Art History Notes
Apollo 11 Stones
Form:
Stones with charcoal drawings of animals and geometric designs.
Size: 4-5 inches.
Function:
Depict animals.
Some of the world's oldest works of art.
Content:
Animal figures with human legs added, possibly later.
Context:
Found in Apollo 11 caves in Namibia.
Made around 25500 BCE (oldest representational art in Africa).
Named after the Apollo 11 moon landing due to the discovery's timing.
Great Hall of the Bulls
Form:
Naturalistic charcoal drawings in a cave.
Natural materials: plants, charcoal, iron ore.
Twisted perspective: animals realistically depicted, humans as stick figures.
Content:
Pictures animals in motion.
Overlapping pictures from different artists across time periods.
Depicts cows, bulls, horses, deer; around 650 paintings.
Function:
Possible animal ritual depiction.
Ancestral animal worship.
Context:
Sacred place (deep in a cave).
In situ (original location).
Not a dwelling; creators were nomads.
Paleolithic Europe, Lascaux, France.
Camelid Sacrum
Form:
Carved bone.
Function:
Spiritual mask.
House spiritual essence of a hunted animal.
Sacrum bone symbolism: Osiris and rebirth; triangle.
Content:
Sacrum bone (hip bone) carved in shape of a canine/wolf.
Context:
Found in a tomb in Mexico (MesoAmerica).
14000-7000 BCE.
Running Horned Woman
Form:
Canyon painting with layered paintings, making carbon dating difficult.
Depicts motion.
Function:
Shows the person as holy or a god because of the horns.
Content:
Woman with horns running.
Dots on her body represent body painting.
Possible deity wearing ceremonial headgear.
Context:
In situ on canyon walls in the Sahara.
6000-4000 BCE (Neolithic).
Bushel with Ibex Motifs
Form:
Painted terra cotta, clay.
Geometric forms.
Set in registers, controlled, and repeated planar composition.
Function:
Funerary object.
Content:
Dog figures, mountain goat, cranes.
Context:
Susa, Iran.
4200-3500 BCE.
Neolithic.
Use of potter's wheel: new technology.
Anthropomorphic Stele
Form:
Sandstone.
Content:
Three stele, all about 3ft tall.
Belted robe with knife hanging from it.
Function:
Used in incense trade.
Religious/burial practices.
Context:
Found on trade routes in the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia.
Fourth millennium.
Jade Cong
Form:
Carved jade.
Low reliefs.
Abstract designs.
Square with a circle inside.
Function:
Jade usually appears in burials of high-ranked people.
Content:
Low reliefs decorations refer to spirits/deities.
Context:
Liangzhu, China.
3300-2200 BCE.
Jade in China is linked with virtues like beauty, durability, and subtlety.
Stonehenge
Form:
Sandstone.
Post and lintel (two vertical posts support a horizontal beam).
Arranged in a circle (cromlech).
Content:
Stones in a centralized plan.
Small stones surrounding in no specific pattern.
Function:
Probably religious ceremonies.
Burial?
Marker of mid-summer solstice.
Context:
Wiltshire, UK.
2500-1600 BCE.
The Ambum Stone
Form:
Greywacke stone.
Content:
Sculpted to look like an anteater.
Human/animal characteristics (mostly animal).
Function:
Objects like these are believed to have supernatural power.
Used as a spirit stone in rituals.
Context:
Ambun Valley, Papua New Guinea.
Around 1500 BCE.
Tlatilco Female Figure
Form:
Ceramic.
Content:
Pinched waist and big hips with two heads.
No hands or feet.
Naked except for jewelry.
Function:
Show fertility.
Two heads represent life and death that happens every day.
Context:
Central Mexico.
1200-900 BCE.
Many of the other figures show deformities like this.
Terra Cotta Fragment
Form:
Terra cotta with dentate stamping.
Content:
Dentate designs (circles, hatching, dots).
Function:
Unknown.
Context:
Lapita peoples.
Solomon Islands, Reef Islands.
1000 BCE.
White Temple and its Ziggurat
Form:
Mud brick.
Colossal scale.
Built to resemble a mountain.
Content:
Sloping walls, bent access (ramp up to enter the altar), 3 entrances.
Mosaic surface.
Function:
Temple as a meeting place for humans and gods in the center of the city.
Votive figures and dedicated to Anu, the sky god.
