AP Art History
Prehistoric Art
Latin terms to know
Paleo (old), meso (middle, between), neo (new), lith (stone), potamus (river)
More about living conditions than they are about specific dates
paleolithic = old stone age, totally migratory, hunter gatherers, “lesser developed”
Mesolithic = partially sedentary, kind of nomadic
Neolithic = new stone age, agrarian situations, cultural shifts in neolithic, most of year in one place, famine / mass disease / pestilence
Corbelling, twisted perspective, nomadic, sculpture in the round, relief sculpture, relative dating, dolmen, incising, capstones, passage grave, abstraction, low relief, ware, modeling, post-and-lintel, henge
We get better at representing things as we develop culturally – drawing schematically (accounting for all parts)
twisted perspective is a way of allowing all parts to be accounted for – animals usually depicted in profile. lascaux caves, neolithic
Context = we think, but we don’t know
sculpture in the round can be walked around
Relief is partially walkable
Incising means to cut into something
Apollo 11 stones
Ca. 25,500-23,500 BC
Seven slabs of rock w/ traces of animal figures, apollo 11 cave in namibia
Cave used up to 100,000 bce
Called apollo 11 cave b/c it was found during the apollo 11 flights in 1969
unusually precise for ancient rock art
Painted in charcoal, ochre, and white
What shall I depict / what am I going to paint and how will I depict it?
water and urine most likely binders
Themes of this time period – people are like us, asking questions abt macrocosmic universe, microcosmic world, but not in a scientific way. We don’t know their views b/c we have no written records
The stone was moved to the cave – place the stone came from may have been important.
mobiliary art is a piece of art that can be moved
Some sort of bovid depicted (cow, bull) with hind legs that look a bit human
Could be a therianthrope – hybrid of human and animal, common in shamanistic cultures
We don’t know if it has a ponis i guess
fertility + procreation really important to these people
animal is in profile and in silhouette
Caves of Altamira, Spain
Discovered in 1879 – some of the first discovered
Were originally considered fakes, but mineral deposits would’ve taken thousands of years to accumulate
Mostly bison from a profile view
All paintings left-handed
why do we depict animals?
We tend to depict bulls
gobekli tepi may be the first temple, ca. 10th millennium bce – birth of organized religion?
All domestic wheat comes from this area
Spot so important that a group wanted to stay nearby to use the spot ritually?
birds and bulls are key
Birds are less common in cave art, more common in places like neolithic china
First cities in the world – catalhoyuk – early city
Bull culture still present today but common in ancient art – bull leaping in protogreek crete
Bulls important because psychedelic mushrooms grow on cow manure?
People shamanistically connected to bulls by imbibing these mushrooms
Shamanism = getting into the rawest part of the world
Neuroscientists believe these psychedelic substances may have created the modern brain
Lascaux Cave Paintings
Ca. 17,300 BCE
Paintings started to mold b/c people started to come in
thousands of years of paintings overlaid onto each other
Suggests that the repetition was more important than the actual painting
Religious, hunting magic
Probably not hunting magic – fucking scary
Don’t kill big things because it attracts big things
Most likely scenario – people do not see the world as cyclical, shamanistic ritual to do w/ the migration of animals and ensuring that they happen in a timely manner
Not for entertainment, deep inside of cave systems, there is probably a cave bear inside
Lots of risk, lots of peril, occasionally there is cave bear claw marks all over the art
Climbing up into hard places, climbing into wells
something given for something gained
Acoustics in these spaces, bullroar makes a droning noise, may have been someone spinning a bullroar – certain frequency
Magnetic deflection may also play a role?
