MART-701 Lessons

It was a busy day in the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Though, to be fair, when is the end of the school year not busy? As a bell chime indicates the next hour, Seventh Years, ready for their last Magical Art lecture of the year, hear an ongoing conversation as they approach the classroom.

“So you say that this strange contraption is a… portable DVD player? How strange! I do not know what a DVD is, or how it has these little people in it, but Anna, how is this even able to have power here?” a confused, but amazed Professor Rosenquist exclaims, holding a portable DVD player up and inspecting it. Professor Soleil is standing next to her, with her hands out in caution of the possibility of the DVD player being dropped.

The former Muggle Studies professor gives a wink to the students walking in and replies, “Batteries.” Some of the Muggle-borns giggle when Professor Rosenquist lowers the device to give the other professor a somehow even more confused look.

“What are… batteries?” she asks slowly, raising an eyebrow at Professor Soleil. She glances at her students filtering in and then back at the other professor.

“I will explain later,” Professor Soleil says with a smile, “I believe we have a class to teach.” Professor Rosenquist blinks, then looks at the students again, only now realizing that the desks are full. She quickly hands the Muggle device back to Professor Soleil, nearly dropping it in the process, and turns to address the class.

Oh, right, thank you, Professor Soleil. Welcome class to your last Magical Art lesson. We have gone over various mediums over the past two years, and while you may not be an expert in every art form, you do have a solid foundation for each medium. Today we will be taking a look through time at certain art forms that were the building blocks to art in the present. You may realize that there is more than meets the eye. At the end, Professor Soleil will be discussing how Muggles have managed to incorporate their technology into art. Buckle up, as we have much to discuss!

The first of these art forms that we’ll discuss today is calligraphy, the artistic form of stylized writing. This art is one of two types categorized as “scribal arts” and is what I would personally consider to be the precursor to modern-day typography. The word “calligraphy” itself comes from the Greek word for “beautiful writing.” The script style of writing calligraphy is associated with is known for using the principle of rhythm in its proportions and design, while also being able to communicate a message. You may recall rhythm as a principle of design from last year! The most common tools used in calligraphy are quills, pens, and ink brushes; the tool you choose to use depends on the exact script you plan to write. Certain cultures vary in the tools they use. Arabic calligraphy uses unique pens made from reeds or bamboo, called qalam. Calligraphy in India was originally written on an inner layer of birch bark (Bhojpatra) and dried palm leaves (Tada-patra). In China, which is one of our focuses today, the ink is solidified into an inkstick, which is then ground up with water in a mortar known as an inkstone. It is so interesting to see that even the tools can create a unique experience in how these different cultures write calligraphy!

For our diviners in class today, you may have had experience using oracle bones for pyromancy or at least have had the chance to observe a diviner scrying with oracle bones earlier this year. Seers in ancient China would carve questions into oracle bones with a sharp tool and apply heat to the bones. These characters carved into oracle bones were written in oracle bone script, which is the oldest known form of Chinese characters - and the carving itself is the oldest form of writing that is still in use today! Over time, diviners started writing these questions with brushes and cinnabar ink instead of carving this script. This led to more scripts being created and eventually spread around the world the invention of printing. To the left is a comparison of three different types of Chinese calligraphy scripts. The first and fourth rows are in the bronzeware script, which, as it implies, was written on bronzeware before or after casting and was developed after the oracle bone script. The second and fifth rows are in the oracle bone script. Lastly, the third and sixth rows are in “regular script,” or kǎi shū, which was popularized through woodblock printing in the later Tang dynasty and is still in use today. With the emphasis on the evolution over time, I might have reordered your introduction of the scripts to the left by starting with the oldest: oracle bone script, then bronzeware, then regular.

This evolution in script led to the use of the now standard tools in Chinese calligraphy (also known as the Four Treasures of Study): máobǐ (ink brushes), India ink (lampblack-based ink), paper, and inkstones (mortars for grinding and holding ink). Calligraphers use these tools to influence the final result of their script. For example, the shape and size or even the type of brush hair on the ink brush can change the outcome of the calligraphy. The amount of water added to the ink can change the concentration of the ink to either give it a watery effect or keep the ink dense, which also influences the color of the script. Even choosing what type of paper you are going to use can determine how quickly your ink will absorb into the paper as well as the surface texture, which can potentially create a mess (especially in cases of rough paper and pen tools). Aside from the tools causing all of these variables, the calligrapher themself can influence the script by the direction of their brushwork, how much pressure they apply, how quickly they make their brushstrokes, or if they choose to slope their strokes.

