Knowt
Untitled Flashcards Set
Egypt flourished because of its proximity to the Nile River – “the fertile crescent”
They communicated with a written language called hieroglyphics or “sacred carvings”
Rosetta Stone was found and it had three different scripts: ancient Greek, late Egyptian, and hieroglyphics or the modern ancient Egyptian.
Architecture – began as early as 3000 years BC.
Mastabas – “eternal house” pre- and early dynasty and were the pre-pyramid burial structures or tombs for royalty- these were low rectangle structures with the burial chamber below ground and were used up to 2600 BC
Pyramids – came next after 2600 BC, but these had the burial chamber hidden above ground in the pyramid. Load bearing construction with dry masonry. The earliest architect created the stepped pyramid to get to the sky. The first pyramid was not a real pyramid but a series of Mastabas stacked on top of each other. It is still standing today in Saqqara and is considered the first largest stone structure ever built in the world. Two other Mastabas type pyramids were constructed and still stand: these are the Meidum and the Bent Pyramid (not true pyramids, but stacked Mastabas.
True pyramids: 4th Dynasty and was built for Pharoah Khufu. Made of limestone and located on the Giza Plateau which overlooks two other pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure. The pyramids of Giza became the greatest funerary complex in the world. The kings truly believed in the afterlife and took a lot with them.
Top of pyramids points to the entry of the afterlife and is guiding to the soul to go forward into the sky to become part of the constellations.
Theories suggest that the pyramids were laid out to reproduce the Orion’s belt, a constellation.
Egyptians were polytheist – believers of many gods, but the only physical god they could see was the living pharaoh.
The Great Sphinx, carved during the old kingdom, was sculpted near by and stands guard to the entrance of the pyramids. Egyptian gods have a human body, but animal heads. However, the Great Sphinx has a human head (Pharoah Khafre) and animal body of a lion. Many hundreds years later restoration began of the Sphinx, then the Romans also tried to restore it by covering it with bricks.
Egyptians painted the inside of their tombs with low reliefs.
The pharaohs were buried with mummified food and pets to accompany them to the afterlife.
The dead were mummified to a create a place for the afterlife to reside. Mummification was a long drawn out process whereby the internal organs were placed into canopic jars and the body washed and wrapped. The mummy was placed in a series of sarcophagi or coffins. The inner coffin, the nicest with the outer one made of thick stones. King Tut was buried in 4 coffins or sarcophagi with the inner most having the most gold and precious gems.
The Palette of King Narmer is a ceremonial object from ancient Egypt that depicts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by King Narmer. It is a large, 63.5 cm tall, greyish-green sand stone palette with detailed low relief on both sides. It contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found.
The palette depicts King Narmer in different scenes.
Ancient Egyptians believed in the after life and that their soul (KA) was free to roam around, but needed a home to rest in. Thus, statues were built and these depicted the kings as beautiful with muscles and extreme beauty. Thus, the KA statues are an idealized representation of the king.
Figurative Styles: all cultures have a particular way to represent the human boy, The Egyptians had a figurative style called the COMPOSED VIEW: legs are shown separated in profile with the torso in frontal view, head in side view, but with their upper torso twisted to the front to show off their physiques. This composed figurative style can also be seen in the low reliefs on the tombs.
Hierarchical Scale is always used to show the royalty in a portrait at the center of the composition and always using the composed view of the body.
Egyptian Cannon of Proportion: is based on using a grid to build statues or paint or etch the royalty in relief. The proportions for length of the human body were in units starting at the hair line but not the top of the head. Changes occurred and the Egyptians shifted to the use of royal cubits beginning at the hair line. Thus, there were 3 royal cubits to indicate the perfect length of a king.
Thus, the Egyptian Cannon of Proportion is very stylized. It only reflects the perception of beauty, not reality. Sounds similar to the Grecian and Roman statues. Cannon of Beauty indicates that the male skin is darker than the female skin when painted on statues.
The KA statue of King Mycerinus and his Queen show the cannon of beauty with perfect nude torsos and muscled legs.
One figure shown in the power point is of a fat old Seated Scribe sitting down. He is not of royalty, and thus his statue does not have to be followed by the Cannon of Beauty. He is of lower status with physical traits that are not beautiful.
A new pharaoh called Amenhotep IV came along and changed the cannon of beauty. No longer is the human body perfect. He had the human body look real with fat tummies, and ugly faces. This was known as the Amarna Style which depicts human elements. The Amarna style only lasted until his death. Then the pharaohs after him changed back to the Cannon of Beauty because they considered Amenhoptep’s rein the unbeautiful period.
