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Art History
Art History is the study of the visual arts in a
civilization. It examines changing values in all
fields of visual culture, including painting,
sculpture, graphics, photography,
architecture, film, the mass media, and forms
of popular expression. For this lesson, we
will be examining many different types of
cultures. Culture is the behavior and
ideas of a group of people. You may find
that some people across the world share
similar ideas to you, while others have a
different perception of their surroundings.
Prehistoric means before history was recorded.
Many people still argue the dates of the first works of Art.
This female figurine is from
Israel. It is the oldest known
figurative carving in the world,
and is somewhere between
233,000 and 800,000 years old.
The date was determined
because it was found between
two layers of volcanic rock, the
upper one is about 230,000
years old, and the lower one
approximates 800,000 years old.
The Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age) dates from
50,000BC – 8,000BC and is distinguished by the
development of stone tools and accounts for 99% of the
prehistoric period.
During the Paleolithic period, humans grouped together
in small societies such as bands, and survived by
gathering plants and hunting or scavenging wild animals.
Many of these early humans lived in caves.
The Venus of Willendorf is an
11.5 cm high statuette of a
female figure estimated to
have been made between
24,000 B.C. and 22,000 B.C..
It was discovered in 1908 by
archaeologist Josef
Szombathy at a Paleolithic site
near Willendorf, a village in
Lower Austria near the city of
Krems. It is carved from
limestone that is not local to
the area, and tinted with red
ochre.
The earliest known abstractions are these
petroglyphs found in South Australia. They date back
to 43,000 B.C.
Caves of Lascaux, 13,000 B.C.
Paleolithic
Lascaux is the setting of complex caves in
southwestern France. They contain some of the bestknown Paleolithic paintings. These paintings are
estimated to be 15,000 years old. They primarily consist
of realistic images of large animals, most of which are
known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at
the time.
http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/00.xml
Neolithic (New Stone Age)
dates from 6,000BC –
2,000BC and recognizes a shift from hunting and
gathering to farming and the beginnings of communities.
There was also the development of large stone
architecture.
Megaliths are structures of huge stone built without
mortar. The ones below from Malta illustrate early building
techniques such as the post and lintel system.
Post and Lintel is a simple type of structure that
uses two vertical posts and one lintel across the top.
Stonehenge, 2,000 B.C.
Neolithic
Stonehenge also displays the technique of Post and
Lintel. This is a circular megalith structure. Some of the
stones here are 17 feet high and weigh in at 50 tons.
There purpose has yet to be determined.
The First Major Civilizations
Groups began to band together in larger groups
and around 3,000 B.C. there were four major
civilizations. They were Mesopotamia, Egypt, India,
and China. Each group situated itself near a river.
Now, religion and architecture began to flourish.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
4,000BC –
612BC is considered as the cradle
of civilization.
Temple of Ishtar 600 BC
It literally means the land
between the rivers and refers
to the area along the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, largely
corresponding to modern Iraq,
as well as some parts of Syria,
some parts of Turkey and
some parts of the of Iran.
It fell to Alexander the Great in
332 BC and after his death it
became part of the Greek
Empire.
Mesopotamia was the setting for such famous Bible
stories as the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel
(Babylon), and the journey of Abraham from the city
of Ur.
This colorful striding lion of glazed brick, once
decorated a side of the 'Processional Way' in ancient
Babylon (the Biblical city of Babel). The 'Processional
Way' led out of the city through a massive gate named
for the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, Ishtar,
whose symbol was the lion. -600 BC
The Mesopotamians left us many written records. They
devised a system of making marks on clay tablets made by
impressing the material with wedge-shaped ends of carved
Cuneiform,
sticks. Known as
it is one of the
earliest known forms of written expression.
They invented arithmetic (useful in keeping records of sales
and purchases of goods), built schools, businesses, temples,
palaces, workshops, and devised a system for the collection
of taxes.
