STUDY GUIDE AP Art History Test #1

PRE-HISTORIC Venus of Willendorf

Willendorf is a place in Germany. Sometimes just called the Woman of Willendorf, this sculpture is actually small enough to be carried around in your hand. Her body is obviously plump, probably because if there are problems with the conditions in which you live, i.e. very little food, then those with more fat will be able to survive in drought or cold winters as opposed to those are skinny. It could also be a sign of fertility, or it may be a way of saying we need to guarantee a way that humans will reproduce—it was a time when human life wasn’t taken likely. In Paleolithic art in general, there is a preoccupation with women, whose child-bearing capabilities ensured the survival of the species. There are traces of paint on this so the artist carved it and also decorated it with color of some sort. This piece would obviously not stand up, so it probably had some magical significance and purpose because of the size. As with most Paleolithic figures, there are no facial features. There is either curly hair or a hat women from plant fibers.

Woman with Horn The Laussel woman is one of the earliest relief sculptures known. The subject matter is similar with a figure of pretty much the same proportions. It seems like she’s split down the middle with her but on both sides. She has a large belly, large breasts, the hand is a little more carefully defined, and an arm in front, and she’s holding a horn. The horn is another symbol of fertility because it was a sign of male animal fertility (most male animals at this time at horns). Even now, we relate cornucopia with Thanksgiving with the straw basket and fruit flowing out, etc. Some scholars think it looks like something else, though. A moon crescent. We don’t know if they were sophisticated enough to know about women and periods, but it could be another symbol of fertility. So remember this is carved into the stone; it’s not a 3-D piece to be carried around and so is larger.

Clay Bison

This is a bison modeled in clay and laid down in the grown. Over its thousands of years in existence, it’s hardened, but originally was modeled by hand in clay. It shows that artist was good at observing these creatures: it has hair, eye, ear, mane, a hump, and a little tail with legs in the right place. It’s interesting that the first sculptures we found were of humans because humans play little to no role/representation in Paleolithic paintings.

Bison

This is another material used in sculpture. This is bone. Probably an antler of a bison. It’s in fairly good condition, but the legs are likely broken off a little bit. There are horns, a vein on back of head, and what is a wonderful detail is that there is a little tongue sticking out. Have to imagine that this is a creature out in the field and it’s been bitten, so he has his head turned to look. The artist’s observation is a wonderful thing—he’s seen something and reproduced it.

Human Skull This is definiltey Neolithic. It’s a skull found in the wall of Jericho. We’ve discovered that many later people did the same thing as these peope, which is that they wanted to preserve the bodies of their ancestors. It was difficult to preserve the whole thing, so they preserved the best part: the head. You remove the head and place it out so all the soft material can disintegrate. Then you have just the skull, and you replace the soft material, the flesh and skin, with plaster. Lascaux—a painting Most of the painting from class today is from France and Spain and fairly recently discovered. The earliest was discovered in 1940 by boys playing with a dog and a ball, the ball rolled into the cave, dog chased, and saw lots of painting. Some are in France, some in Asia, up in China, and some from Australia. The paintings are way up on ceilings, high up, and deep under ground. But that means there is no light—you can’t see things, so there must have been some sort of oil lamp burning animal fat or something. And you need to get to a high place on a wall or ceiling to be able to paint there. Human figures are mostly stick figures, but animal figures were much more realistic and plentiful. Altamira Bison

A single figure that is reddish orange and has black for hair. Occassionally we’ll find paintings where artist has considered the surface of the wall, so they try to incorporate that into their work (i.e. bumps would be stomach or something round)

Lascaux—Cow and little horses Lascauz—Black Bull (det.) Spearking Kangaroo Dolmen

How we’re guessing they constructed things like this is to dig a trench that is fairly deep that is the length of the stone, push it up to the edge of the deep whole that you dug until it falls into it and is a standing stone. You do that twice, But leaves the lintel (spelling?), the top stone. We thing they built a soil ramp of sorts, pushed it up the slant until it sad across, and dug away the ramp. We think that at some point the whole thing was goverened with soil and just looked like a big mound of earth because bodies decomposed and the soil was washed away. We see this architecture but we have to imagine it when it was made. It was a way of protecting and memorializing the dead—probably important people being buried.

Stonehenge This is in the southern part of England. The white areas/dots on the outside are chalk. If you dig the soil down, you don’t have to dig very far before you find chalk. They are thought to have stood for the days of the year, so you’ll probably find 365. There are two circles of stones and a stone in the center that make it so that two times a year the sun will rise up right over the center stone in the morning. It marks the equinox, of equal night and day. The stones come from Wales, and the easiest way to get from Wales to the place where this was built, Stonehenge, is by water. We that that they carved these blocks of stone in a quarry in Wales, floated them on

raft across to the closest landsite of Stonehenge, pulled them (probably by manpower), and we think they did the same thing by digging a whole on one side. MESOPOTAMIA 9/1/11 Painted Beaker

This is a beaker, which is simply a drinking cup, and it’s made of clay. You’ll find in these early cultures that the oldest things tended to be made of clay. It’s decorated, so we’ve gotten to a point in history where people want to make their cup or bowl a little more attractive to drink out of. Clay is light colored—that’s the color you’ll see in background. Then they paint with glaze. It’s black glaze here. The decoration on it is largely geometric, so you’ll find a lot of the designs are just circles, repeating the idea of circularity, but it’s tall. Lots of it is geometric, but we do have a figure here, a ram. He has enormous horns and is made of what looks like two triangles. Early artists like to full up space so they put things in there that didn’t add much meaning or decoration—we call this horovacuei, Latin for fear of empty spaces. There isn’t only the ram, but also animal figures chasing each other above. There are animals, which are primary decorative motifs of the area, which likely has something to do with the lifestyle of living, like herding. White Temple on its Ziggurat

