Art History Final

Acropolis

- Athens, Greece. Iktinos and Kallikrates. c. 447-410 BCE. Marble. - Athens originated as a Neolithic akropolis - Later it served as a fortress and a sanctuary - As the city grew, it became the religious and ceremonial center devoted to the goddess Athena - Athena was the city's patron and protector. - After Persian troops destroyed it, the athenians vowed to keep it as a memorial, but Perikles convinced them to rebuild it. Argued that this project honored Athena - Intended to create a visual expression of Athenian values and civic pride that would bolster the city's status as the capital of the empire - Cost and labor were staggering, large quantities of materials had to be imported - Perikles was severely criticised by his political opponents for this extravagance, but this never cost his popular support - Many working-class Athenians benefited from his expenditures - Visitors approached the temple from its northwest corner, instantly grasping the imposing width and depth of this building, isolated like a work of sculpture elevated on a pedestal - Main Building = The Parthenon. Don't see it straight on, set it at an angle. You are being invited to walk around it by design. Planning and execution required extraordinary mathematical and mechanical skills. Would have been impossible without a large contingent of distinguished architects and builders, as well as talented sculptors and painters. Key to the Parthenon's sense of harmony and balance was attention to proportions, especially the ratio 4:9. It expressed the relationship of the breadth to length and the relationship of column diameter to space between columns. Also important were the subtle refinements of design: Base and entablature curve slightly upward to correct optical distortion, columns have gentle swelling and tilt inward slightly from bottom to top, corners are strengthened visibly by reducing the space between columns at those points. Refinement of seemingly regular elements give the Parthenon a buoyant, organic appearance and assure that it will not look like a heavy, lifeless stone box. - Sculptural decoration reflects Pheidias' unifying aesthetic vision, but also conveys political and ideological themes like : Triumph of democratic city-states over Persia, Preeminence of Athens thanks to the favor of Athena, Triumph of enlightened Greek civilization over depotism and barbarism. - The pediments: Sculpture in the round filled both pediments of the Parthenon. Using reconstructive drawing, we know that the West pediment sculpture presented the contest Athena won over the sea god Poseidon, and the East pediment portrayed the birth of Athena. Statues from the east pediment are the best preserved of the two groups. - The Doric Frieze: The Parthenon has 2 sculptured friezes, one above the outer peristyle and another atop the cella wall inside. The Doric Frieze on the exterior has 92 metope reliefs depicting legendary battles. There is symbolized combat between two representative figures. Each of these mythic struggles represented for the Greeks the triumph of reason over unbridled animal passion. - The Erechtheion: Temple, more complex. Not doric, ionic. Second important temple erected on the Akropolis under Pericles' building program. Asymmetrical plan reflects the building's multiple functions in housing several shrines, and also conformed to the sharply sloping terrain on which it was located. It also stands on the site of the mythical contest between the sea god Poseidon and Athena - Temple of Athena Nike: Much smaller, refined Ionic decoration. Marked contrasted to the weighted Doric Propylaea. Temple was surrounded by a parapet or low wall faced with sculptured panels depicting Athena presiding over the preparation of a celebration by winged Nikes. - Nike (victory) adjusting her sandal: figure bends forward gracefully. Tunic is slipping off one shoulder. Large wings balance her unstable position. Textile covering her is delicate and light, it clings to her body. Discreetly erotic. Statue is contained by a room/cella. Graceful even in an erotic position. Balanced by her large wings. Counter balancing, takes the idea of contrapposto and takes it to the extreme. Gives us a sign about the holiness of the place. Taking off her shoes on top of holy ground.

Great Serpent Mound

- Adams County, southern Ohio. Mississippian (Eastern Woodlands) c. 1070 CE. Earthwork/effigy mound. - Marks the dates and seasons - Made my the Mississippians/ Fort Ancients - Could be a response to Halley's comet, which was seen of an omen

Y no hai remedio (and There's Nothing to Be Done), from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disastres of War), plate

- Francisco de Goya. 1810-1823 CE. Etching, drypoint, burin, and burnishing - Visual indictment of and protest against the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte - Shows the sobering consequences of conflict between French troops and Spanish civilizations - Blindfolded man depicted as an altar Christ - Hero in the face of terror and fear while confronting the French - Seems to be romantic because of the way the blindfolded man is idealized, the emotion in his stance, and the political message

Monticello

- Virginia, US. Thomas Jefferson (architect). 1768-1809 CE. Brick, glass, stone, and wood. - Adapted European style to American needs: tall french doors and windows to ease the heat of the summer - Ornamental balustrade used to give a horizontal appearance, looks sturdy and honest - 2 column deep portico - Raised with stairs - Doric columns chosen because they display strength and austerity - Inspired by Roman influence in France

Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)

- Workshop of Robert Campin. 1427-1432 CE. Oil on wood. - New found prosperity, increasing interest in commissioning paintings as aids in prayer for people to use in their home - Designed for private patrons in their private chapel - Portable - Patrons are pictured in the actual work, shown kneeling on the left, a typical position - Garden refers to Mary's virginity - Enunciation scene looks like it's taking place in a living room of this area of Northern Europe in the 1400s - Seeing biblical figures in a modern context in order to make prayer more profound and make the viewer feel closer to God - Less focus on linear perspective: table and floor are off, seems too deep, seems like the floor is rising, very cramped - Oil = luminous, has the appearance that it's glowing, can use different layers, richer in texture and feel, can paint over it many times so other layers could shine through, multi textural. Allows for light and texture. - Symbolism: Room on the right- Joseph? or Campin's dedication to his craft. Building a mousetrap, mouse = the devil, trap = possible symbol of the cross. Vibrant red garment worn by mary: her sitting pose does not make rational sense, shadows and highlights: jesus is coming to Mary, divine light is coming down to Mary, light makes a star shape. Lily = symbol of Mary. Towel = Jewish prayer shawl, symbol of fulfillment of the Jewish law. Pages of the book are fluttering = power of the word is coming alive. Candle has gone out = Mary has been taken by surprise. Nails = what jesus was nailed to the cross with. Pot = representation of Mary's sinlessness - Northern renaissance = incredibly detailed - Filed with many details to maintain interest because it would have been viewed so many times - Everything in the painting has a purpose and a meaning, but much of it is lost - Even as this painting is celebrating the coming of Christ, it also foreshadows to Christ's death

Hunters in the Snow

- Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1565 CE. Oil on wood. - Part of a set of six - Avoiding religion, partly because the artist didn't want to get into trouble, also telling us that other things matter more - Probably the first winter landscape we've seen in art - People in the background are playing a weird winter sport and having fun - People in the foreground are having a harder time - No middle ground - Our perspective is that of a low flying bird - Ordinary people made heroic: Have 1 rabbit/fox, the usual interpretation is that they're dejected, but you can argue that there isn't really any thing sad about this, winter is just sad. People are well off enough that they could play sports , could argue that they're contributing to the common good - There's a lot of life going on here - People cooking a pig

The Tete á Tete, from Marriage á la Mode

- William Hogarth. c. 1743 CE. Oil on canvas. - Means "Head to head" - A morning scene - The man has come back from a night at a tavern, or a brothel, but what's important is that he's been with another woman - Woman's hat is in his pocket and a dog, a symbol of fidelity, is sniffit it - Looks tired from a long night of sex and is uninterested in his wife - Lawyer holding a bunch of bill that have not been paid, the man cannot handle his finances - Mantle pieces are cheap knicknacks that were recent purchases, gaudy objects the young couple has just purchased to make it their own - Statue is missing his nose - Satire - The artist as a progressive social critic - Satire in an art form - Narratives in a series - Mass-produced, shows a change in the nature of art

Folio from a Qur'an

- Arab, North Africa, or Near East. Abbasid. c. 8th to 9th century CE. Ink, color, and gold on parchment - The sacred text of Islam, consists of the divine revelation to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic - Because figural imagery such as humans or animal forms were considered inappropriate for the ornamentation of sacred monuments and objects, artists relied on vegetal and geometric motifs when they made art

The Ambum Stone

- Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. c. 1500 BCE. Greywacke. - One of the earliest known Pacific works of art - Higher sculptural level than other prehistoric pestles - Greater level of figurative detail - Working with the tough greywacke stone would have involved many weeks of laborious chipping and hammering at the surface with stone tools - Despite the various animalistic features which resemble a fruit back, it might depict an anteater, an animal thought to have been reserved for its useful fat deposits prior to the introduction of pigs - Significance and function remains obscure - Little is known about the people who produced this - Such objects are often considered sacred and credited with supernatural powers by present day people who live in the region

Niobides Krater

- Anonymous vase painter of Classical Greece known as the Niobid Painter. c. 460-450 BCE. Clay, red-figure technique (white highlights) - Used to mix water and wine - Artemis and Apollo slay all of the woman's children on the first side - On the second side, people are more relaxed, and the image of Hercules may be a statue - No registers, people are just floating around - Possibly a recreation of frescoes that have been lost, we have very little greek paintings because the Romans destroyed them all - Shows depth by putting people on top of each other - Mimicry of painting, tries to show depth - Story about a woman who bragged that her children were more numerous and beautiful than that of a god, so this shows the gods coming down and attacking her - Figures still have a sense of stiffness - Red figure painting, bodies are part of the red clay of the pot which allows a lot of detail - Figures occupy different levels, illusion of space, although there is no difference in size, influence of Greek paintings

Anthropomorphic stele

- Arabian Peninsula. Fourth millennium BCE. Sandstone. - Tall, apprx. 3 feet high - While both sides are sculpted, emphasis is on the front - Stele = a vertical stone monument or marker often inscribed with text or relief carving - One of 3 discovered in the region - In prehistoric times the landscape was dramatically different, more fertile and lush, and readily accessible to humans - Was probably associated with religious or burial practices, was likely used as a grave marker in an open-air sanctuary - Could have also been used for dedication commemoration, and demarcation

Anavysos Kouros

- Archaic Greek. c. 530 BCE. Marble with remnants of paint. - Actual musculature - Less formal, less "diamond torso" - Face is more realistic, less flat - Archaic smile - Inscription on base asks the viewer to stop, look, and feel pity for Kroisos, who was killed on the battlefield - This is not what Krosis looked like, this is what the ideal human looked like - No date, it is eternal - Much more in the round, you can walk around him - Sculptor does not understand knees. He tries to, but the knees just aren't lifelike. - About life size, a little bit larger - Ideal male youth - Thousands of these figures were produced and we just call them Kouros, which means "youth" - Could have been used as grave markers, as spiritual offerings, and rarely, they represented a god, usually apollo - Perhaps they were inspired by contact with Egypt - In the early Kouros, you have a greater sense of stiffness, of abstraction of the human body, and a sense of the body in correspondence with a block of stone - Modeling in the round - Hard line between the torso and the legs has been softened - Forms of the face and body are more integrated - Both legs are locked and weight is evenly displaced between the legs - Traditional headband and curly hair - This was set up as a grave marker by an aristocratic family for their son who died in war - There was usually a base with an inscription found near the spot of the figure - Sense of potential in a life that was cut short, but at this moment of greatest strength and beauty - Artist had to leave a little bridge between the hands and the thighs in order to strengthen the object

Peplos Kore from the Acropolis

- Archaic Greek. c. 530 BCE. Marble, painted details. - Believed to be wearing a garment called a peplos which was made of wool and gave a blouse effect - Could represent Athena - Wearing clothing because the nude ideal was only extended towards men - Arm broken off, was probably carrying something that would have given us a clue about who she was - She is much fleshier than her male counterparts, you can really see her fleshier skin - Kore means young woman in Greek - Small sculpture - Were generally offering to the goddess Athena - Could be a representation of a woman - This is the only kore that is dressed this way - Some think she's wearing a peplos, some think she's wearing a chiton under a peplos, some say that there's a cape above her...really unknown - Research done in the original coloration of her clothing - Right hand is drilled into a fist, so she could have been holding an arrow, and if she was holding a bow in her other hand, we would clearly identify her as Artemis - A lot of holes crowing her head, was probably wearing a metal crown suggesting her divinity - Holes for bronze earrings - Her face would have been more complexly painted, only the red survives, likely some black around the eyes and eyebrows - Subtle sense of her legs under the drapery - Archaic smile, not meant to be an expression of emotion, jut a sense of being at peace - Ideal femininity - Representation of decorative patterns and of animals, perhaps a suggestion of fertility

Athenian Agora

- Archaic through Hellenistic Greek. 600 BCE-150 CE. Plan. - Acropolis = Sacred, high up, Agora = down below, where everyone is - The heart of the Athenian experiment in democracy - Commercial, civic, and social life revolved around the market place, or agora - At the foot of the Acropolis - Began as an open space - Over time, public and private structures were erected - Stone drainage system to prevent flooding - Large fountain houses provided water - By 400 BCE, the Agora contained several religious and administrative structures, even a small racetrack. - Business, political discussion, religion - Some buildings were specifically made for politics - Temples = religious buildings - The stoas: A bathing place, half indoors, half outdoors, columns and stalls, equivalent of a shopping mall. Became famous because people would hang around and have discussions. Where socrates would cause trouble as a boy - Democracy was extremely limited, in order to take part in governmental decision making, you had to be a citizen. And in order to be a citizen, you had to be male and Athenian. - A lot of checks to prevent any one person from having too much power - Started out as a place for market, a place of buying and selling, and gradually became a place of government - Increasingly substantial structures, one of the most important ones was the Stoa - Once a year a great procession would make its way up to the sacred parthenon

Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon

- Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Hellenistic Greek. c. 175 BCE. Marble (architecture and sculpture). - Built temple to show how good they were at defeating their enemies - Snakes = one of Athena's tricks - 2 Friezes, one with Athena in the center and one with Zeus - Combine the Greek love of the body and the sense of expressiveness and drama - Hellenistic = the last phase in Greek art before Europe was conquered by Alexander the great - A battle between the giants and the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus - A celestial battle of enormous proportions where the giants battle the Olympian gods for supremacy of the earth and the universe - Athena: Is beautiful and totally in control, bracketed on either side by passionate, wild figures who are being defeated, also being crowned by a winged Nike, who comes from behind with a crown - Entire marble surface has a counterclockwise motion - Full of diagonals which activate the surface, with deepest carvings which creates contrast between the highlights of the exposed bodies and the dark shadows behind them - Virtuoso sculpting of the Human body - All of this would have been brilliantly painted - Zeus: composed and totally in control, no doubt that he is in the victor, an enormously powerful figure, has thunderbolts, an eagle, his symbol, is attacking one of the giants - Thunderbolts represented by torches - Set of symbols that spoke of the Greeks fear, but also optimism that they could overcome chaos - Is a metaphor for the victory of Greek culture over the unknown - Represents victory over cultures that they didn't understand - Up the stairs is the most sacred part of the altar, where the fire for Zeus was lit, and where there would have been sacrifices - Friezes pour out onto the stairs, entering our world

Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo

- Attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez. c. 1715 CE. Oil on canvas. - Displays a Spanish father and Indigenous mother with their son - Belongs to a larger series of works that seek to document the inter-ethnic mixing occurring in New Spain - Attempts to capture reality, yet they are largely fictions - Family model is possibly modeled on depictions of the Holy Family showing the Virgin Mary, saint Joseph, and Christ as a child - Often labeled with a number of textual inscription that documents the mixing that has occurred - The numbers and textual inscriptions on casta paintings create a racial taxonomy - Convey the perception that the more European you are, the closer to the top of the social and racial hierarchy you belong - Pure-blooded Spaniards always occupy the preeminent position in casta paintings and are often the best dressed and the most civilized - Convey the notion that one's social status is tied to one's perceived racial makeup

Grave Stele of Hegeso

- Attributed to Kallimachos. c. 410 BCE. Marble and paint. - Stele = upright slab decorated with relief sculptures - A grave stele was more intimate, tender, gentle, more personal, represented real people, understated, featured women and children - Shows the role of women, confined figures - Shows depth by draping fabric on both sides of the chair, foot turned slightly outwards - Low relief - Two are very close, sitting women is bulky and has a composite look - Does not touch the floor, foot on little pedestal, symbolic of her status - Engraved with her name and her fathers name - Looking down in a dignified way, maybe they're thinking about Death? - Private sculpture had begun to reemerge - Hegeso is the woman seen sitting, opening a box of jewelry presented to her by her servant, and examining a necklace which was once represented with paint - Shown in a domestic setting, the home was the woman's sphere - Quiet reverence - Drapery that closely follows the forms of the body and creates elaborate folds and swirls - Although it is a very shallow space, we have the full width of the body

The Code of Hammurabi

- Babylon. Susian. c. 1792-1750 BCE. Basalt. - Hammurabi is the most far-reaching leader of Mesopotamian history and is known for creating the most important set of legal codes from the ancient near East - He is seen as receiving the laws from the god Shamash, who is seated, complete with thunderbolts coming from his shoulders. - Emphasis here is Hammurabi's role as pious theocrat, and that the laws themselves come from the god. - Shamash was associated with both the sun and the law - Has rays of light that come out from him, and he is sitting on a throne - Hammurabi is almost equal, but not quite - Receiving a ring and a septer, symbols of power - Very small registers that describe Hammurabi's right to be king, an ode to his glory, and then mostly 300 specific laws - Written in cuneiform - Wanted it to be a legacy so that everyone could read and understand it - Punishments were very severe - Does not matter what place you are in society, this is the law. - Laws are also immutable and divine, above humanity

Buddha

- Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Gandharan. c. 400-800 CE. Destroyed in 2001. Cut rock with plaster and polychrome paint - Gandhara style - Buddhism along the silk road - Trading center and religious site: cosmic murals on the interior where buddhists could meditate - Pilgrimage - Destroyed by the Taliban

Pazzi Chapel

- Basilica di Santa Croce. Florence, Italy. Filippo Brunelleschi (architect). c. 1429-1461 CE. Masonry. - Pazzi = Wealthy renaissance family that commissioned this as a meeting hall for the friars who were part of this big church complex - Originally used as a chapter house - Logic and rationality: plan shows a circle in a square - Common for families to commission these chapels to display their wealth, would be seen as "good work," place to put money, beautifies the city, helps the church, increases the family's chance at salvation - Interior: Use of classical vocabulary, rounded arches, fluted pilasters, corinthian capitals, perfect semi circular dome, pendentives - Tondos = symbols of the 4 evangelists, each supported with the Pazzi family crest - Renaissance churches are sometimes thought to be less spiritual, reflected by the containment of the four evangelists inside the circles. - Concentration on the purity of geometric volumes - Typical Brunelleschi elements, the pietra serena (grey-ish green stone) that articulates the decorations on the walls and the space itself - Dominance of perfect geometry - Very close to a central planned space - Working hard to create a classicism - Completely constructed, ordered, designed environment - Rational space

Calling of Saint Matthew

- Caravaggio. c. 1597-1601 CE. Oil on canvas - (Matthew's original name is Levi) - To the right, Levi sits with fellow Roman tax collectors. According to Biblical story, after being confronted by Jesus, Levi joins him and becomes Saint Matthew. - The main subject is conversion, a prominent Counter-Reformation theme - Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector to sit at the table - Fresh take, departs from the ideals of High Renaissance - Realism - Figures are not idealized biblical forms, rather they seem to exist in real, contemporary environment - Light used to show realism and drama - Tenebrism - Individualized faces, many partially obscured, highlighting realism - Commissioned by Contarelli Chapel in St. Louis - Seems to be a secretive setting - Almost like Caravaggio is going against what the council of trent wants, which is clarity in art. This piece is very confusing - Jesus' hand is very similar to Adam's hand in Michelangelo's painting. Supposed to represent the human connection to the divine. - Dramatic emphasis on the diagonal, shadow line matches Jesus' gaze.

Tlatilco female figurine

- Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco. 1200-900 BCE. Ceramic. - As the Mesoamerican lifestyle grew increasingly sedentary, artists began to produce ceramic objects in a variety of localized styles. - Emphasis on wide hips, sperical upper thighs, pinched waist - Makers lived in a large farming villages near the great inland lake in the center of the basin of Mexico - Double headed figures come in a whole variety - This one has a bifurcated face - Two noses, two mouths, but only 3 eyes - Traces of paint - Would have been incised with a sharp instrument - Most figurines are scenes of everyday life, are funny and charming - Doesn't influence later cultures like the olmec do

Chartres Cathedral

- Chartres, France. Gothic Europe. Original construction c. 1145-1155 CE. Reconstructed c. 1194-1220 CE. Limestone, stained glass. - Early Gothic west works is all that remains after 1194 fire, rest of the cathedral is high gothic - All buildings are oriented towards the east - Cruciform: Fire destroyed most of it and had to rebuild - Cult of Mary grows stronger during the middle ages, Mary = a mediator between us and her son Jesus. Rose windows = associated with Mary - Mary's crucial relic = the veil which she wore when she gave birth - Mary became so important that she almost had divine powers. Catholics venerate her, but the do not worship her. Reformers didn't like the idea of Mary worship, saw Jesus as the one Mediator - Relic was in the crypt during the fire but survived - Holy reasons to reconstruct, but also political and economic reasons, as well as intellectual. Cathedral = power. People wanted to put their towns on the map. - Textile market happened outside: Economic center - Triforium, little rows of windows, made possible by the flying buttresses on the ouside - Evolution of the Gothic Cathedral: Can get rid of the tribune gallery - Flying Buttress: Enables increased height of nave, more light, Chartres was the first Cathedral to incorporate them - Stained glass: Used a full scale drawing as a model, made sheets of colored glass, chipped at the glass until required shape was achieved, can overlap 2 different colors to make other colors, eventually corrected to stone. Can paint on smaller details such as small facial features.

Yaxchilán

- Chiapas, Mexico. Maya. 725 CE. Limestone (architectural complex). - Bottom side of a carved lintel - Lady Xoc is ceremoniously piercing her tongue with a rope and thorns while her husband illuminated the scene - There are in a dark place - Was painted one at a time using plolychrome - Depiction shows that women did have some importance in society - Has a shrunken head on his head - Blocks have the time and date of when the event is happening, very sophisticated - Depicting a bloodletting rite - Ritual of thanksgiving, inflicting pain for the gods

Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene

- Circle of the González Family. c. 1697-1701 CE. Tempera and resin on wood, shell inlay. - Interest in Japanese objects coming to spain through the philepienes - Spanish craze for Japanese goods - Mexican artist who has created something in the guise of a Japanese lacquerware box - Would have been very expensive and at the height of what was in fashion at this time - Tremendous money generated by the colonies

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

- Cornaro Chapel, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. Rome, Italy. Gian Lorenzo Bernini. c. 1647-1652 CE. Marble (sculpture); stucco and gilt bronze (chapel). - Baroque art reacts against Renaissance intellectualism, and shows and delivers the uplifting power of emotional faith - The faithful need to FEEL the power of God - Had this experience that God was coming to her almost as if he was attacking her - Weird mixture of pain, joy, and passion - If it looks erotic and sexual, that's not an accident, it's supposed to look that way - Looks as though she's in a kind of sexual ecstasy, combination of the sexual and the spiritual - Characterized by a distinct drama, dynamism, and a sense of movement - Unbalanced compositionally to create drama - Served to involve the viewer and to inspire faith in the miraculous - Represents a famous vision descriped by the recently canonized St. Teresa - An angel pierced her body repeatedly with an arrow - This transported her to a state of ecstatic oneness with God charged with erotic associations - Response to the religious and political climate in Rome during the counter reformation - Christians were encouraged to transport themselves emotionally to the events that they were meditating upon

Great Mosque

- Córdoba, Spain. Umayyad. Begun c. 785-786 CE. Stone masonry. - One of the oldest structures still standing from the time Muslims ruled - Believed that there had first been a temple to the Roman god, Janus, on this site. - Temple was converted into a church by invading Visigoths - Next the church was converted into a mosque and completely rebuilt - Stands on ground considered sacred by 3 different religions - Because it served so many spiritual purposes, it is disputed for what it should be called - Currently functions as a church - Cordoba = center of Umayyad rule - Trees of paradise mosaic: evidence of Byzantine mosaicists workers who helped build it - Gardens are very important to Muslims, seen as paradise - Marble columns and capitals in the hypostyle prayer hall were recycled from the ruins of classical buildings in the region, which had been a wealthy roman province (spoila) - Geometrical illusion, gives more support, elevation, and light - Horse shoe shaped arches = enjoyed by the visigoths and borrowed from Roman and Byzantine - Hypostyle prayer hall: magnified by repeated geometry, built with recycled ancient Roman columns from which sprout a striking combination of symmetrical arches, formed of stone and red brick. - Mihrab: The focal point in the prayer hall, shaped like a horse shoe, framed by an exquisitely decorated arch behind which is an unusually large space - The dome: Above the Mihrab. Built of crisscrossing ribs that create pointed arches covered in gold mosaic. Anticipates later Gothic rib vaulting - Prime example of the Muslim world's ability to develop architectural styles based on pre-existing regional tradition - Combination of familiar and innovative

Las Meninas

- Diego Velázquez. c. 1656 CE. Oil on canvas. - For the admiration of the Spanish royal family - Artist sought respect for himself and his work - Self portrait within the painting would ensure his importance and durability in the future - Serves as a visual statement of the social rank desired by the painter - Significant use of tenebrism: baths the infant and portions of other figures in light, which contrasts against the dark background - Velazquez is depicted painting a double portraid of King Philip IV and Queen Marianna - The five year old princess is shown observing the artists work - Priest and nun are there to remind everyone of the importance of catholicism - Queen's chambermaid is the vanishing point - Informal portrait, almost like we have walked in on them and they are noticing us - Mysterious painting, canvas is large, he's painting the painting he's painting - Maybe the king and queen have walked into the room, and everyone has turned their attention to them - Very intellectually intimidating - Princess is painterly - Quick brushstrokes that give the illusion of form

David

- Donatello. c. 1440-1460 CE. Bronze. - Sculpture for Cosimo de Medici, placed in the center of Medici Palace, 7 balls symbolize the Medicis - Inscription engraved in base suggests that it was dedicated in celebration of the Florentine triumph over Milanese in 1425 - First life-size free standing nude since classical antiquity - Classical heroic nudity - Prepubescent boy in laurel-trimmed shepherd's hat and boots - Hat: jaunty and fashionable for a male youth - Older men initiated sex by stealing adolescent boy's hats - Symbol of fashion, adolescent beauty and sexual availibility - David's hat is ON, he has the control over his sex life - Viewer desires this beautiful boy yet he has the power over us and he's victorious over older man, Goliath - Homoeroticism: sensuous, effeminate wig from Goliath's helmet and severed head stroking inner thigh - David's angular pose and boyish torso: poised between childish interests and adult responsibility and maturity, improbable heroism - David was a potent political image in Florence, symbolized citizen's resolve to oppose tyrants regardless of their power - Anatomy: Donatello figured it out intuitively, later on (da Vinchi) would do dissections to learn how the body works. Donatello does not understand how pectoral bones and ribs are connected - Impressive shoulder blade accuracy - Hands are too big, adolescent transition, adjusting and moving into manhood - Victory brings a resolution to struggle with depots and deemed Florence a strong, Independent republic.

Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George

- Early Byzantine Europe. Sixth or early seventh century CE. Encaustic on wood. - Encaustic = painting technique that uses wax as a medium to carry the color - Looks like a young Hilary Clinton - Fully frontal poses, another characteristic of Byzantine art - Very little depth - Feet are unnatural, makes figures look like they are floating. - Poor attempt at showing depth - Exist in a heavenly space, indicated by the usage of Gold - Icon can be a window to the world of the heavens - If the son of God became flesh, then it should be okay to celebrate divinity in art. - Saints are warrior saints - Above are 2 angels who gaze upward to the hand of God, from which light emanates - The painter selectively used the classicizing style inherited from Rome: Faces are modeled, heads almost turns 3/4's - Virgin averts her eyes and does not make eye contact with the viewer - Gives us an unmistakable sense of visual movement inwards and upward, from the saints to the Virgin and from the Virgin upward to the Angels and the hands of God

Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St Luke incipit page.

- Early medieval (Hiberno Saxon) Europe. c. 700 CE. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigments, and gold on vellum). - Incipit: It begins. - We know that these people know about Islam because the book starts out with the idea that the carpet is the ideal location for prayer, a concept borrowed from Islam. - Latin script: insular majuscule (large lettering, either capital or uncial, in which all the letters are usually the same height). Underneath, a different type of letter: a monk glossed it in english - First Gospel translation to English - Combination of languages and cultures to make this up - Matthew Cross Carpet Page: series of repetitive knots and spirals dominated by a centrally-located cross. Knots reveal themselves as snake-like cultures curling and in and around tubular forms. Intricate and detailed. - Luke's Incipit: teems with animal life, spiraled forms, and swirling vortexes. Knots reveal to be snakes that move in the letters boundaries, birds, marked in contrast to his straight forward portrait page - Luke's portrait page: Sitting on a stool, holding a feather, poised to write words on a scroll, feet are hovering above the ground. Gold halo indicates divinity. Blue winged calf, symbolic of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. - Materials came from as far away as from Islam too - Artists would have had to have been like chemists to know how to make the colors - Book itself was considered holy - Artistic expression and inspired execution make it a high point of early medieval art

Merovingian looped fibulae

- Early medieval Europe. Mid-sixth century CE. Silver gilt worked in filigree, with inlays of garnets and other stones. - Cloissonne: decorative work in which enamel, glass, or gemstones are separated by strips of flattened wire placed edgeways on a metal backing - Eagle at top: Confusion on its symbolism because of the meddling of 3 different heritages. A lot of art comes from the practice of migration and moving. - Fibulae are brooches that were made popular by Roman military campaigns. They all consist of a body, a pin, and a catch. - Grave goods like fibulae provide the most concrete cultural information about barbarians, due to the sparse amount of written documentation about them. The diverse ethnic groups were constantly borrowing from one another, while putting their own spin on things. - Called a "crossbow" fibula because of its resemblance to the weapon. A very popular style

Mosque of Selim II

- Edirne, Turkey. Sinan (architect). 1568-1575 CE. Brick and stone. - Made by the architect Sinan, who was force to be Muslim. He was the greatest architect and a brilliant, arrogant genius. He wanted his product to be bigger and more impressive than the Hagia Sophia. - Interior: Half domes support the big dome and make the room airy - In a way, it is modeled after the Hagia Sophia, which used to be a church. Hagia Sophia: Designed to be a church, combines 2 very old church styles Mosque: True central plan, more true for a mosque, integrated very complex geometry - Designed to withstand earthquakes - Articulates the exterior to give clairty and show what the structure would be like on the outside - Many different functions: shows political and religious power of ottomans - Location in turkey is important because it's where westerners would first encounter Islam, wanted it to be an impressive statement.

