A brief overview of art history from prehistoric through the Roman empire. Based on the "Gateways to Art" textbook (2012).

1. Prehistoric & Ancient
Mediterranean
Art Appreciation
T,R, 9:30-10:50AM
Professor Paige Prater

2. Map it!

3. Black horse, 27,000–19,000 BCE.
Painting on top of finger tracings.
Cosquer Cave, France
• 1985, Henri Cosquer discovered it.

4. The Dordogne: Lascaux Cave
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnSq0c7jM-A
• 600 animals drawn, multi-cave composition
• This is an exact replica

5. Çatalhöyük, Anatolia – 6150 BCE
• Landscape with volcano eruption, detail of watercolor copy of a wall
painting from Level VII, Çatalhöyük, Turkey, c. 6150 BCE. Wall
painting: Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Turkey. Watercolor
copy: Private collection

6. Cyclades 3000-2000 BCE
• Sea-faring, agriculture, herding, crafts, and
trade (Egypt and Near East)
• Lots of white marble available! (Naxos &
Paros)
• Low quality clay (since 6000 BCE)
• Gravetop sculptures (lying on top)
• Obsidian scrapers and chisels
• Emery polishing stones

7. Cycladic Figures
• Geometric
• Hand-held size
• May have laid on back
• Fertility
• More females than males found
Reclining female figure of the Late Spedos variety,
Cyclades, 2500–2400 BCE. Island marble, 23⅜” high

8. Palace of Knossos, Greece
• 1900 CE - Sir Arthur Evans; restoring Minoan
palace using his own funds
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYS2DUr3C8g (from 1:50)
• 1300 + rooms!
Bull-leapers, from
Palace of Knossos,
Crete, Greece,
c. 1450–1375 BCE.
Archaeological
Museum, Heraklion,
Crete, Greece

9. Drawing of Knossos Palace Complex

10. Mesopotamia
• Tigris & Euphrates rivers
• Fertile crescent
• Sumerians: great power, cuneiform
• Akkadians: conquered Sumerians; divine
rulers
• Assyrians
• Babylonians

11. Sumerian
• Standard of
Ur, Early
Dynastic III,
c. 2600–
2400 BCE;
War (top)
and Peace
(bottom).
Wood inlaid
with shell,
lapis lazuli,
and red
limestone,
7⅞ × 18½”.
British
Museum,
London,
England

12. Head of an
Akkadian Ruler:
2300-2200 BCE
• Earliest known major
work of hollow-cast
copper sculpture in
the Ancient Near East
• Theft: ancient & 2003

13. Assyrian
• 1400BCE-600BCE – by end of 9th century, they
controlled most of Mesopotamia
• Slave labor built palace at Nimrud
• Hunting & battle scenes depicted
Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions, 850 BCE

14. Assyrian
• Lamassu
– Mind of man
– Strength of lion
– Sight of eagle
Human-headed winged lion (lamassu), from
gateway in Ashurnasirpal II’s palace in Nimrud,
Mesopotamia, Neo-Assyrian, 883–859 BCE.
Alabaster (gypsum), 10’3½” high. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York

15. Babylonian: The Code of Hammurabi
(1792-1750 BCE)

16. Babylonian
• Ishtar Gate from Babylon (Iraq), reign of Nebuchadnezzar II
(605–562 BCE), Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen, Berlin,
Germany

17. Ancient Egypt

18. Ancient Egypt: Key Highlights
• Polytheistic
• After-life: Mastaba
to Pyramid
• Twisted
perspective
• Static sculpture
• Hieroglyphs
• Hieratic/hierarchic
scale

19. Great Pyramids & Sphinx, Giza, Egypt,
2558–2532 BCE

21. Menkaure & a Queen
• ruled 2490-2472 BCE
• static

22. Twisted Perspective/ Hieroglyphs

23. Rosetta Stone
– translation of
hieroglyphs possible
• 1822 - Jean-
François
Champollion
– Carving of edicts by
Ptolemy V
– Written in three
languages
• Hieroglyphic,
Demotic, and Greek

24. Funerary mask of
Tutankhamun,
1333–1323 BCE
• 1922 – royal tomb
discovered by
Howard Carter
• Minor king, richest
tomb discovered

25. Ancient Greece
• “Man is the measure
of all things” –
Protagoras, Greek philosopher
• Polytheistic
• Acropolis as city
center
Reconstructive Drawing of Greek Acropolis in
Athens, early 4th century BCE

26. • Dedicated to
Athena
• Exterior columns:
Doric
• Interior frieze
columns: Ionic
Parthenon, Athens, Greece, 447–
432 BCE

27. Washington, D.C.

28. Columns: 3 Orders

29. Metope frieze from exterior of
Parthenon
• Now in British
Museum
• Lord Elgin:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
uKZ_ilKcsEM

30. Greek Pottery
• Amphora: long body, 2 handles
• Black-figure vs. Red-figure
– Slip: watered-down clay; used to outline figures
– Incised designs
• Getty: Making Greek Vases
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPW50r07L8&feature=youtu.be

31. Andokides Painter, Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice, c. 525–520 BCE. Black figure and red figure
(bilingual) two-handled jar (amphora), 21” high. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

32. Greek
Sculpture
• Archaic
(600-480BCE)
• Classical
(480-323BCE)
• Hellenistic
(323-30BCE)
COMPARE
Statue of a kouros
(youth), Naxian, c. 590–
580 BCE. Marble, 6’4⅝”
high. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New
York

33. Kora figures: Athens, 530 BCE
• Gravemarkers
• Clothed
• Archaic smile

34. Greek Sculpture
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gX
WW3qN7o
• Contrapposto!
Roman version of the Doryphoros (Spear-bearer) of
Polykleitos,120–50 BCE, after a bronze original of
c. 460 BCE. Marble, 6’6” × 19” × 19”. Minneapolis
Institute of Arts

35. • More
expressive
• Idealized
• Influenced
Renaissance
artists
Hellenistic
Sculpture
Laocoön and his Sons, copy of
bronze original probably made at
Pergamum c. 150 BCE. Marble,
6’½” high. Vatican Museums,
Vatican City, Rome.

36. ROMAN ART
• Influenced by Greek (especially Corinthian
order)
• Absorbed cultures/gods
• FORUM (marketplace) = center city district
• Art focused on emperors/civic leaders (vs.
gods)
• Valued age, life-like portraits

38. Pompeii
• Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79CE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn14wkg0mhM
Alexander the Great Confronts Darius III at the Battle of Issos, 310BCE, floor
mosaic, Pompeii

39. Roman Sculpture
• Verism
• Death masks
• Patricians vs.
Plebeians
• Clothed
Patrician carrying death-masks of his ancestors,
c. 80 BCE. Marble, life-size. Barberini Museum,
Rome, Italy

40. CONCRETE: arches, vaults, and domes
Arch of Titus, 81 CE

41. Pantheon
• Completed under Emperor Hadrian, 125 CE

42. Pantheon: Interior
View
• Dome/oculus

43. Arch of Constantine:312-315 CE