Art History lectures 1-3

Time line

Tools for Art History include

1) Formal Analysis

2) Vocab

3) Iconography

4) Contexulization

Formal Analysis

Close looking at objects in art. Helps slows down and ask why or what questions of the object.

Vocabulary

Words that describe a particular thing, such as an object or an idea. Helps better convey observations.

Iconography

The way to interpret an object within the subject matter and identify it. Helps if an image/object is telling a story within a particular time period when it was made.

Contexulaiztion in Situ

The context behind the time period and place where the object/image was made helps us better understand it and the people who created it.

In situ

Orignal positon (where they first started)

Prehistoric

Time period before any written language. This is where tools of history is helpful

Lascaux Caves, France 16,000-14,00BCE

• Network of caves with images in France

• Not only type of prehistoric and nor the earliest

• Around 350 miles south of France and northern Spain, there are others like this. Like the Bhimbetka caves, which are from 40,000 BCE, the oldest in India.

• Lascaux is the most studied, though

• 770 ft underground

• nonporus rocks : dry = hold pigment

• some walls had no painting

Discovery of Lascaux Caves

• 1940: When discovered, at the beginning of a war on sept 5th

• Marcek Ravidat (convict) discovered the entrance by accident running after his dog. Kicked a rock that dropped in a whole that eco into the place.

• After Ravidant dug with a knifr and a torch with guys he met on the way, Jacques Marsal, Georges Angie, and Simon Coencas.

• All explored the cave with the 1st painting they saw (a red cow with black head). Many images of the walls were bull horeses, deers etc.

• Abbe Brevil ( expert prehistory) and Leon Laval (teacher) on sept 22nd made the cave authenticated

• 1948: open to the public

• 1963: closed to the public because paintings degraded then they had before because bodies + air + new bacteria = bad. The cave had nonporus rocks : dry = hold pigment

• Today there is a state of the Art mesume replicating

Techniques of Lascaux Caves

• Some were engraved into a wall (with some over one another) by blades of stone, wood, bone, or deer antlers.

• Canvases are covered on some of the walls to apply pigment. Pigment came from charcoal and ochre

• Charcoal was crushed and mixed with talc or other pulverized minerals, then water downed or diluted with water or blood.

• Vegetable oil and animal blood kept pigment together or combined for other colors

• Moss or fingers allowed pigment on the wall

• Curves of spaces helped with suggesting space, showing images viewed differently when viewed in a particular place.

• Spray technique: used by mouth with charcoal and some water that is spat on the wall repeatedly. Used dry mouth with a fine spray spit

Ochre

Clay, Silica, iron oxide mixed with water

Lascaus iconography: Representational

• Shows real-world items/living things can be found in the real world, such as a human bull

• In the cave, there is the Hall of Bulls: the largest space of the cave that has four large bulls; stags are arranged like a herd; horses

• One bull is pushing the other towards the end of the painting

• The stag is in the opposite direction, like a static image

• Images are brief, show imagination, show movement

Lascaus iconography: Geometric signs

• Double of representational. An image that doesn’t represent anything in the real world. Like circles, signs, dots, lines

From ancient geometric signs

• Only 32 signs across a continent and 30,000 yr period.

• Patterns of shapes through the year included hands and tectiform

• Hands: were a thing between 25-40,00 yrs. They faded and then vanished at the end of the Ice Age

• Tectiform is a roof shape. 13,000-17,00 yrs ago in the Dordogne region (France). Expect one site 250 miles south across pyrenees mt.

Penniform: Geometric sign (“teacher shape” in Latin) - some say it’s a tree

• There was a 16,000-year-old necklace with 45 different geometric space from France

Abstract

Images that convey ideas, concepts or anything else by color, shapes, or form rather than physical items in the real world.

Lascaus context

100 small stone lamp found in the cave

• The lamp tells us used for light because of the small depressions. This helps animals see in the cave since light couldn’t seep through so deeply.