Top temple was only for royals or clergy to enter.
Context:
Uruk; Modern day Warka, Iraq.
Sumerian.
3500-3000 BCE.
Palette of King Narmer
Form:
Greywacke.
Organized in registers.
Hierarchic scale.
Low relief, twisted perspective.
Content:
Front: Narmer (on a large scale) looking on the beheaded bodies of his enemies, wearing the crown of lower Egypt,
Harnessed lionesses (symbol of unification), bull knocking down a city fortress (Narmer knocking over enemies).
Back: Hawk=Horus, Narmer wearing bowling pin crown (symbol of unification), stands barefoot (he is a divine king).
Palette for eye makeup, hieroglyphics.
Function:
Represents the unification of Egypt and the country's growth as a powerful nation.
Context:
Found in the temple of Horus.
Old Kingdom of Egypt.
3000 BCE.
Statues of Votive Figures
Form:
Bilateral symmetry.
Eyes exaggerated (beholding the divine).
Gypsum and black limestone.
Content:
The hands are placed in prayful gesture.
Elite male and female figures.
Function:
Placed in ziggurat to resemble the people that aren't allowed to be in the ziggurats.
Context:
Found in the Square Temple of Eshunna (modern day Tell Asmur, Iraq).
2700 BCE.
Seated Scribe
Form:
Painted limestone.
Crystal limestone eyes.
Content:
Royal scribe.
Depicted with sagging body (realistic not ideal), thin face.
Holding tools to show he is ready to write.
Function:
Shows that the scribe is important but not perfect like a pharaoh.
Made for tomb at Saqqara for the ka.
Context:
Saqqara, Egypt.
2500 BCE.
Found near tomb (funerary object).
Standard of Ur
Form:
Wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and black limestone.
Mosaic.
Hierarchic scale to show who was more important in society.
Front shoulders, body in profile.
Content:
Two sides: war side and peace side.
War side: shows Sumerian king on larger scale descending from his chariot to inspect captives.
Lower register shows him riding over dead bodies in his chariot.
Peace side: food brought to a banquet, ruler wears a kilt of wool (larger scale).
Function:
Shows the different classes of people.
Democratic leadership.
Context:
Found in the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern day Iraq).
2600-2400 BCE.
Sumerian.
Great Pyramid and Great Sphinx
Form:
Square base with 4 sloped sides (represents rays of the sun).
Polished limestone.
Content:
Pyramids with adjoining funerary complex; get to these through secret passageways.
Great Sphinx: human head with lion body.
Descending order on the West side of the Nile.
Function:
Maintain and protect tombs for eternity.
Great Sphinx: protects the pyramids behind it.
Context:
Built by Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure (each temple named after).
Khufu temple (oldest and largest).
Old Kingdom, 2500 BCE.
Giza, Egypt.
Menkaura and Queen
Form:
Greywacke.
Under life-size.
Symmetrical.
Egyptian style: one foot in front of the other.
Content:
King and queen same height, idealized figures.
Pharaoh crown.
Wife gives simple affectionate gesture.
Function:
Temple sculpture.
Symbolize his power and kingship.
Context:
Old Kingdom, 2500 BCE.
Code of Hammurabi
Form:
Black-stone stele with words carved in it.
Basalt.
Frontal shoulders, everything else profile.
Content:
Divine law code carved in stone.
Sun god, Shamash, giving laws to Hammurabi to be king.
God is bigger (hierarchic scale).
Function:
Tells us where the laws came from.
Exercises justice and divine authority to carry out the law.
Context:
Babylon (modern day Iran).
Susian (1760-1750 BCE).
Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall
Form:
Cut sandstone and mud brick.
Hypostyle hall.
Symmetrical plan, axial plan.
Open ceilings.
Colossal columns with sunken relief.
Content:
134 sandstone columns.
Inscriptions/images of kings and gods on walls and columns.
Gates (suggesting old world to new world).
Function:
Used for festivities and prayer.
Only priests and pharaohs allowed.
Context:
Karnak, near Luxor.
New Kingdom, 1250 BCE.
East side of the Nile.
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
Form:
Sandstone.
Red granite statue.
Built into rock cliff.
Function:
Mortuary temple for Hatshepsut, but she wasn't buried there.
Statue shows her power in male ways (beard and kneeling is priest-like gesture.
