Calligraphy: A dance on paper
Imagine a time when there were no text messages or emojis. If you wanted to send messages to someone far away, you had to write it by hand. They were written with such beauty and perfection that they looked like art! The magical art of making letters dance on the page is called calligraphy. We, the Gen Z kids, might think this is a bore. But it was not always the same. People in the ancient times took this as a serious practice. Edward Johnston is considered the father of modern calligraphy.
Calligraphy is a form of visual art. Calligraphy derives from the Greek word Kallos meaning beauty and graphien meaning to write. καλλιγραφία (kalligraphía).Thousands of years ago, there were no fancy pens or pencils to write in ancient civilisations like Egypt, China, and Rome. Instead, they used brushes, reeds and feathers dipped in ink. In Egypt, scribes used hieroglyphics, that were actually symbols representing different words or letters and sounds. In China, calligraphy was created by an artist who dipped special brushes into ink to make it like a piece of art! Each line, each stroke was a masterpiece. In medieval Europe, monks copied manuscripts by hand. They used calligraphy and added colourful illustrations. Islamic calligraphy emerged in the 7th century. It became a popular art form to decorate mosques, manuscripts, and other religious text. Hebrew calligraphy is the oldest form of calligraphy. Calligraphy can be seen everywhere today. It is not just about writing words, but about creating beautiful compositions of text. Every letter in calligraphy consists of upstrokes and downstrokes. Eventually, the speed, accelerations and decelerations of a skilled calligrapher’s movements aim to give “spirit” to the characters, greatly influencing their final shapes. It is believed that ancient Persian script was invented by about 600–500 BCE to provide monument inscriptions for the Achaemenid kings. These scripts consisted of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal nail-shape letters, which is why it is called cuneiform script in Persian. Centuries later, other scripts such as “Pahlavi” and “Avestan” scripts were used in ancient Persia. Pahlavi was a middle Persian script developed from the Aramaic script and became the official script of the Sassanian empire. There is this person named Hyuk- su who spends hours making calligraphy inkstones. There are many types of inkstones. Inkstones are used to store ink and used while painting.
While digital technology has changed the way of communication, calligraphy continues to survive as a form of personal expression and has maintained it’s essence of celebration as the beauty of the paper. Try writing out the alphabet. You will be really mesmerised.
By A S Manase
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