Ancient Near Eastern Art

Statuettes of two worshipers, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq, ca. 2700 BCE, Gypsum, shell and black limestone

they are the worshippers that are praying to Abu

 Ancient Near Eastern

Head of an Akkadian ruler, from Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik), Iraq, ca 2250-2200, Copper

• perhaps the Great Sargon, first Akkadian ruler 
• made of copper (but not melted down for weapons, it remained)

Ancient Neareastern 

Stele with the laws of Hammurabi, from Susa, Iran, ca. 1780 BCE, basalt

• nice guy - wrote “Hammurabi’s code” which is an organized code of law
• bottom register has the code inscribed in Cuneiform
• top register shows his god passing down the code to him (the sitting figure is god, the standing Hammurabi)
• he wanted the bickering to stop and to just listen to “god’s word” and to just get along 

Ancient Neareastern

Assyrian archers pursuing enemies, relief from palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (modern Nimrud), Iraq, ca. 875-860 BCE

Ancient Neareastern 

Ishtar Gate, Babylon, Iraq, ca 575 BCE

• gate outside the temple
• giraffes, dragons and bulls - symbols of high god and goddess of their religion

Egyptian 

Palette of King Narmer, Front and back, ca. 3000-2920, Slate

• palette was for mixing colors - maybe for makeup or for paint
• • Horace - the hawk, the god of the sky, protector of the pharaoh
   

• decapitated their enemies - believed that in death, part of your spirit “the ka” hangs around and stays in the deceased body but only if it was preserved and whole - they cut off the heads of their enemies to make sure the ka left and thus they were not permanent 

Greece - Archaic 

New York Kouros, 600 BCE, Marble

·         Kouros means young man

Greece - Archaic

Temple of Aphaia at Aegina, Greece, ca. 500-490 BCE

·         Aphaia is a local  goddess

·         Colonnade in the front

o   Double colonnade down the center – each row has two stories

§  Statue could be placed on the central axis

·         East and west oriented

·         Doric Order-large base, slims and tapers at top, with simple capital on top – one simple plinth (top part) and column is fluted – carved lines around it

Greece - Archaic

Peplos Kore, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 530 BCE

·         Kore means young woman

·         Peplos is her garment –It was a long, tubular cloth with the top edge folded down about halfway, so that what was the top of the tube was now draped below the waist, and the bottom of the tube was at the ankle – cinched at the waist  

Greece - Archaic

Dying warrior, from the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, 500-490 

·         Battle of greeks and Trojans 

·         Facing us with the archaic smile

·         Not a natural position – awkward arm and legs not propped naturally

Greece -  Archiac transitioning to Classical  

Dying warrior, from the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, 490-480 

·         Much more defined muscles and veins

·         more natural shift of hips

reacts to wound - not looking at the viewer- posesses self conciousness of real man

Greece - Classical

Polykleitos, Spear Bearer, ca. 450-440 BCE

Canon of proportion

blank stare – no human expression, it’s not really about the face it’s about the body 

Contrapposto 

Greece - Classical

Praxiteles, The Aphrodite of Knidos, 350 BCE

·         s pose

·         Woman cannot be portrayed nude but she is the goddess of love and beauty so its ok

·         Amphora – greek vase – with her clothes over it. Mid bathing

·         Weight is centered outside the body, not just within – introducing another other object 

Greece - Classical

Parthenon 447-432 BCE

 ·         Means “Temple to Athena”

 ·         Colonnade on all four sides

·         Sculpture of Athena would be inside

·         Post and lintel 

·         Doric order

pediment on top and what used to be a frieze

·         Convex floor and columns that tip in slightly- the slight slant creates illusion of stability, more pleasing to the eye, more ideal-looking

Greece - Hellenistic

Athena Frieze of Altar of Zeus at Pergamon 175 BCE

·         Facial expressions – heightened drama, anguished expression

·         Male body is exaggerated even past idealism

·         Emotional engagement  - human element

Giants aren’t portrayed bigger, because Athena is the focus so shes the biggest 

Greece - Hellenistic

Dying Gaul, ca. 230-220 BCE

·         Gauls were the enemy, and they make him the subject matter  - has shaggy hair and facial hair, they do it to depict that he was a barbarian, Greeks didn’t have that

·         Not shown in a negative way though – almost pitiful, dying hero for his own cause

