PHS A1

The basic goal of the art resource is to arrive at an understanding of art in its historical moment, taking what into consideration?

the formal qualities, the function of a work in its original context, the goals and intentions of the artist and patron, and the social position and perspectives of the audience in the work’s original time and place

Art history is closely related to other disciplines such as what?

anthropology, history, and sociology

Art history sometimes overlaps with what field?

aesthetics and art criticism

Art historians today define art very broadly and include in their inquires what?

nearly any kind of visual material manmade and invested with special meaning or looks appealing

In the past, art historians often limited their focus to “fine art,” which included what?

paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and architecture

Who was fine art produced for?

Appreciation by an audience who also understood these objects as works of art

Today we define art more broadly, taking into consideration objects that in the past were dismissed as “craft,” which include what?

textiles, pottery, and body art

Art historians also consider objects that may not be considered art by their intended audience, such as what?

mass-produced posters, advertisements, and even the design of ordinary household items

Art historians acknowledge that the meaning of a work of art is what?

not fixed, open to multiple interpretations

Differences such as what can have an impact on the construction of the meaning of a work of art?

social status, education, physical access, religion, race, and gender

What are the two ways art historians generally analyze works of art?

formal analysis and contextual analysis

What is formal analysis?

focusing on the visual qualities of the art itself that may reveal to us about its meaning

In which analysis are aspects of meaning intrinsic to the work of art?

formal

Formal analysis requires excellent skills in what?

observation and description

What is contextual analysis?

looking outside of the work of art in order to determine its meaning, examining the context and later contexts of the piece

Contextual analysis focuses on what contexts in which the work was produced?

cultural, social, religious, and economic

Aer historians may examine issues of what in contextual analysis?

patronage, viewer access, physical location in its original context, the cost of the work, and the subject matter relative to other artworks of the time period

Why do art historians emphasize a chronological development?

They assume that one generation of artists influences the following ones

Art historians often use what kind of study to understand unique features and stylistic changes?

comparative study

Art historians often begin their analysis with what?

a close examination of a work of art

Why is direct examination ideal?

much is lost when looking at a reproduction

Why is it common for art historians to settle for studying reproductions?

practical constraints

Art historians along with the artwork may seek to understand any associated works, such as what?

sketches and preparatory models

What kinds of written sources may art historians use for contextual info?

letters between artist and patron, commission, art criticism made during the time, documentation about materials such as cost or source, function of work.

Art historians also seek to situate the work in the context of what other art contexts?

literature, music, theater, and history

Why may artists rely on interviews with artists and consumers of works of art?

some cultures rely more on oral history than written documents

Guided by the field of anthropology, some art historians also use methods such as what to understand the context of a work of art?

participant observation

As an academic discipline, art history arose in what century?

mid-eighteenth century

Who sought to analyze historical and contemporary art in ‘Natural History?’

ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE)

During the Renaissance, who gathered the biographies of great Italian artists in ‘The Lives of the Artists'?’

author and artist Giorgio Vasari (1511-74)

Modern art history was strongly influenced by who?

eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy

Who shifted away from Vasari’s biographical emphasis to a rigorous study of stylistic development as related to historical contexts?

German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68)

Art history has been revised by who that noted that traditional versions of art history focus on white men?

feminist historians

Art history expanded its scope and includes what methods and viewpoints?

Marxist, feminist, and psychoanalytic

The concern with great artistic geniuses and masterpieces has lessened as the full range of what has come to view?

visual culture

What are examples of enduring materials that remain for today’s study?

stone, metal or fired clay

What has an major impact on preservation?

environmental conditions

T/F papyrus is delicate

true

Why is there a greater emphasis on Western cultures in art history?

their art has been preserved and discovered the most

sites in Central and South America have been one of what?

exploitation and destruction as people carelessly take artifacts to sell them on the international market in antiquities

Where are Chauvet Caves located?

in southeastern France

When were the Chauvet Cave paintings discovered?

1994

The Chauvet Cave paintings date from what period and are placed in what time frame?

30,000 BCE - Old Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic Period)

Except for a minimal use of yellow, what colors are the paintings in the Chauvet Cave?

red ochre and black charcoal

What are the animals in Chauvet Cave?

horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, and mammoths

Additional cave paintings have been discovered in France and Spain, with which being the most famous?

Lascaux and Altamira

What animals are in the Lascaux and Altamira caves?

horses, bears, lions, bison, mammoths, and outlines of human hands

Initially, what did scholars think of cave drawings before later studies proved the skill within an established tradition?

it was spontaneous scribbling

The artists in the Lascaux and Altamira caves used what ochre along with black outlines with charcoal?

red and yellow

What do we assume the artwork in the Caves were used for?

hunting ceremonies or other ritual behavior

Aside from the cave art, what other artworks are well known from the Old Stone Age?

small, stone female figures with exaggerated bellies, breasts, and pubic areas

When were the Venus of Willendorf probably created?

