AP Art History Unit 1 SLIDES **

Order (not true to Slide Order) - Ancient Near Eastern, Prehistoric, Egyptian

What is this?

What is this?

12 - White Temple & Ziggurat
3500 BCE
Mud Brick
Sumerian, Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq)

What’s important about this?

• Ziggurats were relgious structures (think about Tower of Babel)

• Ziggurats are often the focal point of a city and the theocratic political system, this one was dedicated to the sky god Anu

• The ziggurat used to have a white temple that was made with mud bricks covered with a layer white gypsum, no longer visible

What is this?

14 - Votive Figures from the Square Temple
Found in Sumeria (now Iraq), 2,700 BCE
Statues carved in limestone or gypsum

What’s important about this?

• Handmade in various shapes and sizes

• Stands freely due to coneal shape

• Possibly made for people to pray “in spirit” while they were out

• Large eyes likely symbolic representation

What is this?

16 - Standard of Ur
Found in Sumeria (now Iraq), 2,500 BCE.
Box made of wood, shell, lapis lazuli and limestone

What’s important about this?

• Has writing in cuneiform

• 2 long sides depicting “Peace” and “War”

  • Peace: Displays theocracy + a leader on the top, domesticated animals and a “middle class”, poor on the bottom.

  • War: Shows the original leader with warriors on top, middle has warriors with some weaker people, bottom shows the defeated enemies

What is this?

19 - The Code of Hammurabi
Babylon. Susian, (now Iraq) 1,775 BCE.
Basalt
Hammurabi on the left, Shamash on the right

What’s important about this?

• Two horizonal registers, top has high relief and laws are written in cuneiform in bottom

  • Displays a set of laws with many harsh punishments

• The art shows sun/justice god Shamash, Hammurabi recieves law from him and hierachy of scale makes them almost equal

What is this?

Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II
Found in Dur Sharrukin, Neo-Assyrian (modern Khorsabad, Iraq)
715 BCE
Alabaster

What’s important about this?

• Lamassu: person + horse + winged animal

  • Traditionally intimidating “guardians”

• Sculpture-like aspects, but double-aspect relief

• 5 legs from being in composite views

What is this?

Audience Hall (Apadana) of Darius and Xerxes Persepolis, (Iran) Persian, 500 BCE Limestone

What’s important about this?

• Apadana = “audience hall“ in Persian

• Hypostyle hall, sacred govt. grounds

• Has a frieze of Persians as their empire grew, showing them not forcing assimilation

  • + Animal fight to show their status

• In ruins today

What is this?

1 - Apollo 11 Stones
Namibia, 25,000 BCE. Charcoal on Stone

What is important about this?

• Could have been designed as communication between hunters or as hunting magic

• Silhouette of a creature that has the features of many animals, is in profile