Art History Exam

Neolithic

•  roughly 10,000 to 2,000 BCE

Also known as the New Stone Age. A global phenomenon not specific to one areaThis era marks the shift of human civilisation from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settled communities. This shift introduced pottery, weaving, and permanent architecture. 

stone henge

Neolithic

Location: Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England 

Date: c. 2550 - 1600 BCE

• An example of post-and-lintel architecture, which is a system where two upright stones (posts) support a horizontal stone (lintel) placed across the top 

• To make the structure, they used mortise and tenon joints, which is a peg-in-hole woodworking technique adapted to stone. They used this to lock the lintels into the posts. 

  • The lintels were slightly curved to form a perfect circle 

• The monument is aligned with the solar calendar:

  • On the summer solstice, the sun rises directly over the “heel stone”, as seen from the centre of the circle, which indicates a ritual, spiritual, or calendrical purpose 

• The construction lasted about 1500 years, starting as a simple ditch and bank enclosure ( henge) used for burials, and then transformed into the full structure 

  • The burials were mostly young men, thus raising the question of whether there was some hierarchy, honouring, or other reason for who was buried here

Figurine of a Woman from Syros

Neolithic Era

Location: Cyclades, an island chain in Greece, found on the island of Syros

Date: c. 2500 - 2300 BCE

• The figurine was from the Cycladic culture, a Neolithic culture in the Aegean Sea. 

• The figurine shows clear geometric abstraction, emphasising clean triangles, straight lines, and simplified planes 

  • The body is flat, the arms are tightly folded across the abdomen (always left over right), the feet point downward (it could not stand on its own), and the face is blank except for a prominent wedge-shaped nose. 

  • Emphasis on pubic triangles, and emphasized beasts/bellies; thus believed that they served as a sign of fertility or representation of a goddess meant to accompany the deceased in the afterlife 

• Most Cycladic figurines were found in graves, always women

• They look pristine white marble, but chemical traces suggest they may have been painted with bright pigments; eyes, jewellery, tattoos, and hair were added.

ANCIENT MESOPOTEMIA, architecture and artworks

4000 BC to 539 BC → covers current day iraq, syria, turkey 

• home to some of the world's earliest urban societies 

Architecture: 

• Massive, stepped pyramid towers that served as artificial mountains - served as a bridge between the heaves and earth = Ziggurats

• Early utilization of the true arch, barrel vaults, and buttressed walls to support large structures 

• Elaborate surface ornamentation using polychrome bricks 

Artworks: 

• Most art was made to honour Gods or show power to kings 

• Important figures were larger than less important to show hierarchical status

Head of an Akkadian ruler (Sargon I?)

ANCIENT MESOPOTEMIA, 2300-2200 BCE.copper, 30 cm

• Life-sized copper sculpture 

• debate whether it depicts Sargon of Akkad or his grandson Naram-Sin

• Hollow-cast using advanced metallurgy with empty eye sockets that used to be filled

• intentional damage to the eyes, ears, and beard

Stele of Hamurabi, King of Babylon

ANCIENT MESOPOTEMIA, (1700 BCE)

• 2.25 meters tall - black basalt monolith with ancient legal code 

• Depicts King Hammurabi standing on the left in a respectful posture before Shamash, the seated sun god and god of justice on the right

• Shamash extends a rod and a ring to the king, visually establishing that the laws are divinely inspired

• Regulates daily Babylonian life

NEO-ASSYRIAN and art

911-612 BCE

This was the height of the militaristic, centralised Neo- Assyrian empire, ruling over Mesopotamia, the Levant, Egypt, and parts of Anatolia, Persia, and Arabia. The empire collapsed after several civil wars, allowing a coalition of the Median Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire to destroy and conquer the empire.

Art:

• Usually a state of propaganda, imperial power, and royal ideology 

• Designed to intimidate foreign dignitaries, project authority, and celebrate triumphs of the king

Nimrod Palace, The Lion Hunt

NEO-ASSYRIAN,

Location: Northwest palace, Nimrud, (ancient Kahlu, modern-day Iraq)

Date: c. 8th-9th BCE

• Low relief, thus sculptures only slightly coming out from the background. 

• The walls of the palace were lined with orthostats (large upright stone slabs carved in relief). The panels were arranged like continuous strips to illustrate a chronological narrative of military victory and royal hunts. 

• The rleifs document a highly ritualised state specttale; captured Asiatic lions were kept in cages and released into a controlled, soldiers-walled arena for teh king to execute safely from his chariot using arrows and spears 

• In Mesopotamia culture teh lion represented cosmic chaos, wilderness, and threat to civilization. Therefore, the picture of the Assyrian king slaughtering lions shows his divine mandate to mainatn order on behalf of teh gods. 