A modern clay impression from a Mesopotamian
cylinder seal, The Seal of Adda. 2350 BC
We actually know little about the Mesopotamians'
religion, but much of what we know was learned from
their poetry -- "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is their most
important poem. They were a religious people and
had what is called a theocratic culture. They believed
gods ruled the earth and that men were created to
serve them. They practiced tithing: 10% of their
goods went to the gods. The leader of each city-state
was considered a local god who talked to the head
gods. Ur, like every other city-state, had its own head
god whose earthly home was the city’s ziggurat.
These temples were built up in layers and would tower above
the flat land of the area, reaching to the heavens. The cella,
the very top of the ziggurat, is where the communication would
take place between the king and the gods. Elaborate rituals
would take place at these temples with priests, servants, and
worshippers coming and going to take care of the god’s every
wish. The ziggurat at Ur was built around 2100 BCE to honor
the moon god Nanna.
Lamassu Statues, 713 BC
Mesopotamian
Mesopotamian Relief Sculpture
The statues found at the Abu
Temple from c. 2700 BC are fine
examples of the way
Mesopotamian sculpture is
typically based on cones and
cylinders — arms and legs like
pipes, skirts smooth and round,
flaring out at their bottoms.
Faces are dominated by very
large eyes.
The sizes of entire figures were
also determined by a hieratic
imaging system — the most
important people were made the
tallest. In the same vein, a
beard on a figure signified a man
in a powerful position.
The civilization of
Ancient
Egypt
took place from
3,500BC – 300BC.
The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with immortality and this is
reflected in their artwork. The majority of the works created were
Pharaoh
created for preparing the
(the Egyptian ruler) for
the afterlife. The style of Egyptian painting and sculpture did not
change for 3,000 years.
Much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from
surviving tombs. Since they believed that the Pharaoh's
spirit was immortal, the tomb was packed with
everything they might need. This included their riches,
food, furniture, and occasionally a few servants.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of 80 remaining
pyramids. It is the largest stone structure in the world. It
took 23 years to complete and contains over 2 million
limestone blocks (each weighing 2 ½ tons).
A sarcophagus is a funeral
receptacle for a corpse, most commonly
carved or cut from stone or wood.
King Tut 1352 B.C.
Egyptian
Hieroglyphics were the method of writing used
by the Ancient Egyptians.
The Rosetta
Stone contains
text in two
Egyptian forms
of writing and
Ancient Greek.
Its discovery
led to the
understanding
of Egyptian
Hieroglyphics.
The Art of Asia encompasses the development
of many great civilizations including India - 3,000BC,
China - 2,000BC and Japan - 1,100BC
We owe many
great
developments to
China and
surrounding areas
such as paper,
porcelain, the
compass, and
gunpowder.
Sumi-e brush
painting
The Taj Mahal
Angkor Wat
Tibetan Mandala
This image was created using a technique called
Woodblock Printing.
The artist carves an
image into wood, rolls ink over the surface, and then
prints it on paper. Thus the artist can create multiples of
the same image.
The Great Wave, 1829
Hokusai, Japanese Woodcut
Persian Miniature Painting
Pagoda
The start of
African Art
is estimated around
500BC. Many of the
pieces display a
style that years later
would be called
“Abstract”
Of all of the works, it
is probably the
wooden masks that
are the most famous
and easily
identifiable.
Pendant Mask, 16th century
African
Traditionally the masks were created for ceremonies as
seen here in the Congo.
There is also the bold patterning that we associate with
African Art as seen here in this Kente Cloth.
Art of the Americas
The
began around 2,000BC
with the Native Americans and around 1500 BC with the
Mesoamericans.
Totem Pole
Pre-Columbian
Art refers to the
period before
Columbus landed
in the New World
or before
European
customs began to
influence Natives
of North, South,
and Central
America.
Aztec
Olmec
Mayan
Temple 2, 800
Mayan