28,000-25,000 BCE

How tall are the Venus of Willendorf?

4 and 1/8th inches high

In contrast to the exaggerated parts, what parts are undefined, barely visible, and missing in the Venus of Willendorf respectively?

face, arms, feet

What are the Venus of Willendorf presumed to be used for?

fertility figures

During the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic Period), what did the climate do?

warmed

During the warming Middle Stone Age, what did cave dwellers do?

move out of caves into rock shelters

Paintings in rock shelters during the Middle Stone age have been found where?

eastern Spain

When were the Middle Stone Age rock paintings presumed to be made?

7000-4000 BCE

What sets rock paintings apart from cave paintings?

portray humans both in groups and alone

Where was the one human figure painting in the Old Stone Age?

Lascaux

What is a common motif across human depictions in rock paintings?

humans dominating animals

The art forms linked with the New Stone Age (Neolithic Period) are what?

rings of rough-hewn stones located in Western Europe

When are the rough-hewn stones of the New Stone age dated to be?

As early as 4000 BCE

The stones used in the New Stone Age were how tall and heavy?

17 ft tall and 50 tons

Historians call the strewn stones megaliths, which mean what?

great stones

The most well known strewn stone formations is where?

Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England

When was Stonehenge believed to be built?

2100 BCE

Stonehenge features concentric rings made with what?

sarsen stones and smaller bluestones indigenous to the region

How is Stonehenge formatted?

outermost ring has huge sarsen stones in post and lintel construction. Next ring is bluestones which encircle a horseshoe-shaped row of the largest 5 lintel-topped sarsen stonest. Outside the formation to the Northeast is the vertical heel-stone

the heel-stone marks the point at which the sun rises on what?

the midsummer solstice

Usually, art thrives in what?

highly organized cultures with stable population centers that house ruling classes to support artists

Many extant artifacts come from what places of natural concealment?

burial chambers, caves, and tombs

Civilizations that arose in Mesopotamia in the valley between what rivers developed similar writing and art with Egypt?

Tigris and Euphrates

Mesopotamia formed in a valley without natural barriers that protected Egypt, which left them what?

vulnerable to invasion, and thus the history is one of successive conquest and destruction

From around what year did the Sumerians in Mesopotamia create impressive sculptures and buildings?

4000 BCE

What was a central aspect of Sumerian life?

religion

Sumerians built massive what at the centers of their cities?

temples

Sumerians built less complex platform structures that evolved over time into the stepped pyramids called what?

ziggurats

Around what year did the cities of Sumer come under the rule of the Sargon of Akkad?

2334 BCE

T/F Although the Akkadians spoke a diff language than the Sumerians, they assimilated Sumerian culture

true

With the Akkadian dynasty, loyalty to the city-state was supplanted by loyalty to who?

the king

The art during 2334 BCE tends to reflect what?

monarchy with Akkadian rulers in freestanding and relief sculptures

Around what year did Akkadian rule end as the Guti invaded and took control?

2150 BCE

What were the Guti?

barbarous mountaineers

About 2100 BCE, the cities of Sumer reasserted control, and a Neo-Sumerian ruler was established as who?

King of Ur

What was the greatest work of the era from 4000-2100 BCE?

ziggurats

The ziggurats functioned primarily as temples but also served as what?

administrative and economic centers

Around what year did Hammurabi, king of Babylonia, centralize power in Mesopotamia?

1792 BCE

What was Hammurabi’s legacy

left the Code of Hammurabi as the oldest legal code in history

The best known artwork during the period of Hammurabi exists where and depicts what?

Louvre Museum and relates to his code of law

The stone-stele about Hammurabi’s code is carved with what at the top?

high relief sculpture

The stone stele located in Louvre onto which Hammurabi’s code is carved with a sculpture in high relief at the top depicts what?

Hammurabi receiving inspiration for his code from the sun-god, Shamash

While the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian cultures grew in southern Mesopotamia, who dominated the north?

Assyrians

from what years were the Assyrian the most powerful civilization in the Near East?

900-600 BCE

Among the most notable of Assyrian artworks are what?

relief carvings depicting battles, sieges, and hunts

In what century did Assyrian hold on power weaken?

7th century

after the Assyrians got weakened, from what years did Babylonia again become the dominant force in the region?

612-538 BCE

During Babylonia’s reign of power in NORTHERN Mesopotamia, what 2 works were constructed?

the hanging gardens of Babylon and the Ishtar Gate

What was the Ishtar Gate?

the gateway to the great ziggurat of the temple of Bel