This is an early example of a style of building that we’ll talk about in more detail a little later. Because there are no mountains and really no hills, we don’t know where these people came from. They were not indigenous, but we assume they came from mountain areas. Generally there is a universal feeling that whatever deity you believe in, it’s somewhere in the sky, and generally in order to reach those deities, you want to get as close as possible. So we have here in this area of Mesopotamia a similar attempt to get towards these cosmic deities, and their deities usually had something to do with nature (rain, moon, etc.). So what we have here is a base, which looks simply like a mountain, is all mud brick. There were steps to get to a temple on top. So you have this structure that is used as a base to get to a temple. It’s referred to as the White Temple because it was white-washed. People walk around on a set of

stairs to get up to the temple on the top of that base.

Female head This is one of the earliest figures we have and is likely part of a whole statue, but the rest has been lost (was possibly made of wood). This is made of stone that is similar to marble, and since there was none of that in this particular area, it had to be imported from somewhere. She has a hollow bodice, which indicates that there was some other material used for her eyes. They could have been glass, or even semi precious stones. There is an emphasis on eyes and are very large, and in figures we’ll be looking at the eyes are generally large and as often as possible they are made separately and placed in the blank cavity. You may be amused to see that their idea of beauty is to see an eyebrow that goes all the way across. The mouth is very sensitively done and it looks as though it fits into the lower portion of her face. She ahs a nice, soft double chin, which makes her look realistic and like someone had looked at a human face quite carefully before creating this. Head is interesting because one place we’re talking about is present day Iraq. Museum there was ransacked during current war and it was looted, and this piece

was stolen. This is so precious and so was a great loss, but they later found it buried in someone’s backyard. Votive Statues

One of the things that was mentioned on the map was Tell Asmar where there was an Abbu temple to honor the god Abbu. These are some figures found in the temple that come in many sizes. These are worshipers that stand in an attitude of players and their purpose, we think was to be substitutes for worshipers. You want the gods to know you’re at the temple always in prayer, but you have to go home and to work, so you have one of these figures made and place it in the temple so you are always there with the gods. The size varies on the cost. Now, because there is no stone, this is made of the same material that is almost marble but not quite. We notice that the material has been imported. So these are extra special in a sense because they cost more. But when you look at them notice they are rather rounded. Faces aren’t rectangular; they’re

curved a little. The reason for this is because when they were first made, they were made of clay, so when they got stone they were so influenced by the figure made in clay that they kept that roundish quality, including the larger pieces. Notice how large the eyes are, and here you’ll notice them made of a different material. And they are all wearing skirts with what looks like pleats. They speculate that this is lamb or sheep’s wool or something and probably cut in some way to look like tails, etc. Remember that animals are important here so their life was probably based on herding animals, so it isn’t surprising then when wool becomes a material for clothing. Standard of Ur

This is called a standard. These were probably part of something that was carried in a procession. We think that they were slanted together with a pole in between. They are mosaic, set into a kind of tar background. It’s bone but also has some semiprecious stones. One side is peace, the other side is war. It was probably made to memorialize or commemorate some victory. You’ll notice that the design is shown in 3 border like panels, which we call registers. So there is something going on in the top register, middle register, and lower register. On the peace side, you’ll see people happy and victorious. You also have people coming in with animals and bringing small gifts to the victim. Remember, when looking at these, the figures are shown in profile

position, with feet and face in profile and torso facing forward. War: you have chariots moving along. You have the fallen under the chariots, and up you have some people being dragged—these are slaves or captives that have been brought in victory. So you have some characteristics in this piece which you’re going to see throughout this particular area. It wasn’t just Egypt that had just torso facing forward.

Helmet of Akkadian ruler This might not have actually been used in battle because it’s much too elegant. It’s made of bronze and fits so that the ear feels over the man’s real ear with the hole so the man could hear. And there are little ringlets that repeat his hair. Notice that he has a braid wrapped around his head and tied around his head. This simply repeats what an important man’s hair probably looked like. This characteristic of long hair means strength. It was a sort of strength to them. There is a passage in the Illiad where Achilles is sulking in his tent. He’s sitting in front of his tent combing his hair (important, strong men wore long hair).

It’s important to understand that there are different groups of people that come into Mesoptamia, which happens when you have areas of flat hands without any natural barriers, and when we get to Egypt at first that’s an issue. You have Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians, etc. –not necessarily important to remember all of them in order Stele of Naram-Sin

A stele is a marker in a slab of stone, and the markers are anywhere from 6-8 feet. They commemorate something or some event. Naram-Sin was a king who conquered a group of people and so he is presenting a document of some sort to a god. And if you look carefully, you can almost see that towards the bottom there is writing. There is usually some description on a marker of this kind to tell you what is going on up above.

