A Brief Overview of Avsohmic Art History
This book can be found on a lectern, in a building on an island off the east coast of the Frozen Bite. Over 33 in-game pages, it provides a (not-so-brief) overview of the history of art in the Avsohmic Empire, including the different movements influenced by different rulers, as well as discussing multiple different mediums.
Coordinates¶
| X | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|
| 6365 | 100 | -3002 |
Transcription¶
The Avsohmic Empire is notable for many reasons, but industrial and alchemical feats such as the Miracle of Avsohm often overshadow the creative and visual arts. Avsohmic art changed significantly throughout the hundreds of years of its existence. No polity before or since saw such a massive diversity of style and medium.
[Each piece of art featured in this book is lovingly rendered in incredibly detailed charcoal.]
Although not "Avsohmic" by any means, the influence of Drehuan art cannot be overstated for the early masters of the chosen kingdom. The style relies on flat colors and bold lines and is nearly always religious in nature, with a predominant focus on Drehmal. When not painted directly onto a wall, Drehuan artists often made use of flat panels of wood. Additionally, some artists within the book-binding trade painted directly onto vellum, illustrating parables or stories.
This piece is a prototypical example of Drehuan art. Painted directly on vellum as part of an illuminated manuscript, It depicts Drehmal directly after the felling of the Primal Tree. The burnt stump of the Primal Tree is visible far in the background, along with two dying flowers of unknown religious significance. Drehmal is seen curled around a mountain, with a gold leaf halo behind their head. A detailed frame is included, and the epitaph "REALMBINDER" can be seen at the bottom.
The tribes of the central plains took great inspiration from their southern neighbors. However, the peoples of Dreh'Noha were enamored with sculpture and mosaic. Another key difference was in subject matter; while Drehuan artists focused almost exclusively on religion and nature, Dreh'Nohan artists were more inclined to depict people - living and dead. Rulers, hunters, priests, and scribes were common. Folkloric figures were given particular focus, appearing many times in depictions across a few hundred years.
With the founding of the Chosen Kingdom, the first emergence of architecture as a distinct art form occurred. Additionally, the state support led to the arts becoming less folk-like and more professional. The first examples of stained glass began to emerge, although such works remained rooted in traditionalist religion. Various professions, such as masonry and ceramics, saw a tremendous boom under the Kingdom, and the styles which emerged at this time would be carried forwards by apprentices into the proceeding centuries.
After Drehn Mal'Sohm ascended to the throne and declared the Empire of Avsohm, the art world suffered from a bout of stagnation. Although perspective art had been well-established by now, it fell out of favor with the new regime, who preferred the traditional flat and iconographic style of the Drehua. Emperor Mal'Sohm, a noted appreciator of Drehuan culture and an ardent supporter of their rights, personally funded multiple renovations to the Drehuan temple in Palisades Heath. Over this period, the flat forms of Drehuan art became deeper, richer, and fuller; however, the abstracted versions of nature and religion only became more esoteric. By the end of Drehn's reign, many of the figures depicted in Avsohmic art were unrecognizable without the context of the previous years of artistic history.
As Drehn aged, the art world began to undergo many massive shifts. The Miracle of Avsohm was well underway, and the alchemical sciences began colliding with the art world, resulting in dozens of new synthetic pigments, dyes, and mediums. Painters no longer needed to stretch fabric or adhere wood veneer to canvas; instead, alchemists could use new glues to bind thousands of treated strands into sheets, making paper. Glass-blowing with sand mixed with metallic dust and other materials became quite popular. Fabrics became quick and easy to produce, allowing the growth of a burgeoning fashion industry. Any semblance of realism throughout the Empire of Avsohm vanished entirely. Traditional and religious art began to take a turn towards the bizarrely surreal and abstracted.
This trend only intensified under Emperor Ifeihl. Something of a painter himself, Ifeihl commissioned hundreds of pieces using the new alchemical pigments and mediums and massively funded the entertainment and arts industries of Avsohm, resulting in a period considered by many "The Years of Color". Due to this and his reluctance towards war, Ifeihl was immensely popular with the intellectuals and artists. This popularity was not shared with the people, and Ifeihl became unpopular due to his perceived decadence.
"Perception" is a prototypical example of the strange abstractness of Avsohmic art during the reign of Emperor Ifeihl. Although still confined to paint on canvas, Perception is an explosion of vibrant color and shape, with no semblance of natural form. Shapes shift and morph from biotic curve to rectilinear geometry on a whim, with no consideration given to the idea of space. The interconnected shapes and lines seem to shift and morph as the viewer looks at them. The background is a deep, dark blue, while the foreground is filled with hyper-saturated colors that seem to pulsate and glow. We are lucky that so many Avsohmic painters were concerned with conservation; the alchemical acrylics and varnishes used ensure that the painting remains just as bright as the artist intended.
Not all artists embraced abstraction. In traditional or reactionary circles, the Realist movement began to take form. These paintings rejected the abstract nature of Avsohmic art and harkened back to the mosaics of the Chosen Kingdom, faithfully recreating landscapes and the Drehmari form with no embellishment, abstraction, or impression. This was widely scorned by the cutting edge, and generally found no purchase in either the art world or popular culture until the rise of Anyr.
This unnamed painting was created shortly after Emperor Anyr ascended to the throne. It is one of the last known pieces of Avsohmic Abstraction, as Anyr cracked down on the visual arts shortly after. It was painted on a large canvas filled with swirling shapes in shades of black, gray, and white. The composition is chaotic, with jagged lines and forms overlapping one another. In the center of the painting, a figure can be made out, but she is obscured by the chaotic forms that surround her, giving the impression of being lost or trapped.
Although Ekari was first known as a paragon of abstract Avsohmic art, they quickly capitulated to the Anyric regime, and became the staunchest voice of support for the new Emperor. The exact cause of this drastic shift is unknown, although it is rumored members of Ekari's estranged family were threatened. It is thought that Ekari kept the abstract spirit of Avsohmic art alive through their work in architecture, pioneering the white-and-purple style so heavily associated with Late Avsohmic ruins.
The most famous piece of Anyric art is the aptly-titled "Anyr", a colossal statue that still stands in the ruins of Av'sal. Created by the imminent Realist sculptor Rahnd Ayhn, it depicts the "God-Emperor" Anyr carrying the whole of Drehmal upon his back. Although hunched, his regal bearing is clear to all who see it. Many citizens of Av'Sal protested during the construction, claiming it to be an "eyesore". It was widely panned by critics, who subsequently disappeared from the public discourse.
It would be remiss of me to not mention the brief experiments in "photography" performed by Avsohmic alchemical artists. Somewhat popular in the upper-class during Ifeihl's reign, this method is not well-understood. It appears to have involved a massive amount of reagent applied to any extremely flat surface. The end result was a monochromatic image with unmatched detail and resolution. There appears to have been significant differences in application, as many of these photos were stamped to metal while others were printed on paper. The expensive and time-intensive process of photographic capture soon fell out of favor, and it was not before long that it was usurped by the Realists.
I would like to thank my benefactor, the Green Serpent Trade Guild, for sponsoring this work. Due to the Empire's sudden and absolute collapse, the arts have never been explored to such a degree again, and we as a species are poorer for it.
Trivia¶
The discussed painting of Drehmal the Realmbinder before the burnt Primal Tree appears to be the very same portrait of Drehmal available for purchase in real life on the Merch page of the website: Portrait of Drehmal Poster