·         Blood coming from his wound – drama not seen in classical period

·         Respect for enemies – taking pride in defeating the goliath 

Greece - Hellenistic

Nike of Samothrace (Winged Victory), 190 BCE

·         Standing on a war ship – landed to crown victor at sea

·         Wind is being considered – drapery whips back

·         Drapery reveals and conceals

·         Unlike Polyklitus’ idea of perfect proportion on a square base 

Greece- Classical

Parthenon: East Pediment – Aphrodite, 447-432 BCE

3 goddesses – Hestia (hearth and home), Dione (Mother of Aphrodite), Aphrodite

·         Athena would be on left but we lost her

peplos reveal and conceal

sloping shape fits perfectly to right side of east pediment 

Roman

Dionysiac Mystery Frieze, 2^nd style wall painting, fresco, 60-50 BCE

·         New technique is called the fresco (means fresh in Italian) – apply wet plaster to a wall and apply pigment before it dries

o   Mixed with white so everything is more pastel and less rich hue

·         Second style wall painting (1^st is paint frescoed in different colors, no figures. Second has figures, humans animals or trees. Third was architectul elements added to the plain wall. Fourth is a combo, architectural frame with picture inside)

·         Women, drinking – unknown cult ritual for Dionysus involving marriage maybe 

Roman

Pantheon, Rome, 118-125 CE

·         built by Hadrian  - benevolent emperor – focus on securing current empire, not expanding

·         Erected to all the gods – pan = every

·         Medium is concrete – not stone marble etc. like before

·         Colonnade is holding up porch, independent from actual building

·         Temple face is adapted from Greece, and is used just as a porch

·         Rotunda – centrally domed building

Roman

Garden Scene, 2^nd style wall painting, Villa of Livia, Rome, fresco, Late 1^st century CE

atmoshperic perspective - farther back things are blurry

made to look like you were actually looking into a garden

livia was the wife if augustus

create and illusion of no walls- more space in the room

Roman

Colosseum, Rome, 72-80 CE

·         Flavian emperors were a series of 3 emperors

o   Vespasion – sons Titus and Demission

·         Greeks made a theater half of that so romans doubled it and called it an amphitheater (Amphi means double – double of greek theater)

·         Seating by class

·         Plinths as seats – can hold up to 50,000 people

·         Used to fill it up with water and conduct naval battles

·         Colonnaded and and arcaded – row of arches

·         Not as simplistic as Greek architecture – there are columns but not supporting the building- the arch is

·         Tuscan columns at the first level – no fluting

·         Second columns are ionic with double scrolls on top

·         Top level is Corinthian – scrolls on top with leaves as well

·         All the columns are engaged columns – attached to the wall

Roman

Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE

·         Triumphal arch

·         Erected for Titus by Demission when he succeeded him as emperor

·         Corinthian – scrolls and leaves on top

·         On either side of inside of arch there are reliefs depicting of the conquering of Jerusalem

o   Triumph parade – Roman soldiers carrying spoils from Jerusalem

·         Apotheosis – when the emperor dies he is deified 

·         Shallow relief and high relief – Romans wear victory wreaths 

Roman

Augustus of Primaporta, early 1^st century CE

·         Gesture of oration

·         Copied Greek – influenced but different

·         Cuirass – tight leather garb worn to battle – axe of largess on his chest (acts of kindness)

·         Cupid is at the bottom riding a dolphin (with a wavy tail) reaching up to Augustus

o   Cupid is love, alluding to his acts of kindness – the dolphin is going into the water at the base, and Augustus is walking on top of the water – showing he is a god

o   Alongside the gods, he is on par with them

·         The hair is messy and his ears stick out, longer nose and more hollowed cheeks –individualized and not just an idealized anonymous figure, just idealized of himself

·         Apotheosis = to make god-like

o   Begins tradition of apotheosis to emperors after they died

Roman

The Emperor Caracalla, 211-217 CE

·         Ruled for six years and was assassinated

·         Cruel looking – portrayed this way to create fear and establish power though that

o   Furrowed brows, tight lips (snarl kind of)

·         More expressive, not blank stare anymore- has pupils and is focused on a point

Roman

Portrait of Emperor Constantine the Great, 313 CE

·         8 ft head – marble head and limbs would be attached to seated figure 22 ft tall made of brick covered in wood and polished in bronze

·         Constantine legalized Christianity

·         Looking above everyone – sees himself as convening with god

o   Not god-like but still not human

Roman

Arch of Constantine, 312-315 CE

·         Tri arcade

·         erected after victory over Maxentious

·         Roundel – circle parts  –spoils from other monuments taken and put onto this design, and he sculpted his face onto the bodies of whoever it was Hadrian etc

o   Connects him to past emperors yet surpasses them

·         Tale: he makes a deal with jesus – help me win this battle and I will spread Christianity so he wins

o   Makes this up to explain why at the end of the battle he issues the edict of Milan and allows Christianity to be legal and ten years later makes it the official religion

§  In order to win the battle he needs to align himself with a lot of the Christian high powered people – political move because he needed their support to win so he aligned himself with Christians

