ARH100 - Lesson 11
Ziggurat
"The largest structure of a Sumerian city" "a temple or shrine raised on a monumental stepped base" "were visible for miles around. They elevated the temple to a symbolic mountaintop, a meeting place for Heaven and Earth. Here priests and priestesses communicated with the gods and the faithful placed small figures offering their prayers." (Getlein 331)
Krater
"a vessel used for wine" (Getlein 342)
Burial Mask of Tutankhamun
"rested on the head and shoulders of his mummified body inside, were meant to confer immortality. Projecting over the young king's forehead are the alert heads of a cobra and a vulture, symbols of the ancient protective goddesses of Lower and Upper Egypt." (Getlein 340)
Hellenistic Era
"refers to the spread of Greek culture eastward through Asia Minor, Egypt, and Mesopotamia" "continuing Classical style that emphasized balance and restraint" "overthrew Classical values in favor of dynamic poses and extreme emotions" "a tendency toward realistic portrayals of individuals, as opposed to idealized portrayals of types of people" (Getlein 348-350)
Mannerism
"practiced an art of grace and sophistication" "a decadent reaction against the order and balance of the High Renaissance." "grew out of possibilities suggested by the work of High Renaissance artists, especially Michelangelo, whose influence on the next generation was enormous. His own late work also changed to reflect new ideas." (Getlein 393)
Donatello
"Among Early Renaissance artists, the finest sculptor by far" From Florence Created David (Getlein 374-375)
Female Figure from Willendorf
"It is made of stone, was formed about 25,000 years ago, and was found near Willendorf, a town in present-day Austria. Less than 5 inches tall, the rounded figure is small enough to fit comfortably in the palm of a hand. Its face is obscured by a minutely detailed hairstyle that covers the entire head. The body's proportions are exaggerated. Skinny arms bend at the elbows to rest on a pair of heavy breasts. The ballooning midsection tapers down to legs that end just below the knees." (Getlein 328)
The Parthenon
Athens, Greece "Dedicated to the goddess Athena parthenos, or Athena the warrior maiden, the Parthenon is a Doric-style temple with columns all around the exterior and an inner row of columns on each of the short walls. The roof originally rose to a peak, leaving a pediment (visible in the reconstruction) at each end. The pediments were decorated with sculptures, as was the frieze. In the manner of Greek temples, the Parthenon was painted in vivid colors, principally red and blue. The architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, directed by Phidias, completed the structure in just fifteen years." (Getlein 346)
The Acropolis
Athens, Greece "In about 449 B.C.E., Athens' great general Perikles came to power as head of state, and set about rebuilding. He soon embarked on a massive construction program, meant not only to restore the past glory of Athens but also to raise it to a previously undreamed-of splendor. Perikles' friend the sculptor Phidias was given the job of overseeing all architectural and sculptural projects on the Acropolis. The work would continue for several decades, but it took an amazingly short time given the ambitious nature of the scheme." (Getlein 345)
The Great Sphinx
Giza, Egypt "the symbol of this most important characteristic of Egyptian art, is the essence of stability, order, and endurance. Built about 2530 B.C.E. and towering to a height of 66 feet, it faces the rising sun, seeming to cast its immobile gaze down the centuries for all eternity. The Sphinx has the body of a reclining lion and the head of a man, thought to be the pharaoh Khafre, whose pyramid tomb is in the center"
Masaccio
Inspired by Classical architecture Trinity with the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, and Donors (Getlein 375)
The Colosseum
Rome, Italy "planned under the emperor Vespasian and dedicated in 80 C.E. as an amphitheater for gladiatorial games and public entertainments. A large oval covering 6 acres, the Colosseum could accommodate some 50,000 spectators—about the same number as most major-league baseball stadiums today. Few of the games played inside, however, were as tame as baseball. Gladiators vied with one another and with wild animals in bloody and gruesome contests." (Getlein 353)
Primavera
Sandro Botticelli Commissioned by the Medici "The painting is an allegory of spring. It features Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, in the center. Her son Cupid flies above her and shoots his arrow toward the three women known as Graces. They embody female charm and page 378beauty. To the left is Mercury, the messenger god. He uses his caduceus to drive away the clouds. On the opposite side, Zephyrus, the wind, captures the fleeing spring nymph Chloris. According to ancient myth, Chloris becomes Flora, who stands beside her in Botticelli's painting." (Getlein 377-378)
