UNIT 2: ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

The White Temple and the Anu Ziggurat

3500-3000 BCE

Uruk (Iraq)

Mud brick, pyramid stepped tower, sacred space, luxury

Statues of Votive Figures

2700 BCE

Square Temple Eshununna (Iraq)

Gypsum, shell, black limestone, fine too incising, surrogates to worship in afterlife

The Standard of Ur

The Royal Tomb of Ur (Iraq)

2600-2400 BCE

Wood inlaid with shell, limestone, red limestone (mixed media), one side shows war, other side peace, horizontal registers, hierarchy of size

The Code of Hammurabi

Babylonia (Iran)

1790-1750 BCE

Basalt, inscribed cuneiform, code with list of rulings, Shamash/God (right) is giving Hammurabi (left) the right to rule

Lamassu from the Citadel of Sargon ll

Due Sharrukin (Iraq)

720-705 BCE

Alabaster (stone), winged bull with human heads, used for intimidation, subtractive, cuneiform inscriptions

Audience Hall (apadana) of Darius and Xerxes

Persepolis (Iran)

Limestone, Greeks, Egyptians and Babylonians helped build for intimidation purposes, ceremonial space, hypostyle halls (room full of decorative columns)

Tutankhamen’s Tomb, innermost coffin

1323 BCE

Valley of the kings, Egypt

Gold with inlay of enamel and semi precious stones

Enamel work: Colored glasses, fused to a metal base

Last judgment of hunefer, from his tomb

1275 BCE

New kingdom (Page from the book of the dead)

Paper papyrus scroll

Book of the dead: Collection of magical spells and prayers, simultaneous narrative reception of same figure

Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall

1550 BCE; Hall 1250 BCE

Karnak, near Luxor Egypt

Cut sand, stone, mud brick

Pylon: Monumental gate

Clerestory: Source of interior light

Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

1473 to 1458 BCE

Near Luxor Egypt

Sandstone, partially carved into a rock face, red granite, she assumed the authority of a king

Visual language of power:

• Headdress

• Beard

• De- emphasized breasts

Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters (house alter)

1353 to 1335 BCE

Amarna period, 18th dynasty

Limestone in which had sunken relief (carved into), twisted perspective, symbolism

Curvilinear- Curved lines

Elongated- Long limbs

CONTEXT:

• Declared himself to be the soul profit of Aten (sun god)

• Establishes new religion: Monotheism, not polytheism

• New religion requires new visual language

Palette of King Narmer

3000 to 2920 BCE

Predynastic Egypt

Greywacke, low relief, horizontal registers, symbolism, canon

Seated Scribe

2620 to 2500 BCE

Saqqara, Egypt

Painted limestone, found in tomb

King Menkaure and Queen

2490 to 2472 BCE

Saqqara, Egypt

Painted limestone, found in tomb

Great Pyramids (Menkaura, Khafre, Khufu) And the Great Sphinx

2552 2490 BCE

Giza, Egypt

Cut limestone

Mastaba- grave marker with underground tomb

Stepped pyramid- Grave marker with underground chamber

Grandfather, father, son pyramids, Forced labor (2000 men)

Archaic

Sixth century BCE

Walking motion, uncomfortable

Classical

Fifth century BCE

Natural

Hellenistic

4th to 2nd century BCE

Crazy

Athenian Agora

Athens, Greece

Archaic-Hellenistic

600 BCE to 150 CE

Contrapposto- Hip at angle, weight on front leg

Anavysos Kournos and Replos Kore From the Acropolis

Both:

Arcade Greek, 530 BCE, Athens, Greece, Marble with remnants of paint

Anavysos Kournos: grave marker

Replos Kore: goddess? Offering to gods?

Niobid Krater

460- 50 BCE

Ancient Greece

Clay, red figure with white details, Early classical pose, backside of vase: murder scene

NO…

• Hierarchy of size

• Horizontal registers

• Sequential ordering

The Acropolis

447 to 410 BCE

Athens, Greece

Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates

Biggest public building project, Pericles-city planner, Open, democratic, religious, luxury space

The Parthenon

Athens, Greece

447 to 410 BCE

Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates

Marble

Part 1: Trauma: Left alone for 30 years, then buried it

Part 2: Building: Rebuilt with original materials

Part 3: Sculpture: Retold their defeat through myth

Inner room- cella, Where all valuables were stored, Columns around perimeter, colonnade, peristyle

Parthenon is DORIC with a few IONIC columns inside

Nike Adjusting her Sandal

The Acropolis, Athens Greece (Temple of Athena Nike)

410 BCE

Marble, early Hellenistic, parapet: Low protective wall, High relief

Grave stele of Hegeso

Attributed to Kallimachos

410 BCE (Classical)

Marble and paint, varying relief, hierarchy of size, pedestal to show power

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Hellenistic Greece

190 BCE

Marble, naval triumph, standing on boat

The great altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon

Asia minor ( now turkey)

Hellenistic Greece

175 BCE

Motion, light versus dark, high relief

What were the Etruscans hugely influential in?