All of these factors - from the tools used to the personal style of the calligrapher - create the Chinese calligraphy that we know today, and it has influenced other countries’ calligraphy, such as Japan, Korea, and Mongolia, to name a few. Of course, these other countries have their own variances, such as how Korean calligraphy includes circle shapes due to the Hangul alphabet; Japan has various brush motions and shapes to accommodate their own hiragana and katakana syllabaries. I found out relatively recently from a colleague that Mahoutokoro’s curriculum does touch on calligraphy-based magic. Not only do they learn to use it for artistic purposes, such as writing out a story and charming the ink to depict the story as it’s read visually, but they also combine it with certain groups of kanji, such as Koto-Kanji, in ways that are quite similar to our uses with ancient runes. They are known to use special tools such as potion-based inks and ink brushes made with magical creature hair to produce written spells. The tools aren't the only important factor needed to make this calligraphy-based magic work! Precision is key when ordering and angling the brush strokes as well as the willpower and concentration needed to produce the right effect. It’s quite fascinating really! For those interested in Koto-Kanji, I highly recommend speaking with Professor Salvatrix, as she touches on it in Year Seven of Ancient Studies. It makes me wish I was slightly more talented with an ink brush.

Needless to say, calligraphy doesn’t only exist in the East. Here in Europe, we also have a type of calligraphy, where we start to see quills and pens on vellum, papyrus, and parchment. Western calligraphy has origins that stem from the introduction of the Latin alphabet. By the first century C.E., three fully developed scripts were used in the Roman Empire: Roman square capitals, Roman cursive, and rustic capitals. These scripts eventually evolved into multiple scripts over time, and, by the height of the Roman Empire, different regions had their unique scripts, such as the Visigothic script in Spain and Portugal, Beneventan script in Southern Italy, and Anglo-Saxon minuscule in England. The monasteries and churches even had their own scripts they used to copy religious texts, and they were instrumental in keeping calligraphy alive after the Roman Empire fell. Another person who was important to Western calligraphy was Charlemagne, who was King of the Franks and Lombards and later Emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne was an avid book lover and sought the value of education. He pushed for improved scholarship throughout his empire, and this devotion led to numerous education and writing reforms. These writing reforms led to the prominence of scribes and a script known as Carolingian minuscule. Carolingian was a combination of Roman half-uncial, which was the prominent script in English and Irish churches, and its cursive variation. This script became the direct ancestor to most present day scripts and typefaces used in graphic design.

Gradually, Carolingian minuscule evolved into Blackletter, also known as Gothic script. Blackletter was very popular in England amongst scribes, and when the printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, he adopted the style to print his Bible, making Blackletter the first typeface in history. You still see Blackletter in publications today, such as this Daily Prophet article on Sirius Black. However, since we are talking about calligraphy rather than printing, I digress. Blackletter is actually a fairly prominent script in some sects of the wizarding world, particularly in certain departments of the Ministry of Magic. Court scribes for the Wizengamot are expected to be versed in Blackletter when taking transcriptions and notes for court proceedings, though I have seen some take notes in their normal handwriting while a magical quill works off to the side transcribing it into Blackletter for official records. Speaking of quills, there are indeed quills that will write calligraphy for you, but there are also quills that will do a number of effects while you manually write out calligraphy with them such as change colors while you write and self-clean any ink splatters. Another option is buying magical inks such as rainbow or invisible ink. If you are ever in the area and are interested, Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop in Hogsmeade has quite the supply of quills, inks, and paper. I do know that more recently, the shop has stocked a selection of various pens and ink refills in the back specifically for calligraphy purposes.

Calligraphy leads us straight into the other half of the scribal arts because they are often used in conjunction with each other. This art is called illumination, and it refers to the decoration on any manuscript or document. Illumination is actually the first historical instance of combining words and art as a design. Take a look at the example below. The painting and illustrations in the text, along with the three stylized letters, are considered illumination. These were more common in texts during the Middle Ages, when magical photography wasn’t as advanced as it is today. Illuminations were painted into texts and enchanted to move, talk, change color, or even narrate the page that you are on. They were easier to charm than a full painting due to the small surface area and not having as many layers of paint to imbue. Muggles also partook in creating illuminations (not enchanted, of course), but you will typically find them only in religious texts, early sheet music, and books designed for royalty. This is due to the materials being rather costly and the art itself was rather complex to create. While illuminations in magical texts were easier to enchant, wizardkind ran into the same issues of cost and complexity. This became more and more apparent as printing and photography both made their way to the forefront of publication and illumination became less popular.