• Geometric signs on the handle that were on the wall

• Because there are no soot marks, they used stone lamps instead of torches for paintings, so there were no fires in the caves = painters didn’t live in the caves

• likely left after painting or visited for occasions

• People who built the caves: Terra Amata (earliest settlement). Built caves like structures or housing where the people lived. Used spears and sticks often multiple times, but lightweight = suggests nomadic

What can we know for sure about the paintings in the Lascaux cave?

• Images are complex, depending on animals for references and the conditions of the surface; representational = audience who saw the painting is important

• Took time, effort, and different techniques

• Part of a system of communication: representional an non representional (geometric signs)

• A space outside of daily living space for nomadic people as well as daily activities

How can we interpret the iconography in the Lascaux caves?

• Detail/animal subject matter = teach people how to hunt?

• The painting goes deep into the caves = privileged for a few:

• Lack of huma npaintings / mrepresentation = view humans as powerless in the face of nature

• Uninhabited / too deep of caves = spaces for rituals

• Depth and layers of cave = more about process of paintings than what was finished

Monumental Architecture

A type of Architecture that is huge and takes a lot of effort, time, and cooperation among others. Can take generations usually to make something meaningful and last long.

Megalithic architecture

Composed of large stones

Dolmen

A cave created by humans for burials. Throughout the dolmens in Newgrange, there is detailed / decoration on the megaliths, but either abstract or representational.

Post and Lintel

Simplest form of architecture. Two upright posts and a lintel over them that create a door and the start of a roof.

Cairn

Small rock and dirt that creates an artificial hill

Newsgrange, Ireland c. 3200 BCE

Dolmen took about 70yrs 44ft 280 in diameter

Kerbstones

Giant limestone. Newsgrange has 97 that feature patterns that are nonrepresentational. Initially, there were another 48 around the dolmen; only 12 remain standing.

Refer to the rings of giant megalithic stones that encircle the base

Axis

A path that directs movement and attention from outside, going into the dolmen, deep into the center. During a certain time of the year, the axis directs light directly to the entrance during the winter solstice. Aligns with the sun.

Why did people make the Newgrange dolmen?

• Human remains: place of burial and commemoration for the deceased

• Construction was complicated and took time = they were organized in a hierarchy because they were able to get it done while hunting and gathering

• Because the structure took decades, they lived in more permanent housing, typically using agriculture = not nomadic

• To connect to the sun = clock and helped track the changing of seasons for agriculture; relates to the heavens

Henge

A monument out of earthwork or a ditch that is usually arranged in a circle with embankments (raised wall or stone) surrounded by other things in a circle.

At Stonehenge: The henge is a circular ditch with a innercircle out of megaliths, over 1500yrs. England, 2550-1600 BCE

What are the 3 stages of Stonehenge?

1) 328ft wide circular ditch with an embankment (man-made ridge/wall of stone) forming the outer edge (56 pits in the ditch). Heel stones are placed

2) 56 pits wood post are removed. Replaced by Megalithic stones in a circle, with an open horseshoe of stones in the center

3) Stones are placed around the horseshoe to form an outer circle and inner oval. An axis is formed (avenue)

Heel Stone at Stonehenge

The 1st megalith on the site is located outside of the ditch. Sort of like an entrance

The Avenune at Stonehenge

1.7-mile corridor that goes from the Avon River into the hedge. Precisely with the movement of the sun’s solstices and the sunrise solstice

Axis of the sun = Axis of the Avenue

Sarsens

sandstones that came 20 miles from the site, 25 tons at stonehenge

Bluestones

Smaller sandstones that are 2-5 tons from coast of whales at stonehenge

Altar stones

Largest sandstone from Scotland (430 miles) at stonehenge

Dressed

A stone carved into a particualr shapes

Mortise

pocket for a tenon to fit into at stonehenge

Tenon

Little bumps on a stone at stonehenge

Entasis

A stone shaped to be thinner at the top then Botton. It removes the illusion that a parallel-sided stone is leaning forward and makes them seem straight

What can we know about the people who built Stonehenge

• Sun mattered to them because the Axis (the Avenue alignment)