Self-Portrait

- Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. 1790 CE. Oil on Canvas - Marie Antoinette's favorite portrait painter, had to live in exile in Italy afterwards because of the association - Wearing the style that Marie Antoinette made popular - Shown as a painter because otherwise people would not have known that a woman painted it - Painted during the revolution, but considered to be rococo, she's a conservative, loyal to the aristocracy

Sarcophagus of the Spouses

- Etruscan. c. 520 BCE. Terra cotta. - Torsos are very defined while the rest of their bodies sink into the couch - They love each other, enjoying a party in the next life - Woman may be holding a jar of annalium for her husband - From the Roman point of view, Etruscan women were explicit - Found in an Etruscan tomb, which is the primary way we learn about Etruscan culture - Large ceramic container, the two figures are a lid that can be lifted off - Lifelike, figures move out into our space - Tremendous sense of intimacy - This is clay, while the Greeks preferred marble and then bronze - Were likely holding objects related to a banquet - Possible the woman is holding a perfume bottle - Also possible that one of the figures is holding a pommegranite, a symbol of the eternal. - Not supposed to see these as portraits, have stylized features - Found at a necropolis - Likely that there was something inlaid in the pupils - Would have originally contained cremated human remains

Liberty Leading the People

- Eugéne Delacroix. 1830 CE. Oil on canvas - July revolution of 1830, abdication of King Charles X - Liberty is in the center, depicted from profile, the most powerful position and allusion to Roman coins - People from all different classes are there, it was everyone's revolution. Man in the hat is rich, man next to him was a common worker - Man laying in his pj's to show that people were often just ripped out of their homes and taken to the streets

Palazzo Rucellai

- Florence, Italy. Leon Battista Alberti (architect). c. 1450 CE. Stone, masonry. - Alberti developed a style divorced from the medieval style that could finally be considered quintessentially Renaissance - Commissioned for the Rucellais, a wealthy merchant family - Three tiers: divided with horizontal entablatures that run across the facade. the first tier grounds the building, giving it a sense of strength. This is achieved by the use of rusticated stone that starts at the very bottom of the building. The horizontality of this facade is called trabeated architecture, which Alberti thought was most fitting for homes of the nobility. Each tier also decreases in height from bottom to top. On each tier there are pilasters to visually support the entablature. First tier = tuscan order. second tier: Ionic order. Third tier: Corinthian. second third tiers use smaller stones to enhance the feeling of lightness - Building is wrapped by benches that served to provide rest for visitors - Actually had 4 floors - First floor = business - Second floor = where the family had guests - Third floor = families private apartments - Fourth floor, hidden, where servants lived. - Very similar to the colosseum, both use architectural features for decorative purposes rather than structural support

Madonna and Child with Two Angels

- Fra Filippo Lippi. c. 1465 CE. Tempera on wood. - Playful, unlike the medieval tradition - Really humanist in its approach - Somber note in Mary's foreknowledge in her son's fate - No byzantine elongation of the face and hand, looks like a real woman - Angels look like children you're see playing on the streets - Mary's halo is just a simple circle we can barely make out - Obvious symbols of divinity were starting to feel out of place - Frame of the window almost becomes the frame itself - Suggests that the frame of the canvas is a window that we look into - Landscape behind her is rendered with atmospheric perspective - Movement suggested by the swirling drapery and the movement of the clothing - Cared about line and contour, very delicate lines and clear delineation between one form and another

Statues of votive figures

- From the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq). Sumerian. c. 2700 BCE. Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone. - Range from just under a foot to over 3 - We think the temple was dedicated to the god Abu - Transitional period right after the bronze age when cities were founded in the great river valleys of the world - Meant to be attentive to a sculpture of a god - Was a kind of stand in for an elite member of society, and was a symbol for this person - Would have paid to have this sculpture made and placed in front of the statue to be a stand-in for continuous prayer and be continually attentive to the God - Stands erect, sense of frontality - Hands are clasped - Large eyes are inlaid shell with black limestone - Looks humble and attentive

Great Pyramids (Menkaura, Khafre, Khufu) and Great Sphinx

- Giza, Egypt. Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynasty. c. 2550-2490 BCE. Cut limestone - The three primary pyramids on the Giza plateau were built over the span of three generations by the rulers Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure - Each pyramid was part of a royal mortuary complex that also included a temple at its base and a long stone causeway - The shape of the pyramid was a solar reference - Khufu: Largest of the three. Constructed of locally quarried stones. Interior chambers and passageways are unique and include a number of enigmatic features. Included 7 large boat pits and were probably intended for use in the afterlife to transport the king to stellar destinations. Has 2 massive, rectangular stone line pits that contained completely disassembled boats. Boats appear to have been used for the funerary procession and as ritual objects connected to the last earthly voyage of the king - Khafre: Second largest pyramid of Giza. Built by Khufu's second son Khafre. Interior plan is much simpler than that of Khufu's pyramid, with a single burial chamber. The mortuary temple at the base was more complex and filled with statuary of the king. The valley temple, located at the east end of the causeway leading from the pyramid base, is beautifully preserved. It was constructed of megalithic blocks sheathed with granite and floors of polished white calcite. - The Great Sphinx: Right next to the causeway leading from Khafre's valley temple to the mortuary temple. Close association indicated that this was carved for Khafre. Carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau. Lion was a royal symbol as well as being connection with the sun as a symbol of the horizon. The king's head is on a smaller scale than the body because of a defect in the stone which made it weak. Directly in front of the Sphinx is a separate temple dedicated to the worship of its cult, but very little is known about it. - Menkaure: smallest of the three. Pyramid chambers are more complex than the other. Within his mortuary and valley temples are series of statues of the king, including King Menkaure and queen.

Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France, Scenes from the Apocalypse from Bibles moraisées.

- Gothic Europe. c. 1225-1245 CE. illuminated manuscript (ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum). - Small group of illustrated bibles - Among the most expensive medieval manuscripts ever made because they contain an unusually large number of illustrations - Were generally commissioned by members of royal families - Contains 2 texts: the biblical text and the commentary text, which interpreted the bible for the reader - Often created comparisons between people and the events in the biblical world and people and events in the medieval world - Depict Blanche of Castile and her son Louis, - Cleric and a scribe are depicted underneath them - Stylized and colorful buildings suggest a sophisticated urban setting - Echo a gesture and pose that would have been familiar to many Christians: the Virgin Mary and Christ enthroned side-by-side as celestial rulers of heaven - Represents the cutting edge of lavishness in a society that embraced consumption - Perhaps it played a role in helping Louis XI achieve the status of sainthood - Explain why Parisian illuminators monopolized manuscript production at this time

Alhambra

- Granada, Spain. Nasrid Dynasty. 1354-1392 CE. Whitewashed adobe stucco, wood, tile, paint, and gilding. - Distinct among Medieval palaces for its sophisticated planning, complex decorative programs, and its many gardens and fountains - Built by the last Muslims to rule in Spain - 1 mile of walls and 30 towers enclose this city within a city - Structures with 3 distinct purposes, a residence for the ruler and close family, the citadel, barracks for the guards, and an arena where court officials lived and worked - Different parts of the complex are connected by paths, gardens, and gates - Most celebrated structures are the three original royal palaces: Comares Palace, Palace of Lions, and the Patal Palace - Palace of Lions: Most celebrated feature = a fountain with a complex hydraulic system consisting of a marble basin on the backs of 12 carved stone lions - Several grand rooms have vaulted ceilings decorated with muquarnas, intrivately carved brackets that hold up a vaulted ceiling. - The artists used painted tile and carved stucco to decorate the interior and exterior walls of the palace - This is a place to reflect - A testament to the Alhambra that the Catholic monarchs who besieged and ultimately took the city left this complex largely intact.

Seated Boxer

- Hellenistic Greek. c. 100 BCE. Bronze. - We do not know who the artist is - Discovered in the baths of Rome - He's a loser, not a depiction of perfection like early classical greek art - Cuts on his body filled with copper - Sitting in a sad way, implies human feature - No triumph - Candid - Evokes a different emotion, not a feeling of awe, a feeling of empathy - At the end of his career, he's exhausted - The idea of showing an athlete is not new in Greece, but brings a new meaning to it that hasn't been shown before - Bronze is expensive and resuable, so often when we see Greek sculpture is a roman marble copy of what was a bronze greek sculpture, because the bronze was so often melted down and repurposed - Sculpture is hollow - Lines are cut in the bronze to add texture to the hair and the beard - Originally there would have been eyes, but they were probably precious stones that were stolen - Seems like he's in an actual conversation with someone - Usually we see the physical ideal, nude, athletic, idealized - This is an athletic figure, but he's not young and he's not beautiful, in the traditional sense - Muscular, powerful, but defeated

Winged Victory of Samothrace

- Hellenistic Greek. c. 190 BCE. Marble. - Part of a stone ship in a temple complex - Temple was in an island called samaras - When you came into the harbor, this is what you would see - Commemorates a naval victory, symbol of naval power and the power of the Gods - Descending from Heaven and landing on the prow of the ship - Wearing a couple different garments, different pieces of clothing seem to be falling off, respondent to the environment - 9 feet high, very large - A messenger goddess who spreads the news of victory - Voluptuousness, wind swept energy, full of emotion, typical of hellenistic art - Seems to move in several directions at once - Marble does so many things in terms of textures - Uses the body to describe a tremendous force

Pantheon

- Imperial Roman. 118-125 CE. Concrete with stone facing. - Built by Hadrian on the spot of an earlier temple by Agripa - Originally would not have been able to see the sides, which would have made the circular interior a surprise - Belt courses articulate the rotunda - Used poured concrete, lighter than stone, made the mix heavier around the edges and ligher near the oculus - Corbeing, old technique used in neolithic graves - Parthenon = all the gods - Point of the structure is to represent all the Gods in one place of worship. Temple to all the gods - Circular space to represent heaven - Each god has a niche - Open space in the middle of huge heavy walls. Continually used, reinforces the structure - The coffers lighten the weight of the masonry and are painted gold and blue. They decrease in size as they go up ward to make the roof look higher than it actually is - People think this space may have functioned as a calendar - Sun shines through the oculus and hits the main doorway on Rome's birthday - Perfectly proportioned, could fit a perfect circle inside the space

Augustus of Prima Porta

- Imperial Roman. Early first century CE. Marble - Returning to the idea of the idealized youth - Contraposto - Face is recognizable, this is a specific person (Augustus) - Barefoot, hinting at divinity - Cupid at his feet, reminder that Augustus is of divine origin - Toga draped over his arm, "I am the best on republican knowledge" - Fabric falling off to reveal armor that represents how all of the world is under the control of Roman power, and everyone is under the Pax Romana - Powerful piece of propaganda - Probably a copy of a bronze that was stored in a public place, many copies made - No photographs, so his likeness was distributed through sculpture - Wanted people to see him Godlike and powerful - Image is the identity he wants to portray, Godlike, youth, athletic, ideal - Used canon proportions, saying he wants to create a golden age like the golden age of Greece - Cupid was supposedly his little brother - At first glance this statue might appear to simple resemble a portrait of Augustus as an orator and general, but this sculpture also communicates a good deal about the emperor's power and ideology - Shows himself as a great military victor and a staunch supporter of Roman religion - Fortells the 200 year period of peace that Augustus initiated called the Pax Romana - Right arm is outstretched, demonstrating that the emperor is addressing his troops - Immediately sense the emperor's power as the leader of the army and a military conqueror - Breastplate: covered with figures that communicate additional propagandistic messages: Augustus has the gods on his side, he is an international military victor, and he is the bringer of the Pax Romana - Not simply a portrait of the emperor, it expresses Augustus' connection to the past, his role as a military victor, his connection to the gods, and his role as the bringer of the Roman Peace.

Entombment of Christ

- Jacopo da Pontormo. 1525-1528 CE. Oil on wood. - Painting is clearly in the early mannerist style, yet the chapel was designed by Brunelleschi, in the early Renaissance style - Moment when Christ is lowered from the cross, is about to be entombed, and Mary is mourning his death - Cross is gone, the tomb is not apparent, Pontormo has given us nothing to understand the subject - Nothing but figures - Not situated in any kind of earthly space that's understandable, which is such a difference from the style of the high Renaissance, where providing an earthly setting for the figures was so important and included linear perspective. This is almost a rejection of that earthliness - Figures are highly stylized, elongated bodies - Sense of things moving in lots of different directions at once - No place for our eye to rest, full of constant movement - Completely disregards the things we come to expect of the high renaissance - Something overwought in the emotions that the figures display - Not the emotions of a person so much as symbols of emotions - Sense of masking and artificiality and art that is not based on nature is really typical of mannerism, a period of real revolution - Mannerist style = expresses a new spirituality coming from the attacks on the church by Martin Luther - First tastes of the changes brought about by the counter reformation

The Arnolfini Portrait

- Jan van Eyck. 1434 CE. Oil on wood. - Disputed whether or not it is a wedding portrait, could be commemorating her death in childbirth. - Cramped interior spaces, they are in a bed chamber. People assume that it is more intimate because it was in a bedroom, but during this time the bedroom was seen as a social area - Lots of symbolism - Rich color - Pregnant, or it could be the style of dress or the way the figure is painted, seems like she's holding bunched up fabric - Evidence of wealth: clothing and mirror signify money, veil of ermine fur, dog is an expensive breed and a symbol of fidelity, oranges which were very expensive - warm outside and the window is open, but they're in heavy opulent clothing - Woman is standing next to the bed and man is standing next to the window, evidence of gender roles - The mirror: highly intricate, reflects the modern renaissance tendency to care about optics and science. See the two figures from the rear. Also see some people, looks like a little crowd of them. Words above the mirror say "Jan Van Eyck was here" and people interpret the painting as a confirmation of the contract that is being signed. Biblical scenes are depicted around the mirror, combination of biblical content and scientific optics shows the compatibility of faith and modern science - Plays with shadow and light

The Oath of the Horatii

- Jaques-Louis David. 1784 CE. Oil on canvas. - Very revolutionary piece - Horatius is the father and the Horatii are the sons - Men = angular forms, more forceful stance, prideful, bold colors - Women = curve, soft, mournful stance, muted colors, represents weakness of an ideal - Men exemplify how you should put the nation above everything - Seems to be commenting on the feminization of French culture - Looks realistic, but the figures are doing bodily pantomime, bodies express their virtue, over exaggerated - Similar to a vase painting, figures are close and in clumps, very clear groupings (one of the things that makes it neo-classical) - Perspective in a very shallow space - Architecture frames the groupings of the figures - Stylistically revolutionary and revolutionary in that it seems to be arguing for revolution or that France wanted to be strong again

