Art History 1 Midterm

Several sculptors working in diverse styles carved the Reims jamb statues, but all the figures resemble freestanding statues, with bodies and arms in motion. The biblical figures speak using gestures. The statues are further testimony to the Virgin's central role in Gothic iconography. The statues appear completely detached from their architectural background because the sculptors shrank the supporting columns into insignificance. The columns in no way restrict the free and easy movements of the full-bodied figures.

Annunciation and Visitation sculptures, Reims Cathedral, Reims, France, c. 1230-1255

The statue of Hermes and the infant Dionysos found in the Temple of Hera at Olympia provides a good idea of the Praxitelean "touch." The statue was once thought to be by the master himself, but is now generally considered a copy of the highest quality or an original work by a son or grandson with the same name. The statue depicts Hermes resting in a forest during his journey to deliver Dionysos to the satyr Papposilenos and the nymphs, who assumed responsibility for raising the child. Hermes leans on a tree trunk, and his slender body forms a sinuous, shallow S-curve that is the hallmark of many of Prexitele's statues. Hermes gazes dreamily into space while he dangles a bunch of grapes (now missing) to tempt the infant who is to become the Greek god of the vine. This is the kind of tender human interaction between an adult and a child that one encounters frequently in real life but that had been absent from Greek statuary before the 4th century BCE. The quality of the carving is superb. The modeling is deliberately sooth and subtle, producing soft shadows that follow the planes as they flow almost imperceptibly one into another. The delicacy of the marble facial features stands in sharp contrast to the metallic precision of Polykleitos's bronze Doryphoros. The High Classical sculptor even subjected the Spear Bearer's locks of hair to the laws of symmetry, and the hair does not violate the skull's perfect curve. The comparison of these two statues reveals the sweeping changes in artistic attitude and intent that took place from the 5th to the 4th century BCE. In the statues of Praxiteles, the Olympian deities still possess a beauty mortals can aspire to, although not achieve, but they are no longer aloof. Praxiteles's gods have stepped off their pedestals and entered the world of human experience.

Praxitele's Hermes and the infant Dionysos, Temple of Hera, Olympia, Greece, copy of marble statue c. 340 BCE, original work c. 330-270 BCE

In contrast to Brunelleschi's panel, Ghiberti's entry in the baptistery competition features gracefully posed figures that recall classical statuary. Even Isaac's altar has a Roman acanthus frieze.

Lorenzo Ghiberti, "Sacrifice of Isaac," competition panel for the east doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, 1401-1402

Many Egyptologists have identified Menes with King Narmer, whose image and name appear on both sides of a ceremonial palette (stone slab with a circular depression) found at HIerakonpolis. The palette is an elaborate, formalized version of a utilitarian object commonly used in the Predynastic period to prepare eye makeup, which Egyptians used to protect their eyes against the glare of the sun. Narmer's palette is the earliest extant labeled work of historical art. Although Egyptologists no longer believe that it commemorates the founding of the first of Egypt's 31 dynasties around 2920 BCE, it does record the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt at the end of the Predynastic period. Historians now think that this unification occurred over several centuries, but the palette presents the creation of the "Kingdom of the Two Land" as a single great event. King Narmer's palette is important no only as a document marking the transition from the prehistorical to the historical period in ancient Egypt but also as a kind of early blueprint of the formula for figure representation that characterized most Egyptian art for 3,000 years. At the top of each side of the palter are two heads of a cow with a woman's face, whom scholars usually identify as Hathor, the divine mother of all Egyptian kings, but who may instead be the sky goddess Bat. Between the goddess heads is a hieroglyph giving Narmer's name ("catfish chisel") within a frame representing the royal palace. On the back of the palette, the king, wearing the high, white, conical crown of Upper Egypt and accompanied by a much smaller attendant carrying his sandals, slays a captured enemy. Above and to the right the king appears again in his role as the "Living Horus"- here as a falcon with one human arm. The falcon-king takes captive a man-headed pictograph with a papyrus plant growing from it that stands for the land of Lower Egypt. Below the king are two fallen enemies. On the front, the elongated necks of the two felines form the circular depression that would have held eye makeup in an ordinary palette not made for display. The intertwined necks of the animals may be a pictorial reference to Egypt's unification. In the uppermost register, Narmer, now wearing Lower Egypt's distinctive crown, reviews the beheaded bodies of the enemy. The artist depicted each body with its severed head neatly placed between its legs. In the lowest band, a great bull symbolizing the king's superhuman strength knocks downy he fortress walls of a rebellious city. On both sides of the palette, the god-king performs his ritual task alone and, by virtue of his superior rank, towers over his own men and the enemy.. Specific historical narrative was not the artist's goal in this work. What was important was the characterization of the king as supreme, isolated from and larger than all ordinary men and solely responsible for the triumph over the enemy. These pictorial and ideological conventions endured in Egyptian are for millennia.

Narmer Palette, Egypt, 3000-2920 BCE

The magnificent temple on the Acropolis of Athens, known as the Parthenon, was built between 447 and 432 BCE in the Age of Pericles, and it was dedicated to the city's patron deity Athena. The temple was constructed to house the new cult statue of the goddess by Pheidias and to proclaim to the world the success of Athens as leader of the coalition of Greek forces which had defeated the invading Persian armies of Darius and Xerxes. The temple would remain in use for more than a thousand years, and despite the ravages of time, explosions, looting, and pollution damage, it still dominates the modern city of Athens, a magnificent testimony to the glory and renown the city enjoyed throughout antiquity. The Parthenon would become the largest Doric Greek temple, although it was innovative in that it mixed the two architectural styles of Doric and the newer Ionic. The temple measured 30.88 m by 69.5 m and was constructed using a 4:9 ratio in several aspects. The diameter of the columns in relation to the space between columns, the height of the building in relation to its width, and the width of the inner cella in relation to its length are all 4:9. Other sophisticated architectural techniques were used to combat the problem that anything on that scale of size when perfectly straight seems from a distance to be curved. To give the illusion of true straight lines, the columns lean ever so slightly inwards, a feature which also gives a lifting effect to the building making it appear lighter than its construction material would suggest. Also, the stylobate or floor of the temple is not exactly flat but rises slightly in the centre. The columns also have entasis, that is, a slight fattening in their middle, and the four corner columns are imperceptibly fatter than the other columns. The combination of these refinements makes the temple seem perfectly straight, symmetrically in harmony, and gives the entire building a certain vibrancy. The outer columns of the temple were Doric with eight seen from the front and back and 17 seen from the sides. This was in contrast to the normal 6x13 Doric arrangement, and they were also slimmer and closer together than usual. Within, the inner cella (or opisthodomos) was fronted by six columns at the back and front. It was entered through large wooden doors embellished with decorations in bronze, ivory, and gold. The cella consisted of two separated rooms. The smaller room contained four Ionic columns to support the roof section and was used as the city's treasury. The larger room housed the cult statue and was surrounded by a Doric colonnade on three sides. The roof was constructed using cedar wood beams and marble tiles and would have been decorated with akroteria (of palms or figures) at the corners and central apexes. The roof corners also carried lion-headed spouts to drain away water. The frieze ran around all four sides of the building (an Ionic feature). Beginning at the southwest corner, the narrative follows around the two sides, meeting again at the far end. It presents a total of 160 m of sculpture with 380 figures and 220 animals, principally horses. This was more usual for a treasury building and perhaps reflects the Parthenon's double function as a religious temple and a treasury. The frieze was different from all previous temples in that all sides depicted a single subject, in this case, the Panathenaic procession which was held in Athens every four years and which delivered a new, specially woven robe (peplos) to the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena housed in the Erechtheion. The subject itself was a unique choice, as usually scenes from Greek mythology were chosen to decorate buildings. Depicted in the procession are dignitaries, musicians, horsemen, charioteers, and the Olympian Gods with Athena centre stage. To mitigate the difficulty in viewing the frieze at such a steep angle from the narrow space between cella and outer columns, the background was painted blue and the relief varied so that the carving was always deeper at the top. Also, all of the sculptures were brightly painted, mostly using blue red and gold. Details such as weapons and horses reigns were added in bronze and coloured glass was used for eyes. The pediments of the temple measured 28.55 m in length with a maximum height of 3.45 m at their centre. They were filled with around 50 figures sculpted in the round, an unprecedented quantity of sculpture. Only eleven figures survive and their condition is so poor that many are difficult to identify with certainty. With the aid of descriptions by Pausanias of the 2nd century CE, it is, however, possible to identify the general subjects. The east pediment as a whole depicts the birth of Athena and the west side the competition between Athena and Poseidon to become patron of the great city. One of the problems of pediments for the sculptor is the diminished space at the corners of the triangle. Once again, the Parthenon presented a unique solution by dissolving the figures into an imaginary sea (e.g. the figure of Okeanus) or having the sculpture overlap the lower edge of the pediment (e.g. the horse head). The most important sculpture of the Parthenon though was not outside but inside. There is evidence that the temple was built to measure in order to accommodate the chryselephantine statue of Athena by Pheidias. This was a gigantic statue over 12 m high and made of carved ivory for flesh parts and gold (1140 kilos or 44 talents of it) for everything else, all wrapped around a wooden core. The gold parts could also be easily removed if necessary in times of financial necessity. The statue stood on a pedestal measuring 4.09 by 8.04 metres. The statue has been lost (it may have been removed in the 5th century CE and taken to Constantinople), but smaller Roman copies survive, and they show Athena standing majestic, fully armed, wearing an aegis with the head of Medusa prominent, holding Nike in her right hand and with a shield in her left hand depicting scenes from the Battles of the Amazons and the Giants. A large coiled snake resided behind the shield. On her helmet stood a sphinx and two griffins. In front of the statue was a large shallow basin of water, which not only added the humidity necessary for the preservation of the ivory, but also acted as a reflector of light coming through the doorway. The statue must have been nothing less than awe-inspiring and the richness of it - both artistically and literally - must have sent a very clear message of the wealth and power of the city that could produce such a tribute to their patron god.

Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447-432 BCE

The Karnak sanctuary also provides evidence for a period of religious upheaval during the New Kingdom and for a corresponding revolution in Egyptian art. In the mid-14th century BCE, Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaton, abandoned the worship of most of the Egyptian gods in favor of Aton, identified with the sun disk, whom the pharaoh declared to be the universal and only god. Akhenaton deleted the name of Amen from all inscriptions and even from his own name and that of his father, Amenhotep III (r. 1390-1353 BCE). He emptied the great temples, enraged the priests, and moved his capital downriver from Thebes to present-day Amarna, a site he named Akhetaton (Horizon of Aton). The pharaoh claimed to be both the son and sole prophet of Aton. Moreover, in stark contrast to earlier practice, artists represented Akhenaton's god neither in animal nor in human form but simply as the sun disk emitting life-giving rays. The pharaohs who followed Akhenaton reestablished the cult and priesthood of Amen and restored the temples and the inscriptions. Akhenaton's religious revolution was soon undone, and his new city largely abandoned. During the brief heretical episode of Akhenaton, profound changes also occurred in Egyptian art. A colossal statue of Akhenaton from Karnak, toppled and buried after his death, retains the standard frontal pose of Egyptian royal portraits. But the effeminate body, with its curving contours, and the long face with full lips and heavy-lidded eyes are a far cry indeed from the idealized faces and heroically proportioned bodies of the pharaoh's predecessors. Akhenaton's body is curiously misshapen, with weak arms, a narrow waist, protruding belly, wide hips, and fatty thighs. Modern physicians have tried to explain his physique by attributing a variety of illnesses to the pharaoh. They cannot agree on a diagnosis, and their premise- that the statue is an accurate depiction of a physical deformity- is probably faulty. Some art historians think that Akhenaton's portrait is a deliberate artistic reaction against the established style, paralleling the suppression of traditional religion. They argue that Akhenaton's artist tried to formulate a new androgynous image of the pharaoh as the manifestation of Aton, the sexless sun disk. But no consensus exists other than that the style was revolutionary and short-lived.

Akhenaton, Aton, Karnak, Egypt, 18th dynasty, c. 1353-1335 BCE

The new approach to art is immediately apparent in the work of Praxiteles, one of the great masters of the Late Classical period (c. 400-323 BCE). Praxiteles did not reject the favored statuary theme of the High Classical period, and his Olympian gods and goddesses retained their superhuman beauty. But in his hands, those deities lost some of their solemn grandeur and took on a worldly seriousness. Nowhere is this new humanizing spirit plainer than in the statue of Aphrodite that Praxiteles sold to the Knidians after another city had rejected it. The lost marble original is known only through copies of Roman date, but Pliny considered it "superior to all the works, not only of Praxiteles, but indeed the whole world." The statue made Knidos famous, and Pliny reported that many people sailed there just to see it. The Aphrodite of Knidos caused such a sensation in its time because Praxiteles took the unprecedented step of representing the goddess of love completely nude. Female nudity was rare in earlier Greek art and had been confined almost exclusively to paintings on vases designed for household use. The women so depicted also were usually not noblewomen or goddesses but courtesans or slave girls, and no one had ever dared fashion a life-sized statue of an undress goddess. Moreover, Praxitele's Aphrodite is not a cold and remote image. INfact, the goddess engages in a trivial act out of everyday life. She has removed her garment and draped it over a large hydra (water pitcher), and is about to step into the bath. Although shocking in its day, the Aphrodite of Knidos is not openly erotic (the goddess mildly shields her pelvis with her right hand), but she is quite sensuous. Lucian, writing in the second century CE, noted that she had a "welcoming look," a "slight smile," and "dewy eyes," and that Praxiteles was renowned for his ability to transform marble into soft and radiant flesh.

Aphrodite of Knidos, Rome, c. 350-340 BCE

Roman art, transitional Boyfriend of emperor who died young On sides: decursio, ritual performed at cremation of emperor, horseman circling the funeral pire Seemed for the first time to be moving away from portraying a realistic space, no attempt to show special depth, conceptual is the sense that he wants to make a point

Apotheosis of Antoninus Pius (and the sides showing Decursio), 161 AD

Equal in stature to Praxiteles was Lysippos, whom Alexander the Great selected to create his official portrait. Lysippos introduced a new canon of proportions in which the bodies were more slender than those of Polykleitos and the heads roughly 1/8 the height of the body rather than 1/7, as in the previous century. One of Lysippos's most famous worlds, a bronze statue of an apoxyomenos (an athlete scraping oil from his body after exercising)-known, as usual, only from Roman copies in marble- exhibits the new proportions. A comparison with Polykleitos's Doryphoros reveals more than a change in physique, however. A nervous energy, lacking in the balanced form of the Doryphoros, runs through Lysippos's Apoxyomenos. The strigil (scraping tool) is about to reach the end of the right arm, and at any moment the athlete will switch it to the other hand so that he can scrape his left arm. At the same time, he will shift his weight and revers the positions of his legs. Lysippos also began to break down the dominance of the frontal view in statuary and encouraged the observer to view the athlete from multiple angles. Because Lysippos represented the apoxyomenos with his right arm boldly thrust forward, the figure breaks out of the shallow rectangular box that defined the boundaries of earlier statues. To comprehend the action, the observer must move to the side and view Lysippos's work at a three-quarter angle of in full profile.

Apoxyomenos (the Oil Scraper), Rome, c. 330 BCE

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Ara Pacis, Rome, 13-9 BCE

It is a triple-passageway arch that Constantine erected next to the Colosseum. The builders took much of the sculptural decoration from earlier monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Some art historians have cited the Arch of Constantine as evidence of a decline in creativity and technical skill in the Late Roman Empire. One of the arch's few Constantinian reliefs shows Constantine on the speaker's platform in the Forum Romanum between statues of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius to associate Constantine with famous emperors. In another Contantinian relief, the emperor distributes largesse to grateful citizens, who approach him from right and left. Constantine is a frontal and majestic presence, elevated on a throne above the recipients of his generosity. The frieze is less a narrative of action than a picture of actors frozen in time so that the viewer can distinguish the all-important imperial donor (the largest figure, enthroned at the center) from his attendants and the recipients of the largess, both of smaller stature than the emperor. The Arch of Constantine is the quintessential monument of its era, exhibiting a respect for the past in its reuse of second-century sculptures while rejecting the norms of Classical design in its frieze and thereby paving the way for iconic art of the Middle Ages.