• The specific types of rocks and shapes mattered because they made the effort to bring rocks to far-away places

• Communicated with people far away and organized; brought altar stone from Scotland

• Burials and animal bones at the pits = place of gathering and burials for the afterlife (38,000 animal bones)

Woodhenge, England 2500 BCE

• Same people who built Stonehenge, and at the same time

• 6 circles of post holes filed with timber sticks (now concert)

• similar parthworl as Stonehenge

• center 3yrs old child buried

Material Culture

Stuff. Has Two basic ideas,

1) Stuff reflects the society/people who built it

2) Stuff shapes society

Standard of Ur

• Made of limestone and lazuil

• Could be mounted on a pole for a flag in wars/parades/ceremonies as a regular standard

• A small hollow artifact made mostly of wood

• From Ur

Ur

a city that is now Modern Iraq located between Tigris and Euphrates river

Mesopotamia

Means: river and middle

It is the land that was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; Ur was one of the major cities there.

City States

The world’s first cities that alomst ran as independent nations

Sumerians

(blackheads)

The people in the Mesopotamian city-states

Bitumen

Black mixture of hydrocarbons naturally from oil, naturally occuring asphalt

The primary material in the Standard of Ur

Lapis Lazuli

Blue semi-gemstone from Afghanistan (Tell us Sumerians connected to people far away)

In the standard of ur, the people are made of them.

Registers

• Horizontal bands (like a comic book)

• The standard Ur is in registers, organized in a story to communicate an idea

• One side of the Ur is war, and the other side is peace

• On the side of peace, a leader is at one end at the top, who breaks out of the frame in the 1st register. The 2nd and 3rd = farmers and animals = extract bounty of land

• On the side of war, it shows how the leader kept is power, which is through war

Hierachical

Levels to society are based on economic status; one part of society has power over the other

• The Standard of Ur shows this. The leader of Ur used violence and war, as shown in the Ur. The leader is taller / bigger / out of the frame than the rest to show that power.

The Bronze Age

where metal developed, including weapons and bronze (a mixture of tin + copper)

Alloy

Tin and copper that are heated or melted and then combined.

Or metal + another element combined

Ur (city plan)

• The same city Ur was found

• In the Euphrates River

• 10,000-20,000 people and Agriculture society = a lot of organization

• Sunbaked mud (32pounds) surrounded the city-state all around to define boundaries

• Small houses; people lived in tight streets with courtyards made of mud bricks

• The high point of the city is another set of walls = a series of offices, temples, buildings, a wide courtyard, and organized streets. This is where the higher-up people lived; it also included the Ziggurat

Ziggurat

• A stepped Man-made Mountain that is the biggest in Mesopotamia city states

• Excavated in 1923 1924 by the British and Americans

• 3 terraces positioned at true north out of mud bricks sealed with Bitumen

  

• Was a platform for temples to Nanna (Moon goddess) made by the king

• In the courtyards in front of the Ziggurat were sculpted slabs. The king was an intermediary between gods and humans.

• Might have had female priestesses that oversaw temples at the top. Such as Enheduanna (daughter of the king who was also a poet we had the earliest writing)

• Elite society allowed in only in the Ziggurat = Priest / Priestesses and king at the top because it was believed Nanna (goddess) lived there.

Votive sculptures

• Small statues that offered by people to the gods as a stand in for their presence to prayer forever

• Different sizes by gypsum or limestone or lapis lazuli

Theocracy

• Gov’t that the power went to the gods and people who talked to them like king

• gods= poltical

• leaders= intermediaties between gods and people

Empire

• Dominate city state that take over others

• Overtime become larger and larger

• complex bureaycratic entities, network of citites that got taken over

Assyrian

largest empire in ancient world around 600BC

Persian

• 2nd largest empire, that even got bigger than the Assyrian

• covered most mesopotamia into Asia, Turkey, Egypt

Medium

A type of material culture

Relief sculpture

Carved sculpture that project a image from a flat background

• usually was painted back then

• sometimes inscribed their power into the stone

• not fully 3d but gives dimension

Asssyrian Empire

• Laid the groundwork for other empires

• When their was a new king = new capital = new palaces

• Ashur (god) embodient the emppire

• military innvoation for cruel punishment

• 7th century BCE = across Modern Iraq, syria, lebanon, Israel , turkey, iran and egypt

• 150yr it extended until 12th century because lost most territory

• started in late Bronze Age (Assur- tin and texitle trade center)

Ashurbanipal

• A high priest who become the most succesful king in Assyrian Empire king ( city in Nineven modern day Iraq - largest city in 650 BC)

• He had a military compagin making citiy state to territories.