George Washington

- Jean-Antoine Houdon. 1788-1792 CE. Marble. - Designed for display in a public space - Given clear instructions by Washington to be depicted in contemporary dress - Was originally slightly idealized and classicized bust portrait but Washington didn't like it - Captures the essential duality of Washington: the private citizen and the public soldier - Captures what washington looks like and who washington was as a soldier and as a private citizen - Democracy - Celebrates him as a man, rather than a god - Relatable to the common man

La Grande Odalisque

- Jean-August-Dominique-Ingres. 1814 CE. Oil on canvas. - Romantic and neoclassical - Aloof eroticism accentuated by erotic context - French conception of the Orient - Would have conjured a set of fear and desires linked to the long history of aggression between Christian Europe and Islamic Asia - Sexuality is made acceptable to french society because of the subject's geographic distance - Classical references, quotes Titian's Venus of Urbino

The Swing

- Jean-Honoré Frangonard. 1767 CE. Oil on canvas. - Rococo - Classical references, statues - Angels riding on top of dolphins, carrying venus - Nature, fertile, sexual, sensual, dreamlike - Beehive = strings of love - Indulgence and luxury that classifies the aristocracy - Kind of thing that the revolutionaries and the enlightenment thinkers were against, because they didn't want frivolous. Wanted real, intellectual art that propelled hummanity

Dome of the Rock

- Jerusalem. Islamic, Umayyad. 691-692 CE, with multiple renovations. Stone masonry and wooden roof decorations with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome - The earliest Islamic sanctuary - Seen as a sanctuary for 3 religions. Jews and Christians associate this location with solomon's temple, the site of the creation of Adam, and the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac at the command of God. For Muslims this is the site of Muhammad's journey to jerusalem and ascent to heaven - Not a mosque, a place of pilgrimage, but not a mosque - Combination of Earth and Heaven - The building which was inspired by round christian martyna - A centrally placed octagon - A stylistic synthesis of Byzantine, Persian, and other Middle Eastern forms - Structurally, the Dome on the Rock imitates the centrally planned form of Early Christian and Byzantine Martyria. - The Dome surrounds an octagonal drum pierced with windows supported by alternating piers and columns - Christian church = outside doens't matter, Dome on the rock = outside DOES matter - Asserts religious and political power - Suggests that muslim power has finally come and the religion is established - Holy site, and a muslim building is in the center - Arabesque = "In the arab style" - Tessellation = "The tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps." uses the structure to distract the mind from the infrastructure - The rock according to Islamic tradition is identified with the pace that Muhammad began his miraculous journey to heaven by the Angel Gabriel - The foundation stone and its surroundings is the holiest site in Judaism - It is enclosed with an intricately curved wooden screen - The dome of the rock was built by Syrian artisans trained in the Byzantine tradition, its centralized plan, octagons within octagons, derived from both Byzantine and early Christian art - Inscriptions from the Qur'an intersected with passages from other texts, including info about the building, form a frieze around the inner wall - Above the inscription frieze is another mosaic frieze depicting scrolls and trees in turquoise - Aniconism is not in the Qur'an, but it is in muslim tradition.

Woman Holding a Balance

- Johannes Vermeer. c. 1664 CE. Oil on canvas. - Suggests that she's part of a local merchant class - Tenebrism - Shows how light plays with colors and changes - Isn't actually any jewelry in the balance, she's waiting for the balance to be still - Background is a picture of the last judgement, her head is the dividing line between the damned and the saved - Christian overtones - Is she pregnant or is it fashion? If she is pregnant, and he's wearing that headdress, is she a representation of Mary, who from a Catholic point of view, is an intercessor, - Standing before the weighing of the last judgement, can intercede for sinners. Forces us to think about our lives. Where is the balance in our lives? Yes we have earthly treasures but what we do with them can have eternal consequences. Intimate scene that opens up the intimate. So calm and so still. Moment where she's waiting for the perfect moment of calm and still. Feel's like we're intruding on this peaceful moment. Vermeer was way ahead of his time in understanding color theory. Shadow isn't just shadow, it has colors that make it what it is. - Vermeer: Catholic, colorful, calm, luminous, a lot of people thing that his paintings are uncannily photographic - Famous for interior genre scenes - Simplicity, calm beauty - Master of showing how a single light source affects a scene, sort of the opposite of tenebrism

A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery

- Joseph Wright of Derby. c. 1763-1765 CE. Oil on canvas - Carvaggio influence: dramatic light source - Orrery = metal sculpture that shows the path of the planets - 18th century planetarium - Almost like the faces that are being illuminated, human beings are being illuminated during the enlightenment

Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall

- Karnak, near Luxor, Egypt. New Kingdom, 18th and 19th Dynasties. Temple: c. 1550 BCE; hall: c. 1250 BCE. Cut sandstone and mud brick. - Principal religious center of the god Amun-Re in Thebes - Known as "The Most Select of Palaces" - Was the location of the cult image of Amun, a place for the god to dwell on earth, and a working estate for the priestly community who lived on site - Tallest obelisk in Egypt is here and is dedicated to Hatshepsut - Festival Temple of Thutmose III, which had columns that represented tent poles - Hypostyle hall: has massive sandstone columns, would have been brightly painted, allowed for clerestory lighting

Terra cotta fragmet

- Lapita. Solomon Islands, Reef Islands. 1000 BCE. Terra cotta. - Lapita = an ancient Pacific culture that archaeologists believe to be the common ancestors of Polynesia, Micronesia, and some areas of Melanesia - Lapita art is best known for its ceramics. Feature intricate repeating geometric patterns that occasionally include anthropomorphic phases and figures - Patters were incised into the pots with a comblike tool used to stamp designs - Each stamp consisted of a single design element that was combined with others to form elaborate patterns. - Many Lapita ceramics are large vessels thought to have been used for cooking, serving, or storing food - Some of the designs found on Lapita pottery may be related to patterns seen in modern Plynesian tattoos and barkcloth

The Great Hall of the Bulls

- Lasacaux, France. Paleolithic Europe. 15,000-13,000 BCE. Rock painting. - Given the large scale of many of the animal images, we can presume that the artist worked deliberately - Speculated that the images play a role in "hunting magic" - Suggests that the prehistoric people who used the cave may have believed that a way to overpower their prey involved creating images of it during rituals designed to ensure a successful hunt - Survival was entirely dependent on successful foraging and hunting - Another theory suggests that the images communicate narratives - Most famous of all of the known caves in the region

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus

- Late Imperial Roman. c. 250 CE. Marble. - Previously, the Romans would cremate people, but sarcophagi became trendy, especially for Rich people - "Sarcophagi" literally means mouth for a body - Commemorates the person who died - High relief, some figures are not even connected to the marble they're carved from - Used the new technology of drills to create - Depicts Romans vs. Barbarians. Romans are idealized while the barbarians are ugly - Reflects the chaos of the Late Roman Empire - There is no ground plane or horizon - The person this was for is probably the person depicted in the near middle with his hand out stretched - The outstretched hand makes him more pronounced, gives him a powerful stance, and shows that he has control over the situation - He's calm, has no weapons, and is a tiny bit off to the right - Evokes powerful and calm, shows the subject matter is a military victor, and Rome triumphs, also shows triumph over death - He is literally and figuratively "above" the chaos of life - No weapon is equal to death - X on his forehead, marked with a scar that shows he is part of the cult of Mithroth, a cult which competed with Christianity and was important among soldiers and came from Persia - Triumph over death because he's already been saved by Mithroth

Röttgen Pietá

- Late medieval Europe. c. 1300-1325 CE. Painted wood. - Grusomeness - Very emotional image - Holding her violently dead son in her lap - Gaping wounds and 3D blood that explodes out of the body - Sharpness of the crown of thorns - Lamentation, when Mary laments the death of her son - No other figures around her, we're just confronted with Mary and Christ - Story telling element is diminished, the artist just wants us to focus on this particular interaction between Mary and her dead son - Mary looks more angry and confused than the usual representation of being foreknowing - Emphasis on Mary's humanity, no longer a distant and unrelatable figure - Emotional connection to biblical events to enhance religious belief - Idea that you can connect with God on an emotional event - The viewer has empathy with her - Colors would have been much more vivid - As if you're seeing back in time to this and feeling the same emotions - Part of the beauty of Gothic art, aimed to create an emotional response in viewers - Intended as a focal point for contemplation and prayer - Intent to show that God and Mary, divine figures, were sympathetic to human suffering, and the pain, and loss experienced by medieval viewers - Feel a closer personal connection to God by viewing this representation of death and pain.

Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover).

- Late medieval Spain. c. 1320 CE. Illuminated manuscript (pigments and gold leaf on vellum) - Haggadah = the book used to tell the story of Passover around the sedar table - One the most luxurious examples of a medieval illuminated manuscript, regardless of use or patronage. - Had a practical purpose and was a fine work of art used to signal the wealth of its owners - Usually includes the prayers and readings said during the meal and sometimes contained images that could have served as a sort of pictorial aid to envision the history of Passover - Haggadah = narration in hebrew - Each miniature is decorated with a brilliant gold-leaf background - Seen as educational rather than religious and exempt from the rule forbidding "graven images" - Similar to Christian Gothic manuscripts - Both stylistically an example of Jewish art and Gothic art - Important to remember that artists, regardless of faith, were exchanging ideas and techniques - Stands as a testament to the impact and significance of Jewish culture in medieval Spain, and the rich multicultural atmosphere

Last Supper

- Leonardo da Vinci. c. 1494-1498 CE. Oil and tempera. - Several times a day monks would eat and look up at this painting, ideal place for this - Painting is often read as a reaction to the moment that Jesus tells the table that one of them will betray him - Set of reactions from apostles from around the table - Christ is reaching towards both a glass of wine and a loaf of bread, and this is the institution of the sacrament, when Christ says that the bread is his body, take this wine, it is my blood - Judas is the one who will betray Christ, and he's been paid 30 silver coins, and he's holding the silver coins in his right hand - tells several moments in this story while still giving us a sense of its divinity without any obvious symbols of the divine - Figures are monumental and too big for the table, creating energy that surrounds the perfection, the solemnity of Christ - Christ forms a triangle, the window behind him reads as a table, he's the calm center - Artist is thinking about the integration of maths and sciences - Leonardo simplifies everything and focuses us on those figures and their gestures - Separates our world from the world of Christ and the apostles, space is so full that there's no way for us to enter or for them to leave, table is a barrier between the two worlds - The eternal and ideal united with human psychological complexity and dramatic action - Leonardo mastered the complexity of expression, people are engaged with eachother, completely phycological - Formal elements of perspective - Each are individualized, but they're all in groups

Jade cong

- Liangzhu, China. 3300-2200 BCE. Carved Jade. - The Neolithic period, defined as the age before the use of metal, witnessed a transition from a nomadic existence to one of settled farming - People made different pottery and stone tools in their regional communities - Stone workers employed jade to make prestigious, beautifully polished versions of utilitarian stone tools - Several areas in China had sophisticated neolithic cultures - Square, hollow tubes decorated with lines and sometimes circles to represent faces - Used two distinct types of ritual jade objects, cong and bi - Found in graves - No traces of writing, we have no idea what these mean - Because they clearly represent faces, these clearly meant something - Can't incise into it or carve into it, its impossible to imagine that they were made by rubbing sand - Objects made with great care - Uniformity and clarity - Product of a human mind trying to say something about power, our relationship with nature, what happens after death - Round interior = heavens or sky - Square body = the earth - Possible that this is the origin of these symbols, which are seen throughout history - Principal decoration on cong was the face pattern, may refer to spirits or deities - Function and meaning are completely unknown - Were extremely difficult and time-consuming to produce -

Allegory of Law and Grace

- Lucas Cranach the Elder. c. 1530 CE. Woodcut and letterpress. - Single most influential image of the Lutheran Reformation, ignited by Martin Luther that quickly became a rebellion as people began to question the power and practices of the Catholic Church - In consultation with Martin Luther, Lucas Cranach the Elder produced this. - All of his painting rests upon pictorial type, which influenced other artists - Explain's Luther's ideas in visual form, most basically the notion that heaven is reached through faith and God's grace. Luther despised and rejected the Catholic idea that good deeds could play any role in salvation - 2 nude male figures appear on either side of a tree that is green and living on the "gospel" side on the right, but barren and dying on the "law" side to the viewer's left. Six columns of Bible citations appear at the bottom of the panel. - On the gospel side, John the Baptist directs a naked man to Christ, the nude figure is not vainly hoping to follow the law or to present a tally of his good deeds on the judgement day, he just submits to God's mercy - Law side: Motifs are meant to exemplify the idea that law alone without Gospel can never get you into heaven. Literally highlights the association of law, death, and damnation. Together, these motifs demonstrate that law leads inescapably to hell when mistaken for a path to salvation. - Concerned with 2 roles that God plays: to judge and to show mercy - Luther's idea of law is multifaceted, and bears a complex relationship to his idea of gospel. Though a law alone will never make salvation possible, it remains indispensable as the way the believer recognizes sin and the need for grace. - Is Lutheran because it represents Cranach's pictoral translation of Luther's unique understanding of salvation. - Interprets the roles of law, good works, faith, and grace in the human relationship to God.

Black-on-black ceramic vessel

- Maria Martínez and Julian Martínez, Puebloan, San Ildeonso Pueblo, New Mexico. c. mid-20th century CE. Blackware ceramic. - Reframe of native ceramics as a fine art - Before the arrival of the railroad, pots were used for storage, cooking, and ceremonies, but with inexpensive pots coming along the rail line, these practices were in decline. - Martinez found a way to continue the art by selling her pots to a non-Native audience where they were purchased as something beautiful to look at rather than unitarian objects

Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei

- Master of Calamarca (La Paz School). c. 17th century CE. Oil on canvas. - A reaction to the reformation - Indigenous style mixes with Baroque style - Pushing the boundaries of the council of trent - Coat = Incan nobility - Hat = European - Wings = Each painting of an angel has different colored wings to emulate the religion - Angel is dainty and foppish - very attractive, yet threatening - Tried to associate angels with indigenous religions, like attributing them to water and especially stars - If you're Catholic, you would be protected by this guy, and he's a good guy to have on your side - Guns, angels and fashion, three unexpected elements co-exist - The harquebus is a firearm with a long barrel created by the Spanish and was the first gun to rest on the shoulder when being fired and was at the forefront of military weapon technology at the time - During the first half of the 18th century, the use of gold and silver became prohibited from clothing of nobility but the military was exempt from this role

Temple of Minerva (Veii, near Rome, Italy) and sculpture of Apollo.