Content:
Statue of Hatshepsut kneeling: offering plants to Amen, the sun god.
Ascent up to the temple.
Chapels and shrines dedicated to her.
Hypostyle hall.
Context:
Site specific.
Across from the Amun temple.
Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and Three Daughters
Form:
Sunken relief piece, limestone, hieroglyphics.
Content:
Couple receiving blessing from Aten (the sun god-rays shown).
Shows husband and wife seated with their children.
Rays shining upon the family, showing their divinity.
Function:
Shows intimacy of the family.
Conveys realistic fidgetiness of children.
State religious shift in evolving Egyptian art.
Context:
New Kingdom (Amarna), 1350 BCE.
Tutankhamun's Tomb (Innermost Coffin)
Form:
Gold.
Inlay with stones and enamel.
Content:
Crook and flail- symbols of Osiris.
Cobra and vulture coming from headpiece- gods of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Son of Akhenaton.
Function:
Sarcophagus (body inside).
Materials used represent the royal wealth (143 objects buried with him).
Context:
New Kingdom, 1325 BCE.
Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer
Form:
Painted papyrus scroll.
Continuous narrative.
Content:
Hu-Nefer being led to final judgement.
Heart weighed on a scale against Osiris (test to see if has a heavy heart).
Sin must weigh less than a feather.
Hu-Nefer is accepted into the afterlife.
Function:
Guide people to the afterlife and make the journey from life to death.
Context:
New Kingdom, 1275 BCE.
Found in Hu-Nefer's tomb.
From the Book of the Dead.
Lamassu
Form:
Alabaster.
Limestone.
Content:
God-like figures.
Animal body, human head.
5 legs.
Function:
Support doorways of Assyrian palaces.
Intimidate those who enter.
Context:
From the citadel of Sargon II (modern day Iraq).
720-705 BCE.
Sumerian.
Athenian Agora
Form:
Long buildings (stoa).
Covered places- public markets.
At the foot of the Acropolis, road that leads up.
Function:
Marketplace/meeting area.
Temple (pay tribute to Athena).
Content:
Participated with government.
Democracy- didn't vote representatives but instead participated directly.
Context:
600-150 BCE.
Athens, Greece.
Anavysos Kouros
Form:
Marble with a remnant of paint.
Archaic smile.
Egyptian inspiration is shown through the stance of one foot slightly in front of the other.
Incaustic paint.
Content:
Not a specific civilian depicted (not individualized).
Male nude (warrior).
Observing the human body.
Function:
Grave marker.
Context:
530 BCE.
Large scaled.
Peplos Kore from Acropolis
Form:
Archaic smile.
Patterned hair.
Marble with paint remains.
Smaller scale.
Content:
Women with arm out (supposed to hold out an oil lamp but hand broken off).
Function:
In front of temples to "light the way".
Votive figure.
Context:
530 BCE.
Sarcophagus of the Spouses
Form:
Terra cotta (sign that this is Etruscan).
Life-size.
Archaic smile, patterned hair.
Extending arms.
Content:
Husband and wife reclining on a couch dining; "dining in banquet for eternity".
Four pieces put together.
Function:
Funerary container to hold ashes not the body.
Context:
520 BCE.
Etruscan.
Audience Hall
Form:
Hypostyle hall.
Cut sandstone and mud brick.
Built in a hillside with a big platform.
72 columns (3 portico made of 12 columns).
Content:
Relief on the side pictures Darius and Xerxes.
Stairs have a central relief of a king enthroned with attendants.
Reliefs.
Function:
Used to hold thousands of people (audience hall), king's receptions.
Ascend upwards symbolic.
Context:
Persepolis, Iran; Persian influence.
520-465 BCE.
Built by Darius and Xerxes; destroyed by Alexander the Great.
Temple of Minerva and Sculpture of Apollo
Form:
Temple: wood, mud brick, tufa (volcanic rock).
Sculpture: terra cotta.
Animated and moving sculpture (Etruscan).
Content:
Apollo is apart of a narrative of Herakles, Acroterion (roof sculpture).
Deep porch, 3 cella (entrance is emphasized).
Archaic Greek smile.
Function:
Etruscan temple made to be a place to worship the Etruscan gods and goddesses.
Acroterians probably show a mythic event.
Context:
Veii (near Rome, Italy).
Imperial Rome 2nd century BCE.
