APAH Unit 2.1

Vocab

Figurative art of the ancient Near East includes:

1.      Hierarchy of scale – a system of representation that expresses a person’s importance by the size of his or her representation in a work of art.

2.      Registers – a horizontal band, often on top of another, that tells a narrative story.

3.      Stylized human forms

4.      Personification of animals – which we will see after Mesopotamia with the Egyptians (the Sphinx) and the Greeks (Minotaur)

5.      Polytheism – belief in many gods

Sculptures of the ancient Near East include:

6.      Votive – offered in fulfillment of a vow or pledge

7.      Figures are cut away - from their stone (hollowed under their arms and between their legs)

8.      Lamassus – man-headed winged bulls at Persepolis – PERSONIFICATION of animals

9.      Stele - A carved stone slab erected to mark a grave.

10.  Carved relief sculpture – sculpture that projects from a flat background. A very shallow relief sculpture is called a bas-relief usually placed inside palaces.

Ancient Near Eastern architecture is characterized by:

11.  Ziggurats - a pyramid-like building made of several stories that indent as the building gets taller; thus, they have terraces at each level.

12.  Cella – the main room of a temple where the god is housed

13.  Palaces

14.  Ground plan – the map of a floor of a building

The Ancient Mesopotamians – INNOVATORS!

15.  Writing – cuneiform – a system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge or arrowhead shape, created by the Sumerians

·       Ka – spirit or soul of a human being - Ka” would be reunited with the body in the afterlife – this manifested in elaborate funereal traditions, objects and tomb architecture.

·       Hieroglyphics – Egyptian writing using symbols or pictures as characters

·       Register – a horizontal band, often on top of another, that tells a narrative story

·       Ground line – a base line upon which figures stand, usually within a register

·       Mastaba – Arabic for “bench”, a step-pyramid, low and flat-roofed tomb with sides sloping down to the ground

·       Necropolis – a large burial area which includes a pyramid and other tombs

·       Colonnade – row of columns

·       Obelisk – tall monolithic one-piece pillars with pyramidal tops

·       Nemes – striped trapezoidal head cloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt

·       Hypostyle Hall – a hall in an Egyptian temple that has a roof supported by a dense thicket of columns

·       Amarna style (period) – art created during the reign of Akhenaten, which features a more relaxed figure style than in old and middle kingdom art

·       Ankh – an Egyptian symbol of life

·       Axial plan – a building with an elongated ground plan

·       Benben stone - a sacred stone relic found at Heliopolis (the center of the sun god)

·       Clerestory – an upper portion of a wall containing windows for supplying natural light and air to a building

·       Pylon – a monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple marked by two flat sloping walls between which is a smaller entrance

·       Pyramid

·       Engaged column – a column that is not freestanding but attached to a wall

·       In situ – a Latin expression that means that something is in its original location

·       Papyrus – a tall aquatic plant whose fiber is used as a writing surface in ancient Egypt

·       Peristyle – a colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a courtyard

·       Sarcophagus – a stone coffin

·       ICONOGRAPHY – THE STUDY OF IMAGES AND SYMBOLS SPECIFIC TO A CULTURE, RELIGION OR INDIVIDUAL.

Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters. New Kingdom (Amarna), 18th Dynasty. c. 1350-1335 BCE. Limestone

Form: sunken relief stele of royal family, an informal scene, containing hieroglyphics; shows naturalism in figures by incising undulating curves rather than rigid lines. The ends of the rays hold the ankh, the sign of life.

Content: royal family seated in front of their sun disc god, Aten.

Context: Amarna style (period) – art created during the reign of Akhenaton, which features a more relaxed figure style than in old kingdom. Amarna style of naturalism, with features exaggerated as protruding jaw, extended skull, bulging belly and wide hips. Domestic environment is new. We see a rare, intimate look at the royal family, basking in the rays of their Aten god above. Akhenaten led a religious revolution, bringing polytheism to a halt.

After the death of Akhenaton and the return to the traditional religion, images of Akhenaton were vandalized. What do you predict will happen to the images of royalty after this point?
Function: a decorated panel in Akhenaton’s home.

Patron: Akhenaton

Theme: ritual/ceremonial, knowledge and belief, domestic, individual/society; identity

Innovation/Convention: Amarna style of naturalism, with features exaggerated as protruding jaw, extended skull, bulging belly and wide hips. Domestic environment is new.

Tradition/Change:  profile but not strict (composite)

Connections-genre scenes: Vermeer, Woman with a Balance c. 1664 CE, Courbet, Stone Breakers 1849 CE, Grave Stele of Hegeso c. 410 BCE Greek