Spotted Horses and Human Hands

Culture: Pech-Merle, France

Time: Paleolithic

-horse painted 25,000 years ago

-horses head is the rocks natural formation

-later hand prints were added "I was here"- 10,000 years after the horse was made

Woman from Willendorf

Culture: Austria 

Time: Paleolithic

-Fertility features exagerated

-made very fat which was highly unlikely at the time period

-theory that this was the ideal body (It was cold in the iceage so they wanted fat)

-found all over western europe

-no face

-likely used as trading objects or tokens of friendship

-25,000 years ago

-belly button wasn't touched (they made it around the belly button) - "releasing the figure" 

Hall of Bulls

Location: Lascaux, Fance

Time: Paleolithic

-Lascaux is a cave with many rooms

-the Hall of Bulls is the most famous

-Tourists aren't allowed in anymore (They use to be but people's carbondioxide ruined the art)

- there were pictures on the roof- hints that it was very important if they went through the effort of getting it on the roof.

-made from limestone

Stonehenge

Location: England

Time: Neolithic

-Henge= circle

- Stonehenge is a calendar to tract the sun (summer solstice)

-also used for Burials of rulers and sick/injured people

-blue stones were brough from far away and thought to be magical.

-associated with the dead

-Woodhenge- wood version associated with the living (not around today)

Carved Vase

Location: Sumerian, Iraq

-organized in 3 registers or horizontal bands

-lowest register shows life in the natural world (water and plants)

-middle register- naked men carry baskets of food

-top register- The Godess Inanna accepts an offering from two standing figures.

-The scene may represent a renactment of the ritual marriage between the hodess and Dumuzi, her consort- a role raken by the priest-king- that took place during New Year;s festival to ensure the fertility of crops, animals, and people, and thus the continued survival of Uruk.

Great Lyre with Bull's Head and Front Panel

Location: Sumerian Iraq

-made of gold and lapis

-from a Royal Romb in Ur

Ziggurat dedicated to Moon God

Location: Sumerian Iraq

-steps go up (closer to heaven)

-Sumerians believed mountains connected heaven and earth

-Ziggarots were suppose to be recreations of mountains.

Stele of Naram-Sin

Location: Akkadian Iraq

-flat stone

-no registers (1 event)

- people ascending a mountain

-communicated symbolic visual language- a kind of conceptual art- that both celebrated and communicated the political stratification that gave order and security to their world.

-Naram Sin, the leader, is large- this fllows the heirarchy scale (Bigger is more important)

-story of his military victory

-declaring hiself as God on Earth

Stele of Hammurabi

Location: Babylonian, Iraq

-Has Hammarabis code on it

-Hammarabi's code- favored the elite and he created images to validate his code

-Hammurabi and the sun god

-the punishments for the wealthy people were less punishment than of the others.

Assurbanipal and His Queen in the Garden

Location: Assyrian, Iraq

-From the palace of Ninua (5 miles long and king has his own ziggarot with a ramp leading up to it- he is above everyone else)

-Victory celebration of king and queen.

 -depicts military and political power

-subtle decapitated head on tree in backround

Palette of Narmer

Location: Early Dynastic Egypt

-shows king narmer killing people

-shows his might

-conquest of lower and upper Egypt

Step Pyramid and Funerary Complex of Djoser by Imhotep

Location: Old Kingdom Egypt

-Imhotep designed the first pyramid- it was Djoser's tomb

-signifies a stairway to the sun god

Pyramids of Giza

Location: Old Kingdom Egypt

-most famous pyramids

-Built by three successive kings- Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure

-finished with limestone

-planned to follow the sun's east-west path

-3 passageways abscured the passage to the tomb to protect the king's dead body

Menkaure and a Queen

Location: Old Kingdom Egypt

-athletic, young, and nude to the waist

-traces of red paint

-polishing was never finished probably because he died before it could be done

-she's shown embracing him

Seated Sribe

Location: Old Kingdom Egypt

-more realistic (unlike Pharoah staues that were symbolic)

-Might be the scribe Kai

-advertises a life free of physical labor

-eyes seem to be in motion

-shows the Egyptian artists have different styles

Hatshepsut Kneeling

Location: New Kingdom Egypt

-her funeral temple is located a mile away form her tomb

-women could be pharoahs

-she looks like a man -(later in her career she looks like a woman)

-shown with pots probably for the Deities.

