Ancient Art History

Ancient Art History

1. STONE AGE (30,000 b.c.–2500 b.c.)

   • PALEOLITHIC 42000 BCE- 8000 BCE
     • hand axe, isimila krongo, tanzania 60,000 years ago.
       • -hand axe -homo sapiens sapiens -artifact -relative dating= measuring age of artifact due to physical aspects.
       • -hand axe -homo sapiens sapiens -artifact -relative dating= measuring age of artifact due to physical aspects.
     • Decorated Ocher Blombos , South Africa 77,000 years ago.
       • - red ocher -geometric -cross-hatched -body art
         • red ocher, clay like material, reddish pigment
     • Mammoth bone house, Ukraine 16,000 BCE-10,000 BCE
       • -Architecture -HEARTH -retractable roof
         • HEARTH = crucial devide for survival. social and physical
     • LION-HUMAN Hohlenstein- germany, 30,000-26,000 BCE
       • -Ivory - Figurine - shamanism - phallus -toy (?)
         • figurine= small sculpture shamanism = feritility rituals, main reason for art
     • WOMAN FROM WILLENDORF, WILLENDORF, AUSTRIA. 24,000 BCE
       • -Limestone -Fertility Goddess - stratigraphy - Ideal of Beauty _ found around rivers to induce vegetation -Organic - "venus" vs. "woman"
         • LIMESTONE= used by [aleolithic peoples very common material ORGANIC= soft circular lines VENUS= Roman goddess of love STRATIGRAPHY= study of strata from the earth.
       • SPOTTED HORSES AND HUMAN AHNDS, peche merle cave, France: Horses, 2,500- 24,00 BCE; hands 15,000 BCE
         • - Radiometric dating -Carbon 14 -DNA found on painting
           • RADIOMETRIC DATING= scientific technique used to date materials like rocks or carbon using a naturally radioactive isotope and its decay products. CARBON 14= radioactive isotope.
     • WOMAN FROM BRASSEMPOUY, 30,000 BCE
       • ivory -memory image - stylized -Idealism - Rupture, maybe vandalized
     • WALL PAINTING WITH HORSES, AUROCHS, AND RHINOCEROUS, Chauvet Cave, France, C. 32,000- 30,000 BCE
       • -paint on limestone -2D image - Linear -Shading _cave painting
         •  CAVES= ritual places LINEAR= method of presenting the  3d world in a 2dimensional surface, where all the lines converge in one, two or three vanishing points, located on the eye level of the viewer, rendering objects, smaller or bigger on scale. creating depth of field.
     • HALL OF BULLS, LASCAUX, FRANCE, 15,000 BCE
       • - limestone - aesthetic sense -sympathetic magic - animal behavior -mythology/religion
         • AESTHETIC SENSE=19th century, senses beauty emotion SYMPATHETIC MAGIC=20TH century, used to stimulate the hunting process, spiritual correspondence. ANIMAL BEHAVIOR=analysis of animal behavior for hunting purpuses.  MYTHOLOGY/RELIGION=sacred images not utilitarian, gods.
     • BIRD-HEADED MANW/BISON & RHINOCEROS, Lascaux caves 15,000 BCE
       • -paint on limestone -narrative - sense of motion vs. static in paleolithic art -spear throwers made out of mammoth bone
     • BISON, 12,000 BCE, Altamira Caves, Spain.
       • Paint on Limestone -manipulated the environment to depict more realistic art.
     • BISON LE TUC D'AUDOUBERT, France, 13,000 BCE
       • -modeling - relief sculpture -unbaked clay
         • -relief sculpture=sculpture technique where the artist givex the impression that the sculpture has been raised above the background, cut or chiseled from a flat background.
   • NEOLITHIC 8000 b.c.–2500 b.c.)
     • RECONSTRUCTION DRAWING OF LEPESKI HOUSE/SHRINE, Serbia, 6,000 BCE
       • -wood, mud, clay, stone. - architecture - Burial -Foundation - Settlements, -agriculture, domestication settlements.
         • BURIAL= used to bury people on the floor of the house/shrine architectural foundations. SETTLEMENT= due to fishing, crops, agriculture.
     • PEOPLE AND ANIMALS ROCK-SHELTER PAINTINGS, COGUL, LERIDA, SPAIN. 4,000-2,000 BCE
     • ARCHITECTURAL METHODS
       • 1. post and lintel 2. post-and-lintel burial chamber 3. corbelling
         • 1.POST-AND-LINTEL=two vertical columns support a horizontal member. Fundamental principal of Ancient Greek Architecture. 2. POST-AND-LINTEL BURIAL CHAMBER=Two upright posts support a horizontal element (lintel) -Variations include wood structures, dolmens, and other underground burial chambers  3. CORBELLING=overlapping construction of stones, that overextend the vertical of the wall.
     • SKARA BRAE HOUSE, Orkney Islands, Scotland, 3100 BCE
       • -megalith - corbel -cut stone. settlement with stone age architecture, beds, central hearth,
         • MEGALITH=  mega=large, LITH= stone, large stone construction. CORBEL=solid structure that propels from a wall in order to support a megastructure, many rocks or bricks that projects one in top of the other. a type of bracket.
     • TOMB, NEWGRANGE, Ireland, 3000-2500 BCE
       • -passage grave - cairn - engraving - dolmen- capstone
         • PASSAGE GRAVE= Chamber in the rear of structure, a ritualistic portal. Life to Death. CAIRN=rubble from the earth to protect the grave man made hill, man made pillar of stacked stones, used as a burial monument or landmark. ENGRAVING=symbols or code of arms., often chiseled, print made on a surface. DOLMEN=pillaring of stones, upright stones, single chamber megalithic tomb, two upright stone supporting a flat stone, often covered in rubblemor earth to support and protect the tomb. CAPSTONE=a stone fixed on top of something oftetimes a wall
     • STONEHENGE, England, 2,900-1,500 BCE.
       • -henge - -sarsen - "domain of the ancestors" -trilithon - Post-and-lintel.
         • -HENGE=neolithic earthwork, circular or oval shaped featuring a ditch and a bank. a circle of stones or posts. -SARSEN=hardstone made from sand and cilica THRILITON=structure made in the lintel and post fashion
     • POTTERY, JAPAN,(JOMON PERIOD) 12,000 BCE, CERAMIC
       • "pot revolution' -firing -clay - potsherd -thermo-luminescence dating.
     • gold scepters, VARNA, BULGARIA, 3,800BCE
       • -Metal Age -Stratification -Alloy.
         • STRATIFICATION= formation of layers (strata) in found objects STRATIFICATION2= division of power and levels based in a socioeconomic status.
     • WOMAN AND MAN FIGURES, Cernavoda, Romania, 4,500 BCE
       • -Gender -Wheel -Kin.
         • -representations of gender -human introspection due to their "pensive" positions KILN=thermally insulated chamber or oven used for different porpuses in this case for baking clay. WHEEL=first use of potery Also known as "THE SITTING WOMAN FROM CERNAVODA" AND "THE THINKER"  
   • RESOURCES http://quizlet.com/25006719/chapter-1-prehistoric-art-flash-cards/

