ancient world worked in bronze for arts, which started from the introduction of alloy for weapons with edges. The life size figures were first scaled by the Greeks. Small numbers of example exist in nice situations; one example is seawater-preserved bronze now known as “The Victorious Athlete,” which needed careful efforts in bringing it in the museum where it is now displayed. More Roman statues made of bronze have survived.
The old Chinese in 1200 B.C. have known both section mould casting and lost-wax casting and in Shang Dynasty made big ritual ships covered by intricate decorations which survived in the tombs. During the long imaginative period of Egyptian art dynasty, little lost-wax bronze figurines were being made in big numbers; many thousands of the figurines were conserved in the museum collections. Since then, bronze art had continued to prosper
A group of white suburban teenagers decide to go and buy some drugs after leaving a rap concert. En-route their car breaks down, leaving them stranded in a rough inner-city neighbourhood in the dead of night. They are then approached by a group of black teenagers, and fearing they’re about to be mugged, run into a large abandoned house at the end of the street. Once in the house they find they cannot get out, and what follows is reminiscent of Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets The Hills Have Eyes. The old decaying house is not what it appears. It’s inhabited by a host of deformed in-bred, barely human cannibals, and rigged with traps. Murder and mayhem ensues.
I find it difficult to know what to say about this book. It reads like a mash-up of various Horror Films, and it’s actually easy to imagine a film being made of it. It’s fast paced, and entertaining in a switch your brain off way. It’s not scary, at least I didn’t think so, but it is gross. There are plenty of scenes that had me squirming and wondering if the scene was entirely necessary. It does, however, manage to stay the right side of decency – just; and it’s not as clichéd as my opening description makes it sound. Once inside the house, there is a bit more going on than you might originally think. The group of black teenagers are not so much the stereotypes you originally fear either.
I expected a bit more from this book, Brian Keene is the winner of two Bram Stoker Awards and I was hoping for something a little more innovative. I can’t say I really liked this book, but I didn’t dislike it either. This isn’t really my type of horror. I prefer creeping dread and suggestion, rather than excessive violence and nausea inducing scenes. Also I didn’t really care for any of the characters, they were to my mind typical horror fodder. My only thoughts regarding each of them was to wonder how they were going to die. The prose is blunt, functional and adequate to the task.
This was my first reading of Keene, and it’s left me undecided about his writing. I’ve not been put-off from reading Keene in the future. I think this particular story was not to my tastes, but it wasn’t a difficult read. I imagine I could potentially enjoy idling a few hours with another of his books. Perhaps, I’ve just been spoiled with the quality of books I’ve been reading recently, but overall this seemed pulpy and trashy to me. To be fair I also think that’s the point, it’s not trying to be High Art.
Urban Gothic is exactly the type of Horror Novel that many people enjoy, fast paced, gory and no-nonsense. If you’re looking for something cerebral or innovative I suggest you look elsewhere. This is not a great book, but it’s not a bad book either. It is exactly what it aims to be, and I’ve no doubt some will find it very enjoyable. Check this out if you’re mourning the loss of Richard Laymon or can’t wait for the next Shaun Hutson.
They exist now in the northern most reaches of the continent of Eion, separated from the human kingdoms by a nebulous boundry known as the Shadowline. Human history says this is where they retreated to after a bloody battle with men centuries ago. That previously they had been the first peoples of Eion. Now many of the humans no longer believe in the existence of these Twilight People, but they set watches over the mysterious Shadowline no less.
Humans are of course very good at making trouble for one another without the need for any otherworldly foe. The strongest human kingdom in Eion, Southmarch has plenty of troubles. Its king Olin has been captured and is being held ransom by a vassal state to the most powerful of all the human kingdoms, Great Xis on the Southern Continent of Xand. Xis is ruled by an all powerful god-king known as the Autarch, and his reach grows ever stronger, not only over the peoples of Xand, but increasingly into Eion as well. As the kingdom of Southmarch struggles with internal politics, murder and betrayal, both the Autarch and the Qar steadily encroach on its borders. Prophetic voices across all the kingdoms, human and non, speak of a coming war to end the world.
This is classic epic fantasy of the kind that I haven’t read for some time. It draws deeply from a number of human mythologies, and its inspiration is plain to see for anyone who is well read in folklore or ancient spiritual traditions. As well as the Celtic inspired Qar, most notable is the Egyptian like kingdom of Xis, with its pharaonic Autarch. Southmarch on the northern kingdom of Eion is a fairly standard Late Medieval type North European setting. The court of the Eddon family dynasty in Southmarch reminded me very much of the court of King Henry VIII and the Tudor period of English Monarchy, complete with a retinue of backstabbing minor nobles.
Once the story begins the world building is done fairly unobtrusively, and apart from a few italicised internal monologues, there’s not too much info-dumping. The key characters of the book begin in various parts of the vividly depicted setting, and as the tale progresses the threads that draw the characters together become more explicit. This is well crafted and imaginatively written. What perhaps isn’t quite so imaginative is the type of characters involved. Among others there are royal twins, a noble and stoic captain of the guard, a hard working and earthy member of a race of short people called funderlings – dwarves by another name. The characters can for the most part be easily slotted into fantasy archetypes, and at times I wished Williams had done more to present both his characters and the setting in an original way.
The cast is large but skillfully handled. Only on occasion did I find the sometimes rapid change between characters in a chapter a little off-putting. Still I never lost track of the story and this is a large book, 800+ pages. The tension and the events build slowly throughout this long novel, and I was drawn deeply into the tale and never bored or lost.
It is impossible in a review such as this to talk about all the various plot threads that abound in this epic fantasy, suffice is to say there are many. A significant part of this first Shadowmarch novel reads like a Mystery. I don’t want to spoil the story but events happen fairly early on that leave you guessing as to who might be the cultprit. This is revealed at the end of the book, and I enjoyed the self-contained nature of this element of the tale.
The Qar were the real stars of the book for me. I wanted to know more about them. I wanted to know more of their perspective, because these are not one-dimensional fantasy baddies. All the while you have the sense of deeper things going on for them in their world, and the sense that maybe there is justification for their feelings towards the humans. In fact there is a great deal of moral ambiguity in this tale, and I really like that. I felt that I was reading about a collision of cultures and perspectives, not a battle of good vs evil. I am looking forward immensly to reading the second novel in this series. Tad Williams, an acknowledged master of Epic Fantasy has again produced a finely crafted tale of intrigue, humanity and vision, intricately woven with a touch of fairy glamour.
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