Flashcards

Prehistoric and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Key Works and Dates

Lou Bruise English 12 cards

WOMAN FROM WILLENDORF, WILLENDROF, AUSTRIA. 24,000 BCE, LIMESTONE. 4 3/8"

Cards in this deck (12)

1WOMAN FROM WILLENDORF, WILLENDROF, AUSTRIA. 24,000 BCE, LIMESTONE. 4 3/8"-Fertility goddess
-Made from limestone= soft stone used by Paleolithic Europe very common.
-Ideal of Beauty
-Found around rivers believed to induce agriculture.
-"venus" vs. "woman"
-Organic=lines soft and circular
-Sculpture in the round.
2BIRD-HEADED MAN W/BISON &RHINOCEROS, lASCAUX CAVE c.15,000 bce-MATERIAL= Paint on limestone
-Narrative
-Sense of Motion vs static in Paleolithic art
-Spear throwers made out of Mammoth bone.
-Bird with staff might mean shamanism.
-birds can occupy 2 realms (earth and sky)
Phallus= representing virility and maybe gender of shaman
-It might mean a vision or shamanism since the cave is difficult to access.
3WOMAN AND MAN FIGURES, CERNAVODA, ROMANIA, c. 4,500 BCE-MATERIAL=Ceramic
DATE= 4,500 bce
-Also called "the thinker" and "the seated woman"
-Reflects human introspection
-Pottery
-Created in a kiln=Thermally insulated chamber to harden objects made from soft organic materials such as clay.
4SKARA BRAE HOUSE, ORKNEY ISLANDS, SCOTLAND, 3100 BCE.CIVILIZATION=Neolithic
-Megalith=Big Rocks
-Composed of an Hearth, and several Beds.
-Made in Cut Stone
-CORBELL OR CORBELLING= Construction technique rows of layers or cut stone one in top of the other in order to create walls.
5BULL LYRE, SUMER, UR, 2,600-2,500 BCE.CIVILIZATION=Near East/Mesopotamia (modern Irak)
-Materials=Wood, Gold, Lapis lazuli, silver, shell, bitumen(asphalt)
-Used for music or Lyre
-Found in a royal tomb of Ur (one of 16.)
-the front panel is separated by registers and it tells the "Epic Of Gigalmesh"
-Sun God "Shamash" depicted in cuneiform as, the golden bull with lapislazuli beard.
-BULL=Male Fertility.
-Protected under the Iraq's antiquities law of 1922.
-The lapis-lazuli used in it is a sign of trade due to the fact that lapis lazuli wasn't found in Sumeria (Irak) but in afghanistan
6STELE OF NARAM-SIN, AKKAD(SUSA, IRAQ) C. 2254-2218CIVILIZATION=Near East/Mesopotamia.
Material=Limestone
-Relief sculpture
-Hieratic Scale=Importance given to a subject increasing their size in relation with other objects in a picture plane.
-Akkadian victory over Lullubi mountain people
-STELE=Vertical stone monument with scripture, text or relief carving.
DIVINITY=naram sinis closer to the sun gods, and all of his soldiers even the vanquised are looking up at him. Shown thru his horned hat to the akkadians "Symbol of divinity"
-Relief Sculpture.
7STELE OF HAMMURABI, BABYLON, SUSA (SHUSH, IRAN) 1792-1750 BCECIVILIZATION: Ancient Near East and Egypt.
MATERIAL: Diorite (Volcanic rock)
-Holds the earliest constitution "Hammurabi's code"
-Shamash (sun and moon god) holds an "Axis Mundi" =world center, the connection between earth and sky, where the four compass directions meet. It lines the celestial with the terrestrial.
-Hammurabi is the intercessor or translator of the Gods for the Earth.
"Hammurabi receives the laws from Shamash
-3 registers, 1.Praising Hammurabi 2.Establishing his reign 3. Over three hundred laws.
8PALETTE OF NARNER 2,950 BCECIVILIZATION: Ancient Egypt
MATERIAL: Green Schist
-Created for the first king of Egypt "Narmer"
_Writing in hieroglyphs based on pictographs (symbolic forms)
-Kings=Gods, not divinely inspired, they came directly form RA the sun god.
-Hieratic Scale, It uses Registers describing the unification of Egypt (lower and higher Egypt)
-Used for make up, eyeliner important to the Egypcians since the eye is sacred, also as protection from the sun.
-Early Dynastic period.
-No shoes do to being in scare ground (Kemet land with blak soil near the nubian river)
-symbol for Narmer Chisel=mer fish=nar. Creator of kingdoms and giver of life-narmer vanquisehs lower Egypt
-Horus=Bird Falcon god protector of Egypt with its wings- god of fortune and protector of kings
Hathor=Cow Goddess of fertility
Papyrus= Symbol of unity, next to the nile river, flower.
-papyrus= national emblem of Egypt.
Propaganda for the king Narmer on his magnificence.
9GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA, 2757-2450 BCECIVILIZATION=Ancient Egypt 4th dinasty
MATERIALS=Granit and Limestone
-3 main pyramids for Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure.
-Satellite Pyramids for wives
-Necropolis+Large ancient cemetery made of Pyramid tombs NECRO=Death POLIS=city. made up of pyramids and
-MASTABAS=type of ancient egyptian rectangular/trapezoid tomb with a flat top constructed of stone or mud brick from the Nile river. They eventually evolved into Pyramids.
-Surplus of Labor in order to carry the huge rocks.
-Shape of the Pyramids as a reflection of the rays of the sun
10KHAFRE KA STATUE, 2520-2494 BCE.CIVILIZATION=Ancient Egypt
MATERIAL= Anorthosite (BLUE STONE)
-Ka= spirit, vital essence what distinguishes a human from alive to dead, death occurred when KA left the body. KA sustained by food and drink reason for food supplies in burials.
-Idealism= mantaining a youthful powerful figure of the deceased pharaoh.
-HORUS sat in the back of Khafre symbolizing the protection of the gods.
-Hand getures vey importan; one hand in sy,bol of strenght and the other in symbol of realxation.
-Nemes, head dress. Kilt, skirt; bot symbols of upper class.
-false beard, depicts his divinity.
-papyrus on the side of the chair.
-EXCATHEDRA= from chair.
-elevated throne from the ground, depicting an elevated, sacred self.
-This statue is created as a receptacle and symbol of khafre's ka
11SENUSRET III, 1836 1818 BCECIVILIZATION=Ancient Egypt (Middle kingdom)
MATERIAL=Yellow Quatzite
-Nemes has a Uraeus+ an egyptian cobra/serpent. symbol for divinity, deity and sovereignty.
-After the fall of Egypt Sculpture probably changed making pharaohs a little more humble and less godlike, more pensive and expressive, almost as in a state of contemplation
-iconoclasm= victim of vandalization probably for religious/political reasons.
12Great Temple of Amun, 1292-1190 BCECIVILIZATION: Ancient Egypt
MATERIALS: columns 39-69
-Located at the capital of Egypt Thebes which used to be (Memphis)
-After the destruction of Egypt the Temple of Amun= God of the poor and the misfortuned fuses with Ra (god of sun) creating Amun Ra
-Hypostyle hall= hall of consecutive rows of columns which has a roof "forest of columns"
-name atround karnak "ipet ipsut" the most sacred of places
-Colonnade+long sequence of columns joined by a tablature
Hyeroglyphs=tells the story of Amun Ra.