• Neo-Assyrian art mixes strict stylsist choices with intense naturalism. 

  • Humans, especially teh king, are depicted with rigid, idelased conventions: stoic expressions, tightly graided and geometric beards, and exaggerated muscular arms 

  • Animals are carved with naturalims, depicting teh muscles, jaws,a nd againzing deaths of pierced and bleeding lions

NEO-BABYLONIAN and architecture

 626 BC to 539 BC 

→ current day iraqArchitecture: 

• Made of massive mud bricks 

  • relied heavily on sun-dried mud bricks for core structural mass

• polychrome glazed-brick surfaces 

  • featured bright, enameled blue and yellow glazed bricks

Ishtar Gate of Babylon

NEO-BABYLONIAN,  c. 550 BCE

• Giant archway into ancient babylon (now iraq) 

• Covered in cobalt blue pigment designed to imminent lapis lazuli

  • Jewel like sheen 

•  Lined with animal motifs used to protect the city 

• Roof and doors were made of cedar wood 

ETRUSCAN, and sculptures/statues

900 BCE to 27 BCE → pre rome - lived as an independent league 

sculptures/statues: 

• Most made from terracotta and bronze (never really used marble) 

• Meant to be lively and intimate - showcase everyday human emotions 

• Often religious or funerary

Sarcophagus of the Spouses

ETRUSCAN,c. 520-510 B.C.E

• Painted terracotta 

• Meant for funeral 

• Constructed from multiple pieces (hence the split down the middle) 

• Display archaic smile and almond eyes 

• Highlights the elevated social status, visibility, and equality of women in estruscan art vs. ex. Classical greek art 

  • Women were often seen out and about and were apart of everyday life

  • shows intimacy between amle and female, not often displayed either

ARCHAIC GREEK, sculptures/statues and architecture

800 BCE to 480 BCE

Sculptures/statues: 

• life-sized freestanding statues

  • Male figures (kouroi) were nude and athletic

  • female figures (korai) were clothed

• Rigid

• Symmetrical poses with one foot forward → borrowing proportions from Egyptian art

• Archaic smile often present 

• Nudity 

  • Males → nudity served as a symbol of civic status, heroic virtue, and athletic achievement for men, 

  • Women → nudity served as a symbol of prostitution etc. - societal norms required women to maintain strict modesty and privacy

Architecture: 

• monumental stone temples

• Types of cololums: 

  • Doric columns - bigger at the base 

  • Ionic columns - slender entire way

(male) Kroisos, from Anavysos, Greece

ARCHAIC GREEK ca. 530 BCE

• Made of Parian marble - originally painted

• Nude - Stands in a rigid, frontal stance with the left foot slightly advanced.

• Displays the characteristic archaic smile

→ Base includes an inscription asking passersby to stop and mourn Kroisos

(female) Peplos Kore

ARCHAIC GREEK ca. 530 BCE

• Made of fine-grained Parian marble - originally painted

• Clothed - Stands rigid in a fixed, frontal pose

• Displays the characteristic archaic smile

CLASSICAL GREEK, sculptures/statues and architecture

480 BCE to 323 BCE

• Move away from rigid archaic style - pieces have more movement/naturalistic elements to them 

• “Controposto” – Sculptors introduced this relaxed, natural stance with an asymmetrical weight shift on one leg → life like movements 

• Often tried to depict idealised/”perfection” in their statues 

• Blend of physical anatomy with idealised values 

• Attention to harmony of anatomy 

Architecture: 

• Monumental civic and religious structures → parthenon on acropolis 

• Introduction of Corinthian columns

  • decorative and elaborate

  • slender columns and bell-shaped capitals

Kritios Boy

CLASSICAL GREEK,  ca. 480 BCE

• Made of Parian marble

• Controposto - bent knee, hips displaced etc. 

• Realistic musculature, rib cage, and pelvic alignment

• No smile / facial expression

Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece,

CLASSICAL GREEK, 447- 432 BCE

• Ikitnos and kallikrates are architectures that worked on the parthenon 

• Built under the statesman Pericles using Delian League funds to honor Athena Parthenos

• Columns were doric → easy on eyes

→ pediments 

• East end 

  • birth of Athena from the head of her father, Zeus

  • Very idealised bodies 

  • Shows 3 goddesses (Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite?)

  • Helios and his horses, and Dionysos (Herakles?)