- Master sculptor Vulca. c. 510-500 BCE. Original temple of wood, mud brick, or tufa; terra cotta sculpture - Etruscan temples: more square than Greek temples, porch and interior space, not peristyle, mud-brick walls, single staircase entrance, urban sitting and style approach, one approach, can only be viewed from the front. Columns have a base made of wood, unfluted. Terra cotta sculptures on the roof instead of on the pediment. One entrance - Apollo is clothed, and in a dynamic, moving position. Intricate gown with paper-like folds. Tells the story of a heroic battle - Early Etruscans created ritual spaces in groves and enclosures open to the sky with sacred boundaries carefully marked through ritual ceremony - While the desire to create temples for the Gods may have been inspired by contact with Greek culture, Etruscan religious architecture was very different - Colorful and ornate structures - Had a huge impact on Renaissance architecture - Etruscan/ "Tuscan" Columns: Doric columns with bases - High podium and frontal entrance - Originally placed on the ridge of temple roof, terra cotta statues seem to be Etruscan assimilations of Greek gods, set up as tableau to enact some mythic event - Completely Etruscan innovation to use sculpture in this way, placed at the peak of the temple roof, creating an impressive tableau against the backdrop of the sky.

Isenheim altarpiece

- Matthian Grünewald. c. 1512-1516 CE. Oil on wood. - Enormous moveable altarpiece - Essentially a box of statues covered by folded wings - Created to serve as the central object of devotion in a hospital - Hospitals serviced those suffering from hallucinations, skin infection, and attacks to the central nervous system as a result of ergotism, a diseased caused by consuming rye grain infected with fungus. - Sculpted wooden altars were popular in Germany - Interior ensemble is symmetrical, rational, mathematical, and replete with numerical perfections - Painted panels are visions of hell on earth. Physical torments that afflicted Christ and saints are rendered as visions wrought in dissonant psychedelic color, and played out by distorted figures - Esoteric visions - Christ is depicted as diseased, body has pox on it, so the patients could relate - A paean to human suffering and an essay on faith and the hope for heaven in the troubled years before reformation

The Kaaba

- Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Islamic. Pre-Islamic monument; rededicated by Muhammad in 631-632 CE; multiple renovations. Granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped thread - Mohammad rededicated it, purged it of its pagan/polytheistic past - According to Islamic tradition, this was built by Abraham, built with a divine plan as an empty shrine to show that God can't be rendered in images - No description of it in the Qur'an, idea is watered down and corrupted - Non muslims are forbidden, it is a holy state. Before entering the sacred area, pilgrims must enter a state of natural unity, or irham - Not art from a Muslim point of view! - The symbolic center of the islamic world, the most sacred Muslim shrine, the place which all Muslim prayer is directed and the destination of Islam's obligatory pilgrimage, the Hajj - According to tradition, this cube shaped building, draped in black cloth embroidered with a band of sacred verses in gold and silver thread, was originally built as a replica of a heavenly prototype - The Kaba was a sanctuary in pre-islamic times - Muslims believe that Abraham and his son, Ismael, constructed the Kaaba - Tradition holds that it was originally a simple, unroofed, rectangular structure - Interior is a simple, three pilars - Mohammad's act of emptying the Kaaba of its pagan idols insinuated the practice of a widely figural imagery in Islamic religious architecture - Islamic art reveals in surface decoration, manipulating line, color, and pattern - The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam

Ruler's Feather headdress (probably of Motecuhzoma II)

- Mexica (Aztec) 1428-1520 CE. Feathers (quetzal and cotinga) and gold - Ritual significance - Shows that they were a very rich empire - Feathers came from a bird that only had a few plumes, and this has so many - Demanded a lot from its provinces - Motecuhzoma II ruled the aztec empire when Cortes arrived and thought Cortez was a god and offered him some of the feathers - Feather makers were men and were highly prized, lived in the palace - Bird is where the God's earthly form is supposed to be, when the ruler wears it, he's making a conneciton to the patron god - Gave it to Cortez - Turquoise color is made with another feather, not with actual turquoise

Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

- Miguel Cabrera. c. 1750 CE. Oil on canvas. - She was a nun, part of the order of saint Jerome, but she actually started her life out as an aristocrat, and as a child prodigy - Was very interested in learning - Became a lady in waiting, but sometime in her late teens she decided she didn't want to get married and she became a nun so she could keep writing - Popular in her time, people in Europe knew about her - The church started to have an issue with her prolifery in writing and not focusing enough time on god - Considered the mother of Latin American Feminism - She's portrayed in a way that is unique - Looking straight at the viewer, positioned as a male scholar, doing scholarly work - Painted like the patron saint in the order - Burned her library that's in the background when she left - All the books are of hard academia - Persuits that are considered not lady like - Her left hand is holding a rosary, maybe she's thinking about God or praying - Within the context of her library, she's balancing religion and intellect

The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe)

- Miguel González. c. 1698 CE. Based on original Virgin of Guadalupe. Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City, 16th century CE. Oil on canvas on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. - Mary is a loving mother, devoted wife, ideal woman and the queen of heaven. - Not soley a painting, its called enconchada and it's mother of pearl shell inlaid in this case into wood, which creates a reflective, iridescent surface that flickers in and changes as your eyes move across it, suggesting the heavenly and the divine - She is shrouded in sunlight - She has stars on her cloak - Imagery that comes from the book of revelation, talking about the woman of the apocalypse - Standing on the moon supported by an angel - Appeared to an indigenous man and speaks in his language and tells him to but a shine in her honor - Image of Marry appearing to an indigenous person confirmed the correctness of the christian religion

Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

- Montezuma County, Colorado. Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi). 450-1300 CE. Sandstone. - Various complexes that could shield its residences from the elements, also had religious functions - Sunken pits = kivas, used for ceremonies - Abandoned due to drought - Structures were mostly residential but some were used for storage and ritual - Among some of the best preserved dwellings of all time - Cliff palace has about 150 rooms and more than 20 circular rooms. Due to its location, it was well protected from the elements - To build these structures, people used stone and mud mortar, along with wooden beams adapted to the natural clefts in the cliff face. This building technique was a shift from the traditional adobe bricks - Provides important insights into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloan people during the 13th century - Connected roomed fanned out around plazas, creating a housing unit - Family members most likely gathered around a hearth - Painted murals, some display geometric designs or animals and plants - People who lived here were sedentary farmers who cultivated beans, squash, and corn

Basin (Baptisére de St. Louis)

- Muhammad ibn al-Zain. c. 1320-1340 CE. Brass inlaid with gold and silver. - Object that was used to baptize the children of the royal family of France, but not a French object - Normally, vessels like this would have large bands of calligraphy, but this one is filled with figures, animals, and decorative patterning - Even the floor is decorated: a very abstracted pattern of sea animals - Complex, interconnected designs similar to tile work - Four figures in roundels, each on horseback, slightly different - Speculation that this was made for someone who was not a muslim, made for export - Iconography is very complicated - A little bit of arabic in the artist's signature

Petra, Jordan: Treasury and Great Temple

- Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman. c. 400 BCE-100 CE Cut rock - Stone carvings, camel caravans and betyls set in niches - Ancient sources inform us that the Nabataeans were great traders who controlled the luxury trade in incense during the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods - Lays at the intersection of these rich trade routes - Great wealth that they amassed allowed them to create the architecture - Looks hellenistic

Apollo 11 Stones

- Namibia. c. 25,500-25,300 BCE. Charcoal on Stone. - South west coast of Africa - Homo sapians, anatomically modern humans who evolved from an earlier species of hominids - Unidentified animal form draw resembling a feline in appearance but with human hind legs that were probably added later - Possibly a therianthrope, part human and part animal - May suggest a complex system of shamanistic belief - A site of ritual significance used by many over thousands of years - Stone offers evidence that Homo sapiens in the Middle Stone Ages were not anatomically modern, but behaviorally modern too - These early humans possessed the new and unique capacity for modern symbolic thought long before what was previously understood. - Art mobilier, small scale prehistoric art that is moveable, not unique to Africa

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut

- Near Luxor, Egypt. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. c. 1473-1458 BCE. Sandstone, partially carved into a rock cliff, and red granite. - Contains large kneeling statue - Hatshepsut created a whole anthology around her king ship that described her divine birth and the way an oracle described how she would rule. - Was interested in the idea of art used as authority - Representations of Hatshepsut as a sphynx which would have lined the center of the lower courtyard - Temple is built directly against a massive cliff face - Sense of permanence and stability evoked by the cliff face, which Hatshepsut was trying to reassert in her ruling - Beginning of the New Kingdom, during relative chaos - Adopts traditional forms to show herself as king: symmetry, embededness in the stone, no space between her limbs and her body, real sense of timelessness - Head cloth associated with the king, wearing a beard - Visual language of kingship - There was no word for Queen in Egyptian language, so she was presented like a male rule too - Represented in a generally masculine way, has broad shoulders and deemphasized breasts - Inscriptions on these sculptures use a feminine form - Once a year there was a ritual involving a sculpture of the god that was taken from the temple in Thebes to the Mortuary Temple - His primary shrine was at the very top of the temple and he would stay there one night - That is why we have representations of her on her knees, because Egyptian royalty only kneeled before the gods - Commissioned many images of herself - All about procession and pageantry

Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad, Iraq)

- Neo-Assyrian. c. 720-705 BCE. Alabaster. - Assyrians controlled the ancient Near East from about 1000 BCE to around 500 BCE - These sculptures come from the palace of Sargon the 2nd and were carved at the height of Assyrian civilization in the 8th century - Guardian figures that protected the city - Winged bulls with the heads of men - Stood at gateways - Are fearsome, look powerful - Could have been an expression of the power of the Assyrian king - Are enormous, but would have seem small compared to the architecture of the buildings they guarded - Served some structural purpose - Are actually carved out of a monolithic stone, so there are no cuts here, they are single pieces of stone - There are relief carvings in the palace that depicted getting these sculptures into place - Wearing crowns, decorated with rosettes, and then double horns that come around towards the top center, and on top of that, a ring of feathers - Connected eyebrow - Ears are the ears of a bull with extravagant earrings - The whole form is very decorative - Complex representation of the beard - Wings form a decorative pattern - Under him are inscriptions in cuneaform that proclaim the power of the king and damnation for those that would threaten the citadel - Were meant to be seen from both a frontal view and a profile view. There are too many legs, two from the front and 4 from the side - When you look at it from the side, it's moving forward, but when you look at it from the front, it's standing still - As we approach, it's still, watching us - If we can pass, the animal moves - Relationship between the imagination and the real - All related to the king and the fortification of the king

Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters

- New Kingdom (Amarna), 18th Dynasty. c. 1553-1335 BCE. Limestone. - Around 1350 BCE, everything in Egyptian art changes, because the ruler, Akhenaton, changes the state religion - Changes it from the worship of the god Amun to a sun god called Aten - Makes him and his wife the only representation of Aten on earth - Only ones with access to this new God - This period is a brief episode in Egyptian history - This plaque would have been placed in a private area and is a perfect example of the style of the time period - Would have been an alter in someone's home - So informal compared to other Egyptian art, we see a relationship between a couple and their relationship with their daughters - Love and domesticity - On the left is Akhenaten, holding his eldest daughter very tenderly and giving her a kiss, she is pointing to her mother on the right - Immediately apparent that there's something wrong with their anatomy - Big bellies, thin arms, and long necks, purely stylistic break meant to distinguish this new age - Careful attention to drapery - Elements of traditional Egyptian art, like a profile view - Aten is rendered as the sun disk, rays of light are hands - As if Aten is giving life to Akhenaten and Nefertiti, because the rays touching them are the symbol of life, not hands.

Tutankhamun's tomb, innermost coffin

- New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. c. 1323 BCE. Gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones. - Tutankhamun was only 9 when he became king of Egypt - Tutankhamun Shifted the focus back to the god Amun and returned the religious center back to Thebes - Sarcophagus held 3 coffins in which to hold the body of the King - The outermost two coffins were crafted in wood and covered in gold along with many semiprecious stones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise - The inner coffin was made of solid cold - The image of the pharaoh is that of a god - Gods were thought to have skin of gold, bones of silver, and hair of lapis lazuli - The king is shown here in his divine form in the afterlife - Holds the crook and flail, symbols of the king's right to rule - The death mask was constructed of 2 sheets of gold that were hammered together - Tutankhamen is depicted wearing the striped nemes headdress with goddesses depicted again protecting his brow - Wears a false beard that further connects him to the image of a god as with the inner coffin

Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer, from his tomb (page from the Book of the Dead)

- New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty. c. 1275 BCE. Painted papyrus scroll. - Hunefer and his wife Nasha lived during the Nineteenth Dynasty - Hunefer's high status is reflected in the fine quality of his Book of the dead, which was specially produced for him - Papyrus = a reed that grows in the Nile Delta made into a paper-like surface - Book of the Dead = Ancient text that had spells and prayers and incantations, things that the dead needed in the afterlife - This text was found in the tomb of someone named Hunefer, a scribe - A scribe had a priestly status and occupied a very high station in Egyptian culture - Has representation of the man who was buried with this text - Scene is read left to right - In the top right you see him speaking to deities, prophesing the good life that he lived and the place he deserves in the afterlife - Below is a scene of judgement, Hunefer is being led by the hand of a god with a jackal head, Anubis, a god associated with Death, who is carrying a symbol of eternal life - Hunefer's heart is being weighed, and it is lighter than a feather, so he won't be devoured by the evil beast next to Anubis - Egyptians believed that only if you passed this test could you have access to the afterlife - Ankh = symbol of eternal life - Lotus blossom = symbol of eternal life

Chavín de Huántar

- Northern highlands, Peru. Chavín. 900-200 BCE. Stone (architectural complex); granite (Lanzón and sculpture); hammered gold alloy (jewelry) - An archealogical and cultural site in the Andean highlands of Peru - Location seems to have helped, temple became an important pilgrimage site that drew people and their offerings from far and wide - Over the course of 700 years, the site drew many worshipers to its temple who helped in spreading the artistic style of Chavín throughout highland and costal Peru by transporting ceramic, textiles, and other portable objects back to their homes - Majority of the structures used roughly-shaped stones in many sizes to compose walls and floors - 2 key elements characterize the Lazón deity: It is a mixture of human and animal features - Jewelry is a nose ornament and is a common form in the andes. Serpant heads. Would have been worn by an elite person to show their wealth, power, and allegiance to the religion

King Menkaura and queen

- Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynasty. c. 2490-2472 BCE. Greywacke. - Meticulously finished surface of the dark stone captures the physical ideals of the time and creates a sense of eternity and immortality. - Simple squared based and shared pillar - Menkaure's head is noticeably turned to the right, this image was likely originally positioned within an architectural niche, making it appear as though they were emerging from the structure - Holds ritual cloth rolls - Body is eternally youthful - Facial features are remarkably individualized: prominent eyes, a fleshy nose, rounded cheeks, and a full mouth. - Queen provides the perfect female counterpart to his youthful masculine virility. - Mature, feminine beauty - Neither are depicted in the purely idealized manner that was the norm for royal images - Not sure if she's his wife or mom, portruding stomach suggests pregnancy, she's clearly older than him too. - Stands nearly equal height with the king, and of the two of them, she is the one who is entirely frontal - The function of the sculpture was to ensure rebirth for the king in the Afterlife.

Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, including Lamentation

- Padua, Italy. Unknown architect; Giotto di Bondone (artist). Chapel: c. 1303 CE; Fresco: c. 1305. Brick (architecture) and fresco. - Called the arena chapel because it was built next to a roman amphitheater - Called the Scrovengi chapel because the Scrovegni people engaged in usury and made and dedicated this chapel as an apology, ironic that they way they atoned for their sins of wealth was by using dead wealth to make a church - Program of the church: in registers that wrap around, start out with the marriage of Mary and goes to the Birth of Jesus - Giotto didn't design the building, but he worked with what was already there - The marriage of Mary's parents: Using the bridge to try and show the relationship between people and architecture, unusual for byzantine art. Everyone is watching and having their own personal responses - Presentation of the temple: Experiment with perspective and depth, blue background, not gold, huge difference, all of a sudden, divinity scenes are happening in the world of the viewer, invented the idea of the nativity scene: inventing a scene and being a part of it - Lamentation: Most important, change in the depiction of Mary, each person is having an individual reaction, both figures sitting and the slope of the mountain draw our eye to Mary and Jesus. Focal center of the picture is not the literal center of the picture. Shows us people living in real space. All people with mass, solid bodies. Lighting isn't totally consistent, but its not the divine light, it's real light coming from the sun. Use the shading to show the depth and massiveness of the body

Audience Hall (apanda) of Darius and Xerxes

- Persepolis, Iran. Persian. c. 520-465 BCE. Limestone. - Drew upon previous cultures, which was one of their greatest strengths - Persians were quite tolerant and ruled a multi-ethnic empire - Persia is the first empire known to have acknowledged the different faiths, languages, and political organizations of its subjects - This tolerance for the cultures under Persian control carried over into administration - Could hold 1000s of people for royal ceremonies, celebrating the peace and order of the kingdom - The opening had llamasus - Columns with capitals of scary beasts, inspired by fluted columns of Ancient Greece - Huge cedars from Lebanon, easy to burn down - Stairway was a relief showing procession, nobles and people from all over the empire coming to pay homage to the king - Holding hands as they go in procession. Persians were really good at allowing other conquered nations to still celebrate their original customs - Representation of many different people - No slaves, no one is bigger or better - Lotus flower: symbol of peace and prosperity - Persepolis included a massive columned hall used for receptions by the Kings, called the Apadana. This hall contained 72 columns and 2 monumental stairways. - The walls of the spaces and stairs leading up to the reception hall were carved with hundreds of figures, several of which illustrated subject peoples of various ethnicities, bringing tribute to the Persian king. - The Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great

Henri IV Receives the Portrait of Marie de' Medici, from the Marie de' Medici Cycle

- Peter Paul Rubens. 1621-1625 CE. Oil on canvas - Ancient gods of marriage and love hover in midair as they present this portrait to Henry - Propaganda she commissioned to make herself look good - Wanted these paintings for her huge new palace - Lived a boring life - Husband was assassinated right after her coronation - Peaceful because nothing was happening - Her life is full of classical and important things - When Henry is returning from battle - Wanted him to marry her but they've never met - Juno and Jupiter are presenting her portrait to him and he gawks at her beauty - Marriage is for Romance but it's also political - Behind Henry is the personification of France and she is gently touching Henry's shoulder and whispering in his ears - Idealizes and allegorizes Marie's life in light of the peace and prosperity she brought through the Kingdom, not through military victories but through wisdom, devotion to her husband and her country, and even strategic marriage alliances

Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)

- Polykleitos. Original 450-440 BCE. Roman copy (marble) of Greek original (bronze) - Roman copy of a Greek original - Contraposto - Curve of the spine/hip tilt is much more pronounced - Right arm tense /// left leg tense - Left arm relaxed /// right arm relaxed - This creates balance - Sculptor invites the viewer to get a 360 degree look of the sculpture, implied by the tilt of the head - Obviously high classical art, because of the blatant humanism, rationalism, and idealism - Sculpture understands that the body has 3 layers - Proportional canon, body to head is 1:7 - Mathematics = realm of heaven - God had human qualities and humans had God qualities - Romans copy Greek art - For the Romans, Greek culture symbolized a desirable way of life - Supposed to be perfect, ideal beauty, thinking about the mathematical relationships of the body - Would have been originally carrying a spear - Idea that you could create a perfect form with ratios - No clothing, sculpture is about the perfection of the human form - Have turned away from the stiff, archaic depictions of the body - Counter balancing - Gentle s curve, no longer perfectly symmetrical - Seems fully alive, is simply walking - Civilization fascinated with and capturing the human body - Ideal mirror of ourself

House of the Vettii

- Pompeii, Italy. Imperial Roman. c. second century BCE., rebuilt c. 62-79 CE. cut stone and fresco. - Domestic spaces offer a rich resource for examining ancient lives - Pompeii was thriving up until the moment of its destruction - A roman townhouse located within Pompeii - Remains constitute a nearly unparalleled resource for the study of the Roman world - Arctiectural historians and archaeologists have been debating the form and function of ancient Roman houses for several hundred years - Ranking aristocratic families used domestic display as a way to reinforce social position and a way to advance their own fortunes, as well as those of there dependents and clients within the community - The standard house plan has several key architectural elements: generally entered from the street via a narrow doorway, large centralized reception hall flanked by wings and often bounded by bedrooms, office of the head of the household links the public part of the house to the private part of the house, latter area often focuses on an open courtyard and serves as the center of family life, where the kitchen, dining rooms, and often a small garden is. May houses also had a second level that may have contained additional sleeping spaces and perhaps storage. - Construction of the house and its decorations belong to the final period of Pompeii's occupation and therefore provides important evidence of the aesthetics of the city on the eve of its destruction - Was built atop the remains of an earlier house that survives in the form of the wings and a doorway - Entry to the house was gained from the east by way of a vestibule that granted admission to the larger atrium - Wall paintings: Four styles: Illusion of architectural style, paintings of nature (usually on a platform), whimsical architecture, floral designs and daintiness, and lastly, a combination of all the styles together. The decorative schema of the House provides important evidence for trends in domestic decoration in the final years of Pompeii's occupation. Overall the scheme of wall painting in the house suggests an attempt at forward-looking interior decoration on the part of the owners.

Palette of King Narmer

- Predynastic Egypt. c. 3000-2920 BCE. Greywacke. - Discovered among a group of sacred implements ritually buried in a deposit within an early temple of the falcon god Horus at the site of Hierakonpolis - Scenes show a king, identified by name as Narmer, and a series of ambiguous scenes that have been difficult to interpret and have resulted in a number of theories regarding their meaning - Monumental version of a type of daily use item commonly found in the predynastic period - Palettes were generally flat, minimally decorated stone objects used for grinding and mixing materials for cosmetics - In addition to these purely functional palettes were a number of larger, far more elaborate palettes created, which were for grinding and mixing cosmetics, but they were also carefully carved with relief sculpture - These decorations were possibly used in temple ceremonies, perhaps to grind or mix makeup to be ritually applied to the image of the god

Fruit and Insects

- Rachel Rusysh. 1711 CE. Oil on wood. - Fall harvest - Probably a composite image, observed each one separately and then drew them together - Symbols of the eucharist - Insects = fruit won't last forever - Seems like the peaches are what is highlighted, a sexual symbol, could also be a symbol of the trinity - Father was influential, was a famous botanist and scientist, encouraged her to enter his field of work, and would have had prints or interesting scientific discoveries from all over the world - Makes us aware of the balance and the conflict of the pleasures of this life and eternity - The pleasures of this life are fleeting - Everyday scene that packs a moral punch

School of Athens

- Raphael. 1509-1511 CE. Fresco. - Patron: Pope Julius - Represents all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists from classical antiquity gathered together sharing their ideas and learning from each other. - Message is that religion is the heir to classical thinking, when the pope makes decisions he is like the smart people in the painting, renaissance papacy is where divine and secular things meet, and the Pope is the legitimate arbitrator who can speak to all those worlds. - Plato: Pointing up. The really real is hidden. Everything around us is just a reflection. Wearing the colors of formless objects like purple = air and red = fire - Aristotle: Hand facing down = saying that all knowledge comes from our senses. Holding his book of ethics. - Euclid = modeled on Broante, the four people around him are his students and they show the 4 different stages of mathematical learning - Heirocleitas: Also a protrait of Michelangelo. Brooding, arrogant, genius, next to marble and in stone cutting boots. Raphael is depicting him as a sculptor. - Vanishing point is on the book - 2 point perspective: shows us the edge of the marble coming towards us. Sophisticated. - Figures on the side are sculptures of Apollo and Athena. They are Grassi images. Statues = important, but not seen as god. Classical reference.

San Vitale

- Ravenna, Italy. Early Byzantine Europe. Brick, marble, and stone veneer; mosaic. - Unusual in its central plan, not longitudinal axis plan. Started by ostrogoths, but finished by Justinian. - Instead of a long axis it has an ambulatory, or an isle that surrounds its central space - Also an extension with an apse on the end - Octagon with a smaller octagon inside of it that rises higher - Martinium: a church built over a grave of a martyr, martyrs have power because they died the same way Jesus did - Exterior buttress: force goes to the side - Justinian mosaic: the authority of the emperor in the Christian plan of history. Can also be seen to give visual testament to the two major ambitions of Justinian's reign: as heir to the tradition of Roman emperors, Justinian sought to restore the territorial boundaries of the Empire. As the Christian emperor, he saw himself as the defender of the faith. - Lots of windows = beautiful mosaics - Massive piers that help support the building - Columns are doubled, stacking one set of columns above the next, classical orders have been left behind. The early Christians are trying to invent a new iconography for their architecture. - Eastern end is completely covered in Mosaic: Christ sits on an orb of the universe in the center dressed royalty in purple, below are the 4 rivers of paradise, on either side of him is an angel - Justin and Theodora never actually came here, they're in the mosaic to reassert their control over the city. - Reassertion of Eastern European control - Spiritual power goes hand in hand with political power - Three centers of power: the church, the emperor, and the military - Justinian is divine: There is a halo around his head - No concern for proportions, figures seem to float in a heavenly realm, very byzantine art

Self Portrait with Saskia

- Rembrandt van Rijn. 1636 CE. Etching. - Rembrandt: Influenced by Caravaggio's naturalism, drama, and tenebrism. Deep knowledge of classical and biblical sources. Commercially successful, but ended deeply in debt. Liked to play dress up. Famous for his interest in individual psychology. - First portrait of himself as an artist - Claiming his proficiency in sketching because this technique is reminiscent of sketching - Saskia is is wife - Died when she was young - She's not really looking - Maybe it is a wedding portrait, presence isn't meant to be physical, it's just meant to show their relationship - Evidence that maybe her portrait wasn't done first, and then he came back and added himself - She is lighter than he is, illusion of perspective - Wearing dressed up clothing - Techniques of varying lines to create shadow and perspective, can make different texture - Some chiaroscuro

Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii

- Republican Roman. c. 100 BCE. Mosaic. - Darius on the right, Alexander on the left - Battle of Isis - Not actually a Greek piece: Roman mosaic recreation of a great painting. Such copies document a growing taste for dramatic narrative subjects - Diagonal disruption and radical foreshortening draw the viewer in and elicit an emotional response - Depiction of chaos and dynamism reflect the chaos of the event - Spears point towards Alexander - Diagonal, dynamic, twisting torsos - Alexander is looking at Darius but killing another man, one of Darius' soldiers - Alexander has a bald head because he's invincible - Depictions of the Persians: detailed, fearful faces. Man watching himself die, very dramatic. Men are effeminate, foreign, eastern. Man wearing eastern. - One of the most important battles in history, the moment when the great ruler of Persia turns and flees under the onslaught - Darius has just ordered his troops to retreat, looks surprised and worried - Tremendous tension because we have a reversal of momentum, creates dynamicism - Almost empty towards the top, so much weighted down towards the bottom - Said to be a literary recreation of a Greek painting - Naturalism, which the Greeks are known for - Sense of modeling and a use of light and dark

Head of a Roman patrician

- Republican Roman. c. 75-50 BCE. Marble. - The physical traits of this portrait are meant to convey the seriousness of the mind and the virtue of a public career by demonstrating the way in which the subject literally wears the marks of his endeavors - Powerful representation of a male aristocrat with a hooked nose and strong cheek bones - Figure is frontal without any hint of dynamism or emotion, sets the portrait apart from some of its near contemporaries - Characterized by deep wrinkles, a furrowed brow, and generally an appearance of sagging, sunken skin - Verism = a sort of hyperrealism in sculpture where the naturally occurring features of the subject are exaggerated, often to the point of absurdity - Middle age males adopt veristic tendencies in their portratire to such an extent that they appear to be extremely aged and care worn: influenced by both the tradition of ancestral imagines as well as a deep respect for family, tradition, and ancestry - The adoption of such an austere and wized visage was a tactic to lend familial gravitas to families who had none and thus increase the chances of the aristocrat's success in both politics and business

Bayeux Tapestry

- Romanesque Europe (English or Norman). c. 1066-1080 CE. Embroidery on linen. - Embroidery, not actually a tapestry. One of the very few pieces of art we have from this time we have that is not religious. - Depicts 75 scenes with Latin inscriptions - Commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half brother, to commemorate recent events - The story: England, 1066, Harold is crowned king despite his oath to William, a comet is seen as an omen, Harold sends a messenger to France, William is furious at Harold's betrayal, William orders invasion fleet to be built, weapons and supplies are carried onto the ships, the Norman invasion sails across the channel, william's army lands near hastings, the normans set up camp, william's cooks set up a banquet in his honor, a motte and bailey castle are built for defense, a house is burnt down to make way for the army, william preps for battle, the army advances, the normans outflank the saxons, harold's brother is slain, saxons and normons fall together in the raging battle, william rallies his troops for a final charge, king harold is killed, the normans are victorious, William is made the king. - Odo commissioned it, so he looks good - Makes a big deal about the strength of the horses - Presents a rich representation of a particular historic moment as well as providing an important visual source for 11th century textiles - Provides an excellent example of Anglo-Norman art - Serves as a medieval artifact that operates as art, chronicle, political propaganda, and visual evidence of 11th century mundane objects.

Forum of Trajan

- Rome, Italy. Apollodorus of Damascus. Forum and markets: 106-112 CE. - Three parts: the market, the forum, and the column - The column: The first thing you see when you walk into the forum. Winding relief, not registers because its a spiral. Next to the libraries, staying in a theme because it looks like a scroll and tells a story. It depicts Trajan's military conquests against the Dacians. You can get a higher look of the column inside the libraries. Both a piece or propaganda and a funerary monument. Statue at the top is not original, it was added after the renaissance. Architect = Apollodorus. Being an architect in Ancient Roman times was also seen as being an engineer. A monument to Roman civil engineering and how the Gods were looking favorably down at Rome. Over 600 feet when unrolled. Trajan is seen in different roles. - Market place: groin vault roof. Can support a lot of weight. Two levels: gallery. Basically a shopping mall. Arch embedded in doorway, helps spread and redistribute the weight. - Forum: Functioned as a place of public business/the business of the government. 2 libraries, one for latin texts and one for greek- metaphor for how the Romans conquered these places and absorbed their culture. Temple, after the emperors died they were fully deified.