A ziggurat is an attempt to create a mountain or raised area to get closer to the gods. These were made of clay. They were approached by a long staircase, and you got up to another level where you got to another level, then to another level, and you get to the top. Even thought here are stairs/ramps going up, likely only the most important people (priests and ruler) were allowed up. Most of them today don’t look much like the model shown because so many have simply deteriorated and been hit by rain, etc. Gudea

For a number of years, it was assumed that Gudea was a title, like Pharaoh or King, but they finally decided that there was a ruler of Mesopotamia named Gudea. He is seated here with his hands folded in worship. It’s the same sort of thing we saw earlier on. Also, he’s wearing a style of clothing that looks as though it wraps around one shoulder and is tucked in the front. We see this style in many figures, so it must have been very the style of dress of the period. This is made of stone, so it must be very special because the stone would have had to have been important. Even though it’s stone, the base is rather rounded, like early statues made of clay. He has a plan written on his lap. It’s a raised 3-D plan, possibly something he built, but it is an architectural plan. Also notice the writing they tended to have on everything—they’re covered with this writing, this one saying what the plan is for (?).

Stele of Hammurabi Susa

Hammurabi is usually mentioned in ancient history as being the first person to codify

laws and punishments. The king, Hammurabi, is presenting the laws to the god. The god is sitting and Hammurabi is standing in front. Notice the pose of these figures: heads in profile, arms coming from side of body and upper torso facing forward. The god has a long beard and a strange headdress, which is made of animal bones. He has five rows of those—the more horns you have, the more important you are, so he is obviously a deity. The god is sitting on a stool with door-like shapes on it, which some think to represent the palace of the god. The stone, again, has to be brought in. We see lots of writing—the laws he created.

Lion Gate This is a gateway/entrance with lions. Lions symbolize strength and power as supreme animals. And you often see them as guardian figures, esp in cities. These are lions that are in relief, meaning you can’t take the lion away from upright. We’ll see the use of this kind of creature in a number of different cultures, as well.

Queen Napirasu We have very few figures of recognizable women, but this is obviously a power figure. She has fringe or a series of pleats at the bottom of her skirt. What’s interesting about this figure is that it’s a cast piece. Usually when you cast something in bronze, you have it hollow, so it’s lighter in weight. However, she insisted that it be filled with bronze so that it was immobile. She wanted a figure set up so it would represent her and be available/in public view for a long time. A solid bronze piece is highly unusual and very expensive to cast because bronze wasn’t as easily available.

9/6/11 Ivory Plaque—Lion Killing an Ethiopian This is a lion attacking a Nubian. Nubia is south of Egypt in Africa, so this is probably a Nubian elephant.

You have material from Africa and you have an African being attacked by a lion. It tells us that there is some contact between the people who live in Mesopotamia and those who live in South-central Africa. The Man getting eaten is in an accurate profile posture—if he were getting eaten this is probably what he would look like, so this is likely a little later. If you see the lion’s head, it’s turned at an angle to make it more realistic, but the body ist still in profile. It looks as though it’s been painted. You can see some stalks coming up—meant to be growth man has been trapped. It’s called a plaque, but it’s probably part of a precious, decorative comb. It tells us something about what these people were able to do at the time—travel and see other countries and other people. Citadel of Sargon II—Dur Sarrukin (Khorsabad)

It’s more than just a palace because probably the residents of the ruler are within this. This is kind of like a mini-city. It would have business offices, with someone in charge of various things (trade, army, etc.). It’s surrounded by a wall and surrounded by quite a few watch towers. Ruler is obviously nervous about someone that might come in attack. This was still a time when everything was made of mud brick, but if there was any stone in here it would probably be the base. There is a ziggurat in the corner of the ruler’s palace with lots of levels that gives you a picture of the cosmos. The bottom is brown or black (underworld), the next was green (land), then blue (sky), then gold (sun), then white (heavens) at the top Want to emphasize that you see what looks like the residence of a ruler,

but you see a micro-city in itself. The regular citizens don’t live within the walls, but if an enemy approaches the citizens come in for safety. Human-Headed Bull (Lamasu)

This is a guardian figure. It is not freestanding, though. This one is colorless likely because the color has been washed or blown off, but imagine it brilliantly colored when it was first put up. It has the head of a man with a full beard, body of a lion, bull’s legs, feathers, and wings. But what’s odd about it is that it has five legs because the artist wanted you to see its 4 legs from the front and the side.

Siege of the Assyrians Assyrians were aggressive and war-like and were the first to go down to Egypt and try to take over. They have produced a number of very large panels that were undoubtedly part of walls (LACMA has several). They are carved with scenes that are either war or hunting or something with action to it—they are very war-like people, so it’s their favorite subject.

Slide of The Dying Lioness (figure 2-23 in book (?)): This figure is of the dying lioness. A lioness has been shot and even though her hind leg is paralyzed, she’s still trying to get back at her human opponent. One of the things you notice in Assyrian art, they do animal figures very well, almost better than human figures, which appear more stylized. You get a sense of the lion’s musculature and it’s clear that the legs are paralyzed. Slide (don’t have picture): It’s a figure of battle. The figures on the right are

much larger than the rest and you’ll notice figures tumbling down from the wall. You get into one of those situations where hierarchy tells you who is important—bigger the person, more important they are. Assyrians are fighting an enemy. Notice the action of the involvement of all the figures. These would have cuneiform writing on them—that’s what you’ll notice about them. They don’t seem to mind this writing on the figure because it undoubtedly is telling a story or telling who the figure happens to be. Ishtar Gate

