Art History Terminology Weeks 1-5

iconography

from Greek “writing of images” refers to the content/subject of a price of artwork and includes, symbolic, often religious, the meaning of objects, persons, or events depicted in art

formal analysis

Analysing an object’s shape, form, and structure, can include composition, material, technique, line, color, and texture, but NOT what is depicted/context

provenance

History of Ownership

objective dating technique

A technique that can help clarify the actual age of an object. Absolute dating methods mainly include radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, and thermoluminescence.

stylistic analysis

Analyzing an artwork in connection to other work from the artist and potentially the artist’s biographical information.

* ***Period Style-*** Refers to the characteristic manner of a specific time (ie. mannerisms)
* ***Regional Style-*** Describes changes in style connected to geography (ex. Italian Renaissance)
* ***Personal Style-*** Distinctive manner of individual artists or architects/designers.

additive sculpture techniques

Adding substance to a medium (ex. adding clay)

subtractive sculpture techniques

Removing substance from a medium (chiseling, cutting, etc) (like risen and sunken reliefs)

composite view/twisted perspective

Convention of representing part of the figure in profile and another part of the same figure frontally

chthonian

of or relating to Earth mother goddess images, ex. Woman of Willendorf figurine

shamanism

Practice involving a shaman, a “seer” or wizened one, who metaphorically dies or is transformed so as to be able to journey to another world, the true primordial world, where illnesses can be fixed, catastrophes avoided, animals or other humans placated, people cured.

Jean Clottes (1990s) – adds the shamanism piece to explain a minority of human hybrid
images in the caves

henge

An arrangement of megalithic stones in a circle, often surrounded by a ditch.

megalithic

adj. from the Greek for "great stone," meaning of large, roughly hewn stone, especially in prehistoric construction

post-and-lintel construction

two uprights supporting a spanning element

tenise and morten joint

mortise hole into which a tenise tongue fits snuggly

corbelling

vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses cantilevered inward until the walls make an arch

Cave in Alta Mira, Spain

c. 12,000 BCE - Bison paintings

Caves at Lascaux, France

15,000-13,000 BCE - Hall of the Bulls: Bull and Red Ox

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Annette Laming-Emperaire (1950) – minute observations about groupings, animals, gender,
human handprints to suggest interpreting horses, bisons, and women, as prehistoric
symbols of perhaps calm, peace, or harmony.

Cave at Pech-Merle, France

c. 22,000 BCE - Spotted horses and negative hand prints

Cave at Chauvet, France

c. 28,000 BC - Aurochs and Rhinoceros Predator Cats Hall of Bears

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SolomonReinach (1909) – sympathetic magic/hunting & Abbie Henri Breuil (1920) – sites of
religious worship/initiation

Woman from Willendorf (aka “Venus of Willendorf”),

c. 28,000-25,000 BCE
limestone w/ traces of red ocher pigment

Caves at Lascaux, France, c. 15,000-13,000 BCE

Shaft of the Dead Man: Bird-Headed Man with Bison

Paleolithic

40,000-9,000 BCE

Mesolithic period

9,000-8,000 BCE

Neolithic period

8,000-2,300 BCE

Çatal Höyük, Turkey

ca. 6,000 BC – average pop. 7,000-5,000 people

* Builds houses out of mudbrick, builds connecting outer walls for defensive skills.
* Had to enter house through ladder from roof
* Had domesticated doggos

Skara Brae, Scotland

ca. 3,100 BC – average pop. 40-50 people

* Covered by sea storm, which preserved it until later sea storm in the 1800s uncovered it
* urbanism grows and profits from defense (in this case from the elements)
* A fired iron bar for protection
* Fishing society
* Corbelling- vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses cantilevered inward until the walls make an arch

Stonehenge

Salisbury Plain, England, c. 2550-1600 BCE

* 2550- BCE potentially began in 31,000 BCE in a circle. The structure came along a few hundred years later
* Alignment of Heel Stone with the summer solstice- Sun rises over the heel stone

ziggurat

A monumental platform for a temple (in mesopotamian architecture)

Stele (pl. stelae)

a carved stone slab used to mark graves or commemorate historical events

Hierarchy of scale

artistic convention in which greater size = greater importance

registers/friezes

bands of a pictorial narrative, or the particular levels on which motifs are placed

relief carving

figures carved to project from a background of which they are part

mastaba

Arabic for “bench”; a rectangular structure with sloping sides erected over a subterranean tomb and connected to the outside with a shaft

ka

Ka— Life force, must have a body to occupy even after death, soul?

Akhenaton & changes to Egyptian belief, artistic conventions, and the royal court

* renames himself Akhenaton “One who is effective on behalf of Aton”


* Amarna or Aketatan- City
* Husband of Nefertiti
* More stylistic representation than before- changed proportions,
* Steele- Familial scene in an unfamiliar way. stylized hands from Aton the Sun God
* Double-jointed fingers in art stick around after his rule

Minoan (King Minos)

Minoan Culture— Crete

labyrinth

a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze.

