fine arts module 2

Hall of Bulls, Lascaux, ca. 15,000-18,000 B.C.E., Dordogne, France

Color pigment (chunks of red and yellow ocher) were directly applied to the walls with brushes and blowpipes. There are also about 1,000 engravings (wall incisions). handprints reveal creators were adolescents

abstract and schematic, more symbolic than representational

Mesolithic painting styles during this time became more

akkad

Mesopotamian city-state; world's first empire (sumerian cities unified)

mesolithic period

Middle part of the Stone Age beginning about 15,000 years ago

amarna period

Naturalism in Egyptian Art of the New Kingdom

Reconstruction Drawing of the Citadel of Sargon II, Khorsabad, ca. 720 B.C.E.

Under Sargon II, a massive citadel was constructed that would have covered some 25 acres and had over 200 courtyards and rooms. However, there was lack of unity of plan, and the citadel remained unfinished. Hence we are looking at it in a reconstruction.

Assyrian Relief Sculptures

an art form in which assyrians excelled in; Composite creatures between humans and animals, called lamassu, can be seen, for instance, in the citadel of Khorsabad, a complex left otherwise unfinished. The lamassu became a standard feature of all of Mesopotamian art.

sumerian cuneiform

considered the first written language in the world; the wedge-shaped characters were impressed on clay tablets and used in the ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia

Warrior Dance, Gasulla Gorge (Eastern Coast of Spain), ca. 8,000-3,000 B.C.E.

stylized, rhythmic repetitions of basic shapes recorded a step in the evolution toward the symbolic from the pictorial—an evolution that, in the Middle East, culminated eventually in the invention of writing.

was there changes in egyptian art?

the ancient Egyptians possessed very conservative taste in matters of art and architecture, as there were very few changes in the conventions of representing the human figure or in the way they built their temples over the course of thousands of years.

neo-babylonia

there was a revival of Babylonian culture with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Ziggurat Temple of Bel (referred to as "Babel" in the Bible).

Ancient Mesopotamia is located in

today's Iraq and parts of Syria.

pyramids in the old kingdom

Each pyramid was completed with a final, outer sheathing of white limestone, remnants of which are only visible on Chephren's Pyramid. The sheathing is otherwise absent because the pyramids were stripped of blocks of stone for centuries to build the nearby city of Cairo.

Akhenaten, from a pillar statue in the Temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, ca. 1375 B.C.E., carved Sandstone.

Her smooth skin and symmetrical physiognomy suggests a quest for idealized beauty that can be likened aesthetically to Greek visual culture.

monolith

a single, large stone

sumerian artifacts

see for the first time a fixed set of stylistic conventions that can found across diverse artifacts from one coherent cultural complex

"Venus" of Willendorf, ca. 25,000 -20,000 B.C.E., carved stone

small female figurine of Paleolithic age. figures served as fertility fetishes

lith

stone

metal like bronzes

what notable form of artwork came about during the akkad times

Egyptian Hypostyle

clerestory, or raised, central rows of columns (central columns are higher than those at the sides), which allows for light to filter in, while the interior of the hall remained in the shadow, which created a natural cooling effect.

new kingdom

egypt was invaded by the Hyksos from the syrian and mesopotamian highlands

BCE

Before Common (Christian) Era

neolithic period

Late Stone Age (Eastern Mediterranean: 6,000 B.C.E. to 3,500 B.C.E.; Spain and Northern Europe: 4,000 to 1,500 B.C.E)

early dynastic period in egypt

3100-2649 BCE, (Dynasty I and II), Gradual centralization of power, dissemination of writing, early development of artistic canon, establishment of kingship iconography, elite burials/ritual architecture.

stele

A carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events.

