Art history lecture 2 sept 11

Palaeolithic period (old stone age)

~2 000 000 - 8000/5000 BCE
Hunters and gatherers: nomadic lifestyle
Tools and weapons made out of stone (and bone / wood)
Cave paintings
Figurines (smaller)
Temporary shelters

Neolithic period (new stone age)

~8000 / 5000 BCE - 3000 BCE
Farmers: settled lifestyle, began in the “fertile crescent”
Tools and weapons made of stone (and bone / wood)
Settlement architecture with interior decoration (wall painting_
Megalithic structures- built with giant stone blocks
Sculpture
Cramics (pottery)- used to store things like beverages
Use of metals (copper or gold) for adornments

Visual Communication through art (engraving, painting, sculpture, and relief)

Symbols
Geometric shapes and patterns
Representations of humans, animals: individually or in groups, sometimes interacting.

Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia

Mesos- middle
potamps= river
Mesopotamia= (land) between the rivers: the two rivers are euphrates and tigris

The Bronze Age

~3000 - 1000 / 700 BCE
Writing began in the ancient near east- in Sumer, around 3000 BCE
Written communication provides contextual info about objects of art and architecture, e.g.:
● Ancient place names
● Names of individuals, groups, people, civilizations
● Accounts of historical events
● Names of deities and natural phenomena they are connected to
● Names of objects and buildings

Inlay technique- main body of work made out of one material, and other cavities are filled in with
other material (figure 2.4 female head)
Sumerian innovation of arranging two dimensional narratives in registers (figure 2.7)
Composite pose: legs (and possible head) are shown in side view, and upper body shown
frontal view

Art History lecture 3 (sept 13)

Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia

Cuneiform writing (cuneiform means wedge shaped)
Writing began in ancient sumer in this cuneiform script
Key Points
Bronze age
~3000-1000/700 BCE

Votive figurines (big eyes, hands folded in prayer)

Narrative depictions (inlay, relief)
Cities with monumental architecture: ziggurat, city gates, palace

Ancient Near East (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, babylon, Persia)

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Lapis lazuli: blue rock from afghanistan

Hierarchical scale: Making authority figures such as kings or queens or nobles distinctively
larger than other non noble people to indicate power

Composite pose: Body facing sideways and legs facing forward or vice versa

Ziggurat: temple mount, artificially made. temple was supposed to be on top of it.

Textbook pg 129 for how iron cast art was made in ancient times

Stele: a stone or wooden slab (taller than it is wide) used as a monument.

Narrative relief; The relief style of art but it tells or shows a narrative story or details of events

Crown of horns: attribute of deities

Apotropaic: fending off evils or enemies
Figure 2.24 Ishtar Gate
Attribute- object or being that is associated with a certain figure (deity) or general group of
deities (crown of horns)

Ancient mesopotamia, persia- ancient near east

Art History Lecture 4 (sept 18)

Egypt from Narmer to Cleopatra (bronze age)

Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt = beginning of dynastic period
King Narmer: unified the two egypts, or is considered to have done so

3 artistic conventions become fundamental for ancient egyptian relief art

➔ The pictorial surface is organized by means of a ground lines on which figures stand on
and act on
◆
➔ The hyman figure is constructed following a fixed cannon and hierarchic scale
distinguishes the importance of different figures
◆
➔ Hieroglyphs, invented around 3000 BCE, label the images and thus determine their
exact meaning
◆

Symmetry - inner calm and dignity are expressed through static balance
Beard of gods - Khafre has been deified

Painting- outlines filled with monochrome colour fields

Art History Lecture 5 (sept 20)

Maat: the concept of a carefully balanced cosmos with a pharaoh serving as a guarantor
Without king, there would be no society, no statem bi order, only chaos

Pharaoh - pictured in statue as athlete with ideal body, vs seated scribe (3.14) depicted more
realistic, with a less athletic body

Technique: relief carvings define colour fields, paint fills these fields, combining[ sculpture and
painting (figure 3.16)

Fresco secco: A wall painting technique where pigments mixed with an organic binder and/or
lime are applied onto a dry plaster (figure 3.28A)

Clerestory: A high section of wall that contains windows above eye level- they are there to
provide light, fresh air, or both (figure 3.25, 3.26)

Flail and shepherds crook are attributes of Osiris

Art History Lecture 6 (sept 25,27)

The Prehistoric Aegean
Cycladic culture 2500-1900 BCE (marble figures)
Minoan culture 2000-1400 BCE (first pottery made (in the Aegean) on the potters wheel,
kamares ware, invention of true fresco, painting on wet plaster
Mycenaean culture

Cycladic figurines: no natural proportions, feet were tilted so they couldn't stand, most likely was
laid down beside people. Arms folded across abdomen. Normally female figurines (figure 4.2)

Bronze age innovation: the potter's wheel

➔ Pottery was handmade for a long time
➔ Around 3000 BCE the potter's wheel was invented in egypt, ancient china, and ancient
mesopotamia. Eventually reached the aegeans.
➔ Foot mechanism spins the wheel, centrifugal source allows the clay to be shaped easy
The potter's wheel- kamares-ware (fig 4.11) was a distinctive type of minoan pottery

Harvesters vase (4.14) 1500 bce from Crete

Column capital, lintel, column shaft, (figure 4.6) stairwell (crete 1700-1370 BCE)
True fresco (figure 4.8) bull leaping (crete 1500 BCE) compared to ancient egyptian fresco
secco “wall surface covered in plaster, plaster dries, and paint over it” (figure 3.28A tomb of
nebamun
Marine style octopus flask (figure 4.12) (crete)
Crocus gatherers (figure 4.10) (cyclades, Greece 1650-1625 BCE)
Flotilla, detail of miniature ships fresco (Figure 4.9A, cyclades greece 1650-1625 BCE)
Citadel- a fortress that protects or dominates a city
Grave circle A from the citadel (4.21A)
Figure 4.22 - Funerary mask from grave circle A (Mycenae, Greece 1600-1500BCE)
Agamemnon- Mythological king of Mycenae descendant if Atreus.
Figure 4.23- Inlaid dagger blade with lion hunt, from Grave Circle A (Mycenae, Greece,
1600-1500 BCE)
Niello- A black metal alloy applied in liquid form into grooves
Figure 4.19- Lion gate (looking east) of figure 4.21a (Mycenae, Greece 1300-1250 BCE)
Cyclopean masonry- literally means “gigantic masonry” masonry composed of blocks from
gigantic size
Lintel- A block that spans an opening of a doorway (holds up the wall above door)
Figure 4.20- Exterior of the Treasury of Atreus (looking west) (Mycenae, greece,
1300-1250BCE)
Corbel vault- a vault-like construction method, which uses architectural technique of corbelling
to span a space or void in a structure. The corbelled vault is defined as a technique to support
the superstructure of a building's roof.
Megaron- The great hall in ancient greek palace complexes
Figure 4.25- Two goddesses(?) and a child (Mycenae, greece 1400-1250BCE)
End of Bronze age, In the Aegean, the eastern meditteranian, and Egypt: a “system collaps”
around 1200 BCE, followed by the “Dark Ages,” from 1100-900 BCE
➔ Invasion of ‘Sea People” in the Eastern medditerrnian (according to egyptian records)
➔ Dorian invasion / migration (from the Balkan peninsula?)
➔ Palaces were destroyed / burnt down or fell into decay
➔ Bronze age is followed by Iron age

Lecture 6: Ancient Greece (Sept 27)

900 years of Greek art- sequence of phases
➔ 900-600BCE geometric and orientalizing periods (Iron age)
➔ 600-480BCE Archaic period (persians attack greece, sack athens, greeks win
battles of salamis and plataea)
➔ 480-323BCE Classical period (323BCE death of alexander the great)
➔ 323-31/30BCE Hellenistic period (31BCE battle of actium)

Figure 05-02: Funerary Krater from the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens (750-735 BCE)
➔ Made of clay
➔ Decorated in bands (some monochrome, some patterned)
➔ Geometric patterns used

Archaic- Black figure on light background

600-480 BCE Archaic Art

Metropolitan Kouros (600-590 BCE, figure 05-18) was meant to be a gravemarker
Free standing sculpture
Nudity: “vigour, beauty, moral excellence”
Peplos Kore (530 BCE, figure 5.10) Female sculpture, counterpart to Kouros
➔ Standard facial expression: Archaic smile
◆ Standardized way of depicting the face, no emotion is intended

Archaic Temple Architecture; Doric Order

➔ Doric Order: A certain style of ancient Greek architecture
Temple of Hera I (550 BCE, figure 5.14)
Peristyle (external collonade on all four sides, the walkway in between the outer perimeter of
columns)

3 Concepts of the classical period

Humanism, Rationalism, Idealism
Beginnings of ‘contrapposto,” the balance between engages and relaxed body parts
Kritios boy (480 BCE, figure 5.35)
480-323 BCE was classical art period
Aerial view of the Sanctuary of Apollo (548BCE, figure 5.16A)
Classical Bronze Sculptures
Charioteer [Charioteer of Delphi] (470 BCE, figure 5.16A)
Warrior, from the sea of Riace (460-450 BCE, figure 5.36)

Youth diving, cover slab of the Tomb of the Diver (480-470 BCE, figure 5.61)

Art of Ancient Greece

Figure 5.44- Restored view of the acropolis
1. Parthenon (temple)
2. Propylaia (gateway)
3. Pinakotheke (gallery of votive pictures)
4. Erechtheion (temple)
5. Temple of Athena Nike (temple)
6. Nike-Bastion (fortification)

Figure 5.46- Phidias Athena Parthenos (Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 438BCE)

Doric Frieze: Composed of alternating metopes and triglyphs
Frieze: a broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration, especially on a wall near the
ceiling
Metopes: a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric
frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a
building of the Doric order.
Triglyphs: a tablet in a Doric frieze with three vertical grooves. Triglyphs alternate with metopes.
Ionic Frieze (continual but not subdivided)

Art History Lecture: Continuing Ancient Greece

Invention of red figure painting: Andokides, a painter around 530 BCE (Archaic Period)
Black figure: Black areas painted with slip, and they are black
Ref figure: The figures themselves are painted in the slip, and thy come out red

Hellenistic Period
Dated from the death of Alexander the Great to the end of his empires

Hellenistic hyper-realism
(figure 5.87: old market woman. 150-100 BCE)

Expressionism
(figure 5.81: gallic chieftain killing himself and his wife 230-220 BCE)

Figure 6.79: reconstructed west front of the Altar of Zeus, Pergamon (175 BCE)
Figure 0.5-66: Nike (victory) of samothrace 180 BCE
Lecture 7: The Etruscans
Key Concepts
1. Tomb art; wall painting with males and females
 2. Sarcophagi lids with couples
3. Temples on a high podium, building low and wide columns only in pronaos (entrance
porch)
4. Sculpture on temple roof

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Not sure what lecture we are on or what we are talking about, probably the romans or
etruscans

Monumental Construction

Figure 7.37: The colosseum (flavian Amphitheatre)

Built of concrete, protected from winter with stone cladding
45 000 seats, room for 50 000 spectators

Figure 7.40: East facade of the Triumphal Arch of Titus

➔ 7.42 Triumph of Titus
➔ 7.41 Spoils of Jerusalem
◆ Both above figures are actually on the Triumphal Arch

Figure 7.49, 7.50, 7.51: The Pantheon

Column of Trajan (made by Apollodorus of Damascus)

Found in the Forum of Trajan. This forum contained a temple, the column, libraries, and a
Basilica (place for civic and commercial purposes, meetings, and legal trials)

Lecture 10: Byzantine

Constantine I ‘the great’ built new imperial residence at Byzantium and called it Constantinople
Icon: a votive painting (painter products it as an act of devotion, generally done on wood,
displayed at church or a private place of prayer)
Encaustic painting: painting technique where the pigment’s medium is liquid (melted) beeswax
Purple is a colour reserved for emperors or individuals with extraordinary status

Figure 9.8- Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus

Arcade:
Pendentif: a concave surface that fills space that mediates from the square plan to the circular
roof
Squinches: a straight or arched structure across an interior angle of a square tower to carry a
superstructure such as a dome (octagonal plan)

Figure 9.10- San Vitale

Octagonal church
Central plan: memorial-
Commemorates the martyrdom of someone

Inside San Vitale- Christ Enthroned, Flanked by Angels

Iconography: Totality of visual clues in a depiction allowing us to interpret the depiction
Visual clues identify christ as the ruler of the universe

Bishops throne is called a cathedra (cathedral is bishops church)

Byzantium Key Concepts

Mosaic: Theotokos, Christ, Scenes from NT
Manuscript illumination
Icons
Architecture; basilicas with central cupola; favouring cupolas, triple arcade

3 phases of byzantine art (pg 264)- early, middle, and late byzantine

Islamic World Lecture 11

Calligraphy: visually beautiful writing
Axiality and Symmetry

Mosques: Multiple naves, dissolution of walls, cupolas mark important spaces, horizontal
extension, minaret art adds and element of verticality

Writing- as an ornament on architecture and minor art (inscriptions, calligraphy)

Decorative patterns cover surfaces

Mihrab, from the Madrasa Imami (Figure 10.28)

Inscriptions as an ornament in architecture and minor art
Decorative patterns and horror vacui ‘fear of leaving blank space’

Figure 10.15
Friday Mosque, first example of the four-iwan mosque

Lecture 12- South and Southeast Asia before 1200

Bronze Age
Figure 15.2 - Great Bath (looking northeast) Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan ‘
Figure 15.3 Robed male figure, Mohenjo Daro
-Nothing points towards religion/social structure
-Figure is clearly distinguished

Figure 15.5: Seal with seated figure in yogic posture, Mohenjo-daro

-Steatite coated
-carved with different figures
-centre has a male with a yogic posture- yoga done for spiritual purposes

Prince Siddhartha Gautama lived around 500BCE

He became the buddha of the present (gautama buddha/ buddha shakyamuni)
A buddha is an enlightened or awakened one
A bodhisattva is someone on the path of becoming a buddha
Wheel of dharma was set in motion with buddha's first teaching at sarnath. Dharma is the set of
rules

Figure 15.7: Lion capital of the pillar set up by Ashoka at Sarnath, India
-Ashoka was a ruler, able to unify large area
-set up monasteries etc

Figure 15.6: Lion pillar, Lauriya Nandangarh, India

-Promotes buddhism

Figure 15.1: Great Stupa (looking east) Sanchi, India

-founded by Ashoka
-50 ft tall earth and rubble domical mound
-Contains relics of the buddha
-Top has pole marking axis of the universe

Typical Architecture
Buddhist: Stupa with 4 toranas
Hindu: Northern and Southern style temples

Both types have in common that they are a shell around an inner sanctum that contains:
In buddhist stupa: a relic
In hindu: garbhagriha (chamber): a divine idol or symbol

Typical statues: Buddha / Hindu gods- express different concepts through iconographical details
(mudras)

Figure 15.12: ‘Gandhara style’ meditating Buddha, mudra ‘Meditation’

Figure 15.14: ‘Mathura style’ Buddha seated on lion’s throne, mudra ‘have no fear, reassurance,
blessing, protection
Figure 15.15: ‘Sarnath, combining gandhara and Mathura’ Seated Buddha preaching first
sermon, mudra ‘teaching’

Figure 15.11: Interior of chaitya hall, Karie, India

Figure 15.15A: Interior of cave 19, Ajanta, India
Figure 15.16: Bodhisattva Padmapani, wall painting in the antechamber of cave 1, Ajanta, India

Figure 15.21: Vishnu Asleep on the Serpent Ananta, sandstone relief panel Deogarh, India
-Vishnu is the preserver god
-narrative depiction/relief of the universe being created (by Brahma)
-First Hindu temples are from the 6th century CE

Figure 15.18: Dancing SHiva, rock cut sandstone relief

Figure 15.22: Rock cut rathas (looking southwest)
Figure 15.23A: Kailasanatha Temple, Ellora, India
-Dedicated to shiva
Figure 15.24: Temple of Shiva (looking southeast)
-Southern Style Temple
-mandapas: open halls for ritual worship
-sockle: short plinth used to support a pedestal
-spire of shrine
Figure 15.25 and 15.26: a different Temple of SHiva (looking north)
-Northern style temple

Figure 15.28: Shiva as the Lord of Dance

-dances the cosmic dance
-endless cycle of death and rebirth (samsara)
-escaping samsara is liberation
-beating dance rhythm on drum
-hand offers protection to worshippers
-dwarf demon Apasmara, representing ignorance, is stomped on
-ring of fire is a symbol of destruction
-Well balanced figure

Figure 15.29: Death of Buddha

Buddhism 4 Noble truths:
Life is suffering
This suffering has a cause which is ignorance and desire
Both can be overcome and extinguished
The way to overcome is following the 8 fold path

Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Art

Chinese and Korean Art before 1279: Key Concepts
1. Early phase: all surfaces tend to be ornamented, even the outside of house walls
2. Focus tang period: Architectural bay system
3. Focus song period: painting;
 a. Landscape becomes a stand alone subject; aim is the communication of the
viewer with the subject
b. ‘Subjective realism’: aim is not an illusion of life, but rendering the essence if the
subject, not its outer form

Japanese Art before 1333: Key concepts

1. Buddhist temples and pagodas: wood construction with hipped roofs curve=slope,
“owl-tails’, bracketing for deep overhangs
2. Painting:
a. Narrative painting sequence of events, vertical or horizontal (right to left), with
drawing in fine lines
b. Perspective in birds eye views

China
Subjective realism: The artistic aim is not an illusion of life, but rendering of the essence if the
subject
Song Dynasty: 960-1270 CE
Focus during the song period- landscape becomes a stand alone subject

Caligraphy: Visually beautiful writing

Hand scrolls (vertical or horizontal) Song period

Stoneware: Type of ceramic that is fired atc high heat and is more durable

Figure 16.25 Meiping vase

The pagoda originated in the Indian Buddhist stupa

Figure 16.26: Fogong Si Pagoda, Yingxian China, Liao dynasty

Tallest wood building ever constructed and the oldest wooden uli]story structure in the world

Korea
Figure 16.30: Crown from a female tomb, prebuddhist worldview in Korea. Before Buddhism,
there was shamanism
Figure 16.31: Meditating bodhisattva, three kingdoms period

Japan (Before 1333)

Figure 17.2: Flame style vessel, Nigata prefecture, Japan. Middle Jomon period

Earthenware: Fired at low heat, porous, less strong

Figure 17.5: Haniwa warrior, Gunma prefecture, Japan. Kofun period
These figures are funerary figures, placed in royal funerary hills to protect the tombs
Figure 17.6: Honden of the Ise Jingu, ise, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Kofun period or later
Figure 17.1: Horyuji temple complex, Ikaruga, Nara prefecture Japan. Hakuho period. This is
the oldest wooden temple in the world (680)
17.1a: Golden hall (kondo) is accessible, the pagoda is not accessible. Influenced by chinese
architecture (curved ridge roofs, multiple stories)
Figure 17.10: Amida triad,

Tori Busshi Buddha Shaka and attendant bodhisattva in the horyuji kondo, asuka period
Auerola: radiance emanating from a holy being surrounding him/her
Nimbus/ halo: a ring of light surrounding a holy being
Mandoria: almond shaped aureola

Africa before 1800

Key concepts
1. Sculpture: Heads, reliefs (from Benin), attire and attributes are important
2. Architecture: Adobe (mali) and rock cut (Ethiopia)

Last Lecture- Romanesque

12.5: Church of Saint-Sernin

Crossing- externally marked by crossing towers. At the intersection of main nave and transept

12.9- Christ in Majesty relief, ambulatory of Saint-Serin

The Attributes of the 4 evangelists surround christ
They are often represented with their attributes: the Angel for Saint Matthew, the Lion
for Saint Mark, the Ox for Saint Luke and the Eagle for Saint John

Sculpture and painting become a part of architecture

Sculpture- Carved into posts, walls, arches, etc
Paintings- Painted directly onto ceilings, walls etc

Figure 9.19 Byzantine- Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George compared
Figure 12.20 Romanesque- Virgin and Child

Secular- Non religious artwork

Gothic Europe north of the alps and late medieval italy
Key Concepts
1. The gothic cathedral: architecture, stained glass and sculpture from an integrated
system
2. Architecture has pointed arches, flying buttresses
Gothic arch: Are typically pointed

13.26- Interior of the upper chapel, Sainte-Chappelle, Paris

14.3 Annunciation, Nativity, and adoration of the shepherds relief panel, example of Narrative
Sequence, story told in consecutive scenes