Early Classical/ Transitional Period

Young Warrior, Kritios Boy

The Archaic Period: approx. 660 - 480 BCE

1. Thick eyelids

2. Over-defined lips, resulting in unnatural expression

3. Recognizable stylized hair

Stone is introduced for both architecture and sculpture through the influence of trade with Egypt.
Stone sculptures of the figure begin to appear and are very stiff and rigid.
3. Human imagery is preferred to the decorative motifs of the past. Weight is evenly dispersed between both legs, the eyes are almond shaped, the hair is patterned, and there was an odd smile on the lips.
Pottery is becoming more sophisticated and a style called black “Figure ware” emerges.
5. Sculpture emerges as a principle art form.

Kouros = young man [plural “kouroi”]- identified as warriors, gods, or victorious athletes- almost always nude- may have been viewed as ancestor figures/ fertility figures
Kore = young woman [plural “korai”] - identified as deities, priestesses, or nymphs- almost always wear long sleeveless garments and earrings

The Geometric Period: 900 - 700 B.C.

1.During the beginning of this time a series of invasions took place and, as a result, there was a decline in the arts.
2. Around 800 B.C. Greek civilization began to recover. Trade is renewed, prosperity grows, and confidence within the Greek civilization is gradually restored.
3.The period gets its name from the pieces of pottery heavily decorated with geometric designs common to this era.
4.The concept of a “hidden structure” begins at this time. This is based on the idea that visual relationships are created based on human intelligence.
5. Similarly to in most Egyptian art, the representation of the human figure was stylized. In the Greek Geometric Period, the human form had been simplified to a combination of circles and triangles.

Characteristics

1.Popular shapes within pottery, primarily derived from Mycenaean designs:
amphora - used for storage
krater - used for mixing wine and water
oinochoe - used for pouring/ serving
2. Human figures were much less popular than decorative motifs. If they were used together, the decorative geometric motif would be dominant. Although, this was the period that marked the return of the human figure to art.
3. A faster, more efficient, potter’s wheel is now being used by artists of the time.

Greek Art: Classical Art

1.Humanism: A system of belief in which humankind is viewed as the standard by which all things are measured.
2.Rationalism: The belief that ethical conduct is determined by reason; in philosophy, the theory that knowledge is derived from intellect, without the aid of the senses.
3.Naturalism: Representation that strives to imitate nature rather than to express intellectual theory.
4.Idealism: The representation of forms according to a concept of perfection.

Recovery of Greece: 8th Century BCE

Growth in population, revival of reading and writing, first Olympic games.
Olympic Games in 776 BCE were held in Athens.
Athens becomes a cultural center…
1. This is the time of the playwrights Sophocles and Euripides, and Homer.
2. Socrates & Plato formulate ideas about society and philosophy.
3. There is a new cultural emphasis on physical fitness and mental sharpness.

Greek Dark Ages

Around 1200 BCE the Mycenaen Era was in a state of hardship. It is unknown what caused the decline of this powerful civilization on mainland Greece. Theories include:
1. Earthquake
2. Change in weather patterns/ food shortage.
3. Invaders from the north, the Dorians who are known to have sacked Mycenae.
The Bronze Age social order declined - the “powerful rulers” disappeared. Cities became depopulated, trade decreased.
The population of mainland Greece declined, material culture was impoverished. Knowledge of specialized processes such as the cutting of stone masonry, construction of citadels [fortified cities], tombs and palaces declined. Fresco painting , stone sculpting, and reading and writing became much less widely practiced.

The Temple of Ramses II

Ramses II had four gigantic likenesses of himself carved for the outside of his temple. The impact of scale was much more important than accomplishing the refinement of earlier sculpted pieces.[Ramses II also created a huge temple for his favorite wife Nefertiri]

Imhothep

he first known artist of recorded history. He was an advisor to King Zoser, an architect, priest, scribe, and physician - a man of great power who would later be revered as a god.

Step Pyramid of King Zoser
- The first monumental royal tomb

The Great of Giza

The Great Pyramids of Giza
King Khufu
King Kafre
King Menkaure

The Great Sphinx, past and present
It is constructed out of sandstone, 65 feet high, 240 feet long

Stances
Sitting position
Standing position
Scribe position

Looting in pyramids so they started rock-cut

Egypt Pictures

kafre
Figures are carved from a single block of stone.
2. Queen’s symbolic gesture of embrace.
3. The king is depicted in accordance with cultural & political ideals. - athletic & youthful
- shown nude to the waist
- stands in typical Egyptian balanced pose with one foot forward
arms straight to the side with fists clenched
4. The queen mimics his pose.



Ka

A place for the ka to inhibit should mummification fail.

