Midterm 2 (North America to Islamic Art)

Poverty Point, Louisiana

1600 - 1100 BCE

Late Archaic

In Mississippi River Valley

• Pre-agricultural monumental architecture!

• clearly religious / ritualistic purpose

Great Serpent Mound

Ohio River Valley

c. 300 BCE

Adena culture

• land art

Mica Cut-Outs

Hopewell Culture

Late Woodland Period

200 BCE - 700 CE

• evidence of long-distance trade (mica from N. Carolina) (exotic material)

Cahokia, Monk’s Mound

Illinois

Mississippian Period

1100 CE

• Artificial mound (earthwork)

Copper Plates (Eagle warriors)

Etowah, Georgia

c. 1200 CE

hammered copper distinctive in Mississippian culture

• found in etowah

• Found in Mississippian valley

• Copper comes from Michigan and traded around (long distance trade)

• Often representations of eagle warriors (Rogan plate famous from etowah)

• Distinctive representation of Mississippian iconography

• Part of the SE ceremonial complex (visual culture)

  • Probably had to do with warfare culture at the time

Spiro tomb, shell carvings

Craig Mound, Spiro, Oklahoma

c. 1200 — 1400 CE

San Lorenzo

The first Mesoamerican city?

1200 — 900 BCE

Olmec Colossal Head Sculptures

~1000 - 600 BCE

San Lorenzo earliest site

• Statues of historically significant ppl like rulers

• Helmet from traditional ball game

• Basalt (volcanic) far away

Maize God

• probably most significant deity in Mesoamerica

Jade

• Olmec jade masks used for ritual purposes

• lots of jade

Teotihuacan

Central Mexico

200 BCE — 600 CE

• urban density

• grid layout

• “Street of the Dead”
  Apartment compounds

Mural Painting

Teotihuacan

200 bce - 600 CE

• painted on walls of apartment compounds

• differed in style from mural paintings at san bartolo (pre-classical mayan)

Moon Pyramid

• aligns with mountain, eclipsing it when approached

• Street of the Dead in front

Sun pyramid

both: 100–500 CE (peak Teotihuacan)

El Mirador

Guatemala

c. 100 BCE

• reconstruction

• preserved under layers the Maya built on top

El Tigre Temple Complex

El Mirador

c. 300-100 BCE

• huge scale

• preserved under layers the Maya built on top

Danta Pyramid

Stucco Masks/decoration

Murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala

Pre-classic Maya

c. 300-100 BCE

• organic paintings found on the walls

• Religious, mythological scenes

• Animate maize, death and rebirth, the seasons

Tikal, Temple I pyramid

Guatemala

Classical Mayan

c. 800 CE

• suddenly abandoned

• Temple I pyramid is a notable tall, skinny pyramid that sticks out

Yaxchilan

Lintel 24

c. 720 CE

Mexico

Bristish Museum, London

Hieroglyphs, Syllabic Writing (Mesoamerica)

Tenochtitlan

c. 1519

Pre-Columbus

• Modern-day Mexico City

• At center of lake texcoco

• Highly sophisticated and praised by Cortes

The Templo Mayor (Huey Teocalli)

(Great Temple)

Tenochtitlan

C. 1500 CE

• Left — Tlaloc: god of rain and agriculture

• Right — Huitzilopochtli: patron god of the Mexica (a deified ancestor?)

• Coatepec “snake mountain” — mythic birthplace of Huitzilopochtli, defeat and dismemberment of Coyolxauqui

  • Architecture as symbol

    Architecture as replication of nature

    Architecture as “real” mythic space

Sacred Precinct

a walled Aztec religious complex in Tenochtitlán that contained many temples and buildings. It was the largest place of worship and the starting point for ceremonial processions.