Fowl Hunting Scene, Wall Painting from the Tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, Egypt, 1450 B.C.E., fresco

Although the male figure is depicted with the typical mixture of profile and frontal view, the pose, the implied movement, and the animated rendering of the birds make it more realistic than what we saw before.

dendrochronology

An alternative dating method is based on the tree rings and their unique patterns found in timber; bristle-cone pines in California, for instance, date back as far as 4,000 B.C.E. and can serve as reference

hieratic scale

An artistic technique in which the importance of figures is indicated by size, so that the most important figure is depicted as the largest.

ancient egypt

Ancient civilization located primarily along the Nile River.

ancient persia

Assyrians succumbed to the Babylonians, who were in turn defeated by the emerging Persian empire; which at its height encompasses most of the middle east including Egypt and ranged from the Danube to the indus river.

tomb architecture in ancient egypt

Care of the dead and preparation for the afterlife was of great importance in Egyptian culture. Egyptians believed that the ka lived on after death and needed to be provided for -- hence the preoccupation with the preservation of the body (mummies), provisions of food and drink, entertainment, art, etc. for the deceased. The earliest Egyptian tomb structures are Mastabas, which is Arabic for bench. They are typically rectangular structures with sloping outside walls, which are made of bricks.

Political organization in city-states, surrounded by nomadic people and interlinked by trade Rise of cities as religious and administrative centers enjoying economic prosperity Building of temple structures to communicate with the stars (different from Egypt and its preoccupation with royal tombs)

Early Mesopotamian civilizations were defined by three main factors:

Paleolithic age

Early Stone Age (from about 35,000 B.C.E. to 8,000 B.C.E.)

ptolemaic period

Egypt came under greek dominance, styles didn't change much

canon of representation

Egyptian art is "canonical" (from the noun, "canon") in that it follows a fixed set of rules from which artists/architects rarely deviated and which turned into a standard; consisted of profile views for heads, and a frontal view for legs, arms, and torso.

radiocarbon dating

Invented in 1955, it is based on the fact that living organisms continually absorb carbon isotopes, including radioactive carbon-14, which continually disintegrates into nonradioactive nitrogen-14; upon death of an organism, absorption ceases, but disintegration continues. Since the rate of disintegration is known, deductions about age can be made based on the amount of carbon-14 remaining

New Kingdom architecture

Monumental Pylon temples with Hypostyle halls

The White Lady of Brandberg, cave painting, Namibia, 1st century B.C.E. (or earlier)

Similar depictions executed in the nineteenth century, at the onset of colonialism, have been found in South Africa, showing that in parts of Africa, this earliest art form persisted into the modern age.

babylon

The largest and most important city in Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C.E. and the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C.E. (p. 29)

The first and second coffins of Tutankhamen (left), ca. 1340 B.C.E., gilded wood inlaid with glass paste

The richness of materials found in the burial chamber filled with objects made from beaten gold, semiprecious stones, such as lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian, was unparalleled. Everything, from food to entertainment to furniture, was provided to the pharaoh to make his final journey more pleasant and comfortable. The centerpiece of the tomb chamber was the mummified body of Tutankhamen in the innermost of three coffins. In the first and second coffins, the pharaoh is given the attire and the attributes of the god, Osiris. These coffins were carved out of wood and covered with gold leaf.

funerary practices in ancient Egypt

a "Book of the Dead" (there were many), which were written/painted on papyrus scrolls that were wrapped up with mummies after burial ceremonies. Papyrus is a plant material similar to bark or leaves. These books contained spells, prayers, formulas, counsels.

the rosetta stone

a huge stone slab inscribed with hieroglyphics, Greek, and a later form of Egyptian that allowed historians to understand Egyptian writing.

sumer

a loose association of independent cities and became one of the earliest great Mesopotamian civilizations; innovations included a system of gods (Anu, god of the Sky; En-lil [Bel], creator and ruler of earth and "lord of the storm," etc.) and god-man relationships, the city-state itself, the art of writing (script recorded on seals used for record keeping tasks of temple priests).

assyria

a southwest Asian kingdom that controlled a large empire from about 850 to 612 B.C.

palatte

a tablet on which eye makeup was prepared, so it was a utilitarian object, presumably owned by a woman.

mastabas

an ancient Egyptian mudbrick tomb with a rectangular base and sloping sides and flat roof (anticipates pyramids)

hierglyphics

ancient egyption writing system using picture symbols

Head of an Akkadian Ruler, Nineveh, ca. 2300-2200 B.C.E., bronze (right) ca. 2300 B.C.E.

attests to the ability and skill of local craftsmen working in bronze.

Khafre (Chefren), Gizeh, ca. 2500 B.C.E., carved Diorite

carved out of very hard Diorite stone, records the likeness of Khafre, who was buried in the largest of the three pyramids. He is seated on a throne, the base of which is adorned with lotus and papyrus decorations, symbols for a unified Egypt. The hawk seen behind his head is a symbol of the sun. Chefren wanted to be perceived as the son of Re.

