Download Chapter 17: The Ancient World

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Chapter 17:
The Ancient World
Art Appreciation
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! It is not until the emergence of modern humans, Homo sapiens, in the Paleolithic Era, that we
find artifacts that might be called works of art.
! The word “Paleolithic” derives from the Greek palaios, “old,” and lithos, “stone,” and refers to
the use of stone tools, which represent a significant advance beyond the flint instruments used
by the Neanderthal people.
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The Woman From Willendorf
! Most human figures from the Upper Paleolithic period are female
! The most famous female figure, The Woman from Willendorf, from
Austria, dates from about 22,000-21,000 BCE
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Cave Painting
! The scale of such small objects is dwarfed by the paintings that have been discovered over the
course of 125 years in caves in southern France and northern Spain.
! In 1996, at Chauvet Cave in southern France, new drawings have been carbon-dated to approx.
30,000 BCE.
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From Nomadic to Permanent Settlements...
! Around 8000 BCE, humans began to domesticate animals and
cultivate food grains, practices that started in the Middle East and
spread slowly across Greece and Europe for the next 6,000 years,
reaching Britain last.
! Gradually, the Neolithic (New Stone Age) people abandoned
temporary shelters for permanent structures built of wood, brick,
and stone.
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Megalithic Architecture
! In Northern Europe, especially in Britain and France, a distinctive kind of monumental stone
architecture made its appearance late in the Neolithic period.
! Known as megaliths, or “big stones,” they were constructed without the use of mortar and
represent the most basic form of architectural construction.
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Stonehenge
! Stonehenge from Salisbury Plain, England, 2750-1500 BCE, has stirred the public’s
imagination for years
! A henge is a circle of stones or posts, often surrounded by a ditch with built-up embankments
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Mesopotamian Cultures
! Between 4000 and 3000 BCE, irrigation techniques were developed on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
Mesopotamia.
! A complex society emerged, one credited, for instance, with both the invention of the wheel and the invention
of writing.
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Sumerian Advancements: Cuneiform Writing
! Sumerians pressed cuneiform, or wedged shaped symbols, into
clay tablets with a stylus, or pointed writing instrument
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Votive Figures, 2900-2600 BCE
! Limestone statues are known as votive figures, or images dedicated to the
gods
! Placed in a shrine or for individual worship
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The Ziggurat
! The Sumerian’s most impressive surviving archaeological remains are the
ziggurats, which are huge stepped structures with a temple or shrine on top
! They tower over the flat plains and proclaim the wealth, prestige and stability of the
city’s rulers and glorified its gods
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Babylon
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! One of the most influential Mesopotamian cultures was that of Babylon,
which rose to power under the leadership of Hammurabi in the 18th
century BCE.
Hammurabi’s Code
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! Atop the stele, Hammurabi receives the blessing of
Shamash, the sun god.
The Assyrians
! After the fall of Babylon in 1595 BCE, victim of a sudden invasion of Hitties from Turkey,
only the Assyrians, who lived in around the city of Assur in the north, managed to maintain a
continuing cultural identity.
! By the time Assurnasirpal II came to power, in 883 BCE, the Assyrians dominated the entire
region.
! He built a magnificent capital at Kalhu on the Tigris River.
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The Lion Hunt
! Reigning king, Assurnasirpal II, captures his lion-hunting scene in relief sculpture
! The scene depicts the king standing in his chariot of galloping horses, pulling back
his bow against the attacking lion
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Egyptian Civilization
! About the same time that Sumerian culture developed in
Mesopotamia, Egyptian society began to flourish along the Nile
River.
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The Narmer Palette, 2950-2775 BCE
! It represents the unification of Egypt
! Named for king Narmer- his name appears in an early form of hieroglyphic writing at the center
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top
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! Using the Hieratic Scale- the ruler appears much larger than the other
figures
! He is shown wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt- he bashes the
enemy with a club and above his kneeling foe, the god Horus
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!In the top register of the other side, he wears the red
crown of Lower Egypt, possibly to show how he now
rules both lands
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Funerary Practice & Architecture
! The ka needed a body to live in, so a sculpted likeness was adequate
! They preserved the bodies through mummification and provided their tombs with
every luxury they could want in the afterlife
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! Egyptian artists were skilled in creating lifelike threedimensional figures
! The figures were compact, solid, and block like which
express a feeling of strength and permanence
Queen Nefertiti
! Here we have a representation of a queen- Nefertiti- wife to king Akhenaten who ruled from
1353-1336 BCE
! We see her features as almost too ideal to be human
! The dramatic use of color adds to the beauty of this head
! This famous head was found in the studio of a sculptor and was thought to be a model used for
sculpture or paintings of the queen
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River Valley Societies of India and China
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China and the Yellow River Valley
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Complex Societies in the Americas
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Aegan Civilizations
! Impressive centers of power and wealth also appeared in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly with the
Minoan civilization on the island of Crete and with Mycenae on the Greek Peloponnesus, the southern
peninsula of Greece.
