Why did humankind first create art?

The ancient Sumerians were the first to divine astrology---the zodiac---5,000 years ago

Cave painters used their mouths as brushes---20,000-30,000

years ago

What is the oldest known piece of art?

Until 2 years ago, had been:• Venus of Willendorf• Austria, 22,000 BCE• Limestone, tinted with red ochre• Small, hand-held• Purpose--Fertility?

Worship?

The newest “oldest” is now:

The Venus of Hohle Fels, Germany •35,000-40,000 years

old•2-1/2” high•Made of wooly mammoth tusk•No head---could have been a pendant•Discovered in 9/2008

• First man--2 million years ago in Africa

• First Homo Sapiens--100,000 years ago in Africa

• First art found made by Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal Man--Late Paleolithic (40,000-10,000 BCE)

Lascaux, 17,000Altamira, 15,000

Chauvet, 30,000

Cave Art --- Paleolithic Era“Old Stone” Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal, 40,000-10,000 BCE

What might have been used to paint these figures?How does the rock influence the forms of these images?

Is “spirit” reflected in these paintings?

Cave Paintings—do you see stylistic differences?Chauvet (European, 30,000 BCE) vs

Laas Geel (African, 8,000 BCE)

Laas Geel Somaliland, discovered in 2002

Chauvet, France, discovered in 1994

Neolithic Era (8,000-2,000 BCE)how might art have changed when people settled in villages?

• Ice Age ending

• People begin to settle in permanent villages—CIVILIZATION

• Begin farming and domesticating animals

• First systems of writing developed

• New arts emerge--pottery, weaving, architecture, megaliths, pictographs

• Focus of art in Middle East—the Fertile Crescent

Earliest Landscape, Catal Huyuk (Turkey), 6,150 BCE

Civilizations arise around river valleys---Egypt, India and The Fertile Crescent

• The Fertile Crescent---Mesopotania (“land between two rivers”, Iraq) and Jericho (modern day Syria)

• Settled in towns around 7,000 BCE

• Arts and crafts become specialized

Fertile Crescent

Jericho

Sumerian Culture—3,500 BCE• Mesopotamia, current-day Iraq

• Invented first numerical system

• Invented first known system of writing – cuneiform

• Created first written music— hymn to Goddess Nikkal

• Believed in a pantheon of gods

• Wrote first epic--Gilgamesh

• Wrote down laws—Hammurabi Code, 1790 BCE

• Discovered how to mine metals—enter the Bronze Age

What do you think was the purpose of these statues?

Ziggurats---religious temples and dwelling

place of gods Art serves religious and political purposes

— can you name any other civilizations that have done the same?

Ishtar Gate, Babylon, 600 BCE, glazed tile, 47 feet tall, now in Berlinanimals of worship—mythical and real

Ziggurat of Ur, 2200 BCE

Egyptians

• 3,000-343 BCE

• Believe in a pantheon of gods

• Ruled by pharoahs who were godlike

• Conquered by the Persians led by Alexander the Great in 343 BC

• Developed picture writing--hieroglyphs

• Art concerned with death and the afterlife—Funerary Art

Great Sphinx of GizaCairo, c. 2500 BCEmonolith, 241’x 66’

Khafra’s pyramid, 706’ tall

Canopic Jars—stomach and livers, lungs and guts

Papyrus was used as a canvas, minerals and animal fats as paint.

Is this imagery more idealistic or realistic?

Can you walk like an Egyptian?

King and Queen of Giza, 3rd century, BCE, 54.4” slate, at Harvard University, Boston. What does this statue tell you of their rule and power?

Ancient Sub-Saharan African Civilizations• Aquatic Period---9,000- 2,000 BCE “sedentary” (non-nomadic) societies develop and spread

from Upper Nile regions to other parts of Africa

• Wet climate created lakes across the present-day Sahara where fishing and food production were abundant

• After 2,000 BCE, tribes travel away from newly formed desert area to find better climate; populate West Africa

• 500 BCE Nok (Nigerian) civilization begins (ancestors to Yoruba and Igbo peoples)

Nok, terracotta masks, 500 BCE-200 CE

Nok, terracotta head, 12”, 550-50 BCEhead may have been broken off a life-sized body; holes suggest tufts of hair ornamented head ; women often potters, therefore artists

Ancient Art of the Indus Valley3,300-1500 BCE

The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-Daro---a girl with attitude, 4, 500 years old, 4” high, bronze

• Parts of modern day Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India

• Communities built on fertile Indus River land

• Ritual practices shape Hinduism, which emerges at around 1,500 BCE

• No major monolithic structures, but sophisticated artifacts…golden jewelry, pottery, detailed stone and terra cotta figures

Ancient Art of ChinaFirst Dynasties—2,100 BCE-220 CE

Bronze vessels for sacred ritualsJade carvings

Terracotta Army—Qin Dynasty, 210 BCESoldiers guard the first emperor in his vault; painted in colorful hues; over 8,000 life sized figures, discovered in 1974.Some on display at National Geographic in 2009

Ancient Meso American Civilization—the Olmecs• 1500-400 BCE

• Olmec means “rubber people”

• Settled in fertile river areas of Mexico

Colossal heads—20 tons; ancient ball-players?Hollow baby with bound head, ceramic with ochre paint, 12”