How they’re being drawn
pure silhouette, profile, in twisted perspective so you can see both horns
Generally not things they’re eating
Except sometimes bulls are eaten ritualistically
Sometimes incision, sometimes natural edges, painting overtop of older ones
Shaft of the Dead Man
Man with a bird head (therianthrope) lying next to a wounded bison. The guy has an erection, they’re all lying down
Aerial perspective = dead
In a super deep spot in a well, 30ft deep
Chauvet Cave
Discovered in 1994
15000 years older than altamira
Oldest human footprint that can be accurately dated
lions and bears depicted, but never part of paleolithic diet
painted naturalistically, optical reality
Stylistically is more about the idea of the thing
Day Two
Terms / Review
Superimposed, when one painting is painted over another
Naturalism, attempting to portray objects from everyday life as they are
Contours describe edges – think of contour maps
Schematic = iconic representation, Optical = representing things as they are
Developmentally you start schematic, then move to optical
Something in aerial view = it is probably dead
We know this from later neolithic art
these people are usually thinking about things magically
Camelid Sacrum
Prehistoric american, 14,000-7,000 BCE – Tequixquiac, central Mexico
Stratography – archaeologists try to connect things that are on the same level, literally
Found object, went into private collection
Public collections are really important to scholars
Digital humanities – data sets for objects are shared through universities / open sources
Scholarship advanced b/c people can look at the data sets
An object like this would get 3D scanned, photographed under thousands of wavelengths
Debate about where objects should be
Women of the parthenon reside in the British Museum
Athens wants them back, British Museum doesn’t want to give them back
Things can’t be given back because many of their original places can’t take care of them
We can’t connect this object to any particular cultural group
Sacrum = part of a pelvis, connects to fertility, most likely
Fertility is a massive theme in art
In western countries, we don’t have to worry about losing children – not that long ago, it wasn’t very sure whether a children would live past childhood
Sacrum often thought of as a “second head”
Discovered in 1870, possibly carved to look like a dog
Dogs used in ritual – witchcraft and magic at play
It’s been incised
Beaker with Ibex Motifs
Prehistoric Middle East, painted earthenware, painted terracotta, 42,00-3,500 BCE, Susa, Iran. 1’ tall.
Many paleolithic cultures have small ceramic cultures
This is neolithic – they are sedentary
In Iran, writing had not become a thing yet, but it was in Ur
Not decorated with glazes
Glazes show up in Egypt and the Levant later on as well as in China
Coated w/ a slip of fine clay particles
The labor intensive process tells us this society had people at their disposal
Agrarian society – this person was not a full time potter
Funerial object – found in the necropolis, but was likely not a grave good
Necropolis – slightly raised up area where people are buried
Design
Bands that surround the ibex are called meanders
Stand for water, which is really important in an area like this
Framed by ground lines / register lines
Ibex is schematic, using positive and negative space
Clan indicator in negative space
Ibex is part of the symbol?
Dogs, then registers
Registers are bands, the top ones being birds, possibly cranes
The Ambum Stone
Prehistoric Oceania, Greywacke. 1,500 BCE. Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea
Purchased by missionaries in the 1960s from a group that was actively using it
Christianity and primitive people
In active use as a pestle, looks like a fetal spiny anteater
Greywacke stone = very hard
Strategically smacking it
Hundreds of hours of work\
Likely a powerful ritual object when it was made
Supernatural powers to the people it was collected / purchased from
May not have been used in the same way as it was when it was made
Jade cong
Prehistoric China, Carved jade, 3,300-2,200 BCE. Liangzhu, China, 1’ diameter
Chinese culture has one of the longest threads of continuity
This is right on the cusp of historic culture
Hierarchy of materials
Textiles missing from the history of art, generally, because they aren’t durable
Jade in China
very important, value changes during time periods
Daoist emperors try to become immortal by casing themselves in jade
People think mercury will make them immortal, also
nephrite and jadeite make up jade
Form
A combination of a square and a circle
Square represents earth – cardinal directions
Early cultures thought about four primary elements
Circle deals with heavenly plane
No beginning, no end
Animals on here?
Clan-related animals on the sides and corners? Heavily schematic
Grave goods
Jade is expensive – relative status is higher
The more you have, more important you are
jade can’t be carved, must be sanded down
Very laborious, high skill level
Venus of Willendorf
Ca. 28,000-25,000 BCE
4.25–inch limestone figurine found in what is now Lower Willendorf in Austria
Most likely a ”magical fetish”
Probably she has to do with multiplying things, children, food
Extreme attention to detail on hair and sexual organs
Survival and children are not a given – anything you can do to bring forth multiply rites would have done
Cultures all over europe and eurasia at the same time make the same object
Laussel Bas-Relief, Moravia Czech Republic Ceramic
Most do not have facial features
Venus of Brassempouy – hair very carefully attended to, maybe a social / clan identifier?
Interesting, b/c most of these cultures wouldn’t have direct contact with each other
Study; people take a tongue depressor, paint it black and white, looks like a seagull bill, put it in front of a seagull chick. Chick keeps pecking at it when they put red stripes
This is called a grotesque b/c accentuated features
Features enlarged to show people fertility, multiply, health
no male analog to this – only therianthropes
Day Three
The Running Horned Woman
Prehistoric African, Pigment on rock. 6,000-4,000 BCE. Tassili n’ Ajjer. Algeria
Egypt not involved in African art because of the Bible, western school of art history has a lot to do with christian contextualization
As people started visiting these sites, guides started dabbing the paintings w/ water, which causes the paint to fall off
Smaller figures less important, superimposed at a later date
Main Figure
Twisted perspective
Head – you can see horns
Primarily in silhouette, decorative elements + outline
Seems to be running or dancing
Mask dancing in africa = significant; may be suggested here?