• Mainted the empire and commissed

• his grandfather = sennacherib changed Nineveh in to vast Metropolis, two walls around the city and his palace. Then created another palace, Ashurbanipal’s palace.

lamassu

• Human headed winged bulls that was carved by stone that was infront of the 18 gates around the wall of Nineveh

• Acted as guardians

Assyrain Releif Sculpture

• Lined the walls and larger than life size, was painted

• usually in 3 categories = 1) scenes with lions and the king defeating 2) Assurian victories and 3) images of gods and geneis

• usally propaganda

• showed the power of the king and indimiate people showing violence

Propaganda

selective use of informatuon to manupulate particular ideas for people to believe in

Hierachy of scale

• When relative size of element is shown larger in order to emphasize that elements important, usually in society.

• In the reliefs Ashurbanipal is larger than everyone surrounding, Similar style in standard of ur

• One of the scenes the king is larger on the left side compared to other 3 figuers who are helping him . Horses are at the frot but represent below the scene with king. Another row of solders with dogs. At the end= soilder realsing a lion into the hunt

• Human figueres = formality

• Lions dying

• middle of it - figured much smaller = distance

In situ

original place

Darius I

Persian king that proclaimed himself

He built a new captial city to legitmaiz himself as ruler in Persepolis (modern day Iran)

Persepolis , city plan(including apandanna)

• Capital city that Darius 1 built

• Used architectural techniques including platform where main complex raised

• Included Apandana (Darius palace), treasury for riches, religious / terminal and fatiticartioo

  

• Apandana allow appriacg by one gigantic stairs even horses can fit = message that the king is in control

  

• Apandana even higher than the rest of the complex, Audience hall = make pleas to Darius, stair leading to it = sculpltures

• The sculpture in registers like the standard of Ur (painted and detailed) , people coming to present gifts, including groups of people and guardins

• one relief Drius has a audience and his son behind the audience leaning down

Hypostyle

A place supported by many columns in rows

• In Persepolis there was 36 columns , 7 times human size at Apandana

• Plastered and painted, was used for intimidiation each had a capital

Capital

• Top section of a column , usaully shaped as double headed bulls (Roofs of the beams sat through their centers)

• Carved in stone and expressive

  

Periods of Ancient Egyptian History

Predynastic- 5000-3000 BCE

Old kingdom- 2686-2150 BCE

Middle Kingdom- 2030-1640 BCE

New Kingdom- 1550-1070

Palette of Narmer: predynastic

• Made around the 1st period of stonehenge

• In cario Egyptain meseum

• laid out how Egyptains made art for the next 3,000yrs

• Hierarchy of scale

• Arrow shape with relief sculpture

Palette

• A plate used for mixing makeup

• covered both sides relie sculpture organized in registers like standard of ur

Kohl

• Lead ore or crushed lapis lazul

• Put around the eyes to protect from the sun

• Kohl was out in indentations well to mix kohl, well was a intertwind lopards with snake necks

the indentations

Conventions

• Tradtions for making things

• Palette of Narmer was one of the 1st

Composite pose

• A body position that can not be replicated or done in real life

• For example narmer (King of predynasty Egypt)

  

Head in profile on the side, eyes shown from the front, Torso facing head on, lower body is in side view like walking

• Combination represetning human bidy in different ways and sides which allowed rulers to look pyhsically powerful and in control

• Show in painting and relief

Polytheistic

• Worship / belief of many gods or deities

• The paletter depicted two gods, bat ( bullheaded goddess of sky on both sides) and Horous (fallengod of sky and heaven)