While you won’t find illumination in as many Ministry documents today as you would calligraphy, there are plenty of older books in the Hogwarts Library that feature this unique style. Illumination is kept alive today by some wizarding publications that take design inspiration from early manuscripts, such as the Daily Prophet article we viewed earlier. There are a few magical artists that specialize in illumination, and with more accessibility to the necessary paints and materials, there has been a small resurgence in relearning this historical scribal art over the past few decades. When I was in school, I remember a fellow student at Durmstrang that would take the time to illuminate her school notes in between classes.

Our next art form that I’d like to touch on and is pretty common in the wizarding world till this day is heraldry. Heraldry refers to the portrayal, and eventual study of, personalized shield art. In the Middle Ages, heraldry was a loud, visual identification and announcement of ownership or loyalty. In a way, showing up to an event with your heraldic achievement is basically you yelling “This is me!” A heraldic achievement is tied to a family, town, or organization in a similar way as how a logo is tied to a business. It’s unique to that related entity, easily recognizable, and uses symbols, shapes, and color to communicate to others about said entity. 

Many of you might know a heraldic achievement by its more common name of “coat of arms.” A coat of arms actually referred to a surcoat that a knight would wear in battle; the achievement would be embroidered on this surcoat. There are several different components, variations, and meanings that can make up an achievement, so we will dissect these parts as briefly as we can. It’s important to note that not all achievements will have all of these components.

The main element of a heraldic achievement is the escutcheon (or shield). The shield will have different patterns, tinctures (colors), and symbols that all represent the entity behind the achievement. The background of the shield is called a field, and the field can be divided up into different subdivisions or it could have a pattern as the background rather than a single cover. Any symbol or geometric design on the shield is known as a charge. The right side of the shield (left if you are looking at the shield; think of this as a stage right!) is referred to as dexter, while the left side is known as sinister. If there are figures pictured outside the shield, they are called supporters and are denoted by the side they are standing on. So, in the picture on the left, the bird is a dexter supporter and the lion is a sinister supporter. Any type of landscape pictured for these supporters to stand on is called a compartment. Usually directly above the shield is a helmet or a crown. The style of the helmet depends on rank or social status, while a crown typically denotes the monarchy. Attached to the sides of the helmet is a type of drapery called mantling, which represents a cloth covering worn by knights that lessened the effects of helmet hits in battle and fended off the elements. Though, in heraldry, the mantling is more decorative than representative of this element of armor. Above the helmet is a twisted roll of fabric called a wreath or torse, which essentially just joins the helmet to the crest. The crest is an object attached to the top of a helmet. This can range from hair or feathers on Roman helmets to wings and animal heads on Viking helmets or even just decorative sculptures. Lastly, the heraldic achievement can have a motto pictured on a scroll that is either above the helmet or below the escutcheon. This can be a slogan or motto that may have originated from a battle or rallying cry, or it could represent the values of the entity. One example that comes to mind in the wizarding world is the Black family’s rather famous “Toujours pur” logo on their achievement, which means “always pure.”

Now that we know what all goes into a heraldic achievement, let’s look at one that should absolutely be familiar to all of you. It’s no secret that we love our heraldic achievements at Hogwarts. Not only does each individual house have their own heraldic achievements, but the school itself has one as well. At first glance, you may notice that it contains a crest, wreath, helmet, mantling, escutcheon, and of course, the motto of “Never tickle a sleeping dragon.”

For analysis purposes, we will be focusing on the escutcheon. You will notice that the field is quartered so that the overall shield is separated out into the four houses. The “H” in the middle of the shield is of course representing Hogwarts. This smaller shield containing the “H” is known as an inescutcheon, and putting it in the middle of the bigger shield is an example of an “escutcheon of pretense,” which is a way for the bearer to claim another entity. Historically, it was used by men to claim their wife’s family heraldry upon marriage, especially if she was an heiress. However, here, the “H” represents Hogwarts’ claim to the heritage of the houses of the four founders. You will notice that Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are on the dexter side while Slytherin and Ravenclaw are on the sinister side. The dexter side is normally the more favorable side; it’s often associated with strength, nobleness, and honor, which are traits that could be associated with either house. Unfortunately, the sinister side is less favorable and could be attributed to danger or misfortune. I don’t think that is particularly fair to anyone in Slytherin and Ravenclaw, but the sinister side is primarily used to balance out the dexter side which is the more probable reason that those houses are there.