Arch of Constantine, Rome, 312-315 CE

Inside the passageway of the Arch of Titus are two great relief panels. They represent the triumphal parade of Titus after his return from the conquest of Judaea at the end of the Jewish War in 70 CE. One of the reliefs depicts Roman soldiers carrying the spoils from the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Despite considerable damage to the relief, the illusion of movement is convincing. The parade emerges from the left background into the center foreground and disappears through the obliquely placed arch in the right background. The energy and swing of the column of soldiers suggest a rapid march. The sculptor rejected the Classical low-relief style of the Ara Pacis in favor of extremely deep carving, which produces strong shadows. The heads of the foreground figures have broken off because they stood free from the block. Their high relief emphasized their different placement in space compared with the heads in low relief, which are intact. The play of light and shade across the protruding foreground and receding background figures enhances the sense of movement.

Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE

On the other side of the passageway, the panel shows Titus in his triumphal chariot. Victory rides with the emperor and places a wreath on his head. Below her is a bare-chested youth who is probably a personification of Honor. A female personification of Valor leads the horses. These allegorical figures transform the relief from a record of Titus's battlefield success into a celebration of imperial virtues. A comparable intermingling of divine and human figures characterized by Dionysiac mysteries frieze at Pompeii, but the Arch of Titus panel is the first known instance of divine beings interacting with humans on an official Roman historical relief. The Arch of Titus, however, does not honor the living emperor but the deified Titus, who has entered the realm of the Roman gods. But soon afterward, this kind of interaction between mortals and immortals became a staple of Roman narrative relief sculpture, even on monuments erected in honor of living emperors.

Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE

When Titus died in 81 CE, his younger brother, Domitian, succeeded him and set up a triumphal arch in Titus's honor on the road leading into the Forum Romanum. The Arch of Titus is a typical early triumphal arch in having only one passageway. As on the colosseum, engaged columns farm the arcuated (curved or arched) opening. Reliefs depicting personified Victories fill the spandrels (the area between the arch's curve and the framing columns and entablature.) The dedicatory inscription on the attic states that the Senate erected the arch to honor the god Titus, son of the god Vespasian. The Senate normally proclaimed Roman emperors gods after they died, unless they ran afoul of the senators and were damned. The statues of those who suffered damnatio memoriae were toppled, and their names were erased from public inscriptions. This was Nero's fate.

Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE

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Augustus of Prima Porta, copy- early first century BCE, original- c. 20 BCE

The loggia of Florence's orphanage is an early example of Brunelleschi's work as an architect and the first Renaissance building. It features classically austere design based on a module of 10 braccia (approx. 20 feet). Most scholars regard Brunelleschi's orphanage as the first building to embody the new Renaissance architectural style.

Brunelleschi's Foundling Hosptial, Florence Italy, begun 1419

Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, is a Gothic Catholic cathedral of the Latin Church located in Chartres, France, about 80 kilometres southwest of Paris. The current cathedral, mostly constructed between 1194 and 1250, is the last of at least five which have occupied the site since the town became a bishopric in the 4th century. It was the only art not destroyed during the French Revolution because is was "so great."

Chartres Cathedral, Chartres France, c. 1145-1155

In the opening page to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the painter transformed the biblical text into abstract pattern, literally making God's words beautiful. The intricate design recalls early medieval metalwork.

Chi-rho page of the Book of Kells, Iona, Scotland, late eighth or early ninth century

Cimabue was one of the first artists to break away form the maniera greca ("Greek manner" or style). Although he relied on Byzantine models, the Italian master depicted the Madonn's massive throne as receding into space. The overlapping bodies of the angels and the half-length prophets who look outward or upward from beneath the throne reinforce the sense of depth.

Cimabue's Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, Santa Trinita, Florence, Italy, c. 1280-1290

This formative period, which art historians call the Geometric age, because Greek vase painting of the time consisted primarily of abstract motifs, also marked the return of the human figure to Greek art. One of the earliest examples of Greek figure painting is the huge krater, or bowl for mixing wine and water, that stood atop the grave of a man buried around 740 BCE in the Diphylon Cemetery in Athens. At well over 3 feet tall, this vase is a considerable technical achievement. The artist covered much of the krater's surface with precisely painted abstract angular motifs in horizontal bands. Especially prominent is the meander, or key, pattern around the rim. But the Geometric painter received the widest part of the krater for two bands of human figures and horse-drawn chariots. Befitting the vase's funerary function, the scenes depict the mourning for a man laid out oh his bier and a chariot procession in his honor. The painter filled every empty space around the figures with circles and M-shaped ornaments, negating any sense that the mourners or soldiers inhabit open space. The human figures, animals, chariots, and furniture are as two-dimensional as the geometric shapes elsewhere on the vessel. In the upper band, the shroud, raised to reveal the corpse, is an abstract checkerboard-like backdrop. The figures are silhouettes constructed of triangular (frontal) torsos with attached profile arms, legs, and heads (with a single large frontal eye in the center), following the age-old convention. To distinguish male from female, the painter added a penis growing out of the deceased right thigh. The mourning women, who tear their hair out in grief, have breasts rendered as simple lines beneath their armpits. In both cases the artist's concern was specifying gender, not anatomical accuracy. Below, the warriors look like walking shields, and the two wheels of the chariots appear side by side. The horses have the correct number of heads and legs but seem to share a common body, so that there is no sense of depth. Despite the highly stylized and conventional manner of representation, this krater marks a significant turning point in the history of Greek art. Not only did the human reenter the painter's repertoire, but Geometric artists also revived the art of storytelling in pictures.

Diphylon krater, Athens, Greece, c. 750 BCE

Early Classical Greek sculptors also explored the problem of representing figures engaged in vigorous action. The famous Diskobolos (Discus Thrower) by Myron, with its arms bold extended, body twisted, and right heel raised off the ground, is such a statue. Nothing comparable survives from the Archaic period. The pose suggests the motion of a pendulum clock. The athlete's right arm has reached the apex of its arc but has not yet begun to swing down again. Myron froze the action and arranged the body and limbs to form two intersecting arcs, creating the impression of a tightly stretched bow a moment before the archer releases the string.

Discus Thrower, c. 450 BCE

Abd-al-Malik erected the Dome of the Rock to mark the triumph of Islam in Jerusalem on a site sacred to Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The shrine takes the form of an octagon with a towering dome. The Dome of the Rock is a domed central-plan rotunda. At the center of the rotunda, below the dome, is the rocky outcropping later associated with Adam, Abraham, and Muhammad. The mosaics ringing the base of the dome inside the Dome of the Rock are largely intact and suggest the original appearance of the exterior walls, today covered with 16th century ceramic tiles.

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, 687-692

Donatello's David possesses both the relaxed contrapposto (weight shift) and the sensuous beauty of nude Greek gods. The revival of classical statuary style appealed to the sculptor's patrons, the Medici. David had become a symbol of Florentine strength and independence, and the Medici's selection of the same subject for their private residence suggest that the family identified themselves with Florence, or, at the very least, shared Florence's ideals.

