AP Art History - Ancient Near East, Egypt, and Etruria (Questions)

(Ancient Near East) What form of government did most of Mesopotamia use?

city-states

(Ancient Near East) What was Mesopotamian art inspired by?

religion and kings, who often assumed divine attributes

(Ancient Near East) What kind of stylistic conventions were used in Mesopotamia?

hierarchy of scale, registers, stylized human forms

(Ancient Near East) What kind of architecture was in Mesopotamia?

ziggurats and palaces

(Ancient Near East) Who was Persepolis defeated by?

Alexander the Great

(Ancient Near East) Where was the Sumerian White Temple in modern Iraq found in the city?

center of the city

(Ancient Near East) What was the purpose of the Sumerian White Temple?

a place to worship gods only for priests or elites

(Ancient Near East) What were the two functions of the Code of Hammurabi?

record of 300 laws given to Hammurabi by Shamash the sun god and gives Hammurabi the right to rule

(Ancient Near East) Of what culture were the Lamassu?

Assyrian

(Ancient Near East) What was the purpose of the Lamassu?

to guard the gate of the palace

(Ancient Egypt) What factors influenced art in Ancient Egypt?

geographic isolation, economic security, hierarchical society, building materials, belief in an after-life, and desire for permanence and order

(Ancient Egypt) What is the purpose of the Palette of Narmer?

commemorates the unification of upper and lower Egypt

(Ancient Egypt) What was the purpose for the sculpture of an Egyptian?

to create a place to hold the ka

(Ancient Egypt) What was the purpose for frescoes in Egypt?

to depict activities the deceased would enjoy in the afterlife

(Ancient Egypt) What did Egyptians believe about the afterlife?

existence continues into the afterlife

(Ancient Egypt) Why was a pyramid chosen for its form?

most stable geometric form and an abstracted image of rays emitted by the sun god Ra

(Ancient Egypt) What was the purpose of a mortuary temple?

a place of worship of deceased king, depository for food, and objects offered to the dead monarch

(Ancient Egypt) What was the purpose of the Sphinx?

to guard the pyramids from thieves

(Ancient Egypt) How were Sphinx fierce?

brains of a human and the strength of a lion

(Middle and New Kingdom) What was the purpose of temples?

worship patron god and tomb in one's honor after death

(Middle and New Kingdom) Who was Hatshepsut?

first achievement of a woman celebrated in art history

(Middle and New Kingdom) What were artists and patrons looking for when choosing materials for their funerary statues?

expensive (show off wealth) and durability (ka to land if mummy destroyed)

(Middle and New Kingdom) What was Tutankhamun's tomb made of?

gold (flesh of the Gods)

(Middle and New Kingdom) What was the function of the Book of the Dead?

a collection of mortuary texts made up of spells placed in tombs and believed to protect and aid the deceased in the hereafter

(Middle and New Kingdom) What was the significance of scales in the Book of the Dead?

to weigh the heart (if it was lighter than a feather, the soul could live forever in paradise with Osiris)

(Etruscans) Where did the Etruscans live?

Italy (Etruria) before the arrival of the Romans

(Etruscans) How were Etruscan women treated?

equally with men

(Etruscans) What was the significance of a red door in Etruscan art?

soul of the deceased can depart for the afterlife through it