• West end 

  • competition between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of Athens

  • Poseidon is naked → demonstrates his status 

  • All females are clothed

Lapith versus centaur, metope from the south side of the Parthenon

CLASSICAL GREEK,  (447 BCE - 438 BCE)

• Demonstrates triumph

• Made from Pentelic marble

Capitoline Venus, 2^nd century CE, marble, Roman copy of the Aphrodite of Knidos, a 4^th century BCE Greek original by Praxiteles 

CLASSICAL GREEK, remake 2nd century BCE, orginal 4th cnetury BCE

Original = Aphrodite of Knidos in the late classical greek period 

Remake = Capitoline Venus roman remake 

• Carved from high quality white marble 

• Subject is aphrodite stepping out of her bath 

• Her pose is deemed “modest” where she is covered her private areas 

• Broke taboo and become the first fully nude female statue

  • Nuditity prior was only meant for male gods etc.  

• Controposto with bent knees, more fluid stance 

• Free standing figures, like this one, are usually carved standing next to something to help distribute weight

The Hellenistic Period

323 - 31 BCE

The period was initiated by the death of Alexander the Great. This stylistic period is characterised by the demonstration of more complex dynamic movement and very draped clothing. It is seen as a downgrade from the Classical period. Hellenistic art tried to show the intensity fo human experience. 

The Alexander Sarcophagus

The Hellenistic Period

Location: Royal necopolic of  Ayaa, near Sidon, Lebanon 

Date: c. 312 BCE

• The object is shaped liek a greek temple but is used for Near Eastern funeral tradition.

• Use of high relief, the loing sides depict teh battle of Issus, where ALexander defeated teh Persians, as well as a peaceful hunt acne. The movement is complex with twisting dynamiacally in overlapping combat layers that show chaos and spatial depth. 

• We can tell who alexander is by the lion-skin helmet, a reference to mythological hero Heracles, presenting him as divine. The Greeks are not wearing shoes and have very drapery clothing, characteristic to Greek conventions as well as hellinistic art. 

  • Persians wore turbans, fully clothed, and shoes. 

• Traces of bright yellow, red, purple, and blue pigments remain visible showing again hyper realistic ancient sculpture

The Pergamon Altar

The Hellenistic Period

Location: Acropolis of Pergamon, Asia Minor, modern- day Turkiye, now seen in Pergamon Museum in Berlin

Date: c. 200-150 BCE

• Teh monument’s base is wrapped ina  113 meter long frieze capturing the Gigantomachy, teh mythical battle for universal supremacy between teh olympian gods and ginats 

• The figures have exaggerated muscular anatomy, contorted poses, and expressions fo extreme agony. There are deeply carved shadows that give the composition a cinemnatic quality 

• The figures come out of the base, high relief, and thus in teh space of teh audience. The figures battle along teh stairwell, crawling onto the actual steps therefore blurring teh boundary between art, architecture, ad real space 

• The monument was commissioned by King Eumenes II, and serves as state propaganda. It displays a cosmic victory of the orderly greek gods over th egianst and thus serves as a methapor for Pergamon’s real worl military triumps over teh Celtic tribes

ANCIENT EGYPT - OLD KINGDOM

2686 to 2181 BCE or 2575–2130 BCE

• Mortuary architecture was grandiose and extravagant 

• Period of great confidence, stability, organisation and administrative control 

• Demonstrates the stability and wealth that resulted from the success of the storehouse-based economic system 

• Role of the king became closely connected with the deities Horus and Ra

• Great pyramids of Giza built during this period 

• Elites serving the kinds were honored with extravagant tombs 

• Artists wanted to display what they saw and knew

  • Laid out the body to show its distinguishing features, like when you press plants

The Seated Scribe

c. 2620-2500 BCE, Ancient Egypt

• Painted limestone, with much of the reddish-brown skin pigment still preserved 

• Cross legged, unrolled papyrus scroll on stretched kilt, right hand posed to write

• Unlike idealised pharaoh statues, he has asymmetrical featured, slightly hunched posture and overall looks more naturalistic 

• Life like eyes create and illusion that the gaze is for the audience 

• Name is a mystery

Pyramid of Pharao Teti I

Saqqara, 2400 BCE, Ancient Egypt

• Teti was the first king of the Sixth Dynasty 

• The core is small blocks of local limestone and debris fill, originally cased in fine limestone 

• Gold stars on a dark blue background, reflect the tomb as a microcosm of the universe 

• Rituals and recitations cover the end of the corridor, the antechamber and the burial chamber

• Planned decoration was never finished and suggests that he died unexpectedly

Pharao Menkaure (Mycerinus), Son of Cheops, grandson of Chefren, flanked by two goddesses.

2500 BCE / Old Kingdom Ancient Egypt

• Smooth, dark greywacke, polished to a silky finish that conveys eternity and immortality 

• Menkaure wears the striped nemes headdress, a false beard and a pleated kilt, and holds cloth rolls in his clenched fists.

• His body is broad-shouldered and eternally youthful, but his face is individualized, with prominent eyes, a fleshy nose, rounded cheeks and a full mouth.