2. MESOPOTAMIAN (3500 b.c.–539 b.c.)

   • RUINS OF ANU ZIGGURAT 3,300-3,000 BCE
     • -tell - processional stairs -district -city state - whitewashed brick
       • TELL= artificial hill or mound created by human occupation, abandonment and waste over millenia it usually has human remanis and it looks like a hill with a flat top.  abandoning and reconstructiing. CITY-STATE= independent city. ZIGGURAT=huge stepped temple or shrine, meeting place of humans and gods. pyramidal structure with flat top. Dedicated to inana(GOD OF LOVE AND WAR) and ANU( skygod)
   • CUNEIFORM
     • -writing -history -politics - clay tablet -used a stylus to write -nused for trade to keep track of sales - justice (hamurabbi code) - wedge shaped characters
   • CARVED VESSEL, SUMER URUK, IRAK 3,300-3,000 BCE
     • -anthropomorphize -register -hieratic scale - inanna/Dumuzi -Fertility -Votive offering)
       • ANTHROPOMORPHIZE=to attribute human qualities to something that is not Anthro=human. REGISTER=vertical levels, that follow other levels,  specially straight lines, defining the levels HIERATIC SCALE= one figure abnormally bigger than others to symbolize power or godlike qualities HIERATIC=associated with priests, in art extremely stylized. VOTIVE OFFERING= one or more objects displayed or placed in a sacreed place without the objective of recovering for religious favors or purposes.
   • votive figures, Sumer. Eshuna c 2,900-2,600 BCE.
     • -Materials: Limestone, alabaster, gypsum. - Canon-geometric -stylized- Attention.
       • CANON=a body of work that represents an specific style. Works of art included in the canon are to be considered masterpieces.
   • CYLINDER SEAL WITH IMPRESSION, Sumer, Ur, C. 2,600 BCE
     • -Authorization- puabi
       • PUABI=
   • great Lyre with bull's head, Sumer, Ur. 2,600 BCE-25,000BCE.
     • -music -Royal Toms -Trade -Antiquities law of 1922
       • Bull=Bull signifies male fertility in mesopotamian art. Found in the tomb of Pu-Abi  made with wood, gold, lapizlazuli, red limestone and shell. the front panel of the great lyre reveals in the several register  the epic of gilgamesh= first great work of literature revealing the origins of mean and the afterlife.