Donatello's David, Palazzo Medici, Florence, Italy, c. 1440-1460

The bronze sculpture Judith and Holofernes created by Donatello at the end of his career, can be seen in the Hall of Lilies (Sala dei Gigli), in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy. A copy stands in one of the sculpture's original positions on the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It depicts the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by Judith and is remarkable for being one of the first Renaissance sculptures to be conceived in the round, with its four distinct faces. The statue was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici as a decoration for the fountain in the garden of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. It stood in this palace together with Donatello's David, standing in the courtyard, both depicting tyrant slayers. These two statues are among the earliest freestanding bronze Italian Renaissance statues conceived "in the round". Judith is considered the symbol of liberty, virtue and victory of the weak over the strong in a just cause. She stands powerful with raised sword, holding the head of Holofernes by his hair. The statue was originally gilded and its shine in the sunlight must have made the onlookers stare at it; some gilding remains on the sword. To facilitate the gilding the bronze was cast in 11 parts. The base of the sculpture resembles a cushion, a naturalistic device first used by Donatello for his St. Mark in the Orsanmichele. It is believed that an inscription on the granite pedestal originally read, "Kingdoms fall through luxury [sin], cities rise through virtues. Behold the neck of pride severed by the hand of humility." This dramatic and detailed statue is thus a metaphor of the Medici rule, as the defenders of Florentine liberty, akin to Judith, slayer of the tyrant Holofernes and defender of the people. This view is supported by accounts that mention a second inscription on the pedestal which read, "The salvation of the state. Piero de' Medici son of Cosimo dedicated this statue of a woman both to liberty and to fortitude, whereby the citizens with unvanquished and constant heart might return to the republic." Inscribed on the cushion are the words OPVS . DONATELLI . FLOR (the work of the Florentine, Donatello), this being the only surviving signed work by the artist.

Donatello's panel of Judith and Holofernes, Florence, Italy, 1457-1464

Bernward's doors tell the story of original sin and redemption, and draw parallels between the Old and New Testaments, as in the expulsion from Paradise and the infancy and suffering of Christ. Incidents of the old testament prefigure the incidents of the new testament Old testament on the left door, new testament on the right

Doors of St. Michael's Hildesheim, Germany, 1001-1031

One of the most frequently copied Greek statues was the Doryphoros, or Spear Bearer, by Polykleitos, the sculptor whose work exemplifies the intellectual rigor of High Classical (c. 450-400 BCE) statuary design. Polykleitos created the Doryphoros as a demonstration piece to accompany a treatise on the ideal statue of a nude male warrior or athlete. Spear Bearer is a modern descriptive title for the statue. The name that the artist assigned to it was Canon. The Doryphoros is the culmination of the evolution in Greek statuary from the Archaic kouros to the Kristios Boy to the Riace warrior. The contrapposto is more pronounced than ever before in a standing statue, but Polykleitos was not content with simply rendering a figure that stand naturally. His aim was to impose order on human movement, to make it "beautiful," to "perfect" it. He achieved this through a system of cross balance of the figure's various parts. Note, for instance, how the straight-hanging arm echoes the rigid supporting leg, providing the figure's right side with the columnar stability needed to anchor the left side's dynamically flexed limbs. The tensed and relaxed limbs oppose each other diagonally. The right arm and the left leg are relaxed, and the tensed supporting leg opposed the flexed arm, which held a spear. In like manner, the head turns to the right while the hips twist slightly to the left. And although the Doryphoros seems to take a step forward, he does not move. This dynamic asymmetrical balance, this motion while at rest, and the resulting harmony of opposites are the essence of the Polykleitan style.

Doryphoros, c. 450-440 BCE

Further insight into Sumerian religion comes from a cache of gypsum statuettes inlaid with shell and black limestone found in a temple at Eshnunna (modern Tel-Asmar). The two largest figures, like all the others, represent mortals rather than deities. They hold the small beakers that the Sumerians used for libations (ritual pouring of liquid) in honor of the gods. the men wear belts and fringed skirts. Most have beards and shoulder-length hair. The women wear long robes, with the right shoulder bare. Similar figurines from other sites bear inscriptions with the name of the donor and the god or even specific prayers to the deity on the owner's behalf. With their heads titled upward, the figures wait in the Sumerian "waiting room" for the divinity to appear. Most striking is the disproportionate relationship between the inlaid oversized eyes and the tiny hands. Scholars have explained the exaggeration of the eye size in various ways. Because the purpose of these votive figures was to offer constant prayers to the gods on their donors' behalf, the open-eyed stares most likely symbolize the eternal wakefulness necessary to fulfill their duty.

Esnhunna Statuettes, 2700 BCE

Brunelleschi's entry in the competition to create new bronze doors for the Florentine baptistery shows a frantic angel about to halt an emotional, lunging Abraham clothed in swirling Gothic robes.

Filippo Brunelleschi, "Sacrifice of Isaac," competition panel for the east doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, 1401-1402

In the First Style, the decorator's aim was to imitate costly marble panels using painted stucco relief. The faces of the Samnite House at Herculaneum greets visitors with a stunning illusion of walls faced with marbles imported from quarries all over the Mediterranean. This approach to wall decoration is comparable to the modern practice of using inexpensive manufactured materials to approximate the look and shape of genuine wood paneling. The practice is not, however, uniquely Roman. First Style walls are well documented in Greece from the late 4th century BCE on. The use of First Style in Italian houses is yet another example of the Hellenization of Republican architecture.

First Style Roman wall painting Samnite House, late second century BCE

A taste for illuminism returned once again in the Fourth Style, which was the most popular way to decorate walls during the last two decades of the life of Pompeii. The style is characterized by crowded and confused compositions mixing fragmentary architectural vistas, framed panel paintings, and motifs favored in the First and Third Styles. The Ixion Room, a triclinium opening onto a peristyle of the House of the Vettii, features a Fourth Style design that dates just before 79 CE. The mural scheme is a kind of summation of all the previous Pompeiian styles. The lowest zone, for example, is one of the most successful imitations anywhere of costly multicolored imported marbles. The large white panels in the corners of the room, with their delicate floral frames and floating central motifs, would fit naturally into the most elegant Third Style design. Unmistakably Fourth Style, however, are the fragmentary architectural vistas of the central and upper zones of the walls. They are unrelated to one another and do not constitute a unified cityscape beyond the wall. Moreover, the figures depicted would tumble into the room if they took a single step forward.

Fourth Style Roman wall painting, Ixion Room, Pompeii, Italy, c. 70-79 BCE

The Ottonian period also witnessed a revival of interest in freestanding statuary. The outstanding example is the crucifix that Archbishop Gero commissioned in 970 for display in Cologne Cathedral. Carved in oak, then painted and gilded, the 6-foot-tall image of Christ nailed to the cross presents a conception of the Savior dramatically different from that seen on the Lindau Gospels cover, with its Early Christian imagery of the youthful Christ triumphant over death. The bearded Christ of the Cologne crucifix is more akin to Byzantine representations of the suffering Jesus, but the emotional power of the Ottonian work is greater still. The sculptor depicted Christ as an all-too-human martyr. Blood streaks down his forehead from the (missing) crown of thorns. His eyelids are closed, his face is contorted in pain, and his body sags under its weight. The muscles stretch to their limit- those of his right shoulder and chest seem almost to rip apart. The halo behind Christ's head may foretell his subsequent resurrection, but the worshiper can sense only his pain. The Gero crucifix is the most powerful characterization of intense agony of the early Middle Ages.

Gero Crucifix, Cologne Cathedral, Germany, c. 970

The frescoes Giotto painted in the Arena Chapel show his art at its finest. In 38 framed panels, he presented the complete cycle of the life of Jesus, culminating in the Last Judgment on the entrance wall.

Giotto's Arena Chapel (Scrovegni Chapel), Padua, Italy, 1305-1306

Giotto displaced the Byzantine style in Italian painting and revived classical naturalism. His figures have substance, dimensionality, and bulk, and give the illusion that they could throw shadows.

Giotto's Madonna Enthroned, Chiesa di Ognissanti (All-Saints Church), Florence Italy, c. 1310

In this richly colored painting of salvation from the original sin of Adam and Eve (who are shown on the wings), God the Father presides in majesty between the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. The panels symbolize the four cardinal virtues: Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice. The altarpiece celebrates the whole Christian cycle from the fall to the redemption, presenting the Church triumphant in heavenly Jerusalem.