Let’s focus on the quadrants that contain the houses. As far as the tinctures go, they are split into two categories: colors (red, blue, green, black, purple) and metals (silver/white, gold/yellow). Ideally the rule is that you don’t put a color on top of another color or a metal on top of another metal. The Hogwarts crest seems to follow this rule fairly well, with maybe the exception of Hufflepuff, but since the badger is black and white, it sort of follows the rule. The tinctures have their own meanings, but they don’t fall into place like the general meaning for dexter. For example, blue represents goodness, sincerity, loyalty, and justice. While you might know of a Ravenclaw student who exemplifies these qualities, it doesn’t exactly describe a house known for its wit, wisdom, and creativity. For this reason, we aren’t going to delve too much further into color meanings. 

What we will go into, however, is the animals. What’s really interesting is the Hogwarts achievement features the two most popular animals in heraldry: the lion and eagle. While the lion is regarded as the king of beasts, the eagle is known as the king of birds, and there is an apparent rivalry between the two in heraldry. Lions symbolize courage, valor, and strength. The eagle, on the other hand, symbolizes power, nobility, fortitude, and intellectual thought. These seem to sum up Gryffindor and Ravenclaw houses respectively! Badgers aren’t a common symbol in heraldry, but they are one specific to English heraldry. They represent endurance, perseverance, and protection. Lastly, the snake symbolizes wisdom, pride, cunning, and contemplation. This snake in particular is quite interesting as far as heraldry goes because normally serpents are depicted as dragons eating humans (biscione), biting its tail (ouroboros), intertwined with other snakes or rods (like in the Caduceus or Rod of Asclepius), wearing a crown, or with wings (amphiptere). Each of these has their own meaning, but snakes by themselves, especially with their tails coiled up like it is depicted here, are a rarity.

So, as I mentioned earlier, the previous art forms are building blocks, but for what exactly? Well, they all evolved into different skill sets needed in today’s world: calligraphy led the way into typography, illumination is the ancestor to layout design, and heraldry very well was the Medieval form of branding and logo design. These are all skills required for a type of art that is primarily classified as a Muggle art form called graphic design. 

Graphic design uses a combination of text and graphics to visually communicate specific messages to a precise demographic. Various skills fall under the umbrella of graphic design such as those we listed above as well as print design, software design, and many more that I can’t possibly cover in a single day. This art is commonly associated with Muggles because the primary tools used are computers and software. However, as we just learned, graphic design’s humble beginnings stem from centuries ago, when manual tools and moveable type printing were used.

Although this class is centered around magical art, I would be doing you a disservice if we did not at least talk about some Muggle-specific art forms. Over the past few decades, Muggles have made quite a number of technological advancements in art that not only speed up the process of creating their art but have also branched into multiple unique art forms of their own. I do know a couple of magical artists who are experimenting with blending Muggle art technology with magic. Although this isn’t a norm in our current social climate, it seems likely that this blending of art worlds may be where we end up within the next decade.

That being said, all of this “digital art” technology is well out of my wheelhouse so that is why I invited former Professor Soleil today. Anna, the floor is all yours.

Thank you so much, Professor Rosenquist! For those of you who don’t know me, I was the Muggle Studies professor here at Hogwarts. I am passionate about helping witches and wizards to learn about and appreciate the non-magical people among them, because I truly believe that only by working together will we all thrive. Discussing art and culture is actually a great way to understand just how wonderful the Muggle community is - and how surprisingly similar it is to magic-kind!

Up until now, you have been learning about how magical artists combine magic and traditional Muggle forms of art - painting, photography, etc. However, while magic users have been developing these examples of hybrid art, Muggles have continued to expand upon their own forms.

A recent movement in Mugglekind is the concept of digital art - or, art that is made all or partially with computer technology. Those of you who have taken Muggle Studies are familiar with computers and their vast power. If you have not taken my course, suffice it to say that computers are essentially a Muggle’s form of magic. What started as a way to simply calculate large math problems has now become a device used for communication, processing information, entertainment, and so much more.

Muggle artists use this technology in all sorts of interesting ways. A well-known example is the use of digital tablets to create 2-D art. Instead of a physical medium such as a canvas, this tablet is an electronic device that artists will draw on, watching as their work appears on the screen. The advantage of drawing in this way is that you have a whole host of tools and settings at your disposal to really make your art come alive, figuratively speaking of course. Need to change brush tips? You can do that with simply the click of a button. Need to straighten a line or blur a background? No need to approximate that with your own skill, you can instead use the “magic” of the computer to clean up your work.

There is also the world of computer-generated imagery (CGI). This is often used in entertainment, such as animated movies or video games. Computers can be used to create 2-D or 3-D images, which is a great way to build beautifully unique characters and worlds that could not exist in real life. CGI is also used as a replacement for (or in conjunction with!) traditional animation; instead of having to individually draw every frame of an animated work, a computer can digitally construct a figure walking or an action scene taking place. Think of it as a way to magically add movement to an image, but for those humans that do not have magic!