CLASSICAL ART: GREECE AND ROME (begins about 1500 BC)
Greek Art - the greeks considered humans as the center of the universe called HUMANISM. They loved reason and intellect and had respect for nature. Thus, their art was based on humanism, rationalism, naturalism, and idealism. Not many frescos of Greek art remain. Because of this, we will focus on ceramics and the painting style found on these pieces that did withstand time.
Proto-geometric style (1500 BC) simple geometry shapes and line painted on the jars. (proto means before).
Geometric style occurred 900-700 BC with more complex decorations but with geometric designs becoming more complex. On these we see the first human figures painted onto the jars. Figures of humans are very geometric with triangle torsos, head a circle, and the eye a dot. The jars are called DYPILON VASES and served as grave markers at the DYPILON CEMETRY. Visitors to the grave sites would pour wine into the vases for their loved ones to enjoy in the afterlife.
DIPILON VASES are mourning or funerary vases that show the geometry was still used in the drawings on the vases which shows the women in morning, and the men covered with large shield. The dead person is in the center.
700 BC, a new style called Orientalizing is born and it breaks with the geometric shapes. There is new color added to the vases with stylized animals that are now more organic (real).
600 – 480 BC, the Greeks are telling stores of their culture on their pottery. The vases now are made of orange color-clay and are painted with black slip paint. These are of earth tone pigments and the vases are fired in three stages to obtain the beautiful results and details. Subtractive method of painting is when the clay pot is scraped to show off the orange color clay below the painted black figures.
530-450 BC – shows the red figure styles. In these clay pots, the figures were red against the black slip paint. This is called Additive Method of painting the pots.
Greek Sculpture Three styles: Archaic, Classic, Hellenistic
ARCHAIC (old)- 660-480 BC influenced by the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks removed the background of their statues and were the first to make free standing statues. The naked statue shown is called Kuros which means young boy. The statue is more open than the early Egyptians. The proportion of the head is larger than the statue. The naked body shows muscles and are very curvilinear with a fake smile called the Archaical smile.
Koros means young girl. These statues were of female figures, but these were not naked and dressed well with their arms bent and not as curvilinear as the boy statues.
CLASSICAL Sculpture – 480-323 BC the Greek artists start sculpting human bodies as more naturalistic and idealized following the canon of proportions created by Polykleitos of Argos. He used math to make the sculpted piece perfectly proportioned. The unit of proportion from the head to the entire length of the body is 1:7.5 for humans and 1:8 for gods with the head being larger. Complete absence of emotion on the face and thus the classical restraint. The male bodies were more defined with more musculature.
Contraposta Pose is first used by the Greeks during the classical era. All the weight resides on one leg while the other leg is bent. The hip, shoulder and head are tilted and the body creates an S shape. Very relaxed looking.
HELLENISTIC sculpture 323-146 BC: sculptures became more exciting in this new period. Naturalism is enhanced with theatrical details of emotion and ages and sensual and erotic tensions. While the statures follow the cannon of proportion, they lose the contraposta relaxed style in lieu of the tensions, agony, pain, torment that the sculptures wanted to portray.
See the Seated Boxer sitting looking over his shoulder.
See below the Laocoon and his sons.
Nike, the goddess of victory. During the Hellenistic period, women statues are being made more frequently. Nike’s body (while the head is missing) is sensual.
Venus de Milo is a transitional piece between the Classical and Hellenistic period. The style is contrapposto with classical relaxed pose, but is showing erotic tension and a slight smile suggesting she is seducing the viewer.
ARCHITECTURE: the Parthenon is found in the city of ATHENS, Greece. In the upper portions of the city called the ACROPYLIS are the temples which overlooks the lower city or businesses. The most majestic and beautiful is the Parthenon. In 448 BC, the entire acropolis (city) was rebuilt after the Persians destroyed it. Pericles was the governor at the time who had it rebuilt.
The parthenon was dedicated to ATHENA, the daughter of ZEUS because she was the goddess of warfare, arts, and wisdom.
Ictinus and Callicrates were the architects who designed the temple.
The two series of collonades on the front are DORIC. The columns lean inward and the entire temple is made of marble. The vertical channels were carved into each column would take about 2 years to carve.
PHIDIAS is the sculptor that sculpted the statues throughout.
