SET 1 - History of Art: ID-2242: Exam 2

Predynastic, Old, Middle

Name?

Where?

Date?

Period?

Meaning?

“People, Boats, Animals”

Hierakonpolis: Necropolis (city of the dead)

3500-3200BC

Predynastic Egyptian

Boats showing the significance of the Nile River: the primary form of transportation and commerce.

Metaphor for the afterlife journey/passage (floating through life and death and a passage into the afterlife).

Humans are displayed as stick figures

“Lion King” image: stick figure form surrounded by two lions, possibly a naming convention/signifier

-Heraldic composition: representing a hero having superhuman qualities. Controlling animals

Name?

Date?

Period?

Facts?

Palette of King Narmer

3000 BC

Predynastic Egyptian

Used for makeup (kohl that is applied to the eyes);

shows the unification of Egypt under King Narmer, which him wearing both the south and north headresses.

It could be used when he reincarnates, or it could be used as a historical device.

Name?

Date?

Period?

Technique?

Facts?

Panel of Hesire

2675 BC

Predynastic Egyptian

(Sunken relief)

One of 11 wooden panels found in the Tomb of Hersire.

Hesire name is in hieroglyphs

Triangle schema shows the power of Hesire. A link between triangles and pyramids.

Herire was a physician/scribe who served under King Djoser

Architect?

Name?

Location?

Date?

Period?

Facts?

Imhotep

Stepped Pyramid of Djoser

Saqqara

2675 BC

Predynastic Egyptian

Animal mummies found inside the mastabas

Mastabas stacked on top of each other

Earliest cut-stone construction

Didn’t work, Grave robbers dug under to steal.

Name?

Date?

Period?

Facts?

Pyramid of Khufu

2528 BC

Old Kingdom Egyptian

Largest of the Pyramids, 8o years to build

“Kufu (spirit) Boat” - The passage of this journey to the afterlife

Name?

Date?

Period?

Facts?

Sphinx, Gizeh

2494 BC

Old Kingdom Egyptian

- Lines up with the pyramid of Khafre. Believed that the head is Khafre

Composite form: body of lion, face of Khafre

Carved from live rock, limestone bedrock, carved right there on site, real stone

Largest monolith statue in the world. 

Extensive history of restoration: 1400 BC by king Thutmost (dream Stele) with a description.

Suggested earlier sculpture that was there before the necropolis was completed.

- Says that it is a sculpture of a jackal or canine as Anpu (anubis): god of mummification.

Chisel marks - 15th c. vandalism.

Traces of red paint on head, indicating it could have been painted

In storage rooms: red pigment found (iron oxide).

Covered up by sand

Weathering theory: 7,000 BC. “profound erosion caused by excessive rainfall” 

Name?

Date?

Period?

Process?

Facts?

Ka statue of Khafre

2494 BC

Old Kingdom Egyptian

(Subtractive process, closed form)

Found in the Pyramid of Khafre

Mummification: 70-day process to ensure immortality

If the pharaoh’s mummy was damaged, a ka statue was created to “ensure immortality and permanence of the deceased’s identity by providing a substitute dwelling place for the life force or spirit

Ka = spirit

Made out of Diorite which was brought 400 miles down the Nile River from “royal” quarries from Giza in order to carve the statue.

- Schema: Triangles

- Protected by Horus, wings of the falcon

Name?

Date?

Period?

Process?

Facts?

Ka Aper 

2350 BC

Old Kingdom Egyptian

Open Form (Arms/Legs in motion and jointed arms and hands), Subtractive process: carved in wood

Realistic facial features

Specific, realistic in action

Name?

Date?

Period?

Technique?

Facts?

Ti watching Hippo Hunt

2450 BC

Old Kingdom Egyptian Period

Perspective systems (creating the illusion of depth of space (3-D) where none exists), overlapping, planimetric separation (planes that are separated and indicated recession in space. Foreground, middle ground, background.)

Found in the Mastaba of Ti

Hippo Hunt, could be a sport or food. Could be provisions/instructions for the afterlife

Ti static while, while fishermen are moving 

Triangle Schema 

Perspective systems: creating the illusion of depth of space (3-D) where none exists.

Name?

Where?

Date?

Period?

Technique?

"Cattle fording canal"

Found in the Mastaba of Ti

2350 BC

Old Kingdom Egyptian

(Overlapping, planimetric separation - walking through water)

Implied lines - all motion in one directiom

Name?

Date?

Period?

Facts?

Harvesting

1900 BC

Middle Kingdom Egyptian

- Breaking away from cthe omposite view so strictly

- Arms are doing something, harvesting figs

- Perspective systems: overlapping (hand wrapping behind the fig).

Name?

Period?

Facts?

Live (rock) tomb

Middle Kingdom Egyptian

Last resort stop graverobbers

Graverobbers can't dig underneath the tomb

Put the tomb underground

Reserved columns: columns carved out of live rock to appear as if they were added; not weight-bearing.

Hathor

Earth Goddess: Bull Head

Sunken relief

a carving in which the outlines of figures are deeply carved into a surface so that the figures seem to project forward

Necropolis

“city of the dead“

Field of mastabas

In Saqqara

Streets, corners to the cities that are formed for protection for the deceased in the form of different kinds of tombs.

Mastaba: house of eternity

Protective structure for eternity

Sloped-sided structures.

Usually flat at the top

Burial chambers with the mastaba placed on top

-Parallel cultures to the sumerian white temple in Uruk (the ziggurat). Connecting the earth to the sky.

Mastaba

an ancient Egyptian mudbrick tomb with a rectangular base and sloping sides and flat roof

Ka

In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force (spirit)

Subtractive Sculpting

sculpture made by removing material from a larger block or form

Closed form

static pose that implies lack of motion

Open form

spaces between arms and legs that implies opening motion

Horus

Sky God: Falcon

Predynastic Egyptian Art

Pharaohs and the afterlife: the art of ancient egypt

- Afterlife = journey beyond life and death into reincarnation

- Reincarnation is physical.

- In the afterlife = physical reincarnation

- Preservation of the body

- Mummification,

- Ka statues to preserve the soul of the deceased incase the body got

destroyed

- Architectural protection of body

- Necropolis: cities of the dead

- toom structures: from mastaba to pyramids

- Provisions for the afterlife

- Art as instruction: tomb paintings

- Murals

- Objects that represent and serve the decease

Heraldic composition

representing a hero having superhuman qualities.

Perspective systems

creating the illusion of depth of space (3-D) where none exists.

Planimetric separation

planes that are separated and indicated recession in

space. Foreground, middle ground, background.

Pyramid of Khafre

Originally had a limestone cap, but it was taken off to be used later

Burial Chamber was underneath but got moved to fool graverobbers