Art History Study Section 1

"Apollo 11 Cave"

Material: Painted stone

Location: South, Africa

Date: c. 25,000 BCE (Paleolithic)

The oldest example of figuration art from the African continent

Figurine of a Lion-Man

Material: Mammoth Ivory

Location: Germany

Date: c. 40,000 BCE (Paleolithic)

Lascaux Cave Paintings

Material: Painted cave walls

Location: France

Date: c. 15,000 BCE (Paleolithic)

Features the Hall of Bulls, "Dead Man" Scene

Has a replica because humans were degrading it

Nude female figurine "Venus of Willendorf"

Material: Limestone with red ocher

Location: Willendorf, Austria

Date: c. 25,000 BCE (Paleolithic)

Art

"Any material or visual thing that is made or modified by a person or persons that is invested with social, political, spiritual, and/or aesthetic value by the creator, user viewer, and or patron."

BCE/CE

Before Common Era/Common Era

Circa

about

Composite Pose/View

a pose that combines two or more viewpoints into a single representation

Contextual Analysis

- The historical, cultural, and geographic situation in which a work of art is made

- Artist, patron (biographies)

- Political, religious, social, and philosophical beliefs and practices

- Written and other documentary sources

- Archaeological and anthropological studies

Formal Analysis

An analysis of the materials used to make a work of art, the ways in which these materials are utilized in terms of the formal elements, and the composition that results (size like height and diameter, scale, proportion)

Scale

the comparison of the relative size of one object to another

Proportion

the comparison between parts of one object

Incise

engrave, to carve into a surface with a sharp tool

Paleolithic

c. 65,000 BCE (or earlier) - c. 10,000 BCE, Old Stone Age

Prehistory

refers to events that happened in a culture before the existence of written records

Profile Pose/View

a side view, outline, or representation of an object

Relief Sculpture

an artwork that remains attached to the surface it is carved form, it projects from a flat background

Sculpture in the Round

a sculpture that is completely 3-dimensional and not attached to a flat background

Formal Elements

Size, Scale, Proportion, Line, Shape(2D) Form(3D), Space, Color, Texture, Pattern

The formal elements of line

DRAWS: Direction, Rythm, Angularity, Weight, Style

Line

Line is the path of a moving point through space. Typically used to depict edges, abstract ideas, and emotion

Statues of Human Figures

Material: Plaster-covered reeds and bitumen

Location: Ain Ghazal, Jordan

Date: c. 6,500 BCE (Neolithic)

Size: Varry from about a foot tall to 3 feet tall

Geometric Wall Painting

Material: paint

Location: Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Date: c. 6,000 BCE (Neolithic)

Hunt Scene Wall Paintings/Murals

Material: paint

Location: Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Date: c. 6,000 BCE (Neolithic)

Subject: Animals are larger than people which represents a hierarchy in scale

Volcano Wall Painting

Material: paint

Location: Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Date: c. 6,000 BCE (Neolithic)

Subject: First landscape painting?

Seated Female Figurine

Material: ceramic

Location: Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Date: c. 6,000 BCE (Neolithic)

Size: 6.7 in tall

Bi Disc

Material: jade

Location: Banpo, China

Date: c. 2,500 BCE (Neolithic)

Subject: Jade disc with a hole in the center, represents the sky/heaven

Additive Sculpture

the piecing together of one or more materials to create a desired form

Apotropaic Sculpture

wards against evil, an image/symbol that is believed to ward off evil

Subtractive Sculpture

the removal of materials through carving, cutting, sanding etc. to create a desired form

Bi

Circular disks thought to be connected to the sky/heavens. Found in many burials

Cong

a tubular object with a circular hole cut into a square-like cross section thought to be connected to the earth

Heirarchy of Scale

way of using the relative size to show importance, making one subject larger than the other to convey importance

Neolithic

New Stone Age, more settled and organized living (farming/domesticated plants, domesticated animals, development of ceramics and weaving)

Sumerian Culture

c. 3,500 - c. 2,500 BCE

Babylonian Culture

1792 - 1750 BCE

Votive Figurines

Material: Alabaster, shell, bitumen

Location: Iraq (Mesopotamia)

Date: c. 3,000 BCE (Sumerian Culture)