Paleolithic Period
the era of prehistory that lasted from at least 2 million B.C. to about 9000 B.C.; also called the Old Stone Age Preceded the Neolithic Period (Getlein 328)
Sumerian
"The first cities of Mesopotamia arose in the southernmost area, a region called Sumer. By about 3400 B.C.E., some dozen Sumerian city-states— cities that ruled over their surrounding territories—had emerged. The Sumerians were the first people to leave behind them not just artifacts but also words: The wedge-shaped marks that they pressed into damp clay to keep track of inventories and accounts developed over time into a writing system capable of recording language. Called cuneiform (Latin for "wedge- shaped"), it served as the writing system of Mesopotamia for the next three thousand years." (Getlein 331)
Kouros
"Thousands of such figures were carved—perhaps as many as 20,000—all of them in the same pose, and all nude, young, and idealized, with broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, and fit bodies. They were placed as offerings in sanctuaries to the gods and set as grave markers in cemeteries." (Getlein 343)
High Renaissance
"a brief but glorious time in the history of art. In barely twenty-five years, from shortly before 1500 to about 1520, some of the most celebrated works of Western art were produced. Many artists participated in this brilliant creative endeavor, but the outstanding figures among them were unquestionably Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael." (Getlein 379)
Greek Art
"architecture and sculpture had an enormous influence on the later civilizations of Rome and, through Rome, Europe. We assume that Greek painting was equally brilliant, for ancient historians wrote vividly about it. Descriptions abound of such marvels as fruit painted so convincingly that even ravenous birds were fooled, and of rival artists striving to outdo one another in skill. But of the works themselves almost nothing has survived. Instead, we must content ourselves with images painted on terra-cotta vessels, which archaeologists have uncovered in large quantities." (Getlein 342)
Renaissance
"Covering the period roughly from 1400 to 1600, the Renaissance brought vast changes to the world of art. The way art looked, the subjects it treated, the way it was thought about, the position of the artist in society, the identities and influence of patrons, the cultures that served as points of reference—all these things changed. We might even say that the Renaissance was the time when the concept of "art" began to take shape, for it was during these centuries that painting, sculpture, and architecture began to earn their privileged positions in Western thought." "means "rebirth," and it refers to the revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture that is one of the key characteristics of the period. Scholars of the day worked to recover and study as many Greek and Latin texts as possible." "Artists became newly interested in observing the natural world, and they worked to reproduce it as accurately as possible. Studying the effects of light, they developed the technique of chiaroscuro; noting that distant objects appeared smaller than near ones, they developed the system of linear perspective; seeing how detail and color blurred with distance, they developed the principles of atmospheric perspective." (Getlein 372)
Renaissance in Italy
"Italy had been among the first areas to recover economically from the chaos of the early Middle Ages. Powerful city-states engaged in extensive trade, and banking had developed. Wealthy, independent, and fiercely competitive, the city-states would vie with one another to engage the finest artists, as would the merchant-princes whose fortunes sustained them. The Church, also an important patron of the arts, was centered in Italy as well. Humanism arose first in Italy, and it was in Italy that the first university position in Greek studies was established. Finally, Italians had long lived amid the ruins of ancient Rome, and they viewed themselves as the direct descendants of the citizens of the earlier civilization. If anyone could bring back its glories, surely it was they." (Getlein 374)
Neo-Platonism
"The Medici sponsored an academy—a sort of discussion group—where humanist scholars and artists met to discuss Classical culture and its relationship to Christianity. The reconciliation of these two systems of thought gave rise to a philosophy known as Neo- Platonism, after the Greek philosopher Plato." (Getlein 377)
Mesopotamia
"a region in the Near East (today more widely known as the Middle East)" "occupied a large area roughly equivalent to the present-day nation of Iraq. Fertile soil watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers made Mesopotamia highly desirable, but a lack of natural boundaries made it easy to invade and difficult to defend. Successive waves of people conquered the region in ancient times, and each new ruling group built on the cultural achievements of its predecessors. Thus, we can speak with some justice of a continuing Mesopotamian culture." (Getlein 330-331)
