Venus of Willendorf, Paleolithic

1-2 Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf), from Willendorf, Austria, 

ca. 28,000–25,000 bce. Limestone, 4

1

–

4″ high. Naturhistorisches 

Museum, Vienna.

  Cave Paintings, Lascaux Paleolithic

 Left wall of the hall of the Bulls in the cave at Lascaux, France, ca. 16,000–14,000 bce. Largest bull 11′ 6″ long. 

The purpose and meaning of Paleolithic cave paintings are unknown, but it is clear that the painters’ sole concern was representing the animals, 

not locating them in a specific place or on a common ground line.

The Well Scene, Lascaux, Paleolithic

1-6 Rhinoceros, wounded man, 

and disemboweled bison, painting 

in the well of the cave at Lascaux, 

France, ca. 16,000–14,000 bce. 

Bison, 3′ 4

1

–

2″ long.

If these paintings of two animals 

and a bird-faced (masked?) man, 

deep in a well shaft in the Lascaux 

cave, depict a hunting scene, they 

constitute the earliest example of 

narrative art ever discovered.

Stonehenge, Neolithic

, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, ca. 2550–1600 bce. 

One of the earliest examples of monumental architecture in Neolithic Europe, the circle of 24-foot-tall trilithons at Stonehenge probably functioned 

as an astronomical observatory and solar calendar.

Ziggurat at Ur, Sumerian

Ziggurat , Ur , Iraq, ca. 2100 bce.

The Ur ziggurat, one of the largest in Mesopotamia, is 50 feet high. It has three (restored) ramplike stairways of a hundred steps each that originally 

ended at a gateway to a brick temple, which does not survive.

Votive Statues, Sumerian

1-13 Statuettes of two worshipers, from the Square Temple at 

Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq, ca. 2700 bce. Gypsum, 

shell, and black limestone, man 2′ 4

1

–

4″ high, woman 1′ 11

1

–

4″ high. 

National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad.

The oversized eyes probably symbolized the perpetual wakefulness of 

these substitute worshipers offering prayers to the deity. The beakers 

the figures hold were used to pour libations for the gods.

Stele of Naram-Sin, Akkadian

1-16 Victory stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran, ca. 2254–2218 bce. 

Pink sandstone, 6′ 7″ high. Musée du Louvre, Paris. 

To commemorate his conquest of the Lullubi, Naram-Sin set up this 

stele showing him leading his army up a mountain. The sculptor 

staggered the figures, abandoning the traditional register format.

Lamassu, Assyrian

Lamassu (man-headed winged bull), from the citadel of 

Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad), Iraq, ca. 720–705 

bce. Limestone, 13′ 10″ high. Musée du Louvre, Paris. 

Ancient sculptors insisted on showing complete views of animals. This 

four-legged composite monster that guarded an Assyrian palace has 

five legs—two when seen from the front and four in profile view.

Palette of Narmer, Egyptian

Palette of King Narmer (left, back; right, front), from hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, ca. 3000–2920 bce. Slate, 2′ 1″ high. 

Egyptian Museum, Cairo. 

These oldest preserved labeled historical reliefs commemorate the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Narmer, the largest figure, effortlessly 

defeats a foe on one side, and on the other surveys the beheaded enemy.

Pyramids at Gizeh, Egyptian

1-25 Great Pyramids, Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty. From 

bottom: pyramids of Menkaure, ca. 2490–2472 bce; Khafre, 

ca. 2520–2494 bce; and Khufu, ca. 2551–2528 bce. 

The Great Pyramids of Gizeh took the shape of the ben-ben, the 

emblem of the sun, Re. The sun’s rays were the ramp the Egyptian 

pharaohs used to ascend to the heavens after their death and rebirth.

Menkaure and his Queen, Egyptian

Menkaure and Khamerernebty(?), from Gizeh, Egypt, 

Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2490–2472 bce. Graywacke, 4′ 6

1

–

2″ high. 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This double portrait displays the conventional postures used for 

Egyptian statues designed as substitute homes for the ka. The frozen 

gestures signify the man and woman are husband and wife.