Jan (and Hubert) van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432

Monumental painted altarpieces were popular in Flemish churches. Artists decorated both the interiors and exteriors of these polyptychs (hinged multi paneled paintings or relief panels), which often, as here, included donor portraits. The multipanel format provided the opportunity to construct narratives through a sequence of images, somewhat as in manuscript illustration. Although concrete information is lacking about when the clergy opened and closed these altarpieces, the wings probably remained closed on regular days and open on Sundays and feast days. On this schedule, worshipers could have seen both the interior and exterior- diverse imagery at various times according to the liturgical calendar.

Jan (and Hubert) van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432

He played a major role in establishing portraiture as an important Flemish art form. In this portrait of an Italian financier and his wife in their home, the painter depicted himself in the mirror. The self-portrait underscores the painter's self-consciousness as a professional artist whose role deserves to be recorded and remembered.

Jan van Eyck's "Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife," 1434

One of the earliest Greek examples of life-size statuary is the marble kouros ("youth"), now in New York, which emulates the stance of Egyptian statues. In both Egypt and Greece, the figure is rigidly frontal with the left foot advanced slightly. The arms are held beside the body, and the fists are clenched with the thumbs forward. Nevertheless, Greek kouros statues differ from their Egyptian models in two important ways. First, the Greek sculptors liberated the figures from the stone block. The Egyptian obsession with permanence was alien to the Greeks, who were preoccupied with finding ways to represent motion rather than stability in their sculpted figures. Second, the kouroi are nude, just as Greek athletes competed nude in the Olympic Games. In the absence of identifying attributes, Greek yours as well as maidens are formally indistinguishable from Greek statures of deities. The kouros also has the slim waist of earlier Greek statues and exhibits the same love of pattern.

Kouros, Attica, Greece, c. 600 BCE

The sculptures of the Early Classical period (c. 480-450 BCE) display a seriousness that contrasts sharply with the smiling figures of the Archaic period. But a more fundamental and significant break from the Archaic style was the abandonment of the rigid and unnatural Egyptian-inspired pose of Archaic statuary. The earliest example of the new approach is the marble statue known as the Kritios Boy- because art historians once thought it was the work of the sculptor Kritios. Never before had a sculptor been concerned with portraying how a human being (as opposed to a stone image) truly stands. Real people do not stand in the stiff-legged pose of the kouroi and korai or their Egyptian predecessors. Humans shift their weight and the position of the torso around the vertical (but flexible) axis of the spine. The sculptor of Kritios Boy was among the first to grasp this anatomical fact and to represent it in statuary. The youth dips his right hip slightly, indicating the shifting of weight onto his left leg. His right leg is bent, at ease. The head, which no longer exhibits an Archaic smile, also turns slightly to the right and tilts, breaking the unwritten rule of frontally that dictated the form of virtually all earlier statutes. This weight shift, called contrapposto ("counterbalance"), separates Classical from Archaic Greek statuary.

Kritios Boy, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, c. 480 BCE

The most famous work of statues in Greek style is the statue of the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons. The marble group, long believed to be an original of 2nd century BCE, was found in the palace of the emperor Titus in Rome. The artists probably based their group on a Hellenistic masterpiece depicting Laocoon and only one son. Their variation on the original added the son at Laocoon's left to conform with the Roman poet Vergil's account in the Aeneid. Vergil vividly described the strangling of Laocoon and his two sons by sea serpents while sacrificing at an altar. The gods who favored the Greeks in the war against Troy had sent the serpents to punish Laocoon, who had tried to warn his compatriots about the danger of bringing the Greek's wood horse within the walls of their city. In Vergil's graphic account, Laoccon suffered in terrible agony. The Rhodian sculptors communicated the torment of the priest and his sons in a spectacular fashion in this marble group. The three Trojans writhe in pain as they struggle to free themselves from the death grip of the serpents. One bites into Laocoon's left hip as the priest lets out a ferocious cry. The serpent-entwined figures recall the suffering giants of the frieze of the Altar of Zeus at Pergamon, and Laocoon himself is strikingly similar to Alkyoneos, Athena's opponent. Many scholars believe that the Pergamene statuary group of the 2nd century BCE was the inspiration for the three Rhodian sculptors.

Laocoon, Rome, early first century CE

Jesus has just announced that one of his disciples will betray him, and each one reacts. He is both the psychological focus of Leonardo's fresco and the focal point of all the converging perspective lives. Like a stage director, he read the Gospel story carefully, and scrupulously cast his actors as the Bible described their roles. In this work, as in his other religious paintings, Leonardo revealed his extraordinary ability to apply his voluminous knowledge about the observable world to the pictorial representation of a religious scene, resulting in a psychologically complex and compelling painting.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper, 1495-1498

Leonardo used gestures and a pyramidal composition to unite the Virgin, John the Baptist, the Christ Child, and an angel. The figures share the same light-infused environment.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, San Francesco Grande, Milan, Italy, 1483-1490

The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal is something of a misnomer, as the scene is not a hunt at all. Assyrian kings kept lions in enclosures and let them out to be killed as a display of military prowess or religious ritual. The reliefs in the palace at Nineveh were meant to convey the power and bravery of the king and to demonstrate his might and accomplishments. In the narrowest sense this is propaganda that propagates the belief in the power of the king and his divine right to rule. The artists of the reliefs of Ashurbanipal used a new, sophisticated device to convey their meaning: narrative in art. Based on surviving evidence, the Assyrians were more skilled in the art of pictorial storytelling than other peoples in the ancient world. The viewer is not presented simply with crystallized moments power or strength, but entire stories about that enact the king's bravery. The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal exemplifies the difficulties of looking at art from foreign or older cultures, and of the power of verisimilitude. The strength and fierceness of the lion is immediately apparent to anyone looking at the relief. The viewer can almost hear the snarling and the roaring and imagine the sensation of the lion's wrath. However, when the magnificent lion leaps to the arrows of the king, the illusion of reality leads us astray emotionally. Many viewers experience compassion for the lion, pity that the fight is not fair and that the lion was caged and hunted in an enclosure. However, the artists did not represent the lion to elicit compassion from the original viewers. On the contrary, the message is that the lion is powerful, but the king is even more powerful and brave enough to defeat such enormous and ferocious power. This point becomes even more clear in another relief from the palace at Nineveh depicting a dying lioness. The beast has been pierced by three arrows, one of them going clear through her body. Her rear legs are paralyzed, yet she continues to drag herself forward. Her mouth is opened but she is probably whaling in pain rather than roaring. The evident suffering, once conveying the power of kingship now evokes sympathy in the contemporary viewer. From the Assyrian period forward, narrative would play a role in art of the Ancient Near East. The lion hunts also create our impression of the Assyrians as a bellicose people. However, art is not a mirror-like reflection of actual people and actual behavior. It may represent how people would wish to be remembered, rather who they actually were. The Assyrians did indeed make war, but it is risky to generalize for an entire society.

Lion-Hunt of Ashurbanipal, 645-635 BCE

Massacio's pioneering Holy Trinity is the premier early-15th-century example of the application of mathematics to the depiction of space according to Filippo Brunelleschi's system of perspective.

Masaccio's Holy Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, c. 1424-1427

Massacio's figures recall Giotto's in their simple grandeur, but they convey a greater psychological and physical credibility. He modeled this figures with light coming from a source outside the picture.

Masaccio's Tribute Money, Brancacci chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy, c. 1424-1427

A painted limestone bust of Akhenaton's queen, Nefertiti ("the beautiful one has come") also breaks with the past. The portrait exhibits an expression of entranced musing and an almost mannered sensitivity and delicacy of curving contour. Nefertiti was an influential woman during her husband's kingship. She frequently appears in the decoration of the Aton temple at Karnak, and not only equals in her husband in size but also sometimes wears pharaonic headgear. Excavators discovered the portrait illustrated here in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose. It is a deliberately unfinished model very likely by the master's own hand. The left eye socket still lacks the inlaid eyeball, making the portrait a kind of before-and-after demonstration piece. With this elegant bust, Thutmose may have been alluding to a heavy flower on its slender stalk by exaggerating the weight of the crowned head and the length of the almost serpentine neck. The sculptor seems to have adjusted the likeliness of his subject to meet the era's standard of spiritual beauty.

