Remnants

The Castles of Germany have have been witness to some of the greatest moments in European history. They have been present for developments in science, weddings of nobles, and stood the test of time through war and peace. They have been lodges for chivalric orders that exert there influence on world affairs to this day. The most influential personalities came to prominence in the courts of these castles.

These buildings took generations to complete. When you closely inspect the brick work a narrative begins to emerge. Different periods of construction begin to show their unique characteristics. The bricks become more irregular in places and more mortar is used to compensate fore the irregularity. Sometimes the type of brick changes from mud brick to stone, denoting an advancement in military technology.

It would take me years to read all of the literature relating to just one of these buildings. The network of people related to these locations spreads its nexus through the spiraling annals of history in biography after biography. Its difficult to even come up with a brief summary of such a vast corpus, and this makes it all the more a shame that the architectural context of this history is largely taken for granted.

Drawings

These drawings were made on yellow parchment paper with a Pilot metropolitan and number 2 pencil. The locations from right to left are Castles Hohenzollern, Eltz, and Heidelberg. These drawings were a good break from my usual mode of drawing in which I usually don’t pay much attention to composition until something needs to be balanced. Every detail needed to be planned and in some instances I made mistakes with proportion or perspective. However in the end the effect  that comes from the brick texture is satisfying, and it was a good learning experience.