Thutmose, Nefertiti, New Kingdom, Egyptian

thutmose, Nefertiti, from Amarna, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, 

ca. 1353–1335 bce. Painted limestone, 1′1

–4″ high. Ägyptisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Found in the workshop of the master sculptor Thutmose, this unfinished bust portrait of Nefertiti depicts Akhenaton’s influential wife with a pensive expression and a long, delicately curved neck.

Tuthankamen, New Kingdom, Egyptian

Innermost coffin of Tutankhamen, from his tomb at Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1323 bce. Gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones, 6′ 1″ long. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Tutankhamen was a boyking who owes his fame to the discovery of his treasure-laden tomb. His mummy was encased in three nested coffins. The innermost one, the costliest, portrays the pharaoh as Osiris.

  The Dipylon Vase, Greek

Geometric krater, from the Dipylon cemetery, Athens, 

Greece, ca. 740 bce. 3′ 4 -1–2″ high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Figure painting returned to Greek art in the Geometric period, named for the abstract motifs on vessels such as this funerary krater featuring

Peplos Kore, Greek

Peplos Kore, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 530 bce. Marble, 4′ high. Acropolis Museum, Athens. Unlike men, women are always clothed in Archaic statuary. This smiling kore is a votive statue of a goddess wearing four garments. She held her identifying attribute in her missing left hand.

Exekias, black-figure vase, Greek

exekIas, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game (detail of a blackfigure amphora), from Vulci, Italy, ca. 540–530 bce. Amphora 2′ high; detail 8-1–2″ high. Musei Vaticani, rome.The dramatic tension, coordination of figural poses and vase shape, and intricacy of the engraved patterns of the cloaks are hallmarks of Exekias, the greatest master of black-figure painting.

The Kritios Boy, Greek

Kritios Boy, from The Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 480 bce. Marble, 3′ 10″ high. Acropolis Museum, Athens. This is the first statue to show how a person naturally stands. The sculptor depicted the weight shift from one leg to the other (contrapposto). The head also turns slightly—and the Archaic smile is gone.

Myron, Discus Thrower, Greek

myron, Diskobolos (Discus Thrower). roman copy of a bronze statue of ca. 450 bce. Marble, 5′ 1″ high. Museo Nazionale romano—Palazzo Massimo, rome.This marble copy of Myron’s lost bronze statue captures how the sculptor froze the action of discus throwing and arranged the nude athlete’s body and limbs so they form two intersecting arcs.

The Parthenon, Greek

2-1 IktInos and kallIkrates, Parthenon (temple of Athena Parthenos; looking southeast), Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447–438 bce.The architects of the Parthenon calculated the dimensions of every part of the temple using harmonic numerical ratios, which determined, for example, the height and diameter of each column.The reliefs depicting Greeks battling semihuman centaurs are allegories of the triumph of civilization and rational order over barbarism and chaos—and of the Greek defeat of the Persians in 479 bce.The statues in the two pediments of the Parthenon depicted important events in the life of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. The east pediment represented Athena’s birth from the head of Zeus.

The Elgin Marbles, Greek

helios and his horses, and Dionysos (herakles?), from the east pediment of the Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens,Greece, ca. 438–432 bce. Marble, greatest height 4′ 3″. British Museum, London. The east pediment of the Parthenon depicts the birth of Athena. At the left, Helios and his horses energetically emerge from the pediment’s floor, suggesting the sun rising above the horizon at dawn.Three goddesses (hestia, Dione, and Aphrodite?), from the east pediment of the Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 438–432 bce. Marble, greatest height 4′ 5″. British Museum, London.These statues representing three goddesses conform perfectly to the sloping right

Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysos, Greek

PraxIteles, hermes and the infant Dionysos, from the 

Temple of hera, Olympia, Greece. Copy of a marble statue of ca. 340 bce. Marble, 7′ 1″ high. Archaeological Museum, Olympia. Praxiteles humanized the Olympian deities. This Hermes is as sensuous as his Aphrodite. The god gazes dreamily into space while he dangles a bunch of grapes as temptation for the infant wine god.