Similarly, there are plenty of computer programs that can be used by Muggle artists to achieve a specific effect. An example of this is Adobe’s Photoshop software. This is an image editing tool that is used in many different ways. Some artists lean into the program’s nature and create art that could not easily be done by the human hand – a brilliant still-life photo with colors and shadows that could not possibly exist in real life. In this way, it’s obvious the image has been “Photoshopped” and was used just as an artistic expression tool, like it was a paint color choice. However, Photoshop has also been used to achieve some deceptive ends. If you were to pick up a Muggle magazine, it is very possible you’d see an image of a person on the cover. Unfortunately, the image you see has likely been altered in some way via Photoshop. If the artist in question did not like how the model’s hair was styled, for example, they may edit away any flyaways. Or, more egregiously… if the artist did not like the model’s “imperfections” - an asymmetrical face, a body that is not perfectly thin, a skin tone that doesn’t match society’s perceived image of beauty - well, that can all be Photoshopped and edited away. These edits are usually too subtle to even know it happened. Now one might look at the magazine and become dejected if they do not look as beautiful as the model on the cover… but ultimately the model doesn’t either. They have been edited and tweaked to be as perfect as possible, even if it’s unrealistic. As you can imagine, this idealization of “perfection” can lead to harmful beauty standards in society. Photoshop is like a glamour spell; one that has gotten a lot of criticism over the years.

I also wanted to briefly touch upon a relatively brand-new digital tool called artificial intelligence. The most important thing to know about computers is that they are NOT the same as humans. Yes, they are smart, in that they can learn new skills and handle large data. However, a computer can't come up with a new idea. The only thing they can do is spit out given inputs into seemingly novel ways. Think of them like parrots. A parrot is merely mimicking human speech; it is not capable of learning words it hasn’t heard before. This makes a computer’s intelligence artificial - as clever as it seems, it is in no way comparable to a human, magical or otherwise.

That said, in recent years people have used a computer’s intelligence to make art. These digital images are constructed by the computer program scouring the Internet for relevant existing works and then copying and combining them itself. It’s almost like a collage; it does not know how to literally draw an apple, but it can find lots of images of apples and stitch them together into an image that is somewhat like one. Sometimes, these AI-constructed images are shockingly good, but most of the time, they are just bizarre. It’s obvious a computer doesn’t really understand what a human is when they give it multiple heads!

The use of AI technology in art is controversial. As we have just established, the computer can only do its work by literally stealing the creations (or at least the styles) of already published artists. This becomes an issue of copyright infringement and ethical boundaries. Also, the use of AI programs to create scripts or logos means that work is being taken away from creative individuals who make their money doing art. Companies are generating art and writing instead of hiring human artists and writers. Some artists aren’t able to sell their art or commissions because the clients may get impatient and attempt to generate what they’re looking for through an AI generator. The debate is still ongoing regarding how AI will be used within the art space moving forward. It’ll be interesting to see how the technology develops over the following months and years – will it be used exclusively for ill will, or will a new form of art arise?

I have honestly only scratched the surface with this topic, and I would love to carry on, but I’m sure Professor Rosenquist wouldn’t enjoy me taking over the entire lesson! If you’re at all interested in this subject, feel free to chat with me after class. You could also discuss the topic with your current Muggle Studies professor. We love to discuss and debate all sorts of Muggle inventions there, and I’m sure they would love to answer any questions you may have!

Thank you for that insightful lecture! If any of you have any further questions regarding Muggle digital art, Professor Soleil will be hanging around after class.

As the umbrella of graphic design is quite big (and the umbrella of digital art is even bigger), I could talk on and on about other avenues available to us such as advertisements in wizarding publications, logos for wizarding businesses and organizations, and the design of tarot cards. But alas, that’s all the time we have. It’s been an absolute joy to teach and spend time with each and every one of you through these past two years. I’ve enjoyed watching you all grow and find your inner artist! Even if you decide to go into a career path that isn’t related to art, I hope you do take the time every once in a while to do something creative. Take a photo of a new place you’re traveling to. Doodle on your notes for your work meeting. Hum the first tune that comes to mind. You never know where a spur of the moment creative endeavor may lead! 

Let’s give another big thank you to former Professor Soleil for stopping by today. Study up for the final and your impending N.E.W.T.s, and don’t forget to turn in your portfolios up at the front before you leave today.

Lesson written by Professor Serafina Rosenquist
Guest lecture written by Professor Anna Soleil