Royal Audience Hall and Stairway, Persepolis (Iran), ca. 500 B.C.E.

center of Persian culture; consisting of a succession of columned courts, axially arranged, including a central court, sixty feet high and stretching over a surface over two-hundred square feet. The central court was equipped with large, fluted columns, and a vast rock-cut podium with relief carvings featuring fighting animals (bulls and lions) and a superimposed register of the Persian king reviewing his troops. The palace was heavily fortified and is believed to have served, above all, ceremonial

Pylon façade

consists of massive, trapezoid walls (often inscribed with hieroglyphics or figures), bisected in the middle by a passageway to give access to the central axis of the temple complex. A series of Hypostyle courtyards, strung on this axis, is hidden behind the Pylon

Bison with Turned Head, La Madeleine, ca. 11,000-9,000 B.C.E., carved reindeer horn

depicts a now extinct species of bison with his head turned into his side and tongue extended. The artifact was incised (carved) on a reindeer antler fragment, which is probably the reason why the artist depicted the bison with its head turned to fit the shape of the antler fragment. The animal iconography and simplified depiction are similar to the Paleolithic cave paintings we looked at previously.

political organization, religious beliefs, cities, and food storage.

evidence for what we can call civilization

Statues from the Abu Temple, Tell Asmar, limestone, alabaster, gypsum, ca. 2700-2500 B.C.E.

feature clasped hands, potentially in prayer or as part of a ritual. Typically, they have been found in excavations of Sumerian temples. They all follow similar conventions of representation, especially in the disproportionally large rendering of the eyes, which is typical for all Sumerian sculpture

Imhotep, Stepped Pyramid of King Zoser, Saqquara (necropolis of Memphis), ca. 2610 B.C.E.

first monumental royal tomb in ancient Egyptian was built for King Zoser of the Third Dynasty. This tomb is often regarded as a precursor of the pyramids of Gizeh. Its creator, Imhotep, is known by name. Imhotep was thus the first known artist/architect of recorded history. The tomb of Zoser is a stepped pyramid, reminiscent of the Ziggurat temples of Mesopotamia, with an adjacent temple complex. This tomb was designed to protect the mummified body of the king, buried in a hidden, underground chamber, and to symbolize his absolute, god-like power during and after his life and rule.

stylistic features of sumerian art

formalized poses, heraldic symmetry, and animal symbolism, especially the bull

Stonehenge, ca. 2000 B.C.E., Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England (cromlech structure)

functioned as a farmer's calander. about a mile in diameter. Its outermost ring consists of large monoliths of sarsen stones capped by lintels, while the inner ring of bluestones is encircling a horseshoe (open end facing East) of trilithons (five lintel-topped pairs of the largest sarsen stones, each weighing 45 to 50 tons). In the center of the "horseshoe" are the "Heelstones," marking a point chosen to allow the observation of sunrise at the mid-summer solstice

Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, ca. 1257

highlighting further the tendency towards monumental (gigantic) art and architecture during that period. Ramses II was Egypt's great warrior-pharaoh. His temple was built far up the Nile (in the south), on a cliff overlooking the river. The temple's façade is supposed to represent four colossal images of Ramses II. They were carved out directly from the natural sandstone cliff. In the center, we see the small, dark entry to the actual funerary chamber.

neolithic age

humans began to live in fixed abodes and to domesticate plants and animals in the

Farming and domestication of animals (instead of food-gathering, as during Paleolithic period) Permanent human shelters/settlements The onset of village culture with the earliest traces of urban settlements found in Jericho, 7,000 B.C.E., and in Çatal Hüyük, 7,000 to 5,000 B.C.E. Lack of centralized power structure

humans founded village cultures in Asia Minor (today's Turkey), whose defining characteristics include:

the ice covering the northern hemisphere melted, reindeer migrated north, wooly mammoth and rhinoceros disappeared from Europe/North Africa.

hunters left their caves, as the northern hemisphere became climatically, geographically, and biologically similar to their modern-day conditions as a result of ...