Sculpture made by Vulca.
Tomb of the Triclinium
Form:
Tufa and fresco.
Wall paintings.
Great detailed piers.
Color coding to show genders (not race).
Content:
Pictures people casually dining in triclinium (reclined on couches).
Fully furnished.
Lively paintings of people dancing and in motion.
Function:
Keep record of domestic life.
Holds ashes (crematorium) and any other offerings to the dead.
Context:
Tarquinia, Italy.
Etruscan, 480-470 BCE.
Niobides Krater
Form:
Calyx krater (type of painted pot).
Stiffness in the figures contrasts the other relaxed side of the vase.
Sense of depth perception.
Red figure technique with white highlight.
Content:
One side: mortal woman named Niobe with 12 children would always brag to the goddess Leto that she had more children so Apollo and Artemis (Leto's children) take revenge for their mother by killing all 12 children.
Other side: Hercules (identified with club and lions skins) is actually a sculpture (contrapposta) and Greek soldiers are offering tribute and prayer to protect them before going into battle.
Context:
460-450 BCE.
Not signed.
Doryphoros
Form:
Marble (Roman); bronze (Greek).
Contrapposto: shifted weight.
Not meant to portray a specific person but rather specific characteristics of a Greek.
Function:
Portray the physical perfection of a human figure.
Content:
Everyone is imperfect but brings together different body proportions to make physical.
Missing its spear.
Athlete and warrior.
Gazes off in the distance.
Context:
Artist= Polykleitos of Argos, 450 BCE.
Roman copy of the Greek original.
Acropolis
Form:
Marble (wealth).
Winged figure (nike).
Elevated.
Content:
Buildings, temples, statues.
Parthenon (constructed under Pericles):
Doric temple.
East Pediment on parthenon: birth of Athena from the head of Zeus (Helios).
Plaque of ergastines: procession held for Athena every 4 years.
Temple of Athena Nike: commemorate Greek victory over the Persians.
Victory Nike adjusting her sandal.
Function:
Hold image of goddess Athen (in cella).
Celebrate the female figure.
Civic pride (Athena).
Commercial, civic, religious, and social building.
Context:
Athens, Greece, 450-410 BCE.
Grave Stele of Hegeso
Form:
Marble with paint.
Hierarchic scale.
Drape accentuates the body.
Function:
Funerary object.
Put on graves in Classical period.
Commemorates the death of Hegeso.
Content:
Genre scene: slave bringing jewelry box to nike figure for her to examine the jewelry.
Inscription identifies Hegeso.
Context:
410 BCE.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Form:
Marble.
Textures shown.
Very dramatic motion, explosive.
Forward movement counteracted by the backward movement of her wings.
Content:
Nike lands on front of the ship descending from the heavens.
Wet drapery look to the sculpture.
Twist and contrapposto of the torso.
Function:
War monument.
Commemorating a naval victory.
Nike is a symbol of victory.
Context:
190 BCE, Hellenistic Greek.
Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon
Form:
Marble frieze.
Elevated with a steep dramatic staircase.
Complex forms with big muscles showing violent energy and detail.
Ionic columns.
Content:
Frieze wrapping around the monument shows gods overpowering the Titans.
Titans vs Olympians- "Athena": gigantomachy, battle between the Gods and Giants (Gods win).
Function:
War monument (Greek defeat of Gauls).
Break architectural boundaries.
Altar dedicated to Zeus.
Context:
175 BCE.
Asia Minor, Turkey.
House of the Vettii
Form:
Cut stone and fresco.
Axial symmetry.
Content:
Atrium (inner courtyard with pool).
Reception area (atrium) has an open ceiling.
Catch basin to collect rainwater.
Peristyle garden in back of the house.
Living room with frescoes.
Frescoes show a person's taste and used as conversation pieces for businessmen to discuss.
Function:
Represents the wealth of the people who lived there.
Context:
Pompeii, Italy; Imperial Rome 2nd century BCE rebuilt 62-79 CE.
Wealthy family's home set in the middle of markets.
Alexander Mosaic
Form:
Mosaic copy of a Greek wall painting.
Tessarae: individual pieces of a mosaic.
Spacial illusionism.
Interweaving of figures.
Content:
Alexander the Great confront Darius III at the Battle of Isos.
Dead tree signifies the death and sadness.
Function:
Floor mosaic showing a dramatic representation of a historical event.