Warka Vase

Material: Alabaster

Location: Uruk, Iraq (Mesopotamia)

Date: c. 3,000 BCE (Sumerian Culture)

Subject: Ianna Temple, first narrative relief sculpture with registers (each level of registers have different images, lower register shows river with plants and procession of animals, middle register shows servants/slaves bringing offerings, and upper register shows goddess Inanna or priestess of Inanna accepting offerings from the king)

Bull-Headed Lyre

Material: Wood with inlaid gold, lapis lazuli and shell

Location: Ur, Iraq (Mesopotamia)

Date: c. 2,500 BCE (Sumerian Culture)

Subject: Tomb of "Queen" Paubi

Stele of Hammurabi

Material: Basalt

Location: Babylon, Iraq (Mesopotamia)

Date: c. 1750 BCE (Babylonian Culture)

Subject: Shows Hammurabi with the Babylonian sun god Shamash and also the law code with 282 laws (Criminal, Commercial, Family/marital, Inheritance, Property, etc)

a writing with wedge-shaped characters (overtime develops into sound and creates a new job description called the scribe)

Cuneiform

a round piece of carved stone that when rolled onto clay produces an image, used to seal things, is a status object, and has cuneiform

Location: Ur, Iraq (Tomb of "Queen" Paubi)

Date: C. 2500 BCE

Cylinder seal

Foreshortening

a method of depicting a 2D figure ot object as if it is projecting or receding into space on a 3D plane by manipulating diagonal line

Heraldic Composition

a figure flanked by 2 symmetrical objects

Lapis Lazuli

semiprecious blue stone ground to manufacture the pigment ultramarine (imported from afghanistan)

Mesopotamia

A region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that developed the first urban societies. Modern iraq/iran

Narrative Scene

a scene in which continuous action (a story) unfolds

Registers

Horizontal bands of decoration

Stele

An upright stone slab or pillar with writing or imagery that commemorates an event

Votive

Something given in fulfillment of a vow

Ziggurat

A pyramid shaped temple tower

Palette of King Narmer

Material: Slate

Location: Heirakonpolis, Egypt

Date: c. 3000 BCE (Metal Ages)

Subject: Cartouche of Narmer (narrative)

Statue of Khafre

Material: Diorite (rock)

Location: Giza, Egypt

Date: c. 2500 BCE (Metal Ages)

Subject: Serdab statue - a statue of the deceased, included in a tomb to house the individual's ka (lifeforce) if needed (backup if the mummification process failed)

Hunt Relief, Mastaba of Ti

Material: painted limestone

Location: Giza, Egypt

Date: c. 2350 BCE (Metal Ages)

Details: uses a hierarchy of scale and a grid

House Altar Relief of Akhenaten and his Family

Material: limestone

Location: Aketaten, Egypt

Date: c. 1350 BCE (Metal Ages)

Musicians and Dancers, Tomb of Nebaumun

Material: Fresco secco

Location: Thebes, Egypt

Date: c. 1400 BCE (Metal Ages)

Details: the dancers have curved lines, we see art experimentation in this

Benben

an Egyptian stone of pyramidal shape

Canopic jar

In ancient Egypt, the container in which the organs of the deceased were placed for later burial with the mummy

Cartouche

an oval or oblong enclosing a group of Egyptian hieroglyphs, typically representing the name and title of a monarch.

Faience

glazed non clay form of ceramic, made with crushed sand or quartz (casues a blue-green color)

Hieroglyphs

pictures, characters, or symbols standing for words, ideas, or sounds; ancient Egyptians used instead of an alphabet like ours

Ka

In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force.

Mastaba

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

Monotheism

Belief in one God

Mummification

the preservation of dead bodies by embalming and wrapping them in cloth

Serdab statue

a statue of the deceased, included in a tomb to house the individual's ka (lifeforce) if needed

Sphinx

A mythical Egyptian beast with the body of a lion and the head of a human.