Greek myth potentially based on a network of storage rooms underneath palace

minotaur

half-man half-bull

fresco

a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster and become fixed as it dries.

Ziggurat at Ur (modern Iraq)

ca. 2100 BCE Sumerian

* tiered structure, built of mudbrick. Temple at the top, waiting room for the gods.
* Built it high to avoid flooding from rivers
* Mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Statuettes from Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Iraq)

2700 BCE Sumerian

* Placed in temples so individuals can communicate with Gods
* Most hold either an offering bowl or a scroll
* Wide Eyes— artistic convention, attendant to the Gods was meant to stay alert forever
* Men have fringed skirts, women have simple dresses
* Made either of a dark stone or lapis lazuli

*Stele of Hammurabi*

7'4" tall, basalt, c. 1780 BCE Babylonian Egypt: Pre-Dynastic - only the palette of Narmer (ca. 3000 BCE)

* cuneiform law code
* Contains the Code of Hammurabi
* Hammurabi is the figure standing, having an audience with the seated Sun God
* Two basic types of law found that we still have: retribution & restitution

*Palette of King Narmer*

ca. 3000-2920 BCE (slate)

* Used for Eye-makeup but not for human scale
* Raised Relief
* Hierarchy of Scale— King Narmer is in the center, bigger than all the other figures We know it’s Narmer because it’s actually labeled

The Great Pyramids

(from left: Menkaure - smallest; Khafre - w/ cap; and Khufu-

largest), Giza, ca. 2551-2472 BCE

* Pyramid accomplished during the Old Kingdom
* Built by peasant workers or seasonal laborers but not slaves
* Built using ramps, rope, clay water
* Every block in the Khufu pyramid is cracked but it is still standing


* **Khufu’s Pyramid=** largest of the great pyramids, know the specifics of size and construction
* difference between smaller and longer sides is seven inches, >400’ tall
* Elaborate anti-theft protocols
* Workers who sealed it needed to dig until a tunnel below was reached
* diverted stress from pressure to allow for the pharaoh's chamber to not collapse
* all about the long-term/ afterlife
* ***Khafre’s Pyramid-*** Cap is what remains of the pyramids of Giza’s polished, white limestone casing.
* Sphynx is in front of it in the causeway— smaller than Khufu
* Statues still remain

*Khafre* \[ka statue; sculpture portrait\]

from Giza, ca. 2500 BCE, blueish diorite stone

* ***Kafre*** \[*ka*. statue: sculpture portrait\] from Giza, ca. 2500 BCE, blueish diorite stone
* Only one can see blue in Sunlight, blue is associated with Horus
* Stone imported from Nubia
* The throne has relief sculptures of plants from Upper & Lower Egypt
* Horus watching the back of his head

*Seated Scribe*

Old Kingdom, Giza, ca. 2575-2450 BCE

* painted limestone, less idealized than sculptures of kings.
* More realistic eyes, body rolls
* The lower you were socially, the more naturalistic your portrait was
* Hands were made close to the body / not holding anything to avoid hands breaking off from grave robbers

*Stele with Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters*

New Kingdom from Amarna, ca. 1340 BCE

* More stylistic representation than before- changed proportions,
* Steele- Familial scene in an unfamiliar way. stylized hands from Aton the Sun God
* Double-jointed fingers in art stick around after his rule
* Aton reaching out with hands

Cycladic sculpture, *Harpist (no hands)*

c. 2400 BCE, Athens, National Archaeological

Cycladic sculpture, *Harpist*

c. 2400 BCE, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (marble)

Palace of Knossos, Crete

ca. 1700-1400 BCE

* Excavated during the 1900s (or 19th century)
* Women, Bulls, and Minoan Civilization,
* Network of storage rooms underneath palace— connected through literature by the MINOTAUR!!!!
* Castle has a lack of defensive structure, the defense were ships on the sea
* The danger was from fire or Earthquakes

*Fresco of the Bull Leapers*, Palace of Knossos, Crete

ca. 1450-1400- buon / true fresco –

Artistic conventions represented males deep red and females white with black hair. Bull jumping in the palace courtyard.

Geometric krater from the Dipylon cemetery,

Athens, ca. 740 BCE (Geometric)

New York *Kouros*

ca. 600 BCE (Archaic)

*Doryphoros*

Polykleitos, ca. 450-440 BCE  The ‘Canon’ of human proportion (High Classical), Roman copy in marble of the Bronze Greek original

*Aphrodite of Knidos* (Roman copy)

Praxiteles, original 350-340 BCE (Late Classical)

*Laocoön and his Sons*

Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, early first century CE (Hellenistic)

*entasis*

subtle adjustments/ optical refinements (swelling) that give beauty to a temple (i.e. Temple at Paestum or Parthenon)

Parthenon (Temple of Athena)

Iktinos and Kallikrates, Acropolis, Athens, 447-438 BCE

Know who commissioned and with what funds; what is a sanctuary? Acropolis?