• Her body is similar to his, broad stance, foot forward, quite unnatural position 

• To ensure the king's rebirth in the afterlife and to serve as a focus of worship in his funerary cult.

• Symbolises eternal royal authority, marital unity and the divine partnership required to sustain pharaonic rule 

• Posture is hallmark of ancient Egyptian art

MINOAN CRETE

3000 BCE to 1100 BCE

• Love for nature: animals and plants are dominant subjects 

• Flowy, naturalistic shapes

• Liked to fill the whole available surface 

• Connected to the sea: absorbed Near Eastern, Babylonian and Egyptian ideas through trade, turned them into something distinctive 

• Art was mostly for the ruling elite and could carry political meaning, such as palace paintings showing rulers in their religious roles

• Strongly influenced the Cyclades and Mycenaean Greece and the double axe imagery may have helped inspire the labyrinth and Minotaur myth 

Snake Goddess

from the palace at Knossos (Crete), Greece, 1600 BCE, MINOAN Art

• Wearing a tight fitting bodice that completely exposes her breasts: linked to fertility or mourning (?)

• Stands rigidly forward with arms outstretched 

• Grabbing live snakes that coil around her arms 

• Hat with a cat

• Snakes represent underworld connections, household protection and rebirth

ANCIENT EGYPT - NEW KINGDOM

1570-1085 BCE

• Imperial expansion brought Egypt into closer contact than before with the Bronze Age civilisations of the Aegean and West Asia 

• No more pyramids 

• Kings buried in rock-cut tombs hidden in desert - to deter grave robbers 

• Queen Hatshepsut is the largest and best preserved tomb 

• Massive imperial wealth funded enormous expansion of cult and mortuary temples (Hatshepsut among of them) 

• Columns and capitals heavily integrated organic plant designs like papyrus, lotus and palm motifs

• Instead of traditional raised relief, artists perfected sunken relief, carving lines deep into the stone surface that created dramatic shadows

• Life like proportions 

• Under pharaoh Akhenaten: extreme realism and stylised informality, depicting the royal family with elongated heads

Book of the Dead of scribe Hunefer

Thebes, ca 1300 BCE, New Kingdom Egypt

• One of the most structurally pristine, highly illuminated, and well-preserved examples of ancient Egyptian art

• Red, blue, green, white and yellow pigments 

• Captures explicit details of the human form

• Red ink: denotes titles, spell headers

• Given Hunefer's professional elite standing as a scribe, historians suggest that he may have drafted or directly supervised the masterful brushwork himself

Temple of Khonsu

1150 BCE ca, New Kingdom Egypt

• Built to honour Khonsu, who was the ancient Egyptian mood god and healer, who was the son of Amun and Mut in the Theban triad

• Massive trapezoidal gateway entrance decorated with carved reliefs of the pharaoh making offerings to deities 

• Inner columned hall with closely spaced columns supporting the roof, leading deeper into sacred spaced 

• Floor levels gradually rise and ceilings lower as you move closer to the dark, private sanctuary

Capitoline Wolf

5th century B.C.E. or medieval, bronze

• Famous bronze sculpture of a she-wold nursing the legendary twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus (is a legend, is disputed) 

• Cast as a single piece in the Middle Ages, though the debate remains 

• The figures were added later duing the Renaissance (late 15th century) by Antonio del Pollaiuolo 

• The wolf: tense, alert posture with an exaggerated, long neck, visible ribs and muscular forelegs 

• Twins: lower, vulnerable position, reaching upward to feed while completely unaware of their surroundings

Roman Empire

Timeline: 

753 BCE to 509 BCE, the Regal period of Rome with King and Senate  

509 BCE to 27 BCE, the Republic with elected magistrates 

27BCE to 330 CE, the Empire

The Pantheon

Roman Empire, c. 125 CE, Rome

• Before it stood surrounded by buildings so the sphere was not visible, now it is

• In the centre a full perfect sphere fits 

• Hole in the centre so rain can get in=oculus 

• Largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world 

• The cement ceiling gets lighter and thinner as it goes up 

• Geometric coffered ceilings

• Single columns (so not built in pieces) and imported from Egypt 

• Many different purposes: temple of gods, church

• Inspired by greek art 

• And now many have copied the Pantheon architecture all over the world 

• Ionic/corinthian columns

Augustus of Primaporta

Roman empire, 1st century C.E

• A marble copy of bronze 

• Portrays Augustus in a military/commanding form 

  • Idealised body depicting youth, strength and athleticism 

• Contro posto with knee bent - modeled after the spear bear 

• Clothed with armored 

  • Depicts a fight between the romans and the parthians where the romans won 

  • Shows a god holding up the sky 

  • Earth goddess tellus with babies → sign of fertility 

•  Cupid on a dolphin - signifies relations to Gods/Goddess (Venus) and the winning of a navel battle