This is from Neo-Babylonia, or Babylon itself, and is the Ishtar gate. There was a time when Babylon flourished and then it was attacked and disappeared for a time. But then it came back and flourished again, and we call it Neo-Babylonia. This is a gate to the city. Right now it is in a very large museum in Germany because they were discovered by German archeologists (?), who were leading archeology all over the world during the 19th century. Obviously when the archeologists were digging here, they didn’t find the arc as you see it. It was in pieces. Originally from ~575 BCE. Supposedly the figures on the gates are bulls or dragons, meant to represent the gods. If you look at the bull, the blocks around it are fainter than the turquoise that surrounds it—that is what was found, but all of this has been part of reconstruction. The dragons have a peculiar body, a tbue of a tail, and what looks like a serpent’s head, and feathers. This is the first appearance of an arch! (We’ve talking only about post and lintel, but the

Neo-Babylonians seem to have discovered the arch and used it here). There is another design used over and over: the daisy with white petals and yellow center, which will appear in other places.

Audience Hall of Darius in Persepolis This was Persepolis, the site of Darius and Xerxes rule. What you’re looking at with all the columns is the Audience Hall, which is where the King would have had an audience or visitors, probably asking him favors. It’s a big, wide-open hall, which had a roof supported by columns (first time we see columns like this being used). This is was also build mostly of mudbrick. The columns were made of stone, but walls and most other things were made of mudbrick. You have a doorway and number of window frames. If you’re putting a doorway in and you want to do this in stone, the economical thing to do would b get two

pieces for posts and one for a lintel. But this is the palace of a powerful ruler, so he had them bring a much larger piece of stone and had them cut out a block of stone with windows simply hollowed out. Inside this doorway, there is carved the relief figure of a soldier or guard. Darius and Xerxes Giving an Audience Representations of the people coming to visit, probably asking favors, so they bring gifts. Most of them are shown in a few limited poses, so not individuals, just a suggestion of a group of people Gold Finial for a Whetstone This is a finial, which is a cap that goes down over an object of some sort, and this goes over a whetstone, which is what you sharpen __ with. It looks very large, but it’s really the size of a thimble. The design of it is a ram, so you can see his muscle and eyes and ear and horns, and this is made in a way that is impressive: start out with a sheet of pure gold, draw the design on the gold, and start hammering underneath the gold to create the design (i.e. eyes, things that would stick out, etc.) and it would be soldered to another sheet to make the rounded shape of this finial. And then these little gold balls would be attached by soldering. They look sizeable, but they are quite tiny.

Winged Ibex (picture not the same as class slide) This is a handle for a vase and is a way of reminding you constantly of the presence of these animal designs. But you would probably pick up the base at the body. This is a black and white slide, but there was probably lots of silver and an inlay of gold. Silver at this time as much more rare than gold and was considered much more precious. So you have an animal used as a handle, and at the bottom of the feet you see honey suckle, a design from Greece. You can’t see it here, but there is a man’s head (eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, nose)—also a figure from Greece. Again, conncetion between cultures in Mesopotamia and Greece is coming into the picture, too.

Palace of Shapur I There is another group of Persians and they build this palace, again in the middle of nowhere, but there isn’t much remaining of it. Things that are there are interesting though because it has a huge arch. Not a round arch, but a parabolic arch instead of post and lintel. It’s a HUGE building. Notice that you have more arches, used mostly for decoration. Probably, one of the rulers responsible for this building is Shapur I.

Head of Shapur II His crown looks like a kind of balloon. Made of lots of silver. His beard must be very long because it’s pulled together at chin and braided down to his chest. Some people think it’s a modern piece, but it’s ancient. Triumph of Shapur I over Valerian

This is a giant piece of relief structure that involves the same ruler as just shown and he is subduing a Roman emperor, Valerian, which doesn’t happen very often because Romans were so powerful and strong. Valerian was apparently not so strong and lost to a Persian ruler. Here, Shapur appears larger than life, riding in from the right wearing a distinctive tall Sasanian crown. Valerian is on his knees on the left begging for mercy. Similar scenes of kneeling enemies before triumphant generals are common in Roman art, but here the roles are reversed. This use of Roman compositional patterns

and motifs in a relief celebrating the defeat of Romans adds another ironic level of meaning to the political message in stone.

EGYPT 9/7/11

Palette of Narmer from Dyansty 1 (Old Kingdom) Palette is a legal document that graphically shows you the conquest of lower Egypt by a king from upper Egypt. Narmar was supposedly the first king to make that trek north and conquered lower Egypt, making Egypt into one country (scholars think the unification happened over centuries, but it’s depicted as one grand event). It’s divided into three: at the very top you have two heads of cows, probably representing the god of love and beauty, Hawthor. Use: to prepare eye makeup Importance: (1) document marking the transition from pre-historic to historical period in ancient Egypt, (2) early blueprint for figures that characterized most Egyptian art for 3,000 years, (3) earliest existing labeled work of historical art, (4) commemorative, not funerary, (5) shows

king as supreme over all men—Pharaoh is the divine ruler from the start of Egyptian history Design (back side, left): King is wearing the tall, bowling-pin—shaped crown of Upper Egypt and is slaying his enemy. You can see an official carrying his sandals in the backbecame a standard formula to show the inevitable triumph of the Egyptian god-kinds over their enemies. Above and to the right is a falcon with human arms which represents Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, symbol of the pharaoh and his protector. The falcon has a captive (the man headed figure with papyrus plants growing from it), which represents Lower Egypt. Below the king are two fallen enemies. Design (front side, right): elongated necks of two felines form the circular depression that would have held the eye makeup. Intertwined necks of animals is also a motif common in Mesopotamian art, and here might be another symbol for Egypt’s unification. Top register shows Narmer wearing the crown of Lower Egypt (upper left) and shows the dead from an aerial view (upper right). The king is on both the frong and backside of the palette because of his rank and superiority and is towering over his men and his enemy. The bottom band of a bull, which sometimes represents the pharaoh, trampling an enemythe pharaoh is conquering this man in the city and is moving into this space and taking over. Imhotep, Stepped Pyramid