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Bull Leaping at Knossos
! One of the most famous and best-preserved paintings at Knossos depicts bull leaping
! The action seen here may represent an initiation or fertility ritual
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Bull Leaping at Knossos
! Bull leaping shows three scantily clad young figures around a gigantic bull, which is in the
flying gallop pose
! The pale-skinned person at the right- probably a woman- is prepared to catch the dark-skinned
man in the midst of his leap, and the pale-skinned woman at the left grasps the bull by its horns,
perhaps to begin her own vault
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The Warrior Vase
! Mycenaean potters created highly refined ceramics
! A large krater, a bowl for mixing water and wine, used both in feasts and as grave
markers, is an example of the technically superior wares being produced between
1300-1100 BCE
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! The Warrior Vase depicts a highly stylized scene of marching
! The only indication of emotion is the woman’s up lifted hands in the gesture of
mourning
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Greek Art
! The rise of the Greek city-state, or polis, marks the moment when Western culture begins to
celebrate its own human strengths and powers- the creative genius of the mind itself- over the
power of nature.
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! The values of the Greek city-state were embodied in its temples.
! The temple was usually situated on an elevated site above the city, and the
acropolis was conceived as the center of civic life.
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! The Greek passion for individualism, reason, and accurate observation of the world
continued on even after the disastrous defeat of Athens in he Peloponnesian War in
404 BCE, which led to a great loss of Athenian power.
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Apoxyomenos (The Scraper)
! The court sculptor to Alexander the Great was Lysippos.
! He challenged the Classical canon of proportion created by
Polykleitos.
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Nike of Samothrace
! Artists strove for an ever greater degree of realism, and in the sculpture of
the Hellenistic Age, we find an increasingly animated and dramatic
treatment of the figure.
! The Nike of Samothrace is a masterpiece of Hellenistic realism
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Roman Art
! Although the Romans conquered Greece (in 146 BCE), they regarded
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Greek culture and art as superior to any other.
! The Roman Empire possessed a distinctly Greek character.
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A Roman Legend…
! Here we see the most famous symbol of Rome, the legendary wolf who nourished
and saved the city’s founder, Romulus and his twin brother Remus
Augustus of Primaporta, Early 1st Century CE
! Discovered in Livia’s villa at Primaporta, near Rome, the sculpture illustrates the
use of imperial portraiture for propaganda.
! The sculptor of this larger than life sized marble statue adapts the orator’s gesture
and ideal Greek proportions.
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! The perfection of the arch and dome and the development of structural concrete, were the Roman’s major
architectural contributions.
! But they were extraordinary monument builders.
! The largest of their monumental arches was built by the Emperor Constantine the Great.
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Column of Trajan
Developments in Asia
! Meanwhile in Asia, the early artistic traditions developed during the Shang dynasty
in China, particularly the casting of bronze, were continued.
! Even as the Roman Empire began to disintegrate, bronze casting in China reached
new heights of subtlety and elegance.
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! Flying Horse Poised on One Leg on a Swallow is perfectly balanced and seems to
defy gravity itself- it seems to have stolen the ability to fly from the bird beneath its
hoof.
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! The jade Pi, or disc, illustrated here symbolizes the desire of the Chinese to unify
their country.
! Made sometime between the 6th and 3rd centuries BCE, the disc is decorated with
a dragon and a phoenix.
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Lady of Dai with Attendants
! The quality of Han silk is evident in a silk banner from the tomb of the
wife of the Marquis of Dai discovered on the outskirts of present-day
Changsa in Hunan.
! Painted with scenes representing on each of three levels: the underworld,
the earthly realm, and the heavens.
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! Elsewhere in Asia, the philosophy of Buddha, “The Enlightened
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One” was taking hold.
! In early Buddhist art, Buddha was never shown in figural form.
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