Stele of Hammurabi, Susa, ca. 1880 B.C.E., carved Basalt stone

image depicts Hammurabi in profile, on the left, as he is about to receive the laws from the flame-shouldered sun god Shamash. His codified laws are written on the slab below in cuneiform script. The imagery is not unlike the biblical story of Moses receiving the tablets of law. The Stele of Hammurabi is of great importance for the history of jurisprudence

Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions and Dying Lioness, Nineveh, ca. 650 B.C.E., carved Alabaster

low relief sculpture from the end of the Assyrian dominance; Hunting was a royal privilege; previously unseen degree of realism in the visual arts that is achieved with the delicate carving of the anatomical features of the lion and the dynamic movement of the human bodies as they pursue the animals.

The Ishtar Gate, Babylon, ca. 575 B.C.E., glazed brick (restored and partly reconstructed, Pergamon Museum, Berlin)

marked one of the processional gateways into the city. It is adorned with lion motives against a dark blue background of glazed brick; sixty lions were also depicted on the processional way leading to the gate.

limestone on tomb

not only aesthetic, but also served to prevent tomb robbery. However, the large size and visibility of the pyramids defeated this objective. No intact tomb chambers, like that of Tutankhamen, were ever found inside these pyramids; we assume that they were looted soon after the construction was finished.

Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, ca. 1350 B.C.E.

one of the largest and best preserved examples of these rock-cut tombs. It consists of three colonnaded terraces and chamfered (flattened at the edges) columns. Originally, rich vegetation surrounded the temple complex.

amarna period

only time we find a marked break with the traditional canon of Egyptian art was during the rule of pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten. we see a heightened degree of naturalism and realism, especially with the depictions of the body.

Wall Painting of Animals, Chauvet Cave, Pont d'Arc, France, ca. 28,000 B. C. E.

painted in a cave of mammoth, bisons, reindeer, horses, boar etc with spears and traps

egyptian dynasties

pre-and early dynastic periods, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, late period, ptolemaic period

Palette of Narmer, Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, ca. 3000 B.C.E., slate

see the figure of a ruler, who is possibly King Narmer, shown in hieratic scale (larger than all of the other figures to underscore his power and importance visually) and rendered in the act of slaying an enemy. We also see a hawk (i.e. the god Horus) above a head crest adorned with papyrus buds, which symbolize the conquered region of Lower Egypt.

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, ca.2300-2200 B.C.E., carved sandstone

shows the war-like aspect of his rule, as the king is depicted with a horned helmet near the top of the composition, treading on the bodies of fallen enemies. Below him, we see the files of soldiers in his army. This work utilizes hieratic scale, meaning that the king's body is represented much larger than anybody else's to signify his superior rank.

Tutankhamen

some of the realism and naturalism of the Amarna period carried over to the rule of Tutankhamen a few years later, which yielded some of the most spectacular objects of Egyptian art ever seen

The Ziggurat at Ur-Nammu, ca. 2100 B.C.E.

stepped temple structure made of sun-dried brick; three ramp-like stairways with about 100 steps each, and each tower is flanked by gateways. The shrine at the top of the ziggurat is where priests prayed to the "gods of the night" (planets and their constellations)

ancient egyptian artifacts

suggest a preoccupation with the afterlife. The Egyptians believed in the preservation of the ka (life force or spirit) beyond death. This belief defines the type of monuments and works of art that have survived to the present day: tombs and temples dominate.

cheops pyramid

the oldest and largest of the pyramids of gizeh

Great Pyramids of Gizeh

the quintessential monuments of the Old Kingdom. If tomb chambers were hidden underground before, the structures now became monumental and their mass dominates the suburbs of Cairo. The construction of the Great Pyramids is believed to have been a result of moving the royal residence to Memphis during the Third Dynasty.

Poulnabrone Dolmen, 4,200 BC and 2.900 B.C.E., the Burren, County Clare, Ireland

tomb structures consisting of rows of stones, planted vertically in the ground, covered with a slab and cromlech, which are huge stones placed in a circle

rock cut temples

we no longer find pyramid tomb structures. Instead, mortuary temples for royal burials were carved directly out of the cliffs on the banks of the Nile.

Soundbox of a Lyre from the "King's Grave" tomb RT789, Ur, ca. 2650-2550 B.C.E., wood with gold, lapis lazuli, shell and silver (partially reconstructed)

wooden body of the soundbox is a reconstruction; only the decorative bull's head made of carved lapis lazuli and repoussé (beaten) gold and the front plaque made with shell inlay;