The largest creative work is the largest or longest item in different fields of

creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, and composition. Legal definitions Creative works require a cre ...

s. Some pieces were created with the specific intention of holding the record while others have been recognised for their size after completion.

Literature

*The largest known general

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

is the '' Yongle Encyclopedia'' commissioned by the

Yongle Emperor The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyn ...

of China's

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

in 1403. It comprised 22,937 manuscript scrolls in 11,095 volumes, occupying . *The longest poem in any language is the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

, with more than 100,000 couplets. *The longest epic cycle is the Tibetan

Epic of King Gesar The Epic of King Gesar ( Tibetan, Bhutanese: གླིང་གེ་སར །), also spelled Geser (especially in Mongolian contexts) or Kesar (), is a work of epic literature of Tibet and greater Central Asia. The epic originally devel ...

, which contains over 20 million words in more than one million verses.

Performing arts

Film

*''

Logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

'', directed by Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson, is officially the world's longest film. Running 51,420 minutes (857 hours) in length, the film follows the production cycle of a

pedometer A pedometer, or step-counter, is a device, usually portable and electronic or electromechanical, that counts each step a person takes by detecting the motion of the person's hands or hips. Because the distance of each person's step varies, ...

in reverse chronological order.

Music

*The longest

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

al performance began on 1 January 2000 and is set to last for 1000 years before repeating. Composed by Jem Finer, ''

Longplayer ''Longplayer'' is a self-extending composition by British composer and musician Jem Finer which is designed to continue for one thousand years. It started to play at midnight on 1 January 2000, and if all goes as planned, it will continue w ...

'' is played in a 19th-century lighthouse near

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central ...

, London, and other public listening posts.

Television

*The longest-running American television series is ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ...

'', a news program which started on 6 November 1947 and continues today.

Theatre

The Mousetrap ''The Mousetrap'' is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. ''The Mousetrap'' opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 ...

'' had been running continuously in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from 1952 to 16 March 2020, when it closed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. It has by far the longest initial run of any play in history, with more than 25,000 performances taking place, and the longest running show (of any type) of the modern era.

Visual arts

Painting

*The largest

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

by a single-artist according to the International Guinness Book of World Records was completed by Ðuka Siroglavic. It measured and was created in Bol, Croatia, between 15 February and 15 July 2007. Previous record holders included David Aberg's "Mother Earth," (2006) and an Eric Waugh's , "Hero" (2002).

Sculpture

The largest contemporary artwork and largest

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

sculpture is "

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

" by Michael Heizer, located at 38.034°, -115.443° in rural Lincoln County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. ''City'' measures approximately wide and long.

Textiles

The world's largest hand woven carpet is a

Persian carpet A Persian carpet ( fa, فرش ایرانی, translit=farš-e irâni ) or Persian rug ( fa, قالی ایرانی, translit=qâli-ye irâni ),Savory, R., ''Carpets'',(Encyclopaedia Iranica); accessed January 30, 2007. also known as Iranian ...

made in Iran and completed in 2007. It has 2.2 billion knots, measuring .

References

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Creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, and composition. Legal definitions Creative works require a cre ...

Superlatives