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describe what the visual experience inside the Parthenon would have been like.

white marble approachable from all sides

Erechtheion

Acropolis, Athens ca. 421-405 BCE   (on the Erectheion: Caryatid Porch on the south)

Caryatids

women of the Peloponnesian town of Karyai (prisoners of the Athenians)

Corinthian order

Sarcophagus w/ reclining couple

Painted terracotta (baked clay) Ca. 520 BCE Etruscan (ca750-

509 BCE)

peripteral –

row of columns all around pedimental statues

*cella* in 2 parts algebraic ratio of proportions x=2y + 1

Etruscan 6th-century temple model 

wood, sun dried brick, clay front entrance, columned porch one main side (front)

colonnade porch + exterior wall

Temple of Portunus

Rome, Italy,

ca. 75 BCE Republican, Rome

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What elements are Etruscan &

what are Greek inspired?

Veristic

(truthful) portraits of powerful Republican Roman men

*Head of an elderly patrician*

marble, first century BCE, Roman Republican (509-27 BCE)

Portrait of Augustus Primaporta

10 CE

How is this a change from Veristic? How does it relate to political changes?

Describe the architecture & interior design of a Roman house at Pompeii

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What does Pompeii tell us about Roman towns and what was in them (book & lecture)?

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Pont-du-Gard (aquaduct),

Nimes, France, ca. 16 BCE (Roman Imperial 27 BCE-337 CE) In an arcade, where does lateral thrust go?

Colosseum

Rome, ca. 70-80 CE be able to write at length about this building’s purpose, materials, design, and function

Pantheon

Rome, 118-125 CE be able to write at length about this building’s purpose, materials, design, and function

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

ca. 175 CE, bronze

Portraits of the four tetrarchs

from Constantinople, ca. 305 CE (Roman Imperial 27 BCE-337 CE), Porphyry, 4’3” What does this group portrait communicate politically and artistically?

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

Rome, ca. 359

Detail: Hebrew scriptures,

Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac

Syncretism

combining various religious elements; the appropriation (use in a different context) changes the meaning

Court of Emperor Justinian of Byzantium w/ Bishop Maximianus

Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547: Mosaics from San Vitale

Court of Emperor Justinian of Byzantium w/ Bishop Maximianus

Court of Empress Theodora and her retinue

Mosaics from San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547:

Court of Empress Theodora and her retinue

Virgin and Child Between Saints Theodore and George, icon

ca. early 7th century, encaustic on wood.

What are Christian icons, and why the Iconoclastic Controversy?

Dome of the Rock,

Jerusalem 691-2 A.D. cut ceramic tile mosaic.

Discuss the importance of this site, the type of decoration, and define a qibla, mihrab, and minbar as features of most mosques.

Romanesque

What is a pilgrimage church and how does architectural design serve its functional requirements?

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__Romanesque__ (11th-12th cent. mostly an architectural style)

Bernward of Hildesheim, Doors of St. Michael’s Church, Hildesheim, Germany, 1015,

Describe materials and techniques, what is portrayed, how the representation of the human figure shows a different purpose and different ideas from the Greeks we had studied. Explain the scene (detail) below

*Virgin and Child*

from Auvergne, France*,* c. 1150-1200, polychrome wood, 31” tall

What is a reliquary and why does this Romanesque sculpture look the way it does?

treatise

a written work dealing formally and systematically with a subject.

sanctuaries

places of worship for specific gods ?

temples

places of worship for specific gods

colonnade

A series or row of columns, usually spanned by lintels.

peristyle (peripteral temple)

In classical architecture, a colonnade all around the cella and its porch(es). A peripteral colonnade consists of a single row of columns on all sides; a dipteral colonnade has a double row all around.

cella

The chamber at the center of an ancient temple; in a classical temple, the room (Greek, naos) in which the cult statue usually stood.

entasis

The convex profile (an apparent swelling) in the shaft of a column.

triglyph & metope

A triple projecting, grooved member of a Doric frieze that alternates with metopes.

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The square panel between the triglyphs in a Doric frieze, often sculpted in relief.

frieze

The part of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice; also, any sculptured or painted band.

pediment

In classical architecture, the triangular space (gable) at the end of a building, formed by the ends of the sloping roof above the colonnade; also, an ornamental feature having this shape.

stereobate & stylobate

a solid mass of __masonry__ serving as a foundation for a wall or row of columns.

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The uppermost course of the platform of a classical Greek temple, which supports the columns.

attached columns

self explanatory

stoicism

It's where the art of living converges with the creative process.

Geometric

(900-700 BCE)

Archaic

(700-480 BCE)

Classical

(480-400 BCE)

Late Classic

(400-324 BCE)