Thing on her head could be a headdress, rain, seeds / grain
At this time, africa was a grassland
When the pyramids were built, it was all grassland – we know because of mummified crocodiles from shrines
Shift in 1400-1500 BCE
We don’t know if this is a goddess or a woman dancing a mask
No instances where a woman dances a male mask
Could be a leader / shaman / mother
Being a mother moves you into a higher category into society
Beaded things on her hands that may have rattles in them
Function of the site
Not a habitation site – transportation route
Could be a shrine?
Anthropomorphic Stele
Prehistoric Middle east, sandstone, 4,000 BCE, Arabian peninsula, 3’ tall.
Anthropomorphic (having characteristics of the human form), stele (upright stone slab)
Content
A person wearing a sash that may signify clan allegiance, double-sided dagger
Context
These people did not leave much work; they were traders
They moved as far as egypt
Next culture – Islam
Aniconic – prohibition against images of religious figures, but has extended to any depiction of humans
Any works like this found in early history would have been destroyed b/c it could have been an idol of a deity
What was it?
A boundary marker for a necropolis (wasn’t raised, not technically a necropolis)
Iconoclasm – breaking of other icons
Ex. protestant iconoclasm (of course)
Tlatilco Figurines
1200-900 BCE, Central Mexico, Ceramic, about 3.75” tall
Tlatilco = early formative site in central mexico
Objects could be or could not be funereal
Many figurines show deformities or other anomalies
Double-headed ones = significant minority
Female figurines are more important than make figures
Hands and feet not important, hips and thighs are
A healthy figure for this time period. Likely connected to fertility in some way
Not dressed, not exactly naked – cloth outfits?
Duality = major theme
Shows up in many mesoamerican cultures – ex. Olmec
Mesoamericans perceive life as emerging from death
They were made by modeling, which requires plasticity in materials
Wax, clay, stucco/plaster
Incised as well
Lapita fragment
Pacific proto-cultures
These people come from taiwan, but disconnected to ethnic groups currently in taiwan
We can trace the spread of people through ceramic culture + its disappearance
Would have been part of a bowl or a pot
1,000 BCE, created by stamping and incising, Solomon Islands
Ceramic culture traveled, but not the culture
Interesting b/c they’re using stamps, which show up later in fabric decoration
Tradition of the decoration moves towards fabric and tattoo culture
This would have likely been used ritually
Day Four
FUCK YEAH STONGE
Important – henge w/ stones inside
Henge = earthen mound which is the circle
Stonehenge isnt a true henge bc the ditch is on the outside
demarcator of sacred space
Sacred spaces allow for liturgies, hierarchies, etc
How does this define sociorelational structures?
NOT a site in isolation
Connected w/ processional route + wooden henge, sites in a ritual landscape ACROSS england. Crazy
Stonehenge weird because its adjacent to ‘the circuit’, a freaky long henge
Three phases of development
Phase one – henge is built, takes place during the neolithic period
Contemporaneous with the first dynasties of egypt, mammoths on earth
Get the ditch and mound, large entrances, northeast and the south
56 holes within the henge; aubrey holes
Later filled with bluestones + wooden beams
Bluestones, literally stones that are blue. When they’re quarried theyre blue i promise
Probably associated with water because blue
Were in a circle in wales before they came to stonehenge, meaning they already had ritual significance, possibly associated with healing
Skeletons from this time period are absolutely fucked – not brutish, just difficult
Phase two – more upright poles set, we think that it was up to 20ft tall in the middle
Structure may have had a roof, but those are hard to determine
About 200 years after the first
400-600 years afterward, aubrey holes used for cremation burials
South and northeast show a north-south axis, observing macrocosmic world; alignment with the solstice
Phase three – big stones show up, mined about 20-50 miles away
The altar stone in the middle of stonehenge comes from scotland (holy shit thats far)
Why are they bringing these stones there?? Don’t know if it comes from orkney isles – connecting another site to it?