Imhotep was a very talented man who sought to be a doctor and an architect, and was eventually deified. He is the first recorded name of an artist in history. From this time on, they started to use stone in buildings, but still carved them small, like they had done with mud bricks. Here, he stacked mastaba on top of each other to cake a wedding cake shape that approaches the shape of a pyramid, so we call it a step pyramid. Most of the pyramids were markers, and the toms were underground, so underneath there is a shaft that goes into the ground. There are passageways lined in turquoise tile. This is one of the oldest stone structure in Egypt and in its final form is the first truly grandiose royal tomb.

Pyramids of Gizeh The three pyramids here were built over the course of ~75 yeas as tombs of Fourth Dynasty pharohs Khufu, Khafre, and Mekaure. They represent the culmination of an architectural evolution that began with the mastaba. The Great Pyramids are symbols of the sun. These are one of the few pyramids with a tomb inside it. There are three small pyramids for his wives. The middle is the oldest and largest, for Khufu, and he had 20 years to build it. It was a period of peace and money. This is one of the few pyramids with a tomb inside it. His son, Khafre, build the second pyramid, almost as tall, and is the only one with some stone it was built with left on it. And finally, you see three small pyramids for

Menkaure’s wives. His pyramid is much smaller—the economy has slipped, and he probably ruled for a shorter period of time. We’re talking about builidngs that were built to point out cosmic areas that are extremely accurate. They are using huge stones to build this, so you need some method of hoisting the stones up. These are probably meant to represent the rays of the sun—the idea that you would have a shiny surface reflecting the sun makes sense.

Sphinx The sphinx is associated with the sun god, so it is appropriate for a pharaoh, and joins the body of a lion with the head of a pharaoh, which suggests that the pharaoh combines human intelligence with the immense strength and authority of lions (king of beasts). It was probably carved with an outcropping of rock here and is the guardian figure for the pyramid of Khafre (second to largest pyramid). Up until around Napoleon’s visit to Egypt, all you’d see was the head of the sphinx because it was covered y sand. They’ve been working on this recently because people were sure there must be hidden treasure, so they’ve been doing excavations, but haven’t found anything. The head is badly

damaged and probably meant to be the head of Khafre.

Khafre enthroned from Valley Temple of Khafre (2520-2494 BCE) This is a figure of Khafre. In profile, you can see that it’s a closed sculpture. Egyptians believed there was part of a human being that existed after death that left the body and needed a place to come back to, which is why the body was preserved, so they created figures to work as substitutes. It was a place for the ka to come back to. Later, we’ll also see figures like this used for things like propaganda. The left of the chair is a lions claw holding a ball and on the chair you see a intertwined papyrus and lotus, which means he ruled both upper and lower Egypt. It is made of stone that is from a quarry far from the Pharaoh (400 miles down the Nile). Khafre is sitting rigidly upright on a throne made of two lions’ bodies. You can also see Horace, the falcon, extend protective wings to shelter the pharaoh’s head. It is meant to be a symbol of the pharaoh and a reference to the pharoah being a god and becomes sort of a falcon-god on earth. Khafre is shown as an idealized figure with no flaws (he’s divine), regardless of age or actual appearance. The purpose of this sculpture, and others of pharaohs, where to proclain their divine nature. His body is symmetrical. This statue is supposed to represent the idea of eternity, so the sculptor suppressed all movement and notion of time, creating an eternal stillness.

Menkaure Triad Most Egyptian figures stand with right foot forward (?) and evenly balanced, but here , the left foot is forward. The goddess with foot only slightly in front, the pharaoh with foot much more in front, and goddess with feet side by side. The goddesses have arms on him for protection. The one on the left has horns on her head and is taller than the other goddess, meaning she is more important. The other is a gnome goddess, which is probably the area in which she leaves, and her figure is the figure above her. They are all very idealized without realistic features in body or clothing.

Menkaure and Khamerernebty(?) This is Menkaure and his wife in conventional postures used for statues designed to be homes for the ka. The frozen gestures signify that the man and woman are married. The figures are attached to the stone block from which they were carved (could be very high relief sculpture). His left leg is slightly forward, but there is no sign of movement in his hips to correspond with the unequal distribution of weight, and his wife is in a similar position. Again, the aim of this statue is to give a sense of eternity, so the figures are not intimate or looking at each other. Rather, they look straight forward with the wife’s arm around her husband and resting on his arm are the only signs of marriage. It’s an eternal substitute for the ka. Made of stone.