Coyolxauhqui Stone

Templo Mayor

c. 1500

• dismembered moon goddess defeated by the sun god (Huitzilopochtli) at Snake Mountain

The Nuremburg Map of Tenochtitlan

1524

• based on eye witness accounts of Cortes

• Florida in bottom left

• European depiction of the sophistication of Tenochtitlan

Calendar Stone (Piedra del Sol)

Tenochtitlan

c. 1503 CE

• center is Moteuczoma II as Huitzilopochtli (sun god)

• Identified by hieroglyphs by the face

• The king is the cosmos, he is time (importance)

Shimao (Neolithic fortress)

Shaanxi Province

Late Fortified Neolithic Center

ca. 5000 — 2000 BCE

• jade axe found there

• important new example of early Chinese monumental structures

Yangshao Culture

Neolithic

5000 — 3000 BCE

• art resembles Geometric Greece

Liangzhu

• Neolithic Chinese culture

• Not known for its ceramics!! Difference from yangshao

• geographically slightly different

• Known for jade carving!!! Jade cong!

Shang Dynasty; Anyang

ca. 1600 — 1050 BCE

• bronze dings

• oracle bone writing

Bronze vessels and casting

Bronze Bells

Tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng

Zhou Dynasty

433 BCE

Oracle bones, divination, early writing

Qin dynasty

• First emperor of China: Qin Shi Huangdi

• Giant tomb complex near Xi’an

  • Tomb itself was never excavated

  • Most notable feature of the complex: Terracotta warriors!

Tomb of Qin Shi Huang Di

Xi’an, China

ca. 200 BCE

Terracotta Warriors

ca. 200 BCE

Xi’an, China

• protect Qin Shi Huangdi in the afterlife

• individually crafted and fired

Mohenjo-daro

Pakistan

ca. 2500 BCE

Indus Portrait of “Priest King”

c. 1950 BCE

Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan

Steatite

National Museum, Karachi

Indus Valley Script

Undeciphered

Ashoka the Great

Pillars of Ashoka

The Edicts of Ashoka

• Dhamma (piety), ethics, and Buddhist ideology

The Great Stupa at Madhya Pradesh

3rd century BCE

• Buddha’s ashes housed within a stupa

  • the crossing of the mythical four great roads (four directions of space)

  • “hub of the wheel”

  • the place of Enlightenment

Angkor Wat

Cambodia, Khmer Empire

ca. 1150 CE

King Suryavarman I

• largest religious complex in the world

• “largest settlement complex in the Pre-Industrial World”

• represents the five-peaked Mount Meru

Cosmic plan

Mountains and four-sided cosmos

• Egypt

• Mesoamerica

• Stupas

• Chinese directional cosmology and colors

• Navajo directional cosmology

• Aztec calendar and Lakota directional cosmology

• Calendar stone and Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as visions of The Cosmic Model ca 1500

• Stone henge

Augustus of Primaporta

1st century CE

imperial rome

• Bronze original?

• accession in 27 CE

• compare to Doryphoros (Greek statue) → Contrapposto

• detailed breastplate: Parthian ruler on left and Roman general on right

  • restitution of Roman standards

• Cupid riding a dolphin at bottom of statue, descent from Venus and the gods (divine symbolism/legitimacy)

Ara Pacis Augustae “Altar of Augustan Peace”

dedicated 10 BCE

imperial rome

• Representation of a new political order

  • dedication 29 April 9 BCE coincides with 93rd iteration of Venus appearing as Morning Star at founding of Rome on 29 April 753 BCE

• temporal symmetry

  • aligned with Obelisk of Pharaoh Psametik II

• re-foundation of Rome

Barrel Vaults, Groin Vaults

• Major Roman technological innovations

  • Concrete

  • Arches (enabling vaults)

Pantheon

Imperial Rome

ca. 118 – 125 CE

• Oculus & Coffered Ceiling: 142 ft high, lets sunlight in at zenith/apex

  • play with light on surfaces/textures

  • Spherical shape of chamber

  • hemispheres

Arch of Titus

Rome

Flavian Dynasty

ca. 82 CE (restored 1821)

• The Senate and the Roman people (dedicate this) to the deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian

• Apotheosis of Titus

• Arch = Arc of Heaven

Fayum Mummy Portraits

Roman Egypt

1st–4th centuries CE

• Realistic, depicts person's actual features

• Feels not ancient! Almost feels like 1800s style

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

Bronze, originally gilded

ca. 176 CE

Imperial Rome

• Originally misattributed to be Constantine

• Displays Roman Power

Commodus as Hercules

192 CE

Imperial Rome

• Unlike marcus aurelius, this is Commodus commissioning a portrait of himself as Hercules

• Deifying himself as a god

• Idealized view of an emperor

• Displays Roman Power

Basilica

• from Palace to Church

• Basilica = “royal hall”

The Tetrarchs

ca. 300 CE

Imperial Rome

Carved from porphyry, quarried in Egypt

• Eastern inspired? Eyes are not naturalistic, kind of unusual and cookie cutter

• Increase in abstraction of portraiture

Papyrus

Arch of Constatine

Rome

312 — 315 CE

• Tondi — c. 130 — 138 CE

• Frieze — 312 — 315 CE

  • Constantine addressing the Roman people, Arch of Constantine, Rome, 315 CE

    • similar to Spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem frieze from Arch of Titus

• reused sculpture

St. Peter’s Basilica

Constantine (Byzantine)

modern-day Vatican City

320 - 327 CE

• longitudinal plan aligned with East-West line of Sun

  • sacred architecture reflects sacred astronomy

  • Eastward orientation: points directly to Constantinople (1º off)

• Built on tomb of St. Peter (martyred)

• Hypostyle hall influence (Egyptian)

• Karnak resemblance (Egypt) with alignment with Sun

Constantinople and Byzantium, 330 CE

• founding of “Nova Roma” or Constantinople at Byzantium

• Division of Roman Empire into East and West

The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)

• Eastward orientation, influences

• Greek language and culture

• Eastern tradition of Christianity (Greek Orthodox)

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul (Constantinople)

532 CE

• mimics other buildings

• symmetrical architecture → similar to Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat

  • symmetry of the world, cosmos, movement of the sun (in many cultures)

• Light from dome resembles Pantheon (playing with surfaces)

• Central and Longitudinal plans!

• Center of dome = center of the universe (words from Qu’ran here, Christian figures elsewhere)

Justinian and Theodora

Emperor Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and Attendants

San Vitale, Ravenna

526 — 547

• reigned 527 — 565

• power of icons

• wanted to reclaim the Mediterranean/North Africa

Theodora and Attendants

San Vitale, Ravenna

526 — 547

• power of icons

• important leader alongside Justinian

Church of San Vitale

Ravenna, Italy

526 — 547

Byzantine

• central plan

• most important church in Ravenna

• has mosaics of Justinian I and Theodora

Icons and iconoclasm

Aniconism in Judaisim and Islam

Triumph of Orthodoxy

843 CE

British Museum

• worship icons of religion

• previously, iconoclasm disallowed images of religious figures (8-9th centuries)

Scrolling vine motif, detail of mosaics

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

687-692

• Arabesque — detailed design used in Islamic art (aniconistic) to decorate surfaces

  • Byzantine Influences: decoration (mosaics), plan, use of script

  • appropriation of ancient motifs and materials (c.f. Hagia Sophia)

Dome of the Rock

Jerusalem

687 — 692

• central plan — resembles Church of San Vitale

Mihrab from the Madrasa Imami,

Isfahan, Iran, ca. 1354

Ornament and Script

• Mihrab - niche facing Mecca and the Kaaba (qibla) for prayer

Great Mosque

Córdoba, Spain

8th — 10th centuries CE

• has a mihrab

• horseshoe arches

Dome of the Great Mosque

Córdoba, Spain, 961-965

Page with Kufic script from an Abbasid Qur’an

9th century

• gold leaf on dyed vellum.

• Kufic script — abstracted/more artistic arabic calligraphy

Plate with Kufic Border

From Iran

c. 10th century

• Kufic Script — artistic calligraphy

• “Planning before work protects you from regret;

  good luck and well-being”

• embue daily items with excerpts of good luck (??)

The Alhambra (Palace)

Granada,Spain

13th-14th centuries

• NOT a mosque

• EVERY surface decorated (arabesque)