Typical representation:
Large scale - larger than life
Carved “in the round”.
Pharaoh seated on a throne with lotus blossoms & papyrus
[symbols of a united Egypt]
Figure is rigid, facing forward - exhibits “frontality”
Typical physical presentation: pleated kilt, linen headdress,
long thin beard [partially broken off here]

Notice the sun god Horus - represented as a hawk - sits behind his head
in a protective manner.

Egyptian Art: Old Kingdom c. 3100-2100 BC

• A convention of simplification and formalization begins in art and remains essentially unchanged throughout ancient Egyptian history. For example: The stylized approach to the representation of the human figure remains constant as does the consistency in use of the canon of proportions.
• The Narmer Palette:
  Commemorating the Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt - and King Narmer
• The symbol in the middle at the top of each side is Narmer written in heiroglyphs, it is a catfish and a chisel.
• [The event many Egyptians saw as marking the beginning of their civilization 3200B.C.E., Height 25”
  

Principles of Ancient Egyptian art def

Incising: a technique in which a design or inscription is cut into a hard surface with a sharp instrument.

sunken relief: It is carved in this manner because
it is outside and can make use of the harshness of the sun to create dramatic shadows which imply more depth.

Scale of figures in relationship to each other communicates heirarchy.

Kings and deities were represented at nearly the same scale.
A kings is always represented larger than his subjects.

Frontality:

Used primarily in three-dimensional representations. Whether standing, sitting, or kneeling, the figure is facing directly straight ahead, neither turning or twisting. This “frontality” is important to the functionality of the statue. Statues were created to play a significant role in worship of deities, kings, and the dead. These statues were meant as places these beings could manifest themselves in order to receive ritual offerings. Because of this, it was important that they face

Cloisonne: A decorative metal technique in which motifs are defined by thin borders standing out from the surface of the object. Fine stones, enamel, or colored glass are mounted between these borders. Dog tag like

Chasing : A decorative metalworking technique, using a burin to scratch the surface. touching the suface

Repoussee: A metalworking technique combining hammering and chasing to produce a relief decoration. depth in work

Principles of Ancient Egyptian art

• Head, pelvis, and legs are in profile.
• Upper torso and eye are in frontal view.
• Figures are flat, simplified, and stylized. [ All Egyptians represented look very similar as a result of this highly stylized approach.]
• Exhibited a consistent canon of proportions. A relationship established relating the scale of body parts to each other.

incised: a technique in which a design or inscription is cut into a hard surface with a sharp instrument.

Egyptian Art

Neolithic [New Stone Age]: 8000-2000 B.C.E.

Old Kingdom: 3100-2100 B.C.E.

Middle Kingdom: 2100-1650 B.C.E.

New Kingdom: 1650-1090 B.C.E.

Amarna Revolution: 1370-1350 B.C.E.

two and three-dimensional representation included a range of activities present in ancient Egyptian life, they were almost always focused around the service , importance, and/or glorification of a pharaoh or deity.

Persepolis, Persia

• Persian artists began to develop their own regional style
• It is characterized by the depiction of grand sprawling spaces and sculptural abstraction.
• Popular subject matter: animals, specifically birds and ibex.,
  

Babylonia, Mesopotamia

• low-relief carving
• Exhibits a combination of frontal and profile views - a type of representation reserved for important people at that time.
• “Shamash” is seated on the right on a stylized mountain. He is shown with a staff, indicating divine power. He is the god who inspired Hammurabi on the left to write the codification of Mesopotamian Law.
  

Mold Statues

Statues from Abu Temple, Tel Asmar,
c. 2900-2600 BCE
Marble with shell and black limestone inlay
Height of tallest figure 30”

• Figures stand erect with hands folded over their chests, suggesting prayer.
• Men are distinguished by stylized beards and hair.
• This grouping may be an illustration of a king with his attendants.
  

Stonehenge

• Completed in the late Neolithic period.
• Stones weigh between 50,000 -80,000lbs
• It was constructed by ancient Britons

Even though we know who constructed it, it is still relatively uncertain how it was done and what purpose it served. Because of its configuration, and because of the burial sites located nearby, we know that it was an important ceremonial/ ritual destination.

Near Stonehenge there are two types of burial sites:


Long Barrows: These are long underground burial chambers/ communal tombs, constructed before Stonehenge. The arrangement of bones within is inconsistent, it does not show one specific burial tradition. The long barrow in the closest proximity to Stonehenge is 340 feet in length and contains 5 rooms. It is said to hold the bones of up to 25 generations of people. The entrance to a long barrow is in the shape of a trilithon, and much of the interior structure is similarly constructed.


Round Barrows: These are large round burial mounds meant for only 1 person, constructed after Stonehenge. There are over 150 of these in the surrounding area of Stonehenge. The individual buried was rich, important, powerful or all of these things. Individuals were buried with treasures, jewelry, weapons, etc. - symbols of their status.

Characteristics of the Neolithic Period [ approx. 8, 000 - 2, 000 B.C.E]

• Dogs as well as cattle and horses are beginning domesticated around this time.
• Pottery was invented and served to preserve the surplus production of grains.
  
• Writing appeared.
• Human beings are transferring from being hunters, to herders, to farmers, to townspeople.
  
• There is more time and effort going into the preservation of society [or a specific event] through the artwork being made.

*Cave Paintings

Architecture

Hearth: large stone, fireplaces

Characteristics of the Mesolithic Period approx. 10, 000 - 8, 000 B.C.E.]

• Because of the warming climate, human beings began to come out of the caves more and more.
• Vegetation, and then forest, began to cover more of the landscape as the ice receded,
• Axes were invented that were able to chop down trees, fishing tackle became more elaborate, and the “bow” was invented.
• wall engravings, Notice the inclusion of more human forms and the more well developed/ accurately depicted profiles.
  

Paleolithic: Art

“Originality” and “variety” in expression were not important to the artists of the Paleolithic period like they are to artists today. The aim of the painter above all was to create a convincing image of the subject - to create a naturalistic/ realistic documentation of life.

Paleolithic: Old Stone Age [paleo=old] c. 30,000 - c.10,000 B.C.E.

• Man lived in caves or shelters dug in the earth. Roofs were made with hides supported on branches or tusks and sometimes covered with earth.
• Man fashioned weapons [such as spears] and tools out of bone, tusk, and flint rock.
• Man was concerned with the afterlife. This is indicated by evidence of ceremonial burials.
• Man was interested in personal adornment, and the beautification of his surroundings. This time period contains the beginning of “art” as we know it - the first evidence of painting, sculpture and jewelry.
• This time was the end of the Neanderthal Period and beginning of the Cro-Magnon period in the development of man.

The major values expressed in the art of Paleolithic society were:
Reproduction Nourishment Regeneration Survival

paleolithic Venus Figures

“Venus” figures have been interpreted as:
1.Fertility symbols
2.Expressions of ideal beauty
3.Erotic images
4.Ancestor figures
5.Dolls to help young girls learn women’s roles.


Figures always contain large, heavy breasts, a protruding belly, and wide hips. The other appendages were much less important - if they we carved at all, they were highly simplified.

[This is a good example of abstraction - the reduction of shapes and appearances to basic yet recognizable forms that are not intended to be exact replications of nature]

paleolithic painting

“Originality” and “variety” in expression were not important to the artists of the Paleolithic period like they are to artists today. The aim of the painter above all was to create a convincing image of the subject - to create a naturalistic/ realistic documentation of life.

Characteristics of the Paleolithic Period

Characteristics of the Paleolithic Period [ primarily the Upper Paleolithic Period, approx. 30, 000 - 10, 000 B.C.E.]
1. Because of a colder climate, [colder than present day], animals that we associate more with forests of the far north, such as reindeer, bison, deer, artic fox, brown bear roamed widely in southern France and Spain. Wild horses, cattle, mammoths and the woolly rhinoceros were present as well.
2. This time was the end of the Neanderthal Period and beginning of the Cro-Magnon period in the development of man. Man lived in caves or shelters dug in the earth. Roofs were made with hides supported on branches or tusks and sometimes covered with earth.Man fashioned weapons [such as spears] and tools out of bone, tusk, and flint rock.
3.Man lived in caves or shelters dug in the earth. Roofs were made with hides supported on branches or tusks and sometimes covered with earth.
4. Man fashioned weapons [such as spears] and tools out of bone, tusk, and flint rock.
5. Man was interested in personal adornment, and the beautification of his surroundings. This time period contains the beginning of “art” as we know it - the first evidence of painting, sculpture and jewelry.
6. Man was concerned with the afterlife. This is indicated by evidence of ceremonial burials.

The major values expressed in the art of Paleolithic society were:

• Reproduction
• Nourishment
• Regeneration
• Survival

Figure/ Ground Relationship

Figure/ Ground Relationship The “figure” can be an actual figure or the subject emphasized in a work of art. The “ground” is the background. The combination of positive and negative shapes in a work of art is the “figure/ ground”relationship.

Chiaroscuro

A gradual shifting from light to dark through a successive gradation of tones, creating the believable illusion of a curved surface.

Function of art

It’s a little easier to define what it does than what it is.

• creates and records “beauty”
• enhances our environment
• reveals truthimmortalizes
• expresses religious beliefs
• expresses fantasy
• stimulates the intellect and fires the emotions
• creates order and harmony
• expresses chaosrecords and commemorates experiencereflects social and cultural context
• protests injustice and raises social consciousnesselevates the commonplace
• meets the needs of the artist

Art Appreciation

Need to put pictures up.