Seated Scribe (Old Kingdom) This is slightly different from the seated figure of the pharaoh. The scribe is like a secretary, seated here like he is waiting to take dictation. He is right-handed and his hand is posted like he is holding a quill or something to write with. His face and body are not idealized—you can clearly see flab in chest and belly and signs of age. But he is prosperous and doesn’t have to labor, he can sit, and he is also respected because the pharaohs probably needed scribes to be able to read and write. He can be shown as more prosperous and realistic and not as idealized as the pharaoh—it’s more life-like. As a human subject’s importance decreases, so does the formality and idealization. He is painted brown with paste or glass eyes and looks very attentive. This figure was probably a relative of the pharaoh because he was privy to contracts or declarations of war or something else that was meant to stay private and unpublished.

Tomb of Ti (Middle Kingdom) Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt Ti is watching slaves do the hunting for him. Boats sitting on top of a band painted dark blue (the river), where you can see fish. It’s another example of vertical perspective. Poliage and other creatures with tails are towards the top. Gives you a sense of the riverscape where he is actually standing. Figure has been carved and is standing in front of the stribed design. Slaves are never shown clothes. Ti is idealized. Egyptian painers and sculptures didn’t use real life subjects, but instead used proportions to create a human figure. In Egypt, a successful hunt was a metaphor for triumph over evil. Also, Ti’s size reflects his high rank.

Cattle Fording a Canal Taking some cattle, belonging to Ti, and crossing the river. You can see the water, with the lgs of the animal walking through. Slave on the right is bent over because he is carrying a calf. There is hieroglyphic writing in the back, which would be expensive to do because you can’t just paint the symbols on, you have to carve them out first. The fording of the Nile was a metaphor for the passage to the afterlife. These reliefs combine stereotypical poses for humans ad animals with

unconventional postures and anecdotal details. Ti is absent from these scenes and all the men and animals participate in the narrative. The boy carrying calf on his back (anecdotal): calf is afraid, so looks to mother, who returns calf’s gaze in reassurance—it shows that Egyptian artists could be close observers of daily live. The primary purpose of this was to suggest the deceased’s eternal existence in the afterlife, not to portray nature.

Rock-cut tomb—exterior Place: Beni Hasan Time: 12th Dynasty (1950-1900 BCE) These toms hollowed out of clifs often had a shallow columnar orch, which lefd into a columned hall and then into a burial chamber. The exterior has columns, similar to the wall that surrounds the tomb of Djoser.There is a lentil on top. (Why did they even put a doorway to a tomb that they were trying t hide?) These columns are cut straight out of existing rock.

Rock-cut tomb—interior (Middle Kingdom) You can see a piece of the column broken out, but the rest still stands because it’s not a free-standing column, it was cut out of existing rock. There is a faint ouline of where a figure would be at the back of the interior. It would have been a substitute for the body if the body had disappeared. The ceiling was painted to look like tile in a style that would be like the person’s home because the tomb is a home for after death.

9/14/11

Temple of Hatshepsut (New Kingdom) This is the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. The cliff top is very hotizonal with vertical crevasses in the rock; the columns and lintels mimic the landscape behind it, as does the light/dark rhythm (repeats pattern of limestone cliffs above). This repeated pattern is a way of noticing the area around the temple. In Hatshepsut’s day, the terraces had gardens with huge trees and rae plants. There was a grove of trees in the desert area approaching the temple. She removed a good portion of the sand and replaced it with soil. The circles that had the trees in them are still visible today. Watering this garden/trees was very expensive. There are reliefs in the temple to represent her great deeds, show her

coronation, and her divine birth. She was the daughter of Amon-Re, so there was a temple for him on the uppermost level. The painted reliefs celebrating Hatshepsut were the first great tribute to a woman’s achievements in the history of art. Her nephew, who probably took over after she disappeared from the public eye, removed statues, broke them up, and tossed them to the side; originally, her statue would have been placed in front of every single column. Inside, there were rooms for offerings, etc. On the walls in the rooms, there were illustrated stories of her reign. She greatly opened up trade.

Senmut and Princess Nefrure This is an example of a block statue, which were extremely popular during the New Kingdom. The idea that the ka could find an eternal home n the cubic stone image of the deceased was expressed in an even more radical simplification of form than was common in the Old Kingdom. Here, Senmut and Hatshepsut’s daughter are sitting with her on his lap and there is a blanket draped over them. It concentrates attention on the heads and treats the two bodies as a single cubic block with lots of hieroglyphics over it. Senmut is Hatshepsut’s chancellor.

Temple of Ramses II This is from the 19th Dynasty and is right on the edge of Nubia. This temple is cut out of rock, as are the statues on it. The figures are excavated into the hillside. This temple may have served as a scaring tactic to ward off possible attackers. Ramses was Egypt’s last great warrior pharaoh and ruled for over ~67 years (life expectancy at the time was very low, so that is a very long time). The pharaoh proclaimed his greatness with four huge images of himself (bigger than those Hatshepsut used). This temple is dedicated to Amon-Re, and you can see a little figure over the door of him. These figures were not used as substitutes for his body for his ka—they were used for propaganda. One of his 55 sons is located between his legs and his wife doesn’t even come up to his knee (right side of the door). The first room inside has rigures of the pharaoh and would be the equivalent of a courtyard.

Hypostyle Hall Model Capitals are a flower bud, and then turn into a flower in full bloom. The ceiling is higher in the center than on the sides. The two central rows of columns are taller than those on the sides—raising the roof’s central section created a clerestory. Openings in the clerestory allowed light to filter into the interior. The column capital doesn’t go entirely to the roof. There is a blcok between the capital and the roof—gives you the effect that the roof is floating in mid-air.