Nike of Samothrace, Hellenistic

Nike alighting on a warship (Nike of Samothrace), from 

Samothrace, Greece, ca. 190 bce. Marble, figure 8′ 1″ high. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Victory lands on a ship’s prow to crown a naval victor. Her wings still beat, and the wind sweeps her drapery. The statue’s placement in a fountain of splashing water heightened the dramatic visual effect.

 Venus de Milo, Greek

alexandrosof antIoch-on-themeander, Aphrodite (Venus de Milo), from Melos, Greece, ca. 150–125 bce. Marble, 6′ 7″ high. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Displaying the eroticism of many Hellenistic statues, this Aphrodite is more overtly sexual than the Knidian Aphrodite (fig. 2-47). The goddess’s slipping garment teases the spectator.

Laocoön, Hellenistic

athanadoros, haGesandros, and Polydoros

of rhodes, Laocoön and his sons, from rome, Italy, 

early first century ce. Marble, 7′ 101–2″ high. Musei Vaticani, rome. Hellenistic style lived on in Rome. Although stylistically akin to Pergamene sculpture (fig. 2-53), this statue of sea serpents attacking Laocoön and his two sons matches the account given only in the Aeneid.

Villa of the Mysteries, Roman

3-18 Dionysiac mystery frieze, Second Style wall paintings in room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries, pompeii, Italy,ca. 60–50 bce. Frieze, 5′ 4″ high. Second Style painters created the illusion of an imaginary threedimensional world on the walls of Roman houses. The figures in this room act out the initiation rites of the mystery religion of Dionysos.

Augustus of Primaporta, Roman 

Portrait of Augustus as general, from primaporta, Italy, early-first-century ce copy of a bronze original of ca. 20 bce. Marble, 6′ 8″ high. Musei Vaticani, Rome. The models for Augustus’s idealized portraits, which depict him as a never-aging god, were Classical Greek statues (fig. 2-35).This statue portrays the emperor as commander in chief.

Ara Pacis, Roman

Ara pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan peace, looking northeast), Rome, Italy, 13–9 bce.Augustus sought to present his new order as a Golden Age equaling that of Athens under Pericles. The Ara Pacis celebrates the emperor’s most important achievement, the establishment of peace.

Colosseum, Roman

Aerial view of the Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater, looking east), Rome, Italy, ca. 70–80 ce. Vespasian built the Colosseum, the world’s largest amphitheater, on land Nero had confiscated from the public. A complex system of concrete barrel vaults once held up the seats for 50,000 spectators.

Pantheon, Roman

pantheon, Rome, Italy, 118–125 ce. The Pantheon’s traditional facade masked its revolutionary cylindrical drum and its huge hemispherical dome. The interior symbolized both the orb of the earth and the vault of the heavens.

Arch of Constantine, Roman

South facade of the Arch of Constantine, Rome, Italy, 312–315 ce. Much of the sculptural decoration of Constantine’s arch came from monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Sculptors recut the heads of the earlier emperors to substitute Constantine’s features.

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Early Christian

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, from Rome, Italy, ca. 359. Marble, 3′ 10-1–2″× 8′. Museo Storico del Tesoro della Basilica di San Pietro, Rome.Episodes from Hebrew scripture, including Abraham sacrificing Isaac, appear side by side with scenes from the life of Jesus on this sarcophagus of a recent convert to Christianity.The Jewish scenes on Junius Bassus’s sarcophagus had special significance for Christians. Adam and Eve’s original sin of eating the apple in the Garden of Eden necessitated Christ’s sacrifice.Christ, long-haired and youthful in the Early Christian tradition, sits above a personification of the Roman sky god. Flanking the new ruler of the universe are Saints Peter and Paul.