PEDIMENTS are triangular spaces on top of the FRIEZES (a decorative band or panel that runs horizontally along the upper walls of a building) that contain life size freestanding sculptures. There are high reliefs all around the temple about 3 feet high.
The parthenon suffered severe damage (wars, theft) over its 2000 years.
But a replica in Nashville Tennessee has reconstructed it and all the pieces of the parthenon tell an important story called the Panathenaic Procession: sculptures sitting at the top of the columns and were created just the gods to see them. The interior of the Parthenon shows the Panathenaic procession which occurs every 4 years in honor of Athena when she is presented a new robe.
A triangular pediment sits on top of the columns.
The stories occur on each of the triangular pediments.
East pediment shows athena’s birth from Zeus’s head
West pediment shows athena fighting with Poseidon
Continuous Ionic Frieze exists at the top of the interior columns
Doric metopes and triglyphs exist at the top of the exterior columns:
Triglyphs and metopes are architectural features that appear in the Doric order of classical Greek and Roman architecture:
Triglyphs
These are 3 rectangular tablets with vertical channels that project from the Doric frieze. The word "triglyph" comes from the angular channels in the tablets in sets of 3
Metopes
These are the recessed square spaces between the triglyphs. Metopes can be plain or carved with sculptures. Inside of the metopes are Doric sculptures in high relieve. Thus, if shown a high relief on the Parthenon, it is called a Metope that has a story.
One story of one of the Metopes: Laphids versus Centaurs: a battle in which the Greek tribe (called the Laphids) feast with the Centaurs which are half human and half hourse. The centaurs get drunk and try to rape all the Greek boys and girls at the party. This implies that the human conflict between self control and animal instinct can exist, but because the Greeks are a rational society, they control these instincts.
Renaissance Period: Early, Northern, High
(SHE WILL ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT ART WORK IN EACH PERIOD! REVIEW HER POWERPOINTS!!)
Giotto – the first Italian painter created naturalistic style of painting 100 years before the start of the Renaissance. His frescos inspired generations of painters because his frescos create a believable scenes from the bible. The most important one is called the Lamentation (1305) where he includes landscape elements, blue sky, and he places the figures into the frescos to suggest depth, light, and shadow. He infuses his scenes with profound sadness.
He was the first to portray feelings of sadness and what it was like to be human. Even his angels had emotions on their faces.
Masaccio’s fresco the Holy Trinity is another famous piece in Florence Italy, 1425
You will be asked about this painting in her exam because Masaccio was the first to use Linear Perspective in this fresco called the Holy Trinity. The horizontal blue line is at the eye of the viewer, the red orthogonal lines are drawn in to show you linear perspective beginning at the viewers eye (called the vanishing point) and moving up to Christ’s head. This work creates 3 dimensional space as God is behind Christ and the roman arches recede into the back ground
Masaccio: used Brunelleschi’s linear perspective but outsmarts all artists of the time by creating a large barrel vault space that appears to recede in his painting. He uses naturalistic figures and chiaroscuro painting. Lots of symbolism of symmetry (the triangle or trinity where God is at the top of the triangle while the corners are anchored by the naturalistic figures.
Renaissance means “REBIRTH” from 1400 to 1525, Italian artists renewed their interest in sculptures and classical architecture that was left behind by the medieval period when artists were “god-centered”. In the Renaissance, human forms are more natural like and many are nude!
Linear perspective (remember from our first exam?) used to create an illusion of depth or three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Parallel lines appear to converge and objects appear smaller as the distance between them and the viewer increases. The Last Supper!!
Chiaroscuro (remember this from our first exam? It means in Italian “light dark” and incorporates gradations of values to give an ILLUSION of rounded three-dimensional forms. Good examples are people covered in cloaks. This was invented during this period by Italian artists.
Contrapposta is the Italian for counterpositioning of parts of the human body. The weight is placed on one foot causing the hips and shoulder lines to counterbalance each other creating a graceful S shape curve.
Foreshortening: representation of forms on a two dimensional surface by shortening the length in such a way that the long axis appears to project toward or recede away from the viewer.
Early Renaissance: 1400-1500 is a time of discovery, experimentation and invention.