Pylon Temple: made of thick masonry with hypostyle hall, meant to impress. Level of the floor stays the same but the roofline drops. The very back of the temple, in the smallest room where the roof is the most lowered is where there is a statue of a god.

Temple of Horus (New Kingdom) This hawk (Horus=hawk) has a combination crown of Upper and Lower Egypt on its head, showing that he ruled over both. This is a pylon temple with stairs going up to the top with some windows for light and air. Pylon has a central gate and is decorated by sunken relief with figures. The figures on the wall would be carved into the wall and then painted. It was very dark inside, but they didn’t worry about lightening it because they wanted a mysterious feel

CRETE 9/15-16/11 *Crete doesn’t have any marble, so there is less attractive stone to make things with, but islands off Crete all have marble *What we have are mostly little pieces of sculpture found in tombs Cycladic Idol

Lyre Player (Cycladic) People like to relate this to the idea of Homer, who was a story teller and left us with those stories verbally and accompanied with a lyre. This is of a male figure, but it is similar to the figure of the woman. He must be playing for the deceased in the afterlife. This shows the preference for simple geometric shapes and large flat planes, like the female figure showed. There is a slight curve to the back and the negative spaces are just as interesting as the positive ones. There are no strings on the lyre, though there might have once been.

Kamaras Ware (Minoan) People from Crete were called Minoans, but we don’t know much about Crete or if Minoans even existed. We don’t know one person from Crete (which contrasts to Asia where we know dozens of names and secondary people and even every day people). There were few tombs, no temples (tells us something about their worship), and lots of caves. They were probably great sailors, but, like Egyptians, they prefer traveling on rivers to the sea (but the two did interact—we have images of them exchanging, but Minoans went to Egypt, not vise versa).

• This is not a figure that can stand up, you have to lie her down • Her back is pretty flat, but it does have a slight curve (compare to a spoon

handle) o the curve was probably to sit on top of a body o there is a tendency to want to call these fertility figures, but they

do not look particularly fertile • only the nose is carved • evidence on most of these figures that they were painted • they come in all sizes and there were so many of them that you can

probably find them in most museums o some 6 inches tall and some that are 5 ft

• most are female, but some are male

Even though clay pottery can be broken, this piece survived for years. It’s made of natural colored clay and the glaze is black and white with a little color. The design looks like it comes from nature. The jar is practical—narrow spout and a handle sturdy enough to lift it. At the spot, it looks like an eye, so when you’re pouring something it looks like it’s coming from the mouth of a creature, maybe a bird. It looks like it has some geometric shapes to it (?). Octopus Vase If you look carefully, you can see where this vase was in pieces and put back together. It’s not surprising that we see sea creatures because that’s how they got a lot of their food in a place surrounded by ocean. The tentacles of the octopus reach out over the curving surfaces of the vessel, embracing the piece and emphasizing its volume. It’s a masterful realization of the relationship between decoration and shape, which is always a problem for vase painters. This is different to the previous vase because it comes from a later time and the Minoan artist reversed the color scheme: dark on light instead of light on dark. There were no temples or tombs, but we know they had palaces.

Palace of Minos Knossos This was the legendary home of King Minos. It was restored by Arthur Evans and was his life’s work. When people then built palaces, it was usually higher up for safety reasons, but here, safety wasn’t much of an issue since this was on the side of a hill. Inside, one of the major areas was the Megaron, which we see later in Greece, as well, as a predecessor to the classical Greek temple. It was a series of rooms supported by columns—spaces for minor functionaries to live and work. All were originally underground and this is where the myth of the minotaur and labyrinth maze comes from. This is the restoration: you can see the capital, which looks like a squashed mushroom Evans has found bases for these and also a palace at the top where the column fit in, but columns would have disappeared and they think that that’s because they were made of wood, so in his restoration he made columns out of concrete. He also used stone from the area, which wasn’t particularly good

building stone, but there was no marble. There is some sort of cement or plaster to hold stones beneath the columns in place. In the staircase to the lower level, there is no roof. Also, all the rooms are relatively small, even that of the ruler, so they wanted air and light. Queen’s Megaron We’re not completely sure if this room was for the Queen, but it’s nice and decorated and has a bathroom. Because the palace is on the side of the hill, gravity brings water to them, so there was even a toilet with no sewages or pipes. The palace was destroyed around 1450 BCE, though we don’t know why, so Evan shows this room. He was dolphins and fish on the walls and daisy-like flowers. The windows would have had panels that could be closed and there was a door that could also be closed. There was an opening above the door so that you can close the room but still have air come in and out.

Toreador fresco

La Parisienne

Snake Goddess Whether she’s a goddess or priestess or snake tamer, we don’t now, but she’s holding snakes so we call her a goddess. It is reconstructed from many pieces and scholars believe it may represent mortal attendants rather than a deity, although the prominently exposed breasts suggest that these figurines also represent fertility (like prehistoric piecs), considered divinities. The Knossos woman holds snakes in her hands and supports a leopardlike feline on her head, which implied power over the animal word, which would fit a deity. The frontal figure is reminiscent of Egyptian and Near Eastern statuary, but the costume is distinctly Minoan. If the statue represents a goddess, it’s another example of how human beings fashion gods in their own image. Snakes are given some consideration in Crete b/c they are creatures of the earth and we know that there are instances where snakes are worshipped, so she might be some kind of snake divinity or snake worshipper.

• famous wall painting from Palace of Knossos • It was used as a decorative motif • and we have something happening in this scene • it’s pretty small • two figures of one gender, the light/white ones are female; and dark color

is male (like Egypt) • this is thought to be some sort of athletic event

o female holding horns, man doing somersault or something over bull, possibly to be caught by other female

• can’t possibly hold a bull by horns, so this is probably creative • some of it is orig, some is restoration

o if you look at blue, there are spots that are darker and more dirty looking than the pale blue restoration

o same is true of the female figures; he was lucky b/c the whole upper portion was pretty much orig, but legs were restored

o same with the bull • notice the border: it’s imitation colored marble

o since there is none in Crete, they must have seen colored marble somewhere (maybe Egypt)

o when you get to Greece and Rome, you’ll see more of these different colors (real stuff)

rare and rather expensive, though, so Minoans just painted

 

• this is a fragment of a human figure • if you look carefully at figures in from Toreador fresco, some

similar features o large nose, huge eyes* (the large frontal eye is also

sean in Near Eastern and Egyptian art) o back is somewhat arched, which seems to be a

common posture • long hair that is attached by something to the back • most figures, male and female, have this long hair

 

Harvester Vase The upper part was preserved, but the bottom part of missing (made of stone), so this is what we think it looked like. It couldn’t stand alone. The images show harvesters working in a field. They look like they’re singing. They’re probably very happy; you can see a man with ribs showing—this may be the celebration of a good harvest. Since this is made of stone, it would have been hard to carve, especially to hollow out the interior. Here, the sculptor singled out one figure from his companions. He shakes a rattle and his lungs are so inflated his ribs show—it’s one of the first instances of a sculptor showing a keen interest in the underlying muscular and skeletal structure of the human body.

Landscape We know that Minoans had colonies and there are several still present on Santorini (called Thera at the time)/ This is a portion of a room from one of those settlements on Thera. It’s a very small room, but with a wonderful landscape with rocky crags. You can recognize the iris flowers. There are birds chirping at each other, so it’s likely spring. It’s an open landscape to open up the room. This is one of the earliest examples of a pure landscape painting.

Boxers from Thera (Late Minoan) Two boys boxing, but only one has gloves—not fair. Even children have long hair on Crete. In profile, but you can see huge eyes. When you think of designs from Crete, it looks like they are active and enjoying life, whereas in Egypt, things were mostly about the afterlife

Lion Gate (Mycenaean) None of these stones were quarried on site—they came fro a couple of miles off site completely through man power. Huge lintel to have across posts. This is the outer gateway of the stronghold at Mycenae. The gate itself has two huge monoliths capped with a hgue lintel and above the lintel is a corbelled arch. It leaves an opening that lightens the weight the lintel carries (corbelling them into triangular shapes make it thinner and lighter). Holes in the stone shows that there was likely once a gate and when the gate was closed, no one could get in because this was the only entrance to the city. If you come in and go up to the top of the hill, you’re at the “palace,” which is in quotes because it’s very small in scale.

Treasury of Atreus This was more than a treasury. Atreus was the original king of this area because this tomb was found and seemed very grand, so they assumed it belonged to Atreus. It was built by corbelling, too. It has an open, large space with a dome interior. A layer of stones in the ground, and the next layer is set in a little more, and so on until you get to the top—to make this beehive dome. It was built by excavating coal in the hillside, and then covered with earth so no one would know it was there. They said it was a treasury but it was obviously a tomb, but we aren’t certain for whom. These buildings are so large, expensive, and difficult to build that they

couldn’t just be for one person—it would be for a whole family. Citadel of Tiryns This is all human construction. Soldiers can’t necessarily get in head-on with his sword and shield in front, so he’s have to come in sideways and then they couldn’t really moveshows cleverness in how they can protect themselves. Gold Death Mask

Inlaid dagger

We know there was some exchange between Mycenae and Crete. They probably decided craftsmen in Crete could do this better, so they imported things. This was found in the Grave Circle and is decorated on one side with a scene of four hunters attacking a lion that has struck down a fifth hunter, while two other lions flee. The other side shows lion attacking a deer. The slim-waisted, long-haired figures are Minoan in

• One of the things that is odd/interesting is his beard, which comes out to ear (wide)

• this is supposed to be over your face; you’d expect artist to clip off pieces of extra gold, but he didn’t

• he probably had a sheet of gold and didn’t want to waste extra pieces, so just left them

• very stylized • eyes look like little shells • ears are stylized • has a good mustache and a little beard under lower lip • full beard all around • Clearly this was a man of substance, probably very handsome,

but we don’t’ know who it was  

• you have a whole rank of soldiers marching along • can’t see it very clearly, but there is a woman with

her arm raised on the edge that is waving • head and legs are in profile and torso and eye are

facing forward—similar to Minoans, where eye and nose are very noticeable

o much different from Harvesters Vase • they have water bags to take water with them • might be soldiers going to Trojan war, but

probably not b/c they’re wearing helmets that have horns on the front; and they also have a part that comes down to forehead and covers back of neck

• might be soldiers hired as mercenaries • at any rate, it’s a vase with a black figure design

and you can see some cracks and portion on the bottom that is missing

• pottery survives and can tell us a number of things about people who live there

 

style, but the artist borrowed the subject from the repertoire of the ancient Near East. It is likely that a Minoan metalworker made the dagger for a Mycenaean patron who admired Minoan art but whose taste in subject matter differed from that of hi Cretan counterparts. Warrior Vase (Mycenae)