Axiol alignment with sites
Stones
Heel stone sits outside of the henge, sun will appear to rise directly atop the heel stone summer solstice
Mortise and tenon joinery, post and lintel joinery on both of these stones! Interesting
Significant engineering
The big stones weigh up to THIRTY TONS EACH. they know what theyre doing
Night sky very important to people because it changes – if you read that change, you can predict the seasons, prediction is magic, calendar = knowing magic
Vertical stones
Large holes dug with one sloped side, stone slid into hole, hauled upright with fiber rope, hole packed with rubble
Horizontal stones
Timber platforms used to raise horizontal lintels into position, tenons adjusted to fit mortise holes, stones moved into place
The stones are graffitied to hell tbh
Ancient Mesopotamian Art
Ancient Mesopotamia
3500 BCE - 331 BCE
Writing system = cuneiform
Symbolic language
Most of the writing kind of really sucks – they fuck heavy with contracts, accounting, etc
SOME OF IT IS NOT! The Epic of Gilgamesh helps us understand how they view the afterlife
Also helped us understand how friendship / relationships work in their culture
Memorization
Sumerian art (3500-3240 BCE), Akkadian Art (2340-2180 BCE). Neo-Sumerian (2150-2000 BCE), Babylonian Art (1792-1750 BCE), Hittite Art (1600-1200 BCE), Assyrian Art (1000-612 BCE), Neo-Babylonian (612-539 BCE), Persian Art (559-331 BCE)
SANDHANP
Sumeria
White Temple and its ziggurat
Sumerian, mud-brick, 3500-3000 BCE, Uruk, Ziggurat base: 40’
Ziggurat (pyramid-like building whose stories indent as building progresses upward), animism (belief that gods / sprits are embedded in and control nature)
Corners of religious buildings oriented towards cardinal directions
Access points: along the edge, ramp
Bent Axis – a pathway through or up a building that is not straight or direct, but takes a bent/angled path
Possibilities – they want you to circumambulate the entire building (not what’s happening here) – ritual aspect at every turn
If you know it = insider, priesthood trying to differentiate itself
Normal people do not come to these temples
Located in the heart of the city
Only elites go inside; especially the very inside
how are places declared sacred?
schools are denoted by gates; gates are a powerful thing
Ziggurats are high because they’re closer to the gods, but also because of flooding – also described as houses of the gods, literally
Cult figure housed in the temple, treated like its a living thing when the god/goddess is present
These people ABSOLUTELY believe in magic
We don’t know if there is a roof – probably a sacred fire in there
Platform is made from mud-brick, sealed w/ tar
Some were covered by colorbands / mosaics, whitewashed w/ player
Mud brick = easy to make
Durable stone is largely missing from this region, so are large quantities of wood
Closest wooded places – Lebanon, Persia (hey im from there!)
Buttresses create surface area, enhance strength
May have had sockets for flagpoles / bannerpoles
Flags represent wealth because fabric is so valuable
Hegemony = where power is located
King has political power, priesthood has religious power + land, which gives them political power
Priesthood builds power through exclusion
Statues of votive figures from the Square Temple of Eshnunna
Sumerian, Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone, 2700 BCE, Tell Asmar, Iraq
Basically how to get into the temple when you can’t get in
THE RULERS ARE NOT GODS
Votive offering – a gift of gratitude to a deity
A variety of votive figures were produced, but all followed the same basic set-up; a figure standing tall, hands in prayer, with eyes wide and attention rapt
Form
Carved from gypsum – exceptionally soft stone
Can speedrun the carving job, but it isnt durable
reductive, subtractive
Conceptually, cylinders
NOT portraits, of a type
of a type – not specific, generalized thing
Gender typed by what theyre wearing
Men – beards and long hair, skirt, clasping hands, bare chest, big eyes
Women – one shoulder covered, hands clasped, big eyes
Eyes are inlaid
Things were usually painted
Function
Had to be well-to-do to commission one
Literally just to be there when the god or goddess enters; making it seem like you're there
Oftentimes the name of the patron is on the base in cuneiform
These people ACTIVELY BELIEVED IN MAGIC
These statues have agency, you are magically present
Context
When people give gifts to a temple, you run out of space
You can’t throw away magical objects, so they have to be buried under the temple floor
Side tangent; Mesopotamia v. Egypt
varied peoples in mesopotamia, not in egypt
mesopotamians share a writing system and deities, though the deities have different aspects depending on where you are
demons, demonesses, gods, goddesses
Ur
contextual issues
not very defensible, constant political change, slow to construct unified communities because of different ethnic groups and invasion, kind/ruler was not god-king (as in egypt) but god’s delegate — patron deities for every city state, buildings restricted by available materials — no stone quarries/forests = sun-baked brick
‘no man’s land’s everywhere
big cities become targets for raiders
cities likely started b/c of water / irrigation
interest in ancient west asia heightened by discoveries of treasure by leonard wooley (1920) at the royal cemetery of ur
religion
rulers by divine right
egypt’s rulers are literally an aspect of amun-ra
Ziggurat of Ur
Neo-Sumerian period