Akhenaten and his Family

Location: New Kingdom Egypt

-Akhenaten married his daughter

-their religion was null and void- only 1 god mattered that was the sun god

-made a state based on monotheism

-name means "Servant of the Son"

-children are naked and portrayed as fidgety.

-casual maybe to convert people

Funeral Mask of Tutankhamun

Location: New Kingdom, Egypt

-King Tut died when he was 18 so his tomb wasn't ready so he was burried in someone else's tomb.

-first undisturbed tomb, 5000 objects in his tomb

-this mask if one of the objects in his tomb

-made out of gold

-was placed over his mummified body

Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel

Location: Abu Simbel,New Kingdom Egypt

-dedicated to Ramses and the Egyptian Gods, Amun, Ra-Horakhyt, and Ptah.

-big Statue of him and gods

- small statues of his family members

 -the sun lights up his image on his birthday

Last Judgement Before Osiris from a Book of the Dead

Location: New Kingdom, Egypt

-Book of Dead- scrolls containing magical texts or spells.

-this one was created for a man named Hunefer

-shows three successive stages in his induction into the afterlife.

-Anubis weighs your heart against the feather of truth as one of the tests to enjoy the afterlife

-serves as a guide to the way to the after life.

Mummy Wrapping of a Young Boy

Location: Egypt, Roman Period

 -shows the amazing creation and skill going into it

-eyes are exagerated

-painter is trying to make it look like the person it is suppose to represent.

Reconstruction, "palace" Complex, Knossos

Location: Crete, Minoan

-very complex structure

-Palace= royalty, but there is no evidence of a king in the Minoan culture

-hundreds of rooms- seems to be made for a king

-very open- hints that they were not afraid of invaders (probably because they were on an island)

-Was the Labyrinth "House of Double Axes" (in the Minataur story)

-Bulls were the state animal

Young Girl Gathering Saffron, Wall Painting (fresco)

Location: Minoan

-women had white skin (men had black skin)

-children have shaved heads with a pony tail (adults had black hair)

-saffron was valued as a yellow dye and had medicinal properties

-she is entering adolescents because her hair is beggining to grow out (that's why it's blue)

Bull Leaping (Fresco), Palace of Knossos,Crete, Minoan

-bull is the state animal

-minoans preferred profile or full-faced view 

-represents an initiation or ferility ritual

-bull is in "flying gallop" pose

"Mask of Agamemnon," Funerary Mask from the Royal Tombs of Mycenae

-only figure that has a mustache

-was not king Agamemnon even though it was found with his stuff

-probbaly either fake or the mustache was added later because the person who found it thought mustaches were manly.

Warrior Vase (Krater), Mycenae

-soldiers painted on them

-krater=a bowl for mixing water and wine

-woman pulling out her hair is mourning as the men march off to battle

Funerary Vase (Krater), Greek Geometric

-used reduced geometric shapes to make figures

-centaurs= half human, half horse

-depicts a funeral

-funeraary marker

-krater - punchbowl

Exekias, Ajax and Achilles Playing a Game (Amphora; Black Figure Painting), Greek Archaic

-all purpose storage jar

-Trojan War

-Achilles gets a 4, Ajax gets a 3- Achilles wins

-Achilles' Helmet= victory

-After the game they go back into battle, Achilles dies, Ajax commits suicide in despair.

Euphronios, Death of Sarpedon (Krater; Red figure Painting), Greek Archaic

-frozen in time

-Sarpedon is killed by the Greeks

-red figures- red figures stand out against a black background (the opposite of black figures)- helped create livelier human figures than blacks figure painting

-Euphronios- one of the best-known red figure artists

-this was a punch bowl used at a symposium- a social gatehring of  rich and powerful men

-Sarpedon is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman

-he is being carried to the underworld

Dying Warriors from the Temple of Aphaia, Greek Archaic

-trojan War

-older ones are smiling and less realistic

-newer ones are in agony and their fall is more realistic

-shows how quickly art is evolving

Berlin Kore, Greek Archaic

-once painted or guilded (traces of red)

-she is holding a pomegranate which is a symbol of Persephone who was abducted by Hades to the udnerworld and whose annual return brought the springtime.

Standing Youth (Anavysos Kouros), Greek Archaic

-more lifelike rendering of the human figure (usually they're made to look athletic)

-massive torso and limbs showing heroic strength

-symbolic type- not a specific individual