Neolithic Period
"beginning around 9000 B.C.E. and continuing for the next four thousand years. The Neolithic is named for new types of stone tools that were developed, but these tools were only one aspect of what in fact was a completely new way of life. Instead of gathering wild crops as they could find them, Neolithic people learned to cultivate fruits and grains. Farming was born. Instead of following migrating herds to hunt, Neolithic people learned to domesticate animals. Dogs, cattle, goats, and other animals served variously for help, labor, meat, milk, leather, and so on. Dugout boats, the bow and arrow, and the technology of pottery—clay hardened by heat— vastly improved the standard of living. Settled communities grew up and, with them, architecture of stone and wood. The most famous work of Neolithic architecture in Europe is the monument of megaliths known as Stonehenge, in England" (Getlein 328-329)
Egyptian Art
"did not change for ten thousand years; although that is an exaggeration, there were many features that remained stable over long periods." (Getlein 335) "strove to show each part of the body to best advantage, so that it could be "read" clearly by the viewer." "But action was not important to Egyptian art. Order and stability were its primary characteristics, as they were the goals of Egyptian society." (Getlein 336)
Northern Renaissance style
"did not happen with the sudden drama that it did in Italy, nor were its concerns quite the same." "evolved gradually out of the late Middle Ages, as artists became increasingly entranced with the myriad details of the visible world, and better at capturing them." (Getlein 387)
Michelangelo
"had established his reputation as a sculptor by the age of twenty-five." (Getlein 379) "He is beyond legend. His name means "archangel Michael," and to his contemporaries and those who came after, his stature is scarcely less than that of a heavenly being. He began serious work as an artist at the age of thirteen and did not stop until death claimed him seventysix years later. His equal may never be seen again, for only a particular time and place could have bred the genius of Michelangelo." "born in the Tuscan town of Caprese. According to his devoted biographer and friend, Giorgio Vasari, the young Michelangelo often was scolded and beaten by his father for spending too much time drawing. Eventually, however, seeing his son's talent, the father relented and apprenticed him to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. At the age of fourteen, Michelangelo was welcomed into the household of the wealthy banker Lorenzo de' Medici, who operated a private sculpture academy for promising young students. There he remained until Lorenzo's death, after which Michelangelo, just seventeen years old, struck out permanently on his own." (Getlein 384)
Renaissance man
"someone who is very well informed about, or very good at doing, many different, often quite unrelated, things. It originated in the fact that several of the leading figures of the Renaissance were artistic jacks-of-all-trades. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, poet, architect—incomparably gifted at all. Leonardo was a painter, inventor, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, musician, and all-round intellectual." (Getlein 379)
Leonardo da Vinci
"the artist who most embodies the term "Renaissance man"; many people consider him to have been the greatest genius who ever lived. He was possessed of a brilliant and inquiring mind that accepted no limits. Throughout his long life, he remained absorbed by the problem of how things work, and how they might work." "Leonardo's interest in mathematics is also evident from his careful rendering of perspective." "Leonardo's rival in greatness was Michelangelo" (Getlein 379)
Classical Period
"which dates from 480 to 323 B.C.E. Although all ancient Greek and Roman art is broadly known as Classical, the art produced during these decades was considered by later European scholars to be the finest of the finest. During this period, Greece consisted of several independent city-states, often at war among themselves. Chief among the city-states—from an artistic and cultural point of view, if not always a military one—was Athens." (Getlein 345)
Dipylon Cemetery Krater
Athens, Greece "a narrative scene of a funeral ceremony is depicted. We see the deceased laid out on a four-legged couch. The checkerboard pattern above probably represents the textile that covered him. Wasp-waisted mourners stand to either side, slapping their heads and tearing their hair in grief. In the lower register, a procession of foot soldiers and horse-drawn chariots passes by. The highly abstracted figures are only beginning to break free from their flat, geometric world. Notice, for example, the triangular torsos of the mourners and the squares framed by their arms and shoulders." (Getlein 343)
