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Artists began to design posters in the modern sense round 1890. Toulouse-Lautrec's lithographed coloured posters had been preceded by the work of his compatriot Chèret. The art of the poster continued to develop to a remarkable degree until about 1910, in England (Beggarstaff Brothers) and America no less than on the Continent. But this rapid rise made the subsequent decline all the more noticeable, since the demand for quantity lowered the artistic standard. Modern poster artists do not hesitate to make the widest use of modern, even of abstract, art forms, a public which elsewhere tends to reject them being apparently willing to accept them in this form.
PULPIT
In northern European churches the pulpit was originally combined with the reading pew, which was placed beyond the chancel screen in the nave as it had to be in a position from which the priest could best be heard. During the 13th century, when preaching grew increasingly popular, the pulpit became a separate piece of furniture placed towards the middle of the nave against one of the pillars or against the north or south wall.
Both the reading pew and the pulpit are northern forms of the ambo, which in basilican and Byzantine churches was used for the lessons, the litanies, the giving out of notices, preaching, as a standing place for singers and even as a platform for coronations. Ambos can be seen facing each other, like an English pulpit and reading pew, across the nave in Italian and Spanish churches. No European country is as rich as Italy in carved stone pulpits such as the famous examples at Pisa and Assisi. English craftsmen excelled in carved wooden pulpits which were often three-storeyed and surmounted by elaborate testers as at Lincoln and Canterbury. Spanish craftsmen produced some remarkable hammered iron pulpits, of which the gilded example at Avila is outstanding.
RELIQUARY
The reliquary contains Sacred Relics (Lat. reliquiae -- remains), such as ashes or bone fragments. In Early Christian times, relics were kept in box-like shrines or in the Pyx; from the 6th to the 8th century onwards, in shrines shaped like a pilgrim's bag (bursa), of which the Engern reliquary in Berlin is one of the best-known examples. Reliquaries were made in the shape of an arm, foot or head, according to the nature of the relic. In the Romanesque period, relics were often placed in larger shrines, which were given the form of a basilica (e. g. Shrine of the Magi in Cologne Cathedral) or a domed church (domed reliquary from the Treasure of the Guelphs). Cruciform reliquaries -- to take particles of the True Cross, -- chests, tablets (see Golden Panel), medallions, etc. also occur. Because of their venerable contents, reliquaries were made of gold and silver, decorated with precious stones, pearls and enamels and with chasing, engraved ornament and beaten and cast relief. Many reliquaries represent the goldsmith's art at its finest.
SILHOUETTE
The name is usually applied to shades and profiles and derives from that of Etienne de Silhouette ( 1709-1767), the parsimonious finance minister of Louis XV. He was an amateur cutter of shades but not the originator of the art. As such portraits were cheap they were dubbed à la Silhouette. Although its origins go back to Antiquity, the silhouette as we recognise it to-day dates from the end of the 17th century. The earliest silhouettes were probably scissor-cuts. One was that of William and Mary said to have been cut by Elizabeth Pyburg (c. 1699). Among painted silhouettes, the most prized are those of John Miers ( 1758-1821) and Isabella Beetham. (fl. 1750). The best known practitioners of the cut silhouette were Augustin Edouart ( 1788-1861), Philipp Otto Runge ( 1776-1810), A. Farberger ( 1762-1865) and E. P. Sideau (fl. 1782). Among the large number of American silhouettists, mostly cutters, Charles Willson Peale ( 1741-1827) was outstanding. The heyday of the silhouette as a form of portrait ended with the invention of photography.
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