San Carlo alle Quattro Fortane

- Rome, Italy. Francesco Borromini (architect). 1638-1646 CE. Stone and stucco. - Artist was so thankful to be commissioned that he did it for free - Irregular site; the pope wanted the vatican in rome to be more of a center. On the corner of 2 large avenues. Had to comply to this unusual site. - Columns are semi engaged, give a vertical thrust - Curvy balustrade with an ordinary window - Organic forms, everything looks like it's made of molecules, everything looks malleable, not rigidly geometric - Symbol in the middle is a dove, representing the holy spirit, and a triangle, representing the trinity - Small church, called the church of 4 fountains because it is located at the intersection of 4 fountains - Exterior is a wave, an undulating surface - Balance between convex and concave - Followers of the trinity - If you put two triangles back to back, they kind of form an oval - The church is shaped like an oval (gasp!) - A very sophisticated interconnection with geometry

Gesú, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco.

- Rome, Italy. Giacomo da Vignola, plan (architect); Giacomo della porta, facade (architect); Giovanni Battista Gaulli, ceiling fresco (artists). Church: 18th century CE; facade: 1568-1584 CE, fresco and stucco figures: 1676-1679 CE. Brick, marble, fresco, and stucco. - The home church of the Jesuits - Classical vocabulary: Pilasters, engaged columns - Scroll volumes - In some ways, it moves away from the Renaissance, because it has a very shallow surface in comparison to vacuous surfaces seen before. - Pediments are biggest on top - Very imposing, but seems decorative - Doesn't seem to be rational - Some of the pediments are not supported by columns - Interior is even weirder - Interior: Design is aimed to further the goals of the reformation. Altar looks very renaissance, but the interior is not renaissance at all. Gaudy, all of the sense must be engaged. - Plan: still has aisles, but the aisles are trivial - Crammed right in the middle of other buildings, right in the middle of the city, unlike gothic churches, which are the sole center of their town - Facade is all that matters - Ceiling of the nave: "From bottom up." Central light is supposed to be in the name of Jesus. IHS = the monogram of Jesus, also became the symbol of the Jesuits. Illusion is that the top of the church has been blown off and you literally have access to heaven, like a sky light. You can ascend to heaven. All of the figures are radically foreshortened. Looks like you're looking up at them as they are coming and going. Painted shadows on the architecture to make it even more realistic, all about theatrical illusion. Shows the saved going to heaven and the damned getting kicked out. The artist used the technology that was emerging in the world of theater. Strong correlation between these techniques and stage scenic techniques of the time period. Shows the richness of religion and catholicism. Something glorious about the faith and about being Catholic, something emotionally rich. You can participate in this richness.

Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)

- Rome, Italy. Imperial Roman. 70-80 CE. Stone and concrete. - On the inside is the arena, floor is made of sand so that it would aborb the blood and bodily fluids of the fighters, like a gigantic cat litter - Nicknamed the colosseum because it was located next to a colossal statue, originally of Nero, - The original name of the building was the Flavian Amphitheater, the family that commissioned the building - Amphitheater is just a technical name for its shape, it simple means a double theater - Built in only 10 years - Could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 people - Like a modern stadium, would have had assigned seats, and then the arches have the numbers inscribed on them in roman numerals - Seats were assigned according to status, most important people were seated the closest and the lowest, and the least important people, the women, would be seated up high - 3 stories of arches, and then another story, a fourth flour, with windows - Arches are framed by columns - Bottom part is Tuscanic, similar to Doric, but a more local, Italian style. Have a base, not fluted. - Ionic columns on the second story. Considered to be the most feminine of the columns. Proportions are more slender, with volutes on the top. - Top floor is the corintian, and they are based on the acanthus plant. - Inside each of these arches on the second and third floor, there would have been a statue - The romans had perfected concrete, and were the first to use it as a real structural material. Critical for their ability to create structures of this size. It did not require specialized workers and it was less expensive and could be assembled anywhere, was more elastic and because it was liquid you could mold it anyway you wanted it. Really allowed for far more monumental structures.

Catacomb of Pricilla

- Rome, Italy. Late Antique Europe. c. 200-400 CE. Excavated tufa and fresco. - Place where the earliest Christians were buried - Location of earliest Christian art - The invention of Christian iconography - Inscriptions of names of the burried and christian images - Very specific themes that relate to salvation - Emphasis on the teaching and miracles of Christ, it is not until later when we see a focus on the passion of christ and the ressurection - Plaster built up and then painted to look like panels - Horizontal niches just wide enough to accomidate a body - Wealthier people would have been placed in a space large enough to place a sarcophagus in - Commissied by a woman near by for her and her family and then later the Christian community - Proof that Christians did not worship in secret - Fresco ceiling - Christ is in the center - Birds - Olive branches - Orant figure, or a figure in the posture of prayer in ancient greek art. Controversy: she's wearing all purple, a liturgical garment, indicative of women's leadership in the church - Jesus = young, youthful shepherd - Woman feeding child = possible earliest depiction of Mary with Jesus - Birds: Qual = Earth, Peacock = Holy - Arrant = pose of prayer - Everything would have been painted in the dim light of oil lamps

Santa Sabina

- Rome, Italy. Late Antique Europe. c. 422-432 CE. Brick and stone, wooden roof. - Best example of early christian church because Old Saint Peter's was destroyed - Old Saint Peter's was important because it was built by Constantine - Simple exterior - Interior: Marble veneer, much more intricate - Used spoila from another temple that was on this spot - Uses old objects and language to make a new space - Rhythmically reinforces what the point of the building is - Arch forces the energy right in the center - One of the earliest representations of the death of Jesus put in an architectural setting. Doesn't look like he's suffering though - Only 100 years or so after Constantine legalizes Christianity - Great Roman temples were on nearby hills, makes sense for it to be here - Early Christians did not invent an entirely new architecture, repurposed the basilica, which had been a pagan administrative structure - A basillica is a great structure for the early Christians because it could hold huge numbers of people and had a sense of imperial authority, also had a longitudinal axis, so the focus could be on the altar. - Each of the arches creates a visual rhythm that leads our eye down to the altar - Very fist examples of a crucifixion on a panel of the large wooden door - Columns were reused from a pagan building and have been repurposed - Sets up the form that so many christian churches after will follow

Birth of Venus

- Sandro Botticelli. c. 1484-1486 CE. Tempera on canvas. - Venus is radically naked and not in a Christian context - The ancient goddess of love, based on an ancient roman sculpture - Born of the sea and seems to be pushed in the winds on the left - Almost stands on a seashell, and when she arrives on land she's be wrapped in clothing by an attendant - So sensuous, in an impossible kind of pose - Not quite contraposto, very flexible spine - Even the Zhephers are intertwined in impossible ways - Every figure here floats - Renaissance paintings are typically naturalist, but this is not true here, because Botticelli is looking back to Greek painting - Figures are pushed forward, occupy a single space, and you can imagine them as a line painting on a vase. - Painting is really linear, so it defies space - Attempt is to deemphasize space and create a sense of pattern and beauty - Beauty in a neo platonic sense - Through a contemplation of physical beauty, we can arrive at divine beauty - Patterns have a purely decorative quality - 2 plains of actions - Tempera, artist doesn't care about the richness of color - Waves are fake - Proportions are natural but positions are impossible

Seated Scribe

- Saqqara, Egypt. Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynasty. c. 2620-2500 BCE. Painted limestone - An old kingdom sculpture that is not life-size - From the Necropolis at Saqqara where the step pyramid is - Important old kingdom site - A remarkably distinct sculpture in what is often a very rigid pictorial tradition - Looks very informal, is crosslegged - Would have been holding some kind of pen - Looks very human and natural - He's not of kingly/divine status - A scribe, important in the hierarchy of the old kingdom because he can write, which was a very important skill and was of a very high class because he had a sculpture made of him - He's not divine so he can be depicted in a casual, human, way - Kind of fat, a signifier of wealth - Obviously old, has a sense of wisdom - Some individualized features like the big ears and thin lips - Painted with red ocher - He's very natural, but not really, because he's meant to only be seen from the front, and he's a funerary sculpture so he's meant to be transcendent. - Really meant for the afterlife

Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur

- Sumerian. c. 2600-2400 BCE. Wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone - Ur is one of the first great cities - Was found in one of the largest graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, lying in the corner of a chamber above the right shoulder of a man. - Original function is not yet understood - Main panels are known as "War" and "Peace" - War shows one of the earliest representations of a Sumerian army. - Peace panel depicts animals, fish, and other goods being brought in procession to a banquet. Seated figures drink to the accompaniment of a musician playing a lyre. - Thought that it was a Standard, but we don't really know - Was intentionally buried, part of an elaborate burial ritual - Small enough to be easily carried while being beautifully and elaborately decorated - Sound box? - Contains currency? - Divided into 3 registers and framed with pieces of shell - Rivers allowed civilization to grow a surplus of food that allowed for an organization of society were not everybody had to be in the field all the time - Once there was enough food, some people could devote their life to being rulers, and some to become artists - Bottom register is the poorest, working class members of society, and they all seem to be bringing things to a destination - Above that people are herding animals. Might be bringing them for sacrifice or taxation, for the king - Most important, wealthiest, most powerful figures are in the top register. King is seated in the middle and he is so large that his head breaks the frame . This is hierarchical scale. He also wears different clothing. Other figures are joining the king in festivity, they are larger than the people who are serving them. Also people on the right who are entertainers - War side shows terrible scenes of violence - Bottom register shows carts being lead by donkeys and people being trampled. You can see the blood in their wounds. Theres naturalism in the battle thats taking place. It seems like the animals are picking up speed like they're charging at the enemy - Middle register shows soldiers ready for battle. They are in full garb, helmets have even been found in the cemetery. Get a sense of structure and organization. Towards the middle of this register you see the battle taking place, victorious soldiers slaying their enemies, and captured soldiers being taken away - Top register also has the king in the center with his head breaking the frame. On the left there is a chariot and soldiers and on the right there are other soldiers or attendants bringing prisoners of war to the king. We can tell they are prisoners because they are naked, wounded, and bleeding - Just about everyone is seen in perfect profile - Everyone has one eye that is looking out at us - Familiar to Egyptian art

Beaker with ibex motifs

- Susa, Iran. 4200-3500 BCE. Painted terra cotta. - Animal forms and geometric patterns - People lived in a very fertile river valley - Around this time they built a temple on a mountain top - Would burry their dead with pottery - Before writing, so we have no idea why they would do this - Handmade, painted clay - Quite thin - Perhaps made on a slow wheel - Circular forms balanced by linear forms balanced by geometric forms - Mountain goat occupies the largest rectangle - Not a naturalistic image, his body is reduced to two geometric shapes (triangles) - Detailed, can see his beard, ears, tails, etc... - Above him is a pattered band depicting an elongated dog - Above the dogs are rows of birds - Geometric elements reflect the shape of the object itself - Unidentifiable objects like criss-crossed pattern - Maybe the patterns had meaning - Maybe the animals were associated with things with fertility - Pots were found because and excavator was looking for the tomb of David and came across this cemetery

Tomb of the Triclinium

- Tarquinia, Italy. Etruscan. c. 480-470 BCE. Tufa and fresco. - Shows a big party, dancers and diners on different sides. People are reclining and relaxing. Dancers are very exuberant and lively. - Geometric roof structure: possibly mimics the tents used to dine outside - Shows an important part of etruscan culture - For every man on the couch, there is also a woman - Woman are engaging in parties - Romans would not have understood that the women had higher statuses in Etruscan culture, could have been one of the reasons they hated the Etruscans - Funerary contexts constitute the most abundant archaeological evidence for the Etruscan civilization - The elite members of Etruscan society participated in elaborate funerary rituals that varied and changed according to both geography and time - The city of Tarquina was one of the most powerful and prominent Etruscan centers, known for its painted chamber tombs - Reveals important information about Etruscan funeral culture and the society of the living - Etruscans amassed wealth based on Italy's natural resources that they exchanged through trade - Chamber tombs are subterranean rock-cut chambers - The rear wall of the tomb carries the main scene, one of the banqueters enjoying a dinner party. - Similar to scenes from Greek pottery - On the left and right walls are scenes of dancers - Common painterly conventions of gender typing are employed: the skin of females is light in color while male skin is tinted darker tone of orange brown - The dancers and musicians suggest the overall convivial tone of the Etruscan funeral - Ceiling is painted in a checkered scheme of alternating colors, perhaps meant to evoke the fabric tents that were erected near the tomb for the actual celebration of the funeral banquet

Running horned woman

- Tassili. n'Affer, Algeria. 6000-4000 BCE. Pigment on rock - Algeria is Africa's largest country and most of it falls within the Sahara Desert. Hosts a rich rock art concentration - Water and sand erosion in Tassili n'Ajjer carved out a landscape of thin passageways, large arches, and high-pillared rocks - Region has been inhabited since Neolithic times, when the environment was much wetter and sustained a wider extent of flora and fauna - Images are most often figurative and frequently depict animals, are also many images of human figures, sometimes with accessories such as weaponry or clothing

Templo Mayor (Main Temple)

- Tenochtitlan (Modern Mexico City, Mexico) Mexica (Aztec). 1375-520 CE. Stone (temple); volcanic stone (The Coyolxauhqui Stone); jadeite (Olmec Style Mask); Basalt (Calendar Stone) - Positioned at the center of the Mexica capital and thus the entire empire - Design of the capital relects the Mexica cosmos, which was believed to be composed of four parts structured around the navel of the universe, or the axis mundi - Two grand temples accessed twin temples, which were dedicated to the deities Tlaloc (deity of water, rain, fertility) and Huizilopochti (patron deity, sun, warfare, fire) - Center of the Huizilopochtli temple was a sacrificial stone - Most famous object decorating the temple is the Coyolxauhqui monolith, found at the base of the stairs. Originally painted and carved in low relief. Displays the female deity. Golden bells decorate her cheeks, feathers and balls adorn her hair, shown naked with sagging breasts to indicate motherhood. Position of defeat. Relates to an important myth: the birth of Huitzilopochi who threw her sister's body down the stair and it cracked and broke. Sacrifice of war prisoners every year - Location of ritual performances - Olmec style mask: Olmecs were a previous culture. Found burried, Aztecs appreciative of history, perserved as an artifact

Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine

- Tequixquiac, central Mexico. 14.000-7000 BCE. Bone. - Found at a depth of about 40 feet - Geography and climate of this area was considerably different in the prehistoric era than it is today - Sculpture was made from the now fossilized remains of the sacrum of an extinct camelid - Sacrum = large triangular bone at the base of the spine - Holes were cut into the end of the bone to represent nostril - The two circular spaces that represent the nasal cavities were carefully carved and are perfectly symmetrical and were likely shaped by a sharp instrument - Because the carving was made in a period before writing had developed, it is likely impossible to know what the sculpture meant - Sacrum was seen as sacred and some Mesoamerican Indian languages named this bone with words referring to sacredness and divine

Venus of Urbino

- Titian. c. 1538 CE. Oil on canvas. - Titian = the Venetian master - Don't really know who she is - Nothing to convey the idea that she's a "venus," other than that she's nude, which could have been a protective cover - Idea that you could look at a nude venus and learn from it as opposed from looking at a nude woman for sexual gratification - This is about sensuality, its about the beauty of the physical. - Gazing directly at us with a coyness and a directness that is really alluring - Hair frames her breast - Holds the flowers near her skin - Incredible softness of the paint and richness of color - Glazing, applying the oil paint with many thin, almost translucent layers, so the figure almost glows in a softness which creates a real sense of her flesh - Also setting up the tradition of the reclining nude - Eye moves down her body and then to the scene in the background, which balance the mass of her body - Body is slightly off, torso is too long and feet are too small, which makes her seem more elegant