Ushabti

In ancient egypt, a figurine placed in a tomb to act as a servant to the deceased in the afterlife (usually about 6 in tall)

Tortoise Shell Oracle "Bone"

Material: Tortoise Shell

Location: Anyang, China

Date: c. 1200 BCE (Metal Ages - Shang Dynasty)

Subject: Used as a divining mechanism/read the future (Writing: "Bone and Shell Script")

Bronze Ritual Wine-Pouring Vessel (Guang)

Material: Bronze

Location: China

Date: c. 1250 BCE (Metal Ages - Shang Dynasty)

Subject: Likely used in ritual banquets offered to deceased ancestors

Ding

ritual vessel for cooked food

Guang

An ancient Chinese covered vessel, often in animal form, holding wine, water, grain, or meat for sacrificial rites and rituals

Oracle Bone

a piece of bone or shell heated and cracked by holy men to seek advice from a king's ancestors (or gods), helped people look into the future and see what the future might bring

Piece Mold Casting

a process for casting metal (bronze) objects in which a mold is broken into several pieces that are then reassembled into a final sculpture

Figurine of a Woman

Material: Painted marble

Location: Cycladic Islands, Greece

Date: c. 2500 BCE (Aegean)

(Cycladic Art (c. 3200-c. 1200 BCE))

"Snake Goddess"

Material: Faience

Location: Crete, Greece

Date: c. 1600 BCE (Aegean)

(Minoan Art (c. 3000-c. 1400 BCE))

Bull-leaping Fresco

Material: Buon Fresco

Location: Crete Greece

Date: c. 1400 BCE (Aegean)

(Minoan Art (c. 3000-c. 1400 BCE))

Lion Gate

Material: stone

Location: Mycenae, Greece

Date: c. 1250 BCE (Aegean)

(Mycenaean Art (c. 2000-c. 1200 BCE))

Warrior Krater

Material: clay

Location: Mycenae, Greece

Date: c. 1300 BCE (Aegean)

(Mycenaean Art (c. 2000-c. 1200 BCE))

Krater

An ancient Greek wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water.

Buon Fresco

Painting on wet plaster

Fresco Secco

Painting on dry plaster

Linear A

An undeciphered writing system used in Crete in the 17th century B.C., Minoa's first written language; has not been translated.

Linear B

Different language than Minoan linear A, deciphered in 1953, precursos to greek, administrative documents only

Megaron

The large reception hall and throne room in a Mycenaean palace, fronted by an open, two-columned porch.

Repousse

formed in relief by beating a metal plate from the back, leaving the impression on the face

Geometric Krater

Material: terracotta clay

Location: Dipylon Cemetery, Greece

Date: c. 750 BCE

(Geometric Period (c. 800-c. 700 BCE)) (Pre-Classical Greek)

Black-figure Amphora with Animal Friezes

Material: Pottery (clay)

Location: Greece

Date: c. 600 BCE

(Orientalizing Period (c. 700-c. 600 BCE)) (Pre-Classical Greek)

Temple A

Material: stone? (including sculpture)

Location: Greece

Date: c. 600 BCE

(Orientalizing Period (c. 700-c. 600 BCE)) (Pre-Classical Greek)

Statue of Kroisos (Anavysos Kouros)

Material: Marble

Location: Greece

Date: c. 525 BCE

(Archaic Period (c. 600- 480 BCE)) (Pre-Classical Greek)

Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice

Material: Pottery (clay)

Location: Greece

Date: c. 525 BCE (bilingual amphora)

(Archaic Period (c. 600- 480 BCE)) (Pre-Classical Greek)

Amphora

An ancient Greek two-handled jar used for general storage purposes, usually to hold wine or oil

Arete

in early Greece, the qualities of excellence that a hero strives to win in a struggle or contest

Bilingual ceramics

vases that are painted both in the black-figure and in the red-figure techniques

Black-figure ceramics

A style of Greek ceramic decoration in which the figures are painted in black slip on the terra cotta red background of the piece

Colonnade (or peristyle)

a sequence of columns, which often support a roof or other architectural feature

Doric column

This style of column features simple, heavy columns without bases.

Frieze

a decorated or undecorated band between the pediment and columns, found on both Doric or Ionic buildings

Greek "Dark Ages"

1100-800 BCE

We go from areas where we have writing to no writing

We see the end of large city-states and monumental building

People live in small settlements

We see the return to basic tools and creations

"No art"

Horror vacui

fear of empty space