Christ as Good Shepherd mosaic, Early Christian

4-7 Christ as Good Shepherd, mosaic on the interior entrance wall of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 425. Jesus sits among his flock, haloed and robed in gold and purple. The landscape and the figures, with their cast shadows, are the work of a mosaicist still deeply rooted in the naturalistic classical tradition.

Hagia Sophia, Byzantine

AnthEmius of trAllEs and isidorus of milEtus, aerial view of Hagia Sophia (looking north), Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, 532–537. Justinian’s reign was the first golden age of Byzantine art and architecture. Hagia Sophia was the most magnificent of the more than 30 churches Justinian built or restored in Constantinople alone.

Justinian mosaic San Vitale, Byzantine

Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and attendants, mosaic on the north wall of the apse, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547. San Vitale’s mosaics reveal the new Byzantine aesthetic. Justinian is foremost among the weightless and speechless frontal figures hovering before the viewer, their positions in space uncertain.

The Harbaville Triptych, Byzantine

Christ enthroned with saints (Harbaville Triptych), ca. 950. Ivory, central panel 9-1–2″× 5-1–2″. Musée du Louvre, Paris.In this small three-part shrine with hinged wings used for private devotion, the ivory carver depicted the figures with looser classical stances, in contrast to the frontal poses of most Byzantine figures.

  The Vladimir Virgin, Byzantine

Virgin of Compassion icon (Vladimir Virgin), late 11th or early 12th century, with later repainting. Tempera on wood, 2′ 6-1–2″× 1′ 9″. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. In this Middle Byzantine icon, the painter depicted Mary as the Virgin of Compassion, who presses her cheek against her son’s as she contemplates his future. The reverse side shows the instruments of Christ’s passion.

Purse Cover from the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, Early Medieval

Purse cover, from the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk, England, ca. 625. Gold, glass, and enamel cloisonné with garnets and emeralds, 7-1–2″ long. British Museum, London (gift of Mrs. E. M. pretty). This purse cover comes from a treasure-laden royal burial ship. The combination of abstract interlace ornamentation with animal figures is the hallmark of the early Middle Ages in western Europe. 

Lindisfarne Gospels, Early Medieval 

Cross-inscribed carpet page, folio 26 verso of the Lindisfarne Gospels, from Northumbria, England, ca. 698–721. Tempera on vellum, 1′ 1-1–2″× 9-1–4″. British Library, London.The cross-inscribed carpet page of the Lindisfarne Gospels exemplifies the way Hiberno-Saxon illuminators married Christian imagery and the animal-interlace style of the early medieval warlords. 

Saint Matthew from the Ebbo Gospels, Early Medieval

Saint Matthew, folio 15 recto of the Coronation Gospels (Gospel Book of Charlemagne), from Aachen, Germany, ca. 800–810. Ink and tempera on vellum, 1′3–4″× 10″. Schatzkammer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The books produced for Charlemagne’s court reveal the legacy of classical art. The Carolingian painter used light, shade, and perspective to create the illusion of three-dimensional form. 6-5 Saint Matthew, folio 18 verso of the Ebbo Gospels (Gospel Book of Archbishop Ebbo of Reims), from Hautvillers, France, ca. 816–835. Ink and tempera on vellum, 10-1–4″× 8-3–4″. Bibliothèque Municipale, Épernay. Saint Matthew writes frantically, and the folds of his drapery writhe and vibrate. Even the landscape rears up alive. This painter merged classical illusionism with the northern European linear tradition.1 in.-1 in.

Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne, Carolingian 

Schematic plan for a monastery, from Saint Gall, Switzerland, ca. 819. Red ink on parchment, 2′ 4″× 3′ 8-1–8″. Stiftsbibliothek, Saint Gall.The purpose of this plan for an ideal, self-sufficient Benedictine monastery was to separate the monks from the laity. Near the center is the oratory (church) with its cloister, the monks’ earthly paradise.