Nefertiti, Amarna, Egypt, c. 1353-1335 BCE

He made his first pulpit (raised platform from which priests delivered sermons), in 1260 for his baptistery. Some elements of the pulpit's design carried on medieval traditions- for example, trefoil (triple-curved) arches and the lions supporting columns- but Nicola also incorporated classical elements. The large, bushy capitals are a Gothic variation of the Corinthian capital. The arches are round, as in ancient Roman architecture, rather than pointed, as in Gothic buildings. Also, each of the large rectangular relief panels resembles the sculptured front of a Roman sarcophagus. The face types, beards, coiffures, and draperies, as well as the bulk and weight of Nicola's figures, reveal the influence of classical relief sculpture. Art historians have even been able to pinpoint the models for some of the pulpit figures on Roman sarcophagi in Pisa.

Nicola Pisano's Baptistery Pulpit, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260

Upon Trajan's death, Hadrian, also a Spaniard and a relative of Trajan's, succeeded him as emperor. Almost immediately, Hadrian began work on the Pantheon, the temple of all the gods. The Pantheon reveals the full potential of concrete, both as a building material and as a means for shaping architectural space. The interior space can be imagined as the orb of the earth, and the dome as the vault of the heavens. Its interior is a single unified , self-sufficient whole, uninterrupted by supporting solids. It encloses people without imprisoning them, opening through the oculus to the drifting clouds, the blue sky, the sun, and the gods.

Pantheon, Rome, 118-125 CE

To reach the new, largely illiterate audience and to draw a wider population in to their places of worship, the clergy decided to display Christian symbols and tories throughout their churches, especially in the portals facing onto the town squares. The focus of the sculptural program of the Moissac portal is the Second Coming of Christ in the tympanum, a subject chosen to underscore the role of the church as the path to Heaven. The clergy considered the church doorway the beginning of the path to salvation through Christ. The entrance portals of many Romanesque churches feature sculptural reliefs emphasizing that theme.

Portal of Moissac, Moissac, France, c. 1100-1115

One of the renowned figures in Egyptian history was Imhotep, master builder for King Djoser of the Third Dynasty. Imhotep's is the first recorded name of an artist. A man of legendary talent, he also served as Djoser's official seal bearer and as high priest of the sun god Re. After his death, the Egyptians defined Imhotep and in time probably inflated the list of his achievements, but he undoubtedly designed Djoser's stepped pyramid at Saqqara, near Memphis, Egypt's capital at the time. The pyramid was the centerpiece of an immense rectangular enclosure surrounded by a wall of white limestone 34 feet high and 5,400 feet long. The huge precinct also enclosed a funerary temple, where priest performed daily rituals in celebration of the divine king, and several structures connected with the Jubilee Festival, the event that perpetually reaffirmed the royal existence in the hereafter. Built before 2600 BCE, Djoser's pyramid is one of the oldest stone structures in Egypt and, in its final form, the first truly grandiose royal tomb. Begun as a large mistake with each of its faces oriented toward one of the cardinal points of the compass, the tomb was enlarged at least twice before assuming its ultimate shape. About 200 feet high, the stepped pyramid seems to be composed of a series of mastabas of diminishing size, stacked one atop another. The tomb's dual function was to protect the mummified king and his possessions and to symbolize, by its gigantic presence, his absolute and godlike power. Beneath the pyramid was a network of several hundred underground rooms and galleries, resembling a palace. It was to Djoser's new home in the afterlife.

Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt, 2630-2611 BCE

1 of 11 wooden panels originally set into niches of the funerary chapel of hesira on the mastaba • Hesira is a government official who has the right to be buried near his boss. • Edge of the desert is where the dead is buried, its taboo to bury the dead in the land of the living. • The panels that went along with the Hesira one were about four feet tall. • one of the most important pieces in old kingdom work. • He was a scribe. • Not a sword, its a staff or scepter of authority. • Left hand, long staff is another staff of authority. Along with three items which is the tool kit of his scribe profession.

Relief of Hesire, Third Dynasty, 2650 BCE

The reliquary at Conques held the remains of Saint Foy, a young Christian convert living in Roman-occupied France during the second century. At the age of twelve, she was condemned to die for her refusal to sacrifice to pagan gods, she is therefore revered as a martyr, as someone who dies for their faith. The saint's oversize head is a reworked ancient Roman parade helmet- a mask like helmet worn by soldiers on special ceremonial occasions and not part of the standard battle dress. The monks added a martyr's crown to the ancient helmet. The rear of the throne bears an image engraved in rock crystal of Christ on the cross, establishing a parallel between Christ's martyrdom and Saint Faith's. The cameos are donations from pilgrims

Reliquary statue of St. Foy (Saint Faith), Saint-Foy, Conques, late 10th to early 11th century

It was one of the many small altarpieces of this period produced for private patrons and intended for household prayer. Perhaps the most striking feature of these private devotional images is the integration of religious and secular concerns. For example, artist often presented biblical scenes as taking place in a house. Religion was such an integral part of Flemish life that separating the sacred from the secular was almost impossible, and undesirable. Moreover, the presentation of in religious art of familiar settings and objects no doubt strengthened the direct bond that the patron or viewer felt with biblical features. Donor portraits, portraits of the individual(s) who commissioned or donated the work, became very popular in the 15th century.

Roger Campin's Merode Altarpiece, c. 1425-1428

The sculptures of the Royal Portal proclaim the majesty and power of Christ. The tympana depict, from left to right, Christ's ascension, the second coming, and the infant Jesus in the lap of the Virgin Mary.

Royal Portal, Chartres Cathedral, c. 1145-1155

Dedicated by Bishop Maximianus in 547 in honor of Saint Vitalis, a 2nd century martyr, San Vitale is the most spectacular building in Ravenna. Work on the church began under Bishop Ecclesius shortly after Theodoric's death in 526 and was made possible by Julianus Argentarius, who provided the enormous sum of 26,000 solidi (gold coins), weighing in excess of 350 pounds, required to proceed with the work. San Vitale is unlike any of the Early Christian churches in Ravenna. It is not a basilica. Rather, it is centrally planned, like Justinian's churches in Cosntantinople.

San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 526-547

The design features two concentric octagons. The dome-covered inner octagon rises above the surrounding octagon to provide the interior with clerestory lighting. Eight large rectilinear piers alternate with curved, columned exedrae, pushing outward into the surrounding two-story ambulatory and creating an intricate eight-leafed plan. The exedrae closely integrate the inner and outer spaces that otherwise would have existed simply side by side as independent units. A cross-vaulted choir preceding the apse interrupts the ambulatory and gives the plan some axial stability. Weakening this effect however, is the off-axis placement of the narthex, whose odd angle never has been explained. San Vitale's intricate plan and elevation combine to produce an effect of great complexity. The exterior's octagonal regularity is not readily apparent inside. A rich diversity of ever-changing perspectives greets visitors walking through the building. Arches looping over archer, curving and flattened spaces, and wall and vault shapes seem to change constantly with the viewer's position. Natural light, filtered through alabaster-paned windows, plays over the glittering mosaics and glowing marbles that cover the building's complex surfaces, producing a splendid effect.

San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 526-547 BCE

Justinian's counterpart on the opposite wall is the Empress Theodora, Justinian's influential consort. Neither of them ever visited Ravenna. San Vitale's mosaics are proxies for the absent sovereigns. Theodora was the emperor's most trusted adviser as well as his spouse. Theodora's prominent role in the mosaic program of San Vitale is proof of the power she wielded at Costantinople and, by extension, at Ravenna. In fact, the representation of the three magi on the boxer of her robe suggests that the empress belongs in the elevated company of the three monarchs bearing gifts who approached the newborn Jesus.

