Quiz 2 - Art History 1

Ancient Greece: Mimesis - Architecture; Early Buddhist Art

Mimesis

Imitative of nature

Cultural Revativism

Truth is relative to a specific culture

• Metropolitan Kouros

• Archaic Period

• Greece

• Sculpture in the Round - detailed all the way around

• About 6’4”, so life-sized

• Kouros = young man

  • Kore = young woman

• Male nudity is heroic in Ancient Greece

• Most likely painted at one point

• Associated with fertility and male continuity

• Considered to be the masculine ideal

• The fact that he is nude serves to remove him from a specific time or place

• Peplos Kore

• Archaic Period

• Greece

• found on the acropolis in Athens

• 48 in tall

• Kore = young woman

  • always clothed

• She’s named after the garment she’s wearing: a peplos

• sculpted from marble

• She had a headdress

• Encaustic: a technique of painting using pigments mixed in hot wax

• Sculpture in the round: detailed all the way around 3D

• Doryphorus

  • by Polykleitos

• Classical Period

• Greece

• Doryphorus means spear-bearer

• Contrapposto: a way of representing the human body so that weight appears to be borne on one leg

• Later Roman marble copy bc it was originally cast bronze

  • Some type of support thing usually means Roman marble copy

• Sculpture in the Round: detailed all the way around

• Muscular form, heroicly nude = athletic figure

• Aphrodite of Knidos

  • by Praxiteles

• Classical Period

• Greece

• changes the way Greeks thought about female nudity

• He would make the statues before they were commissioned

  • Marble was expensive, so he was most likely rich

• First life-sized female nude statue in Greek art

• Sculpture in the Round: detailed all the way around/ 3D

• Venus Pudica = modest Venus

• Roman marble copy bc there’s a support

• Really popular when it was created, very realistic

• Mimesis: Imitative of nature

• Laocoön and His Sons

  • by Hagesandros, Polydoros, and Athanadoros

• Hellenistic Period

• Rhodes

• Laocoön is the priest who warned the Trojans not to accept the horse

  • so the gods sent sea snakes to kill him and his sons bc he was going to ruin the plan

• Designed to be inset so that you couldn’t really see the back of the sculpture

• Nike of Samothrace

• Hellenistic Period

• Samothrace

• Nike = victory

• 8ft tall

• Victory monument to commemorate a naval victory, so she’s on the head of a ship like she just landed there to represent victory

• wet drapery = technique of clothing that she’s wearing

• emphasis on drama and dramatics

• Acropolis: city on a hill

• Classical Period

• Greece

• Was the city of Athens

• It was dedicated to the Goddess Athena

• Destroyed by the Persians

• Pericles proposed that it be rebuilt even grander as an offering to the gods

• Made of marble, gold, and ivory

• Parthenon

• Classical Period

• Greece

• Immense calculative skill as well as administrative skill

• Had a colossal sculpture of Athena in the Parthenon

  • Reconstruction in Nashville, Tennessee

  • Made of gold and ivory

• Originally had 92 relief metopes

• No evidence of it being used for rituals, more so a place of honor and remembrance

• Has Doric Orders

• Lapith Fighting a Centaur

• Classical Period

• Greece, Parthenon

• metope

• Relief Sculpture; carved and projects from the stone

• The ones that are animal passion vs. reason survived the best

  • survived bc of the building's afterlife of the building, as a Christian church; the ones that could be used in Christian stories weren’t destroyed

• Marshalls and Young Women

• Classical Period

• Greece, Parthenon

• Represents the Pan-Athenian Procession, which happened every 4 years

• Started just outside the city

• Women were selected to bring the statue of Athena new peplos

• Would’ve been brilliantly painted

• Relief Sculpture: a carving that projects from the surface

• North Porch, Erechtheion

• Classical Period

• Greece

• Housed the wooden statue of Athena that was used for the Pan-Athenian Procession

• Altar to Poseidon in recognition of Poseidon and Athena fighting over who would be the Patron of Athens

• Location of a sacred spring dedicated to King Erectheus

• Has Ionic Orders

• Temple of the Olympian Zeus

• Hellenistic Period

• Greece

• Commissioned by a ruler after the death of Alexander the Great

• Has Corinthian orders; its capitals are extremely detailed and intricate

• Only used in the interior of buildings until the Hellenistic Period

The Four Truths

• Life is suffering

• The cause of suffering is desire

• The cause of desire must be overcome

• When desire is overcome, there is no more suffering

• The Great Stupa

• Stupa: a structure in the shape of a hemispherical mound that functions as a funerary monument to the Buddha (Sanskrit word for mound)