Ghiberti’s bronze panels in Florence Italy called the Gates of Paradise are famous and depict scenes from the old testament in the Bible depicting scenes of the Sacrifice of Isaac. More importantly, Ghiberti uses another artists invention of linear perspective ((Brunelleschi) in his bronze panels. The 1401 sculpture competition for who is the best sculpture of the bronze panels called GOTHIC QUATREFOIL with casts in BRONZE jumped started the Rein period. Ghiberti won and Brunelleschi lost. Ghiberti was later commissioned to do more bronze panel doors. Called the GATES OF PARADISE (took him 25 years to complete). The gates of paradise tells the tale of the two sons of Isaac and Rebecca.
Donatello: most famous of sculptors who was inspired by classical art. He was credited with creating the first male nude bronze statue of David in 1408, the shepherd boy who slayed a giant. The statue is still the symbol of Florence Italy. Notice that David is leaning on one foot, this is important form of art called:
Contrapposta is the Italian for counterpositioning of parts of the human body. The weight is placed on one foot causing the hips and shoulder lines to counterbalance each other creating a graceful S shape curve.
Foreshortening: representation of forms on a two dimensional surface by shortening the length in such a way that the long axis appears to project toward or recede away from the viewer.
Northern Renaissance: while Italy was the birth of the Renaissance, other countries in Europe (north of Italy) were also experiencing a re-birth of their own. Oil painting takes hold and more realistic works of art are being created. Oil painting allowed for more freedom of expression and greater levels of details. The attention to minute details in oil painting is one of the major characteristics of the Northern Renaissance period.
Limbourg Brothers: three brothers at a very young age that were known for their beautiful art used in prayer books owned by the rich. One page from the book of prayers called “MAY” is a calendar page from the book of hours. The brothers detailed their paintings in devotional books for prayers. What is important is that these painters captured the International Style of Europe at the time (called the style of 1400). These paintings captured ornate courtly scenes of the rich and famous and could only be found in the prayer books owned by the wealthy. These were NOT large paintings but small pages that could fit into a normal size book to be held in the lap.
Jan Van Eyck: famous artist of the northern renaissance. His painting of the marriage scene called the Arnolfini Wedding of a wealthy Italian merchant is incredibly real for its time. Lots of symbolism in paintings from this period. The artist actually shows himself at the wedding in the reflection of a mirror at the back of the room. Lots of details and lots of linear perspective. The artist used a lot of ICONOGRAPHY: symbolic items (the dog means trust, a single lit candle means Christ, lots and lots of sunlight from the window
Robert Campin and his Merode Altarpiece shows a ton of detail. The artist painted using a brush with just one single bristle to get the level of detail seen in the oil on wood alterpiece. Lots of realism.
High Renaissance 1500-1525: The Period is characterized by balance or symmetry and emotional restraint. Art reached its peak.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s the Last Supper is the most famous of frescos. Leonardo uses the geometric shape---the triangle---to frame Jesus with a larger window behind and a halo-like arch above. All receding lines in the composition converge at the head of Christ, a device Leonardo carefully employs to emphasize his focal point.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting is famous for its mystery as well as its innovations (Mona lisa is looking directly at the viewer during a period of time, that women were not allowed to look men directly in the eye. Also, Leonardo painted smoky soft focus shadows called SFUMATO to give her a glowing effect.
Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta (the Pity) when he was only 25 years old. The calm, restrained demeanor of the Virgin as she holds her son in her lap is characteristic of the High Renaissance. The sculptors used classical approaches from the Greeks in their work during this period. He also sculpted DAVID (another statue inspired by late classical Greek sculpture), but this DAVID stands 17 feet tall and is also nude and holds an expression of a young shepherd boy about to slay Goliath the Giant.
Michelangelo also painted the SISTINE CHAPEL which is in Rome. Michelangelo initially said no to the Pope when asked to paint the chapel ceiling because he didn’t think of himself as a painter. But it now one of the most beautiful pieces of work from the era. The chapel ceiling consists of 300 + figures in a complex architectural setting and tells the story of the Creation from the first book in the Bible. The Creation of Adam is important because Michelangelo shows god about to touch Adam which is the beginning of humanity. There are 20 male nudes called IGNUDI meaning “in the nude” are still mysteries of the Sistine Chapel. What are their purposes? Are they angels?
Michelangelo returned to create another masterpiece on the Sistine Chapel ceiling over the alter. It contains 400 figures. In this piece, Christ raises his hand over his head to cast damned souls to hell. Those that are being saved are being raised up by angels. All the people in the fresco were nude. When the piece was finished, the Renaissance had run its course and the rise of puritanical Protestantism was starting. The church officials had the genitals of the figures in the fresco painted over.