Pyxis of al-Mughira

- Umayyad. c. 968 CE. Ivory. - A pyxis is a cylindrical box used for cosmetics - Was given as a gift to the ten 18 year old son of a caliph, perhaps as a coming of age present - Among the best surviving examples of the royal ivory carving tradition in Islamic Spain - Contains an inscription and figurative work which are important for understanding the traditions of ivory carving and Islamic art - Decorated with 4 8-lobed medallions which are surrounded by figures and animals - Each medallion has princely iconography - Men collecting eggs, from the nests of Falcons, a symbol of Umayyad legitimacy - Were bestowed upon members of the royal family on important occasions - Later they were given as Caliphal gifts to important allies - Was probably cut from the cross-section of an elephant's tusk and was adorned in highly specific, royal iconography - Islamic art is not strictly speaking aniconic. Human and animal figures play a vital part - Expresses the political authority and legitimacy of the Umayyad Caliphs

White Temple and its Ziggurat

- Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq). Sumerian. c. 3500-3000 BCE. Mud brick. - Where the first writing emerged - Dedicated to the sky god Any - Would have been visible from a great distance - A ziggurat is a built raised platform with four sloping sides, like a chopped off pyramid. Made of mud bricks, the building material of choice in the Near East. Stone is rare - Were a visual and symbolic focal point of the city - Were at the heart of the theocratic political system - Seeing the ziggurat over the city made you make a visual connection to the god honored there and recognize that deity's political authority - Excavators of the Temple estimate that it would have taken 1500 laborers working on average 10 hours a gay for 5 years to build the last major revetment (stone facing) - The sides of he ziggurat were very broad and sloping but broken up by recessed stripes or bands from top to bottom. Would have made a pattern in the morning or afternoon sunlight - The only way up to the top was via a steep stairway that led to a ramp that wrapped around the north end of the Ziggurat and brought one to the temple entrance - Typical tri-parte plan: a long rectangular central hall with rooms on either side - Had 3 entrances - Visitors would have needed to walk around the temple, appreciating it

The Palace at Versailles

- Versailles, France. Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart (architects). Begun 1669 CE. Masonry, stone, wood, iron, and gold leaf (architecture); marble and bronze (sculpture); gardens. - French Baroque, the age of absolutism - Louis was the sun king, thought he was a good dancer and wanted to show them off - Uses a lot of classical imagery in his palace - Wanted to move the court to Versailles to get out of the chaotic Paris and control the court in a controlled environment, could make sure threats to his power are under his thumb, could dole out favors and perform weird rituals. Infantilizing the aristocracy so he can control them - Hall of mirrors: ceilings depict his military accomplishments - Wanted to make a microcosm to demonstrate that everything radiates from him - Laid out on an east-west axis, sun rises and sets with the sun king - Networks of tunnels underneath the surface so that the flowers can be changed all the time - Uses iconography of Apollo, the sun god

The Church of Sainte-Foy

- Conques, France. Romanesque Europe. Church: c. 1050-1130 CE: Reliquary of Saint Foy: ninth century CE with later additions. Stone (architecture) stone and paint (tympanum); gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood (reliquary). - Sainte Foy: Christian Martyr, refused to worship Pagan Gods so she was tortured and killed - Church was founded in 819 by a Hermit Monk, in the same year that St. Jane's reliquaries were discovered in Conquestella. All of a sudden, people started to take these pilgrimages to conquestella. - No relics = no benefits - So a Sainte-Foy monk goes to live with the rival monastery and stays there 10 years, earning their trust, and then steals the relics and brings them to the church of St. Foy. "Holy Theft." Claimed that Sainte-Foy had wanted to move - The pilgrimage route changed and Sainte-Foy was saved - Rebuilt to accommodate Pilgrims - Main feature of church was a cruciform plan, took the symbolic form of the cross and helped control the crowds of pilgrims. Apse contained smaller chapels, known as radiating chapels, where pilgrims could visit the saint's shrines. They could then circulate around the ambulatory and out the transept. - They Tympanum of the Last Judgement: Semi-circular relief carving above the central portal. In the center Christ is the judge. Scene serves as a reminder to those entering the Church about the joys of heaven and torments of hell. Can see a clear division between a large doorway leading to paradise and a terrifying mouth that leads the way to hell. Specific people depicted on the heaven side: Mary, Hermit who founded the Abby, and Charlemange. St. Foy prays and God's hands descend to her, she's praying downwards, towards the people. Gargoyles peep out from the border and hold the scene up. - Reliquary: covered in gold leaf and silver gilt, encrusted with stuff. As the monastery became richer, people would provide the relic with jewels. Head is too big for its body: modeled after Roman face-mask parade helmets. Wearing a crown: Martyrs are crowned with heaven, kind of like a soldier, fought and died for the faith. Spoila. - Provides an example of Romanesque art and architecture

Adam and Eve

- Albrecht Dürer. 1504 CE. Engraving. - recasts this familiar story with nuances of meaning and artistic innovation - Dark dense forest, distinctly german - Foreign and unexpected motifs intrude the woods - Figures are nude, bodies are frontal and stand in classical contrapposto - Despite this apparent naturalism, their heads are turned to the side as they gaze at eachother, the twisting configuration of head and body is distinctly artificial. - The naturalizing contrapposto clashing with the artificiality of the rest of the pose establishes a pattern of contradictions that run throughout the picture - Eve is plucking an apple from a tree with fig leaves - A parrot perches on a branch - 6 other random animals trot about - Picture tells us about the Renaissance, about Germany, and the artist rather than the text of Genesis - Animals exemplify the four humors: Melancholic // Elk, black bile Phlegmatic // ox, phlegm Sanguine // rabbit, blood Choleric // cat, yellow bile - Only Adam and Eve are in perfect balance internally - Print allows Dürer to express his personal and cultureal concerns - The advent of mechanically reproducible media was a revelation for Dürer. Pictures made in multiples meant that the ideas and designs of a German artist could be known in other regions and countries by large numbers of people - Dürer embraced the ideals of the Renaissance that he experienced first had while continuing to celebrate his German heritage

Stonehenge

- Wiltshire, UK. Neolithic Europe. c. 2500-1600 BCE. Sandstone. - Large megaliths in a circular formation on an open plain - Actual purpose remains unknown - What we see today is the result of at least 3 phases of construction - Started when a great circular ditch about 6 feet was dug - Henge = Circular ditch - Phase 2 involved the setting up of upright wooden posts in the center of the henge as well as more upright posts - Third phase was erecting remaining blue stones or wooden beams which had been placed in the holes were pulled - Each standing stone was around 13 feet high - Entrance is a large stone known as a heel stone - In line with the sunrise on the day of the summer solstice - The opposite occurs on the day of the winter solstice

Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, from the Vienna Genesis

- Early Byzantine Europe. Early 6th century CE. Illuminated manuscript. (Tempera, gold, and silver on purple vellum). - Manuscript of the first book of the bible - Earliest narrative illustrations of bible stories - Codex: A book. A huge technological advancement, better than a scroll because the pages have to be bound, it is more durable, it can last longer, be easily transported, can use richer color, and won't bend like a scroll - Parchment: What the page is made of. Animal skin - Vellum: More precious than parchment, thinner animal skin, usually from a calf. Takes a lot of work for it to be scratched down to be thin enough to wright on. - Miniature: A smaller decoration on a page - Illumination: The colored illustration - Scriptonium: Where this was made, took a lot of work - Purple color: dyed. Very expensive, thought to have been used by a royal family or an aristocrat. Painted with tempera, an egg based medium. - Highlights of gold and silver. Black writing used to be shiny silver, especially beautiful to see at night. - Caught between two artistic value systems, classical and baroque - Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well: Story from Genesis 24. Picture is how Rebecca came to Mary and Jacob. Abraham wanted to find a wide for his son Isaac and sent his servant Eliezer to find one from among Abraham's extended family. Eliezer took 10 of Abraham's camels with him and stopped at the well to give them water. Eliezer prayed to God that Isaac's future wife would asist him with watering his camels. Rebecca arrives and helps him, and Eliezer knows she is the wife for Isaac. The story is about God intervening to ensure a sound marriage for Abraham's son. We see this in a continuous narrative. Rebecca with a water jug, then going to the stream - Water nymph: Using pagan language to personify stream. Artist takes the vocabulary of ancient Greece to portray the bible. - Realism of pose: Something drawn from Roman pictoral vocabulary. - Narrative being told like a scroll, even though it is a codex. Like the column at Trajan's forum. We already known how to read it just by looking at it. - All of the text was written by hand - Jacob wrestling the Angel: Jacob wakes up and leads his family across the river. After they cross the river, Jacob becomes separated from his family and he meets a man, whom he wrestles and wants the man/angel to bless him. So the angel blesses him and the family goes on their way. It's an important transformation, because after Jacob is blessed, his name changes to Israel. Artist tries to find a way to stretch this very linear narrative and make it fit the space of the book. References to the classical, similar to a frieze, one of his wives wears a draping that clings to her body, and the architecture of the bridge recalls the classical. Sense of perspective is quite skewed, mixing up of space is very typical of this time.

Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall frescoes

- Vatican City, Italy. Michelangelo. Ceiling frescoes: c. 1508-1512 CE; altar frescoes: c. 1536-1541 CE. Fresco. - Ceiling: Replaced a blue ceiling with stars, originally the pope wanted a geometric ornament with the 12 apostles in spandrels around the decoration but Michelangelo proposed to paint the Old Testament instead. Narrative begins at the altar and is divided into 3 sections, the creation of the heavens and earth, the creation of adam and eve, the expulsion from the garden, and then the story of noah and the great flood. In 1510 Michelangelo took a year long break and the frescoes painted after his break are characteristically different from the ones he painted before and are emblematic of what we envision the sistine chapel painting, where the narratives have been pared down to only essential figures depicted on a monumental scale. Because of these changes, Michelangelo is able to convey a strong sense of emotionality that can be percieved from the floor of the chapel. - The Last Judgement: On the altar wall, from the new testament. christ is on the top center, below christ is the separation of the blessed and the damned. Dramatic and powerful, this is the end of time. Christ is the judge and he seems to be smiting the damned. Mary turns to the blessed, she is no longer able to intercede with humanity. On the right, angels lift the blessed up from their graves and seem to assist them to get to heaven. Bodies are very dense and muscular. Angels are clearly male and powerful. Their heads are too small for their bodies. We feel the struggle and the difficulty of saving those souls and bringing them to heaven. Figures on the damned side are even more intentionally heavy and gruesome, there are devils everywhere. Even Christ's body is off- Michelangelo is looking at the body for symbolic meaning, is willing to distort the body for the power of the painting itself. The body is in the service of the religious message. Fresco is SO pessimistic. The skin that St. Bartholomew holds is actually a self portrait of Michelangelo himself, and he's right in the middle between christ and the damned. Expresses the concern Michelangelo had for his own soul.

Hagia Sophia

- Constantine (Istanbul). Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. 532-537 CE. Brick and ceramic elements with stone and mosaic veneer. - Justinian: high bond between the church and state. Unification. Emperor seen as the head of the church (in the East) - Niqua revolt: Underlinks revolt under Justinian, he wanted to quit but Theodora encouraged him to keep fighting, and because he keeps fighting, establishes an even stronger empire, and commissions the Hagia Sophia - Largest enclosed space ever built - Built by geometrists and mathemeticians, not architects. - All materials were imported. Precious things collected from all over. Millions of tiles made up the mosaic. - Dome: "suspended from a golden chain from heaven" Spiritual aura. Exists more in heaven than on earth - Technology: Windows, dome on pendentives. The room can be bigger than the base of the dome, can have windows that are not structural. - Liturgy in the Hagia Sophia: Central plan, also a lingitudinal axis, combination of 2 styles. - Sanctuary: Holy place where only priests can go. Where the Eucharists happens, behind the sanctuary. Separated by a screen, so you can't see it being done. Only priests can perform this action. - Women are upstairs one level, emperor is the only person who can be a part of the holy actions. Heavenly court mirrors Earthly court - Full of relics, supposedly the olive branch from Noah, pieces of the cross - Islamic plates = Roundheels. Placed after it was converted to a Mosque. Names of the Caliphs. - Arabic script from the Quaran on the roof of the dome. Mix of 2 styles, Islam and Christianity. Currently a state museum. - The Hagia Sophia survived because it was converted. - Columns: Basically a classical shape, looks like an ionic column created with Christian vocabulary. Taking the old and making it new. Capital has been deconstructed. It's airy, ethereal, and delicate, even though it supports a lot of weight. - Mosaics were covered up during conversion. - Muslim depictions of Jesus as a prophet. - Calligraphy = critical to Islam - Mihrab (niche that points towards islam) is off center: Oriented in the wrong direction because the church didn't orient towards mecca. - Pencil minarets and dome: essentials of islamic architecture. Purpose: Big place to call people to pray, defines the skyline, clear distinguishing feature. - Structure expresses values and beliefs

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza

- Viceroyalty of New Spain. c. 1541-1542 CE. Ink and color on paper. - Codex = book bound together at the end - Recording of Aztec life before colonization - Frontispiece = First piece of the book - Middle is the eagle on top of the pear cactus, shield representing the Aztec people - Supposed to be a representation of the moment they find the place to have their city - Also depicts an old fashioned city, a mesh of culture - The men in top knots are rulers, the cactuses next to them are pictographs with their names - Soldiers at the bottom are in heirarchical scale. Shield appears again, shows it was not an easy transition to get to their new home. Pictures of conquered city states in the background - Skull in the rack = representation of human sacrifice - So many layers of history being shown here - Memory of the founding of the city based on the founding of previous cities - Commissioned by the Spanish but the Aztec artists are making this. Wanted to show aztec life annotated in Spanish. Was sending it to Spain but it was intercepted by French pirates. Shows that it very early on in Spanish conquest. Remnants of Aztec civilization are still very alive in the minds of the people. Not in the art form that local Aztecs would make, Spanish are directing the creation. Wanted to show the people of the old world life in the new world - Part of what they are showing is how barbaric these people are - The X represents the canals - Squares around the boarder have a calendar function, divided into years and eras. Represent important years with pictographs

Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh)

Isfahan, Iran. Islamic, Persian: Seljuk, Il-Khanid, Timurid and Safavid Dynasties. c. 700 CE. Additions and restorations in the 14th, 18th, and 20th centuries CE. Stone, brick, wood, plaster, and glazed ceramic tile. - It is an architectural documentary, visually embodying the political exigencies and aesthetic tastes of the great Islamic empires - Urban integration, positioned at the center of the old city, shares walls with other buildings - Forms a pedestrial hub, connecting the arterial networks of paths - Linking the four iwaroof ns at the center is a large courtyard open to the air, which provides a tranquil space from the city - Brick piers and columns support the roofing system and allow prayer halls to extend away from this central courtyard on each side - Roof looks like bubble wrap