Temple design, gladiator compact, engineering, religious rituals

Sarcophagus of the Spouses

520 BCE

Found in Necropolis

Painted terracotta 

Funerary art

Temple of Minerva and sculpture of Apollo (sculpture is above pediment)

510 BCE

Veii, Italy 

Original temple: wood, mud brick, tufa, deep porches

Master sculptor Vulca

Vitruvius: roman architect, wrote about it in his book, De architectura

Tomb of Triclinium

480-470 BCE 

Tarquinia, Italy

Tufa and Fresco

Fresco: form of mural painting in which earth pigments are painted directly on fresh, wet, lime plaster

Last Supper

1495-98

Milan, Italy

Oil and Tempera on plaster 

Leonardo da Vinci 

Sfumato: smokey haze 

Location: one end of a monk’s dining hall 

Judas holds a bag of gold, proving his betrayal 

Geometry and balance begins 

1 point perspective: a vanishing point

Sistine Chapel ceiling

1508-1512

Vatican City, Rome, Italy

Michelangelo

Frescoes 

Patron: the Pope 

Tells many, many stories in horizontal registers

Sistine Chapel altar wall

1534-1541

Vatican City, Rome, Italy 

Michelangelo

Frescoes 

Patron: the Pope 

Large, chaotic crowds 

Shows resurrection, also hell 

School of Athens

1509-1511

Vatican City, Rome, Italy 

Raphael 

Fresco 

Patron: Pope Julius 2

Plato and (his student) Aristotle (in middle)

Venus of Urbino

1538 

Venice 

Titian 

Oil on canvas

Patron: the Duke of Urbino 

Ladies in the back are getting clothes for nude lady

Made for male gaze

Direct gaze, contemporary interior, upper class (servants)

Glazing: multiple layers of thin coats of paint (10-15) 

Balanced composition 

Marriage portrait? Painterly seduction? 

Head of a Roman Patrician

75-50 BCE 

Rome 

Marble, bust 

Verism: hyperrealism or exaggeration, a continuation throughout Rome 

Emphasized age

Augustus of Primaporta

Original Bronze: 20 BCE 

Marble: 1st century CE 

Rome 

Full body

Symbolism

Cupid and Aeneas: sons of Venus

Augustus is a descendant from the gods

Mythological references on Cuirass (breastplate)

Alexander Mosaic

100 BCE 

House of the Faun, Pompeii 

Republican Roman

Mosaic, roman copy of last Greek painting, hellenistic     

Battle of Issus, Alexander the Great (Greece) wins

Column of Trajan

113 CE 

Architect: Apollodorus of Damascus 

Imperial Roman 

Marble 

Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE), naturalistic

God of Danube River (where it occurred) 

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus

250-260 CE 

Marble 

Chaos

House of the Vettii

Destroyed 79 CE 

Pompeii, Italy

Cut stone and fresco

Built for climate, home of former slaves, used for living and conducting business

Many wall paintings

Illusionistic, atmospheric perspective

The Parthenon

447-410 BCE 

Athens, Greece 

Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates

Marble

1. Trauma: Left alone for 30 years, then buried it 

2. Building: Rebuilt with original materials 

3. Sculpture: Retold their defeat through myth 

Inner room: cella, where all valuables were stored 

Columns around perimeter 

Colonnade, peristyle 

Parthenon is DORIC with a few IONIC columns inside

Metope: a square space between triglyphs in a doric frieze

Triglyph: a tablet in a doric frieze with three vertical grooves

Frieze: a broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration, especially on a    wall near the ceiling

West Pediment: who would be city’s deity?, subordination of the figure to the frame 

East Pediment: birth of Athena

Parthenatheniac festival procession: the honoring of goddess Athena who had become the patron of Athens

Spear Bearer

Artist: Polykleitos

Original: c. 450–440 BCE

Roman marble copy of the Classical Greek bronze original

Seated Boxer

c. 100 BCE

Hellenistic Greece

Colosseum

70-80 CE 

Rome, Italy 

Flavian Amphitheater

Stone, concrete 

 ROMANS INVENTED CONCRETE

Keystone keeps arch in tact

From the arch, buildings can be expanded in tunnels 

Barrel or tunnel vault: series of arches 

Groin vault: two intersecting tunnels 

Colonnade: series of tunnels on top of each other 

Curving outer wall: three levels of arcade and attic story 

Classical orders: 

Corinthian- chaotic

Ionic- detailed 

Tuscan- simple 

Engaged columns- part of wall 

Forum of Trajin

The Forum of Trajan 

          106-112 CE

          Rome, Italy 

          Architect: Apollodorus of Damascus 

          Brick and concrete 

          Forum: civic space 

         Basilica: rectangular space that has double colonnades and a semicircle apse (in simpler terms, it is a rectangle space with two semicircles 

         Buttresses: support for arches 

Pantheon

118-125 CE 

          Imperial Rome 

         Concrete with stone facing 

         Portico: porch consisting of columns that support a roof dome

         Rotunda: space beneath a dome 

         Coffers: reduces the weight 

         Oculos: opening at top