Greek - Hellenistic

Laocoon and his Sons, Early 1^st C BCE

Sculptors: Athanadoros, Hadesandros, Polydoros 

Trojan Priest Laocoon and sons being attacked by serpents as punishment for warning Greeks against wooden horse trap

Early Christianity

Old St. Peter’s, Rome, Italy, ca.320, destroyed

·         Basilica-style church built by Constantine

·         Stands where St Peter (first apostle and founder of Christian community in Rome) is supposed to have been be buried

o   Basilica = pagan structure where the senate met

§  Rectangular with entrance from one side the apse on other, aisles

·         Didn’t want to mimic Greek and Roman temples- not their type of worship

·         Wide central nave, flanking aisles, and apse at the end

·         Transept – the crossing of the building structure to represent a cross 

·         Colonnaded court yard - atrium

·         Bishops seat is a cathedra – got the name cathedral from it

o   Cathedrals are the major churches where the bishops are – a church any priest can practice in but a cathedral is just the bishop

Early Christianity 

Christ as the Good Shepherd, mosaic from the entrance wall of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 425

·         Lunette – half moon shape mosaic

tessarae are the cube tiles for mosaics

·         All the sheep are looking at him

·         Tree trunks line the bottom as if they’re holding it up 

halo 

Byzantium

Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, 532-337

·         Was a church, now a mosque

·         Buttress = square structure that holds up the domes

o   Weight transfers from dome down and into the buttress

o   Pendentives connects circle to square – more elegant and more structurally sound- transfers weight from dome into support – allows you to build higher bc it pushes it up, not pulling it down

·         Columns hold up walls not the dome

Windows (fenestration) allow sunlight to come in, and makes the dome look suspended above instead of being supported

Byzantium 

Theodora and Attendants, South mosaic, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 547

·         She was justinians wife and most trusted advisor

·         Going to take part in the Eucharist – holding cup of wine

·         She and Justinian were depicted to be there but weren’t – makes up for their presence 

Byzantium

David composing the Psalms, folio 1 verso of the Paris Psalter, ca. 950-70, tempera on vellum

·         Manuscript illustration was a major art form at the time – books were copied by hand, always done by priests so there was a high rate of illiteracy

·         Vellum = calf-skin used as paper- very thin

·         Echo is poking from behind back column, with chalice with red bow

·         Shown with animals

·         Personification with mountain of bethlaham

Byzantium

Virgin and Child with Saints Theodore and George, 6^th or 7^th century, Encaustic on wood, from the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt.

·         Virgin and child – maddona/mary

·         Madonna = my lady (in latin)

·         Saints George and Theodore with gold halos – angels in background, looking to heaven

·         Mary is looking out and to the side, baby jesus and saints are looking straight

·         New type of work of art – icon (ikon in greek = image)

o   Meant to be prayed in front of- thinking of god putting you in a mindset

o   People began worshipping icons directly not as representations 

·         Everything is flattened

·         Feet aren’t foreshortened- receding back into natural space

·        encaustic = pigment applied with thinned out wax – protects wood from rotting 

Early Medieval

 Purse Cover, from Sutton Hoo, England, 615-30 

·         England pre-christianity (still pagan) – originally attached to a purse

·         Found in a grave

·         Cloisonné – technique meaning section – section with sottered with gold and glass was melted down and poured into the section to dry

·         Gold coins were there so the king could pay his way into the afterlife

·         Animal interlace (exclusively in the north) – intertwining animals – symmetry 

Early Medieval

Chi Rho Iota (XPI) page, Book of Kells (Gospels), vellum, ca. 800

·         X p I are interlaced - first three letter of Christ in greek 

·         Highly detailed interlacing

·         3 men depicted – all had red hair bc irish

·         Bottom has an otter facing down with a fish in his mouth – cat with kittens playing 

o   Must be representative of stories and oral traditions from the area that are lost to us now

Early Medieval

Matthew the Evangelist, Ebbo Gospels, vellum, ca. 816-40

·         Depicted with roman toga, huge halo, writing gospel, looks serious, classic podium, angel on top

·         Looks zapped – things Matthew wrote was dictated by an angel so divine inspiration

o   Matthew as a vehicle for the word of Jesus

·         Tilted perspective – stacked up scenery – not in the background behind him but on top of the picture

·         Atmospheric perspective – in 2d paintings – things depicted further away from us are fuzzier and less defined, more washed-out color 