Last major defeat of the Persians.
Context:
Roman Republic.
House of Faun, Pompeii, 100 BCE.
Seated Boxer
Form:
Bronze.
Realistic- shows the exhaustion of a real athlete.
Content:
Boxer seated naked with only his boxing gloves.
Copper shows blood.
Cuts and bruises.
Function:
Show a boxer after a fight.
Context:
Greek, 100 BCE.
Hellenistic.
Head of a Roman Patrician
Form:
Marble.
Deep wrinkles, hooked nose, defined cheek bones.
Content:
Realistic portrayal of a Roman patrician.
Show a sense of civic virtue: wisdom, seriousness, public service.
Function:
Kept in shrines of Roman houses.
Mask of values and virtues of Republican men in Rome.
Context:
Republican Roman, 75-50 BCE.
Influence of Greek Hellenistic art.
Augustus of Prima Porta
Form:
Marble, over life-size.
Elevated to be more god-like.
Contrapposto.
Content:
Augustus barefoot.
Cupid riding a dolphin (shows divinity).
Breastplate is about the Pax Romana: the power of the empire is due to the military.
Function:
Shows Augustus as a god because he thought he was (barefoot and cupid riding dolphin are signs of this).
Shows him as a civic ruler (judge's robe) and warrior (breastplate).
Context:
Imperial Rome (early empire), 1st century CE.
Colosseum
Form:
Stone + concrete.
Corinthian, Doric, and ionic columns.
Outside mostly intact.
Barrel vaults, thick walls, groin vaults, arches.
Content:
2 theaters.
Downward force of arches.
Bronze shield on top, 4 layers.
76 entrances.
Function:
Entertainment for the public.
Usually dangerous like gladiator fights or animal hunts.
Context:
Rome, Italy, 70-80 CE.
Imperial Rome.
Forum of Trajan
Form:
Column: marble, low relief.
Brick and concrete architecture.
Scroll-like frieze on the column- continuous narrative.
Groin vaulting/barrel vaults in market.
Content:
Forum: basilica in back with equestrian figure in the center and two libraries.
Marble column of Trajan: ashes of Trajan put in the bottom, crowded composition, story of the defeat of the Dacians.
Market of Trajan: multilevel mall with 150 shops.
Function:
Column: a monument celebrates the victory in the Dacian war.
Forum: marketplace.
Context:
Rome, Italy, 106-112 CE (column 113 CE).
Pantheon
Form:
Marble.
Coffers: indentations in the ceilings.
15' thick walls.
Content:
Big portico in the front with a rotunda in the back that has a dome with an oculus.
Sculptures of gods in niches.
Function:
Houses all 7 planetary gods.
Famous burial space.
Coffers create the illusion of heaven.
Context:
Imperial Rome, 118-125 CE.
Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
Form:
Marble.
High relief.
Content:
Figures piled on top of each other, crowded surface.
Romans shown as the good guys (ideal/noble).
Romans trampling over the defeated barbarians; enemies are very caricatured with great detail.
Function:
Tomb.
Context:
Late imperial empire; 250 CE.
Catacomb of Priscilla
Form:
Excavated tufa and fresco.
Figures flat and with less detail (Roman painting style).
Passageways underneath the city of Rome, 100 miles long.
Pendentives with picture.
Content:
Shelves for bodies; wealthier people: sarcophagus.
Scenes of the New and Old Testament.
Curriculum.
Good Shepherd Fresco.
Orants figure: arms stretched out.
Function:
Tombs of the poor and wealthy for 1000s of people.
Poor people have bodies one on top of the other.
Context:
Wealthy woman donated land for her family and other Christians to be buried.
3 stories deep.
Greek and Latin.
Santa Sabina
Form:
Brick, stone, wooden roof.
2 levels: upper (windows), lower (arches/columns).
Spolia (reuse of architectural pieces from other buildings).
Content:
Apse: half dome in back that is decorated.
Narthex: lobby.
Nave: center aisle.
Depiction of the crucifix on doors.
3 aisled basilica.
Columns from temple of Juno in Rome (spolia).
Function:
Basilica- diverse building.
Used aisle for law courts.
Early Christian church.
Context:
Rome, Italy, 422-432 CE.
Late Antique Europe.
Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well
Form:
Tempera, gold, and silver on purple vellum (animal