Hieroglyphs

• Pictorial writing

• In the palette of Namar is a hieroglyphs of Narmer’s name

  

King Menkaure and Queen (relief sculpture), Egypt (old kingdom)

• Found in Menkaure tomb (smallest of 3 major suriving one)

• Khafre (his dad) and Khufu his brother

• They are standing up to represent king ship for eternity = idea of power

• The queen is the same size which is unsual

• more dimenoional than relief but not fully 3d , not freestanding because still attached out of stone

• It is idealized

Composition

Overall design of the sculpture

Freestanding

3d, not attaced to a wall for support

Niche

A pocket in a wall of the temple

Naturalism

Making something look realistic or close to object in nature

Stylized

• Designed to fit a convetion (traditonal way of society) or stylistic pattern than naturalism

• King Menkaure and queen are stylized

Idealized

• Represented as perfect humnas, something to be perfect rather than flaws

• In Egypt the males have high cheekbones, pouty lips, muscualrm zero sign of age

• In the Egypt the female have flesh face, a tummy, legs, reast, under a tight garment

Nemes

• Headress of Egpyt rulers

• In kings Menkaure its not like orginal headress, not incised with horizontal lines or mini cobra sticky out, never was finished

Modeled

• A shape in particualr way

• In queen’s sculpture its modeled to emphazises roundes and each part of body more visible such as hair under the wig

What was the role of conventions in Egyptain Society

Followed to represent kings- kingship was divine, same cobention over kings.

Theocratic Monarchy

• King rules with the blessing of the gods and his successors. Having their kids inherite the throne one after the other

• Very hierarchical- king - officals, priests, military then regular people

Seated scribe (freestanding) scultpure (old kingdom)

• Not the same level of idealized because wasnt the king so it was not important it looked perfect forever

• Was a scribe which was important in the hierarchy because it kept track of the money in society

• More realistic (naturalistically) - relaxed body, flabby, painted, eye color

• free standing - 3d with no attachement for support

• made of limestone

Akhenaten colossal sculpture , Egypt (new kingdom)

The new king of Egypt in the new kingdom: Turn Egypt to monotheistic

• Is more elongated= long / thin limbs with hips being roundedm angularity shoulders, elbows

• exaggerated face features and has flail and shepherds crook = king symbol of power

Monothesistic

• Kingdom worshiping one god

• Akhenaten made Egypt monothesistic to Aten (life-giving sun god)

• Akhenate means in service of god Aten

• He centralized his power, one representive rather than mortal serving of gods

Bust of Nefertiti (new kingdom)

• Akhenaten’s wife, wearing red crown of lower Egypt = shared power

• Found in ruins of a studio who created it (Tutmost), was use for a model for other sculptures

• Not complete

• Core is kimestone with plaster on top = allowed easier manuolliation of surface = (sense of bone beneath skin)

• Idealized = line oifes compostion creating a traingle fro top of crown to neck = elongatong

• preresenting beauty and power

Repatriation

• Return to the place of origin

• Nefertiti been a debate because was doscovered by germans so now it stays i germany mesume even though was in Egypt.

Well painting of Nebamun (new kingdom)

dcd

• Shows Nebamun and his family and wife and daughter

• shows him doing what he want to after death- hunting, parties, work insepcting farmers, animlas and crops

• Was a scribe for states grain supply

• Alot of moeny to d othis so burial in big tombs for the rich

Necropolis

Citites of the dead

• tombs gather together facing setting sun (like Stonehenge)

• edge of desert in Egypt

Mastaba

• The fiirst tombs from predynastic and old kingdoms

• Around 300 bc like pallets of Narmer

• 1 story building with slanted walls and flat roofs built over underground chamber

• below was the actually burried tomb in a chamber, a shaft led to this and lowed the mummy and then blocked,

• flase doors to drink robbers

Faced

• Thin pieces of stone were cut from quarriers ro cover brick stone

• illusitoned srone buiding and smooth hand surface