San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, c. 547 BCE

San Vitale's moscias reveal the new Byzantine aesthetic. Justinian is foremost among the weightless and speechless frontal figures hovering before the viewer, their positions in space uncertain. In the mosaic panel, the emperor is at the center. At his left is Bishop Maximianus. The mosaicist stressed the bishop's importance by labeling his figure with the only identifying inscription in the composition. The positions of Justinian and Maximianus are curiously ambiguous. Symbolized by place and gesture, the imperial and churchly powers are in balance. The artist placed nothing in the background, wishing the observer to understand the procession as taking place is this very sanctuary. Thus the emperor appears forever as a participant in the sacred rites and as the proprietor of this royal church and the ruler of the western territories of the Eastern Roman Empire.

San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, c. 547 BCE

In Botticelli's lyrical painting celebrating love in springtime, the blue, ice-cold Zephyrus, the west wind, carries off and marries the nymph Chloris, whom he transforms into Flora, goddess of spring.

Sandro Botticelli's Primavera, c, 1482

Although the statue of Theodore is still attached to a column, the setting no longer determines its pose. The High Gothic sculptor portrayed the saint in a contrapposto stance, as in classical statuary. The changes that occurred in 13th-century Gothic sculpture echo the revolutionary developments in Greek sculpture during the transition from the Archaic to the Classical style and could appropriately be described as a second "Classical revolution."

Sculptures on South transept, Chartres Cathedral, c. 1145-1155

In later Second Style designs, painters created a 3D setting that also extends beyond the wall, as in cubiculum M of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale. All around the room, the painter opened up the walls with vistas of Italian towns, marble tholos temples, and colonnaded courtyards. Painted doors and gates invite the viewer to walk through the wall into the magnificent world the painter created. Familiarity with linear perspective explains in large part the Boscoreale muralist's success in suggesting depth. In this kind of perspective, all the receding lines in a composition converge on a single point along the painting's central axis. Ancient writers state that Greek painters of the 5th century BCE first used linear perspective for the design of Athenian stage sets. In the Boscoreale cubiculum, the painter most successfully used linear perspective in the far corners, where a low gate leads to a peristyle framing a round temple.

Second Style Roman wall painting, Boscoreale, Italy, c. 50-40 BCE

The ultimate example of a Second Style picture-window mural is the gardenscape in the Villa of Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, at Primaporta, just north of Rome. To suggest recession, the painter employed another kind of perspective-atmospheric perspective-in which the illusion of depth is achieved by the increasingly blurred appearance of objects in the distance. At Primaporta, the Second Style muralist precisely painted the fence, trees, and birds in the foreground, whereas the details of the dense foliage in the background are indistinct.

Second Style Roman wall painting, Primaporta, Italy, c. 30-20 BCE

In contrast, the Second Style, introduced around 80 BCE seems to be a Roman innovation and is in most respects to the antithesis of the First Style. Second Style painters aimed to dissolve a room's confining walls and replace them with the illusion of an imaginary 3D world. An early example of the new style in the room that gives its name to the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii. Many archaeologists believe that this chamber was used to celebrate, in private, the rites of the Greek god Dionysos. Dionysos was the focus of an unofficial mystery religion popular among women in Italy at this time. The precise nature of the Dionysiac rites is unknown, but the figural cycle in the Villa of the Mysteries, illustrating mortals interacting with mythological figures, probably provides evidence of the cult's initiation rites. In these rites, young women symbolically united in marriage with Dionysos. The Second Style painter created the illusion of a shallow ledge on which the human and divine actors move around the room. Especially striking is the way some of the figures interact across the corners of the room. For example, a seminude winged woman at the far right of the rear wall lashes out with her whip across the space of the room at a kneeling woman with a bare back (the initiate bride-to-be of Dionysos) on the left end of the right wall.

Second Style Roman wall painting, Villa of the Mysteries, Pompei, Italy, c. 60-50 BCE

The Altar of Zeus was not the only Pergamene monument to celebrate the victory of Attalos I over the Gauls. An earlier Pergamene statuary group had explicitly represented the defeat of the barbarians, instead of cloaking it in mythological disguise. The Pergamene victors were apparently not part of this group, however. The viewer saw only their Gallic foes and their noble and moving response to to defeat. Roman copies of some of these figures survive, including a trumpeter who collapses on his large oval shield as blood pours out of the gash in his chest. If this figure is the tubicen that Pliny mentions in his Natural History, then he sculptor's name was Epigonos. In any case, the sculptor carefully studied and reproduced the distinctive features of the foreign Gauls, most notably for their long, bushy hair and mustaches and the torques (neck bands) they frequently wore. The artist also closely observed male anatomy. Note the tautness of the fallen Gaul's chest and the bulging being of his left leg- implying that the unseen Greek hero who struck down his noble and savage foe must have been an extraordinarily powerful man. The Hellenistic figure is reminiscent of the dying warrior from the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina, but the pathos and drama of the suffering Gaul are far more pronounced.

The Dying Gaul, Rome, c. 230-220 BCE

In an attempt to restore order to the Roman Empire, Diocletian, whose troops proclaimed him emperor, decided to share power with his potential rivals. In 293, he established the tetrarchy (rule by four) and adopted the title of Augustus of the East. The other three tetrarchs were a corresponding Augustus of the West, and Eastern and Western Caesars. The four coemperors often appeared together in group portraits. Artist always depicted the four rules as nearly identical partners in power, not as distinct individuals. In this group portrait, carved eight centuries after Greek sculptors first freed the human form from rigidity of the Egyptian-inspired kouros stance, an artist or artists once again conceived the human figure in iconic terms. Idealism, naturalism individuality, and personality have disappeared, replaced by a new approach to representing the human figure that was perfectly suited to portrayal of the four corulers.

The Four Tetrarchs, Constantinople, c. 305 CE

Roman patrons began to favor mural designs that reasserted the primacy of the wall surface. In the Third Style of Pompeian painting, popular from about 15 BCE to 60 CE, artists no longer attempted to replace the walls with 3D worlds of their own creation. Nor did they seek to imitate the appearance of the marble walls of Hellenistic palaces. Instead they adorned walls with delicate linear fantasies sketched on predominantly monochromatic (one-color) backgrounds. One of the earliest and also the finest examples of the new style is cubiculum 15 in the Villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase. Nowhere did the artist use illusionistic painting to penetrate the wall. In place of the stately columns of the Second Style are insubstantial and impossibly thin colonnettes supporting featherweight canopies barely reminiscent of pediments. In the center of this delicate and elegant architectural frame is a tiny floating landscape painted directly on the jet-black ground. It is hard to imagine a sharper contrast with the panoramic gardenscape at Livia's villa. Third Style walls can never be mistaken for windows opening onto a world beyond the room.

Third Style Roman wall painting, Boscotrecase, Italy, c. 10 BCE

The Column of Trajan celebrates Trajan's successes in Dacia and once had a heroically nude statue of the emperor at the top. It was most likely the brain child of Apollodorus of Damascus. Art historians have likened the sculptured frieze winding around the column to an illustrated scroll of the type housed in the neighboring libraries of the Forum of Trajan. The reliefs recount Trajan's two successful campaigns against the Dacians in more than 150 episodes, in which some 2,500 figures appear. Easily recognizable compositions such as those found on coin reverses and on historical relief panels- Trajan addressing his troops, sacrificing to the gods, and so on- fill most of the frieze. The narrative is not a reliable chronological account of the Dacian wars, as once thought. Notably, battles scenes take up only about a quarter of the frieze. As is true of modern military operations, the Romans spent more time constructing forts, transporting men and equipment, and preparing for battle than fighting. The focus is always on the emperor, who appears repeatedly in the frieze. From every vantage point, Trajan can be seen directing the military operation. His involvement in all aspects of the Dacian campaigns- and in expanding Rome's empire on all fronts-is one of the central messages of the Column of Trajan.

