ap art history unit 1

Apollo 11 Stones

When: 25,500-25,300 BCE

Where: Namibia

What: Stones, charcoal drawing of therian subject (part animal/human )

why: represents the transition between animal and human worlds, animals are closer to the gods and spiritual realm 

Great Hall of the Bulls

When: 15,000-13,000 BCE

Where: Lascaux France, cave walls

What: 

• Three different animals from three periods on stone, no setting or groundline, painted using natural pigments and bone brushes

• Bull oldest, twisted perspective to see both horns(most important part)

• Horse, painted after the bull

• Dark horses, made after other horses

Why: the drawing of the animals shows how important they animals to the survival of the people, killing animals could've been a rite of passage, could've been a real/mythical hunt 

Camelid Sacrum

When:14,000-7000 BCE

Where: central mexico

What: camel sacrum bone carved to look like a canine head, stone tools

Why: sacrum holds up the body, Xolti (aztec deity) comes in the form of a xolo(hairless dog) and guides people to the afterlife, celebrates canines 

Running Horned Woman

When: 6000-4000 BCE, completed over 5 periods

Where: Algeria, NOT in a cave

What: different paintings of human like figures, pigment, some carving on rock

Why: the woman is highlighted, importance of agriculture(headdress), multiple painting events on top of one another, shows climate changes over the years

Bushel with Ibex Motifs

When: 4200-3500 BCE

Where: Iran, in a necropolis of burials 

What: 

• Abstract and stylized, painted terra cotta 

• Topmost register- birds processing, rhythm created through the long necks

• 2nd register- long dogs moving in opposite direction

• largest/widest register- belly of pot, ibex with exaggerated horns 

Why: shows the importance of different animals, creates a design with rhythm around the pot, represents the transition from hunter gatherer to stationary farms 

Anthropomorphic Stele

When: fourth millennium

Where: Arabian peninsula 

What: 

• Stele is an upright slab of stone set into the ground, sandstone

• Reliant on geometric shapes, leather belting on robes, belt, double edged dagger

why: shows what art looked like in the middle east before islam, person may have been a tribal leader, funerary stone 

Jade Cong

When: 3300-2200 BCE 

Where: China 

What: carved jade shows wealth because it is very hard, round disc represents the heavens, squares represent the earth, abstracted faces may be deities

Why: ward off evil, found in graves of chiefs and shamans

Stonehenge

When: 2500-1600 BCE

Where: Wiltshire UK

What: 

• Henge, ditch, with stone megaliths and triliths 

• 5 largest stones are trilithons, kept in place using morse and tenon

• Outer circle, sarsen sandstone(chips of silica)

• Inner rock, blue sandstone 

why: blood sports, shows how large a society it was, sun shines through middle on summer solstice, healing sanctuary, track seasons for agriculture. 

The Ambum Stone

When: 1500 BCE

Where: Abmum valley, Papua new guinea

What: Greywracke very hard, may be a baby echidna, abstract and stylized

why: represents some type of animal

Tlatilco Female Figurine

When: 1200-900 BCE

Where: Lake texcoco mexico, before tenotichlan

What: two headed woman figure with large hips, no arms or legs, terra cotta

why: physical abnormalities tied you closer to the spiritual realm, emphasis on the female form

Terra Cotta Fragment  

When: 1000 BCE

Where: Lapita people, Solomon Islands 

What: fragments of a larger piece, human head with cross body, lapita people descended from polynesians, intricate repeating patterns, carved in terra cotta using stone tools

why: stylistic, shows how lupita tattoos and textiles would have looked

Nan Madol

When: 700-1600 CE, reign of dynasty 

Where: Pohnpei, micronesia, Saudeleur dynasty

What: 92 man made islands on coral atoll, basalt

why: man made islands show power of the dynasty, built originally for worship of sacred eel, one side made for the people, one side made for the priests 

Rapa Nui

When: 1100-1600CE, peak production 

Where: easter island, Rapa Nui

What:  Moai(heads) on platform carved from basalt, headdresses from tuff, 887 Moai, face to sea, back to island 

why: represent the sacred ancestors of the people, when colonizers came and climate change started affecting them some moai were knocked down because the ancestors “failed” the people

‘Ahu ‘Ula (feathered cape)

When: late 18th century CE

Where: Hawaii

What: feathered cape, represents ancestry, red and yellow associated with the gods, each was made specifically for a chief or leader, feathers

why: invincibility cloak for those with power, like chiefs

Staff God

When: Late 18th century 

Where: cook island, Rarotonga 

What: the creation god Rarotonga, 11 feet long, only wrapped one that still exists(others destroyed by missionaries), wrapped in tapa cloth, feathers inside m

why: fertility god?

Female Deity 

When: 18th-19th century 

Where: Nukuoro(atoll name, 5 clans), micronesia 

What: woman carved from breadfruit wood, unity in line and form 

why: 

• Goddess Kawe: primary goddess of Nakuro atoll, ruled gods on behalf of husband

• Goddess Kokowe: protective goddess of one of the five clans

• Protector of island, stand in amalau on the shoreline  

• Festivals held in honor

Buk

When: mid to late 19th CE

Where: torres strait

What: sea turtle shell, feathers, raffia leaves, frigate bird on top of face of ancestor

why: costume made of shaggy loud grass to entice all senses, more senses=more memory, danced in a ceremony, shows the communication and trade between island and peoples

Hiapo(tapa)

When: 1850-1900 CE

Where: Niue people, niue

What: Hiapo(tapa cloth) made of paper mulberry sapling bark

why: 

• Group effort: women handle the sewing and decoration, men plant trees

• Passes cultural memory

• Enforces tradition

Tamati Waka Nene

When: 1890

Where: the pacific

What: Oil on canvas, tribe leader Tamati, Tapu was protection from the world old spirit, left of face is mother, right of facial tattoo is father

why: birds were connected to gods, by protecting one's mana via tapu, you protect yourself, and other from yourself

Navigation Chart

When: 19th to early 20th century 

Where: marshall islands, micronesia 

What: 

stick charts charted tides

Straight palm ribs - wave swells

Cowry shells - islands

Why: passed down by generation, memorized and used as a map, allow for cultural connection between islands

Malagan Display and Mask

When: 20th century 

Where: papua new guinea 

What: masks and statues made of wood, pigment, fur, shell

why: 

• Ceremonial 

  1. Souls of deceased are within the statues, after ceremony statues are destroyed and souls go to afterlife

  2. Restores balance in community after death

  3. Increases prestige of the deceased's family

• Lift the taboos in place during mourning period 

• Masks used in dances by young men

• Goods of the deceased as distributed, network of obligation 

Presentation ceremony 

When: 1953(picture)

Where: fiji

What: presentation of tapa cloths to queen elizabeth, images all sense through dance, song, perfume 

why: all senses increases memory of the event, ritual