• The dome shape is meant to represent a body seated in meditation

• They developed as a way for pilgrims to get closer to the Buddha

• The railing at the top is

• Each of the 4 entrances represents the 4 major points in Buddha’s life: birth, enlightenment, first sermon, nirvana

• Circumambulation: circle the building on foot (clockwise) ie. how they pray

• Lion Capital from Sarnath

• Buddhist Period

• India

• Capital: the uppermost part of the column

• 7ft tall

• Wasn’t a load-bearing column

• The Great Stupa (Stupa 1) Sanchi

• Buddhist Period

• India

• diameter 120ft, encircled by a stone railing

• East Torana at the Great Stupa

• Buddhist Period

• India

• continuous Narratives: tells a story

• 35ft long, 8ft tall

• The Great Departure

• East Torana at the Great Stupa

• Buddhist Period

• India

• Standing Buddha

• Kushan Period

• Pakistan

• Gandhara Style

• Standing, contrapposto: weight appears to be on one leg

• Characteristics of Buddha

  • urna: the third-eye thing

  • Ushnisha: elongated ears

• Bodhisattva Maitreya

• Kushan Period

• Pakistan

• Gandhara Style: wet drapery, international style, inspired by Greek statues

• They postpone their nirvana to help everyone achieve enlightenment

• Bodhisattvas are dressed too fancy but they kind of look like Buddha

• Reclining Couple on a Sarcophagus

• Etruscan Period

• Italy

• Rich people ate reclined

• Life Sized Ceramic culture which shows incredible skill from the Etrucans

• Cermaics:

• Burial Chamber at Cerveteri

• Etruscan Period

• Italy

• We know what Etruscan homes looked like because they’re burial grounds look like houses

• Head of a Man

• Roman Republic Period

• Italy

• bronze

• Most likely used to be a full-length statue, but if the bottom was damaged, it probably got cut off during the Baroque period

• The purpose of showing him older is to show they have wisdom, knowledge, and experience

• He’s wearing a toga, which is what government officials wore

• Aulus Metellus (The orator)

• Roman Repubic Period

• Italy

• Orator means Speaker; we can tell because of his hand gestures

• We know the name because it was inscribed on his boot

• Augustus of Primaporta

• Roman Empire Period

• Italy

• Pontimus Maximus

  • Secular and religious leader

  • means: High Priest

• After he dies, he gets deified: elevated to the status of a god after his death

• The baby riding a dolphin represents Cupid; it could be an attribute, which is something that represents a god

  • in this case he’s reinforcing that he’s a son of Venus by having Cupid next to him, who is also Venus’s son

• Would have been painted; his armor depicts one of his military victories

• The armor shows he’s a military leader, as well as a political leader because of his hand gesture and the toga around his waist

• signifies a shift because usually they are depicted old in Rome not young like this statue

• Gemma Augusta

• Roman Empire Period

• Italy

• Organized in registers: horizontal bands of organization

• Augusta is being crowned as a victor

• Cameo: a carved gemstone

• The woman he’s seated next to Roma, the personification of Rome

• The eagle under him represents imperial Rome and Jupiter

• Art Mobilier: portable art

• The bottom half reinforces Roman victory, while the top half represents gentle succession

• Column of Trajan

• Roman Empire Period

• Italy

• It is a spiral of a continuous narrative, telling a story that goes all the way around and shows Trajan’s military victory

• His cremated remains are at the base of the column

• The hill used to be 100 Roman feet tall; that’s how much land was moved to build the column in the middle of the Trajan Square

• Arch of Titus

• Roman Empire Period

• Italy

• It commemorates a military victory, in particular his victory in Jerusalem

• There’s a relief sculpture on the inside showing his victory. A relief sculpture is a carving that projects from the surface

• Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)

• Roman Empire Period

• Italy

• Started building under another emperor but was completed under Titus

• Built as a gift to the people

• They had a party to celebrate, and they killed over 9,000 animals and 2,000 people in the name of entertainment

• Everybody had access to the theater; all were welcome up to 55,000 spectators could fit

• Pantheon

• Roman Empire Period

• Italy

• Built by Emperor Hadrian, who popularized the beard

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