Art History (Sumer, Egypt, Greece, Rome)

• Great Ziggurat

• at Ur, ca. 2100 BCE

• Located in modern day iraq

• Dedicated to the moon goddess Nanna

• meant to be climbed + a way to connect/communicate  to the gods

• Votive statuettes

• Tell Asmar (modern day Iraq, ca. 2900 BCE)

• Made of alabaster, gypsum and limestone (not native to this area of sumar)

• buried under the floor of a temple to Abu or Placed in the temple at the  top of a ziggurat

• Stepped pyramid of King Djoser

• (saqqara, Egypt ca. 2600 BCE)

• Earliest known egyptian pyramid

• Very brittle + susceptible to tomb robbing

• Great Pyramids

• Giza Egypt ca. 2500 BCE

• built by pharaohs Kufu, Khafre, Menkaure

•  used to be covered in a smooth marble

• Why: 

  • 1. Protect mummy of the pharaoh

  • 2. Keep alive the memory of the pharaoh

• Inner Coffin of King Tut

• ca. 1320 BCE

• Mask of Tutankhamen

• c. 1320 BCE

• made of Solid gold + lapis comes from Afghanistan

• Funerary krater from the dipylon cemetery

• Athens ca. 750 BCE

• used as a tomb stone

• 2 friezes on vase:

  •  top on is a scene of mourning → corpses laid out with figures surrounding it, in mourning

  • Bottom is a scene showing the man’s life (warrior/warfare imagery)

•  Kouros

• from Attica ca. 600 BCE

• Nude Free standing statue representing male youth (created with a pink marble)

• Over life size + stepping pose + the greeks embraced nudity

• Kritios Boy

• Athens ca. 470 BCE

• representing nude male youth

• Carved from marble, he represents an athlete, significant change

•  beginning of contapposto/ asymmetry

•  more realistic shift in weight + more lifelike representation

• Charioteer of Delphi

• ca. 470 BCE (central greek)

• apart of a much larger group of statues that included horses

• chariot driver after winning a chariot race

• Shows self- restraint, opposite of hybris, (shift away archaic art style)

• Zeus from Artemision

•  ca. 460 BCE

• Bronze statue recovered from a shipwreck

• More advance depiction of musculature

• Artist still exaggerates certain features

• Discobolus (discus thrower) 

• original of ca, 450 BCE

• Artist: Myron

• Wanted to express the idea of overcoming limitations of the human body

• Doryphoros (spear-bearer)

• ca. 440 BCE

• Artist: Polykleitos

• Similar to the “Kritios Boy”

• The Parthenon

• Athenian Acropolis 447-432 BCE

• Most famous + largest greek temple 

• built on the acropolis by Iktinos + Kallikrates

• Parthenon included more doric and ionic

• Held the statue of athena parthenos

• Statue of Athena Parthenos

• by Phidias (438 BCE)

• Colossal sculpture

• Statue itself was burned, but we have a reconstruction

• Temple of Portunus

• Rome, late 2nd c. BCE

• Maybe devoted to Portunus (unsure)

• Familiar elements to the parthenon (Rectangular plan, triangular roof, columns, post + lintel)

• Ront du Gard, Nimes 

• Nimes (france), late 1st c, BCE

• roman aqueduct

• Sanctuary of Fortuna

• Palestrina, c. 100 BCE

• Built on natural hillside

• Created 7 terraces

• Used concrete + added greek columns (classicizing)

• “Colosseum” (Amphitheater of the Flavians)

• Rome, 80 CE

• many columns on every level, (lower levels are doric, next level are ionic, top level are corinthian) 

• Several stories of semicircular barrel vaults → used to support seats

• largest amphitheater in the roman world

• system of elevators

• used these battles as a spectacle or punishments

• Pantheon

• Rome, 125 CE

• Temple to ALL the gods

• Romans were interested in the psychological impact of architectural space

• At the top there is a rounded dome, pierced at the top with an “oculus” (eye), open to the elements