Things and even human beings historically evolved from some form to their present form, and who knows that in some years to come that the present form will not turn to some history after evolving to some other form! The Metropolitan Heilbrunn timeline of art history pairs chronological works of art and essay with an aim to tell the story of global culture and story and/or history of art through the collection of the museum. This paper aims at evaluating the form of digital media works in terms of public history showing how the relevant subject is presented and the use of objects in illustrating the historical subject with the help of a choice of three short essays from the essays from the Metropolitan Museum’s of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (No Author, 2017).

With a close assessment and evaluation of the ‘Fabricating Sixteenth-Century Netherlands Boxwood Miniatures” essay, it is evident that the artists responsible for the creation of the boxwood prayer  beads, triptychs, diptychs, sarcophagi and letters were comparatively very conversant with the time iconography though they condensed and concentrated their scale of work towards creating a very intimate religious experience for devotees, be they wealth patrons or royalty, who might have made mountings of the beads to act as the end of their prayer sessions at the culmination of a rosary. The boxwood prayer beads stand as a perfect blue print of the ancient times and evolution of the rosary beads that we have seen evolve through without losing the original ‘bead-touch’ and methodology as a way of culmination of prayer during rosaries (No Author, 2017).

The fabricators and artists of the boxwood prayer beads and other co-related works may not have been in a schooling environment for their creativity and innovation but their works are well a presentation of public history. This short essay work shows the way the beads are made and categorically used to show part of the evolution of the way people conducted their rosaries and prayer processes in the ancient times, which is ore of public history for it forms a reference and affiliation of the way people conduct rosary and prayer in the current world. The works may not have been coordinated and as a result of national research libraries, but it forms great parts of public history courtesy of the somewhat layman innovation and creativity. The beads were historically used to mean some end of a prayer session during a rosary. The objects, boxwood prayer beads, well illustrate the historical subject, that is followed up to date though maybe is a different way, that one at seeing the beads during the prayer session they will understand it marks the end of that session. The boxwood has been used persistently as an ideal medium for intricate carvings which may exhibit different properties, developments, and variations, but the reference medium remains the boxwood prayer beads, an item of public history (No Author, 2017).

The short essay “the Rise of Paper Photography in Italy, 1839-55” is another categorical piece that shows the rise and evolution is digital media in photography. The essay shows a blend of ideas from different destinations flavoring the evolution of photography in Italy which culminated to the negative which used to print many positive copies. The negative stands as the underpin for the even current digital photography. It is a reference for photography works and all of the developments of photography someway relate and originate from the paper photography in Italy. The negatives illustrate well the historical photography, showing the potential to develop and print various number of positive copies from them. They are presented as the underline of photography work and new development are ‘positive-d’ out of it (No Author, 2017).

Comparatively, the essay ‘Medusa in Ancient Greek Art’ shows the use of evil to scare evil through imagery. The striking frontality in medusa as showed in the essay has been  used by many artists to show different parts and warnings that should not be frequently touched. When one sees and relates to the medusa story there is that feeling of fear to commit any evil for it may come back to them haunting flamboyantly (No Author, 2017).

In a nutshell, the three essays are well a depiction and a representation of some originality and identity in public history. The current things and forms of life that we see and use around have some originality and belong to some forms of public history and they might have been even developed out of classwork by the innovation and creativity of some dummies. However, the history might be collaborative, or a development from one person as they exploit they growing touch in innovativeness and creativity. This is a very effective way to use effectively the Metropolitan Museum’s resources to show the beginning of some concepts and cultures that we may not easily understand,. The metropolitan are therefore depicted as very rich sources of public history and may be used to understand and unearth some of the ‘round corner’ concepts and norms in life that are very fundamental for knowledge and general life (No Author, 2017).

Reference

No Author, The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History pairs essays and works of art with chronologies, telling the story of art and global culture through the Museum’s collection, the MET, 2017. Web: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/.