Monday 31 May 2010 20.33 EDT First published on Monday 31 May 2010 20.33 EDT. Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America yesterday, bringing torrential rain that killed more than 100 people and opened a 60m-deep sinkhole in Guatemala City which reportedly swallowed up a three-storey building.
The artist who takes the biggest step away from the Medieval style of spiritual representation in painting in the early 14th century is Giotto. Giotto is perhaps best known for the frescos he painted in the Arena (or Scrovegni) Chapel. They were commissioned by a wealthy man named Enrico Scrovegni, the son of a well-known banker (and a banker himself).
The mezzotint technique, invented in Germany in the 1640s, found its apogee in 18th-century England as the ideal medium for reproducing oil paintings. The method is tonal rather than linear: the forms and highlights are pulled out of an overall dark background by scraping or burnishing in the highlights.