Ishtar Gate
Babylon "built about 575 B.C.E. and now restored in a German museum. The gate consists of thousands of glazed mud bricks, with two massive towers flanking a central arch. On ceremonial occasions, Nebuchadnezzar would sit under the arch in majesty to receive his subjects. The walls of the gate are embellished with registers of glazed ceramic animals, probably meant as spirit-guardians." (Getlein 335)
The Ambassadors
Hans Holbein the Younger "The painting was commissioned by the man on the left, Jean de Dinteville, the French ambassador to England. To the right is his friend Georges de Selve, a French bishop who also served as an ambassador. They look out at us from either side of a table richly laden with objects symbolizing the four humanist sciences: music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The imported Islamic rug speaks of contacts with the wider world, and the globe placed on the lower shelf reminds us that the Renaissance was also the age of European exploration and discovery. Close inspection reveals that the lute resting on the lower shelf has a broken string and that the book before it is open to a hymn by Martin Luther. The broken string symbolizes discord: Europe was no longer in harmony because of the difficult issues raised by Martin Luther's recent accusations against the Church in Rome. The movement Luther started, known as the Reformation, would very soon divide Europe permanently into Protestant countries and Catholic countries. The religious unity that had characterized the Middle Ages would be gone forever." (Getlein 391)
The Sistine Chapel frescoes
Michelangelo "To tame the vast expanse of the ceiling vault, Michelangelo invented an illusionistic architecture. Painted to look like stone, its lintels, cornices, pedestals, and supporting sculptural figures create a large grid that divides the surface into discrete zones. In the niches thus created along the sides, Michelangelo portrayed Old Testament prophets and ancient Greek sibyls— women gifted with prophecy. All were believed to have predicted the coming of Christ. Along the central spine of the ceiling, the painted architecture frames a series of nine pictorial spaces. Here, Michelangelo depicted scenes from Genesis, from the creation of the world through the story of Noah and the Flood. The detail of the ceiling illustrated here shows, from bottom to top: God, his hands outstretched, his cloak billowing, looking down at the Earth as he separates the waters from the dry land; the creation of Adam, with the dynamic figure of God about to pass the spark of life to the languid first man; and God creating Eve as Adam slumbers. The Genesis scenes alternate rhythmically in size across the ceiling—large, small, large, small—creating the effect of a pulse or a heartbeat. The small scenes are framed by four nude youths holding garlands and ribbons that support bronze shields, painted as though decorated with reliefs illustrating still more biblical scenes. The youths are known by the Italian name for them, ignudi, and their meaning is much debated. They may be some kind of perfected beings, perhaps even angels." (Getlein 382-383)
David
Michelangelo "reveals Michelangelo's debt to Classical sculptures." "not, however, a simple restatement of Greek art. The Greeks knew how bodies looked on the outside. Michelangelo knew how they looked on the inside, how they worked, because he had studied human anatomy and had dissected corpses. He translated this knowledge into a figure that seems to be made of muscle and flesh and bone, though all in marble." (Getlein 379) "it has a tension and an energy that are missing from Greek art." "David is not so much standing in repose as standing in readiness. Another Renaissance quality is the expression on David's face. Classical Greek statues tended to have calm, even vacant expressions. But David is young and vibrant—and angry, angry at the forces of evil represented by the giant Goliath." (Getlein 381)
Venus of Urbino
Titian "It is a feast for the eyes. The viewer can almost feel the texture of the bed sheet, the fabric wall covering, the dog's fur, and the woman's hair and skin. The colors are rich and saturated, with passages of red repeated across the canvas: bed, flowers, dress. Titian's command of linear perspective is demonstrated by the convincing illusionistic space the figures occupy, although the green backdrop keeps the viewer's eye in the foreground. There, the woman's gaze meets ours as she coyly lowers her head and displays her body for our viewing. Such sensuality caused paintings like this to spend most of the time covered, only to be revealed for a select audience." (Getlein 386)