APAH - Mesopotamia & Egypt

White temple and Zigguraut

Sumerian

Uruk

Mud Brick

corners face the cardinal points = four rivers that flow from the central mountain

bent axis floor plan, you can approach the cella ( inner chamber ) by turning 90 degrees

• separated the nonsacred world from the deity

observatory for timekeeping

dedicate to sky god, Anu

Statues of votive figures

Square Temple at Eshunna

Sumerian

Gypsum inland with shell & black limestone

placed in the cella, stand ins for the actual person who wanted to pray

large eyes = waiting for the gods to descend

hierarchical scale = relative importance

hands in prayer = piety

Standard of Ur

Sumerian

Wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone

trapezoidal form

mosaic, registers, hierarchy of scale.

lapis lazuli = expensive = wealth & power

narrative, role of a sumerian king

read bottom to top, left to right

• war

  • king is very large and breaks the register, soldiers bring the captives to him

  • soldiers lead captured enemies ( who are naked ) away

  • chariots crush enemies; invention of wheel

• peace

  • priest-king is so large he is coming out of the register

  • attendants transport the spoils of war ( animals ) for a banquet

  • men carry provisions

Stele of Hammurabi

Babylon

Basalt

intended for public display

written in Cuneiform

earliest law code ever written

reinforces Hammurabi’s divine right to rule

• Shamash is in composite view but his head is true profile

  • foreshortening makes some parts seem closer than others

• Hammurabi raises his hand in respect

  • implied line puts both of them at the same height but Samash is much bigger if he stood up ( hierarchy of scale )

• Shamash gives him a rod & ring, he’s giving Hammurabi's he authority to maintain social order

Lamassu

Dur Sharrukin
Neo-Assyrian
Alabaster

Stylized elements in hair, beard & wings

Naturalistic features in face and muscles

Five legs ( 2 from front, 4 from side )

Head of man = intelligence, body of bull = strength, wings = divinity

rite of passage, builds up tension before entering a place of power

Audience Hall of Darius and Xerxes

Persepolis,

Persian

Limestone

Royal audience hall

was built without slave labor = expensive

stairs have processional reliefs ( bringing tribute to the king )that represent the harmonious living of the 23 nations in the persian empire

figures ares stylized, composite view, different ethnicities, everyone is shown respectfully ( no classism )

Hypostyle hall, room with rows of columns supporting the roof

Palette of Narmer

Predynasitc Egypt

Greywacke

Beginners the Egyptian Canon, royal iconography, registers, hierarchy of scale, composite view

commemorative —> visually display the power and authority of Narmer

Asserts divine right to rule by connecting narmer to a god

the circle woudl be used to create eye makeup to make him look like a god

unification of egypt ( he’s wearing both crowns of upper & lower egypt )

Great Pyramids

Dynasty IV

Giza

Cut limestone

size = visually communicates the power fo the Pharaoh

symmetrical, perfect harmony

west side of the nile where the sun sets = death

symbol of Ra the sun god, pharaohs are his sons, the pyramids are a place of regeneration

sun rays are teh ramp through which the pharaohs ascend to the heavens

Giza plaque is a necropolis ( city of the dad )

smooth limestone would reflect the sun

Connected to the nile ( land of the living —> land of the dead )

• kind of like stonehenge

Reinforces divine right to rule

funerary, protects the pharaohs’s ka

• cult of the pharaoh

Great Sphinx

• guardian figure, protects the pyramid

• symbol of the pharaohs power

• can be compared to Lamassu

King Menkaure and his Queen

Fourth Dynasty

Giza, Egypt

Greywacke ( very hard stone )

• sense of enternity

idealized figures. Pharaoh iconography ( fake beard, kilt, headdress )

left foot forward

Protect the ka ( spirit ) of the figures

• cult of the pharaoh; worship

Figure next to the pharaoh

• Queen

• Goddess

Seated Scribe

Foruth Dynasty, Old Kingdom

Painted Limestone

• softer, less permanent thatn greywacke = lower class

scribes had high social status bc of literacy

naturalism shows he’s not a Pharoah

stiff, upright posture

frontal

eyes are made of a stone, he’s eternally awake

Temple of Amun Re

New Kingdom

Karnak

Cut sandstone and mud brick

Karnak was the principal religious center of the god Amun-Re

pylon temple : massive gateway with sloping walls, symbolic barriers between the outside and sacred space; represents the horizon

Hypostyle Hall

• roof supported by row of columns

• post & lintel construction

clerestory: window, allows for illumination

• as you get deeper into the temple, there’s less/smaller clerestories and it gets darker

  • you’re getting closer to the birth of the universe, which is why it’s dark

    • only phaorahs enter the inner shrine

straight axis approach, direct path to the innner temple

Mortuary Temple and Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut

New Kingdom

Red granite - statue

Sandstone & granite - temple

Statue:

Female Power in egypt

• false beard of the pharaoh even tho she’s female

• sometimes represented as female, sometimes as male

• first tribute to a woman’s a hie event

change from the old kingdom tradition, hatshepsut is shown praying, pharaohs are still idealized and have iconography

making an offering to Amun Re, divine right to rule

Mortuary temple:

• relieves of hatshepsut’s accomplishments

• visually connected to the natural setting ( situ )

• rocks are unmoving and powerful, js like hatshepsut

reinforces her divinity, she wants to be remembered a s great and powerful fpharaoh

hatshepsut is buried in the valley of the kings, not the temple

Akhenaten and his Three Daughters

New Kingdom ( Amarna )

limestone

akhenaten wanted to be androgynous, he js is not like the other girls fr

• bro changed his name to sound like aton the sun god

aton’s rays are touching akhenaton and his wife nefertiti

sunken relief, subtractive sculpture

family portrait, very intimate, no one else did this

• private shrine for akhenatoen

overlong proportions

shows that AKhenatten and nefertiti were the only ones with direct access to the Aton.

• you could only partake int he divine salvation of aton through him and his wife

Everyone hated this and they immediately reverted after Akhenaten’s death