Trajan's Column, Forum of Trajan, Rome, Italy, 112 CE

Probably Akhenaton's son by a minor wife, Tutankhamen ruled Egypt for a decade and died at age 18. Although a minor figure in Egyptian history, Tutankhamen is famous today because of the fabulously rich treasure of sculpture, furniture, and jewelry discovered in 1922 in his tomb at Thebes. The principal find was the enshrined body of the pharaoh himself. The royal mummy reposed in the innermost of three coffins, nested one within the other. The innermost coffin shows Tutankhamen in the guise of Osiris and is the most luxurious of the three. Made of beaten gold (about a quarter ton of it) and inlaid with semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian, it is a supreme monument to the sculptor's and goldsmith's crafts. The portrait mask, which covered the king's face, is also made of gold with inlaid semiprecious stones. It is a sensitive portrayal of the serene adolescent king dressed in his official regalia, including the names headdress and false beard. The general effect of the mask and of the tomb treasures as whole is one of grandeur and richness expressive of Egyptian power pride, and limitless wealth.

Tutankhamen, Thebes, Egypt, c. 1323 BCE.

To commemorate his conquest of the Lullabi (people of Iranian mountains to the east), Naram-Sim set up this stele showing the grandson of Sargon leading his army up a mountain. The sculptor staggered the figures, abandoning the traditional register format. His routed enemies fall, flee, die, or beg for mercy. The kind stands alone, far taller than his men, treading on the bodies of two of the fallen Lullabi. He wears the horned helmet signifying divinity-the first time a king appears as a god in Mesopotamian art. At least three favorable stars (the stele is damaged at the top) shine on his triumph. By storming the mountain, Naram-Sin seems also to be scaling the ladder to the heavens, the same idea that lies behind Mesopotamian ziggurats. His troops march up the slope behind him in orderly files, suggesting the discipline and organization of the kin's forces. In contrast, the Lullabi are in disarray, depicted in a great variety of postures. One falls headlong down the mountainside. The Akkadian artist adhered to older conventions in many details, especially by portraying the king and his soldiers in composite views and by placing a frontal two-horned helmet on Naram-Sin's profile head. But the sculptor showed daring innovation in creating a landscape setting for the story and placing the figures on staggered level. This was a bold rejection of the millennium-old compositional formula of telling a story in a series of horizontal registers.

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, 2254-2218 BCE

Sumerians established city-states, and also invented writing Sumerians were also the first to use pictures to tell coherent stories The Warka Vase from Uruk (modern Warka) is the first great work of narrative relief sculpture known. Its depiction of a religious ceremony honoring the Sumerian goddess Inanna incorporates all of the pictorial conventions that would dominate narrative art for the next 2,000 years. The artist divided the pictorial field into three bands (called registers of friezes) and placed all the figures on a common ground line, a format that marks a significant break with the haphazard figure placement of Stone Age art. The lowest band shows crops above a wavy line representing water. Then comes a register with alternating ewes and rams. Agriculture and animal husbandry were the staples of the Sumerian economy, but the produce and the female and male animals are also fertility symbols. They underscore that Inanna blessed Uruk's inhabitants with good crops and increased herds. A procession of the naked men moving in the opposite direction of the animals fills the band at the center of the vase. The men carry baskets and jars overflowing with the earth's abundance. They will present their bounty to the goddess as a votive offering (gift of gratitude to a deity usually made in fulfillment of a vow). In the uppermost band of the Warka Vase in Inanna wearing a tall horned headdress. Facing her is a nude male figure bringing a large vessel brimming with offerings to be deposited in the goddess's shrine, and behind her, a man wearing a tasseled skirt and an attendant carrying his long train. Near the man is the pictograph for the Sumerian official that scholars ambiguously refer to as a "priest-king"- that is, both a religious and secular leader. Some art historians interpret the scene as a symbolic marriage between the priest-king and the goddess, ensuring her continued goodwill- and reaffirming the leader's exalted position in society. The greater height of the priest-king and Inanna compared with the offering bearers indicates their greater importance, a convention called hierarchy of scale, which the Sumerians also pioneered.

Warka Vase, Uruk, 3200-3000 BCE

The layout of Sumerian cities reflected the central role of the gods in daily life. The main temple to each state's chief god formed the city's nucleus. In fact, the temple complex was a kind of city within a city, where priests and scribes carried on official administrative and commercial business as well as oversaw all religious functions. The outstanding preserved example of early Sumerian temple architecture is the 5,000 year old White Temple at Uruk, a city with a population of about 40,000 that was the home of the legendary Gilgamesh. Sumerian builders did not have access to stone quarries and instead formed mud bricks for the superstructures of their temples and other buildings. Mud brick is a durable building material, but unlike stone, it deteriorates with exposure to water. The Sumerians nonetheless erected towering works, such as the Uruk temple, several centuries before the Egyptians built their stone pyramids. This says a great deal about the Sumerian's desire to provide grandiose setting of the worship of their deities. The Uruk temple (whose whitewashed walls suggested its modern nickname) stands atop a platform 40 feet above street level. A stairway leads to the temple at the top. As in other Sumerian temples, the corners of the White Temple are oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. The building, probably dedicated to Anu, the sky god, is of modest proportions (61 by 16 feet). By design Sumerian temples did not accommodate large throngs of worshipers but only a select few, the priests and perhaps the leading community members. The White Temple had several chambers. The central hall, or cell, was the divinity's room and housed a stepped altar. The Sumerians referred to their temples as "waiting rooms," a reflection of their belief that the deity would descend from the heavens to appear before the priests in the cells. It is unclear whether the Uruk temple had a roof.

White Temple, Uruk, 3200-3000 BCE

The lower part of the capital (the echinus) varies with the order. In the Doric, it is convex and cushionlike. In the Ionic, it is small and supports a bolster ending in scroll-like spirals (the volutes). In the Ionic Order, the architrave (the main weight-bearing and weight-distributing element) is usually subdivided into three horizontal bands. Doric architects subdivided the frieze into triglyph and metopes, whereas Ionic builders left the frieze open to provide a continuous field for relief scupture. The Doric order is massive in appearance, its sturdy columns firmly planted on the stylobate. Compared with the weighty and severe Doric, the Ionic order seems light, airy, and much more decorative. Its columns are more slender and rise from molded bases. The most obvious differences between the two orders are, of course, in the capitals- the Doric, severely plain, and the Ionic- highly ornamental.

distinction between Doric and Ionis temples

Painted life-size statuary filled the Aegina temple's pediments. The theme of both statuary groups was the war between the Greeks and Trojans, and the compositions differed only slightly. In both pediments, Athena stands at the center. She is larger than all the other figures because she is superhuman, but all the mortal heroes are the same size, regardless of their position in the pediment. Unlike the experimental design at Corfu, the Aegina pediments feature a unified theme and consistent scale. The designer achieved the latter by using the whole range of body postures from upright (Athena) to leaning, falling, kneeling, and lying (Greeks and Trojans). The sculptures of the west pediment were set in place upon completion of the building around 490 BCE. The eastern statues are a decade later. It is instructive to compare the earlier and later figures. The sculptor of the west pediment's dying warrior still conceived the statue in the Archaic mode. The warrior's torso is rigidly frontal, and he looks out directly at the spectator- with his face set in an Archaic smile despite the bronze arrow puncturing his chest. He is like a mannequin in a store window whose arms and legs have been arranged by someone else for effective display. The comparable figure in the east pediment is fundamentally different. This warrior's posture is more natural and more complex, with the torso placed at an angle to the viewer. Moreover, he reacts to his wound. He knows that death is inevitable, but still struggles to rise once again, using his shield for support. He does not look at the viewer. This dying warrior is concerned with his plight, not with the viewer. The two statues belong to different eras. The eastern warrior is not a creation of the Archaic world, when sculptors imposed anatomical patterns (and smiles) on statues. This statue belongs to the Classical world, where statues move as humans move and possess the self-consciousness of real men and women. This constitutes a radical change in the conception of the nature of statuary. In sculpture, as in painting, the Classical revolution had occurred.

pediment sculptures of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina