mas10 reviewer

MAS10 - REVIEWER

VENUS OF WILLENDORF

Artist: Unknown

Date: 25,000 B.C to 21,000 B.c

Period: Prehistoric

The most famous Paleolithic sculpture.

Carved out of limestone

Bulbous oval shape emphasizes

the head, breasts, torso and thighs.

Considered “Portable art.”

Fertility: Emphasis of the body parts related to reproduction and nursing. This leads some to speculate she was a fertility goddess

Scrawny Arms: While the reproductive anatomy was exaggerated other parts such as facial features or her arms are either absent or hardly noticeable.

History of Mesopotamia (currently IRAQ)

• Over the centuries, many different people lived in this area creating a collection of independent states

• Sumer- southern part (3500-2000 BCE)

• Akkad- northern part (2340 – 2180 BCE)

• Babylonia- these two regions were unified (1830-1500 BCE and 650-500 BCE)

• Assyria- Assyrian Empire (1100 -612 BCE)

Religion

• Position of King was enhanced and supported by religion

• Kingship believed to be created by gods and the king’s power was divinely ordained

• Belief that gods lived on the distant mountaintops

• Each god had control of certain

things and each city was ruled by a different god

• Kings and priests acted as interpreters as they told the people what the god wanted them to do (ie. by examining the liver or lungs of a slain sheep)

gods were worshipped at huge temples called ziggurats

Polytheistic religion consisting of over 3600 gods and demigods

Prominent Mesopotamian gods

Enlil (supreme god & god of air)

Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)

An (god of heaven)

Enki (god of water & underworld)

Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)

Ziggurats

• Large temples dedicated to the god of the city

• Made of layer upon layer of mud bricks in the shape of a pyramid in many tiers (due to constant flooding and from belief that gods resided on mountaintops)

• Temple on top served as the god’s home and was beautifully decorated

• Inside was a room for offerings of food and goods

• Temples evolved to ziggurats- a stack of 1-7 platforms decreasing in size from bottom to top

• Famous ziggurat was Tower of Babel (over 100m above ground and 91m base)

Ziggurat of Ur -2000BCE

• Etruscan Sarcophagi are made of terracota

GREEK ART

• Divided into four periods:

– Geometric period

– Archaic period

– Classical Period

– Hellenistic period

GEOMETRIC PERIOD

• Spanned approximately two centuries, 900 to 700 BCE.

• Dark age of Greece – collapse of civilization. Greece was gripped by chaos and poverty.

• So called due to its predominant style of geometric shapes and patterns in works of art.

• Dipylon Vase – a large krater used as grave marker and found in the dipylon cemetery of Athens.

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Spanned roughly from 660 – 480 BCE.

• The expansion of trade with eastern countries influenced their art form.

• Flowing forms and fantastic animals – MESOPOTAMIAN ART

• Growing emphasis on the HUMAN FIGURE.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE

• Greek life was dominated by religion and so it is not surprising that the temples of ancient Greece were the biggest and most beautiful.

• Political purpose – celebrate and glorify their success in war.

• Developed Three architectural system or Orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

DORIC ORDER

• Originated on the Greek

mainland, was the earliest,

simplest and most commonly used.

• The Doric style is rather sturdy

and its top (the capital), is plain.

IONIC ORDER

• The Ionic style is thinner and

more elegant. Its capital is

decorated with a scroll-like

design (a volute).

CORINTHIAN ORDER

• The Corinthian style is seldom

used in the Greek world, but

often seen on Roman temples.

Its capital is very elaborate and

decorated with acanthus leaves.

COMPOSITE

TUSCAN

PARTHENON

• Parthenon - temple of Athena Parthenos ("Virgin"), Greek goddess of wisdom, on the Acropolis in Athens.

• The Parthenon was built in 5th century BC,

GREEK SCULPTURE

• Emerged as a principal art form.

• Began in 600 BCE, the Archaic age was best known for the emergence of stone statues of humans, such as limestone called kouros sculptures

• Kouroi figures – male sculptural figures depicted nude.

• Kore figures – female counterpart of the kouros figure. Clothed and embellished with intricate carved detail.

GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE

• the time Athens rose to prominence and Greek expansion

• the Classical age could be seen as a turning point in art.

• creating statues and mastered marble

• celebrating mankind as an independent entity

GOLDEN AGE GREEK SCULPTURE

• Diskobolos, 450 BCE

Contrapposto

• Figure rests weight on one leg, which is planted firmly on the ground, while the torso is slanted or forms a diagonal, creating an S-like arrangement for the body

• Polykleitos – Doryphorus

(Spear Bearer), 450-440

• Diaduomenos" is believed to be a Roman marble copy of an original Greek bronze statue, c.440 bce, 73" high.

• "Old Market Woman," 2nd Century bce, 49 1/2" high.

LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD

• Brought a more humanistic and naturalistic style, which emphasizes on the expression of the emotion.

• Praxiteles – proponent of the late classical period style

• Laocoon and his sons

HELLENISTIC PERIOD

• began around the death of Alexander the Great

• Characterized by excessive, almost theatrical emotion and the use of illusionistic effects to heighten realism.

• Venus de Milo

ROMAN ART

• Roman art combined native talent, needs and styles with other artistic sources, particularly that of Greece.

• Mt. Vesuvius is important in history for Burying the city called Pompeii during the eruption on 79 CE.

• Imitators of Greek Art.

• Master builder – builds from concrete

ROMAN SCULPTURE

• Introduced Realism in sculpture – Rome’s unique contribution to the arts.

• portrait sculpture of Roman emperors were often used for propaganda purposes

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE

• The most significant contribution of the Romans to architecture were the Archs and the use of concrete to replace cut stone.

• legendary for the durability of its construction

• Aqueducts - based on the arch, were commonplace in the empire and essential transporters of water to large urban areas.

A series of repeating arches is called an Arcade

COLLOSSEUM

• Colosseum – a structure consists of two back-to-back amphitheaters forming an oval arena, around which rows of marble bleachers.

TRIUMPHAL ARCHS

• A triumphal arch is a structure in the shape of a monumental archway, in theory built to celebrate a victory in war, but often used to celebrate a ruler.

• Pantheon – temple dedicated “to all the planetary gods”

• used concrete in the construction of the building

Artistic Achievements of the Renaissance

•Renaissance art has the following characteristics:

•It imitates the classical work of Greece/Rome and rejects the medieval forms of art. •It is very realistic. •It portrays secular themes and glorifies the achievements of the individual.

RENAISSANCE ARTISTS • Donatello (1386–1466). • Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) • Michelangelo (1475–1564) • Raphael (1438–1520)

RENAISSANCE ARTISTS • Donatello di Betto Bardi (1386–1466).

•was the most influential Florentine artist before Michelangelo. He revived the classical figure of the nude body with its balance and self-awareness

RENAISSANCE ARTISTS •Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475–1564)

•Born in 1475 in a small town near Florence, is considered to be one of the most inspired men who ever lived

David Michelangelo created his masterpiece David in 1504.

Sistine Chapel About a year after creating David, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo to Rome to work on his most famous project, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Creation of Eve Creation of Adam

Separation of Light and Darkness The Last Judgment

La Pieta 1499 Marble Sculpture

Moses

RENAISSANCE ARTISTS •Leonardo di ser peiro da Vinci (1452–1519) •is known as a “Renaissance man,” a person expert in many fields who has a wide range of interests.

1452-1519

Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Engineer

Genius!

Mona Lisa

Monalisa, sfumato technique, a painting of an unknown lady

The Last Supper

Notebooks

RENAISSANCE ARTISTS •Raphael Sanzio da Urbino (1438–1520) •He is considered to be the greatest painter of the Renaissance. •Famous for his work, the SCHOOL OF ATHENS

Raphael Painter

1483-1520

The School of Athens

Pythagoras

Socrates

Plato and Aristotle

Euclid

Zoroaster & Ptolemy

Raphael (back)

Sandro Botticelli, Renaissance Painting

Neoclassical Art

Art Characteristics

Rejected the excess & ornamentation of the Baroque period

Formal

Used for Propaganda

Greek and Roman themes

Restraint in color, space and emotion

Interested in: Discipline

Order

A moral view of the universe

The idea of “art as enlightenment”

Style features: Clean, linear style

“Simple but elegant”

Neutral colors

Shallow depth of background (not much 3-D)

Jacques-Louis David (1744-1825)

• Studied in Rome=knowledge of Classics

• Influenced the “official” art of Europe and America

• Clear sense of “right” and “wrong”

• Political Propaganda supported Democracy/Republic

• Addressed art to the middle-class/ (“bourgeoisie”)

Art: Jacques-Louis David

• Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas

David portrayed the French Revolution.

• Death of Marat

David was used by Napoleon to spread propaganda.

• Napoleon Crossing the Alps

• Students in 19C art academies were taught to draw using plaster casts from museums and draw from nude models

DEFINITION OF TERMS

• Byzantine Characterized by a rich use of color and figures

that are applied flat and stiff. The figures also tend to appear to be floating and have large eyes.

• Academic Art a highly established, often realistic, tradition,

showing expert command of artistry and other techniques in painting.

• Romanesque

A type of architecture exterior shows a heavy, fortress-like structure is enlivened by round arches, colonettes, and other Roman motifs.

- Chiarascuro

a technique first seen during the gothic era in the frescoes in the (Arena Chapel) Scrovegni Chapel in Padua by Giotto

• Genre painting

Are paintings of scenes of everyday life

• Fresco

a painting done on wet plaster

• Classic

highest standard/excellence in art, refers to classical greek and roman culture