Early Medieval

Gero Crucifix, Cologne Cathedral, Germany, 970

·         Just under life-sized

·         Wood – gilded – painted gold

·         Bloated because he is dead and that happens

·         Reliquary – sculpture with a section to hold relics

o   Any object with religious significance

o   Might hold a body part of a saint 

Romanesque 

West façade of Saint-Etienne, Caen, France, 1067

·         Built by William the conqueror of Normandy

·         Spoils of England contributed to paying for cathedral

·         Façade (face) has three registers – regimented by string course = string of stones used to separate different sections of façade

o   creates illusion that is is a three story building even though its just one big open space

·         vaulting – extra stones in the ceiling – arch with side supports

o   each section was self-sustaining – fire-proofed and kept injuries to minimum if a part did fall

o   ribbed = pointed, barrel = rounded

o   adds aesthetic element - clere story – more light comes into cathedral 

o   man/angel lion eagle and ox are depicting the four evangelists (matthew marc luke john) 

Romanesque

Lions and Old Testament prophet, from south portal of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France, 1115-1135

Romanesque

Gislebertus, west tympanum of Saint-Lazare, Autun, France, 1120-1135

·         Artist is Gislebertus – piece is also called the last judgment

·         Tympanum sculpture = half-moon space above post and lintel of front doors

Christian version of pediments 

·         Jesus on a throne – second coming of jesus, comes back to earth and the saved go to heaven – sits on his thrown in judgment of who is going to heaven or hell

·         On his right (our left) is heaven – everyone has halos, there is order

·         People on his left are in hell, people being ripped apart

·         There are people waiting in line waiting for judgment

·         Jesus is stylized and flat – nothing naturalized

·         Manderla = full body halo

·         Built by William the conqueror of Normandy

·         Spoils of England contributed to paying for cathedral

·         Façade (face) has three registers – regimented by string course = string of stones used to separate different sections of façade

o   creates illusion that is is a three story building even though its just one big open space

Pre History

Venus of Willendorf, from Willendorf, Austria, ca. 28,000-25,000 BCE

Made of Limestone

large breast, defined lady-parts might be a symbol of fertility

hands on her boobs

Pre-History

Hall of the Bulls in the cave at Lascaux, France, ca. 16,000-14,000 BCE

maybe first story-telling images bc theres a mana nd a bull

used reeds to spit paint 

"negatives" of handprints 

Pre-History

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, ca. 2550-1600 BCE

• post and lintel - very heavy and dragged them from far or ice glacier 
• sun dial of sorts - solstice
• big stones  = sarsens
• small  stones = blue stones 

Gothic

Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, France, 1140-44

·         T shaped cross (not like Greek where all sides are equal)

·         Built to honor the apostle Denis who spread Christianity north

·         Needed to make it larger to show off and compete with beauty of nearby churches

·         Focus on the choir – expanded apse area with double aisles that go behind the ambulatory and then unify to one aisle going down the nave

·         Fenestration is all stained glass – a lot more natural light and can tell stories

·         Ribbed vaults points the vault higher – narrower on sides, and more pointy, so you can put more weight on it because the pressure on the springing is less

o   VERY important to allow huge cathedrals that define Gothic era to take shape

Gothic

Amiens Cathedral, 1220

·         Every cathedral in france tries to make the highest and lightest church – gets to be over the top

o   Tympanum is so busy, portals are so over the top, garish detail

·         Interior is proportionally off to us as people – so so huge, not really taking into account our viewpoint 

Gothic

 Chartres Cathedral, 1194

·         Huge cathedral – façade has string course

·         Built over series of generations so towers really don’t match

·         Tympanum: Jesus with body and head halo, with man eagle ox lion – 4 apostles, Madonna and child, death of the virgin, last judgment 

·         Small sculptures to enhance column, drapery adheres to column, gestures are tight, no interaction with each other 

·         Flying buttresses – columns holding up roof (the span) but not plastered against the building, free allowing windows

·         Clere story – line of windows above the vault

Romanesque

Interior of Saint-Etienne, Caen, France, 1115-1120

·         vaulting – extra stones in the ceiling – arch with side supports

o   each section was self-sustaining –  if a part did fall the others stayed in tact

o   ribbed = pointed, barrel = rounded

o   adds aesthetic element - clere story – more light comes into cathedral

Gothic

Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, France, 1243-1248

·         Chapel of the saints built by Louis 9^th – palace chapel for his own worship

·         Epitomizes radiant gothic style – exaggerated fenestration and stained glass

Vaults are mosaicked in dark blue to evoke night sky 

Gothic

Virgin with the Dead Christ (Rottgen Pieta), Germany, 1300-1325

·         Pieta is a pose common in portrayal of Jesus when he taken off the cross before he is cleaned and entombed – Madonna and child for the final time

·         Reliquary- Carved from wood

·         Very grotesque and exaggerated – on par with gothic era

So anguished – evoke emotional response (very German)