PREHISTORIC ART / ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN ART & EGYPTIAN ART

Art I Time Periods 1st Quarter

Cave Paintings

Cave paintings were early forms of art as well as communication and recording history.

Cave painting and pictographs can be found all over the world

1st cave painting was discovered in Northern Spain in 1879.

Most famous cave paintings are found in Lascaux France. Those were discovered in 1940. These paintings are considered the most

exceptional examples of early art.

Cave Paintings Continued

Subject matter of the cave paintings are generally animals, mammoths, bison, reindeer, horses, wild pigs, and wolfs. Occasionally you would see people represented hunting these animals.

Early man would use hair from animals and reeds for painting. A painters palette could be made from a flat bone or stone. Also sharpen flint was use to carve designs into cave walls.

Ground minerals, clays and charcoal were used to draw with. Hematite was used for red and represent blood.

Some reason for paintings were for rituals, history, or for practice hunting.

More Cave Paintings

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Sumer Babylonia Assyria Ancient Iran and Persia

Sumer(3500–2300 BC)

Sumer was an Ancient Mesopotamia city settled by a group of people called Sumerians by the Tigris andEuphrates Rivers. This Sumerian culture had great influence on civilizations that surrounded them and came after them.

At the same time the Sumerian culture came to be so did recorded history and religious beliefs.

“The Sumerians (they called themselves “the black-headed ones”) had, by the middle of the fourth millennium BC, become one of the most socially and technologically sophisticated peoples on earth.” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/afc-j30.shtml

Sumerian Art

Sumerians art and architecture centered around religious beliefs.

Their pyramid like temples are called ziggurat. It’s a platform style structure.

Sumerian Art

Ancient Sumerians were skilled at sculpture and metal work (for weapons and art).

Their sculpture generally had very large eyes which they believed to be the window to the soul.

Sumerians are best known for developing Cities, religion, and cuneiform writing.

Assyria(1400–600 BC)

The Assyria was also a culture who grew up in the Mesopotamia area. This region is now know as Iraq.

Their empire had stretched over the countries of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey.

The Assyrians had transformed into merciless and harden people due to centuries of constant warfare between their neighbors.

Assyrians were known for the citadel of Sargon II and relief sculpture.

Assyria

The citadel of Sargon II was a palace the stretched 25 acres and included over 200 courtyards and rooms.

It citadel it self stood on a mound 50’ high. This was done to have the palace above flood stage as well as increase it grandeur and power.

The palace of Sargon II does not remain in tact am much of its relief's have been moved to other locations.

Assyrian Art

Relief Scuplture: this is a low sculpture that raise up from it’s background.

Assyrians had an abundance of Stone which perpetuated the ability to create these relief sculptures.

Scenes were of warfare and creatures that had the head of a man on a bull and lions body. The symbolism was to suggest a superhuman strength and the ability of the king to bring fast and fierce retribution.

Assyrian Art

Assyrian artist tried to capture realistic characteristics in the their subject matter. Muscles of limbs being exerted and strained. Pain of wounded animals or people were something that had not been seen before.

Ancient Iran and Persia

One of the most important building in the Persian empire was the Palace of Darius (500B.C.)

What remains is some of the stair cases and pillars.

This was a symbol of power of the Persian empire.

The palace was destroyed by Alexander the Great.

The Palace of Darius

Ancient Iran and PersiaSculpture

•Sculpture in Ancient Persia spanned between carving pillars, capitals, relief sculpture, working with gold and silver.

•Some of the relief's that were found at the Royal Palace of Darius are believed to be a shorthand version of ceremonies that took place during the New Year festivals.

•Their relief's compared to that of Assyrian art, is that they carved deeper into the stone, rounder in form, and show more details in a stylized way.

•One important advancement in the relief's of the Persians is that the human figures seem to be more organic and unified. The figures are shown in realistic side view and the arms and legs relate to each other in terms of movement.

Relief Sculpture of Ancient Persia

Links

http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/ancient/persia.htm

http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Assyrian+art

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sandrashaw.com/images/AH1L05Lamassu2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sandrashaw.com/AH1L05.htm&usg=__DnnAIuqNqy0NPUshwgy2GR3UqD0=&h=331&w=560&sz=51&hl=en&start=18&sig2=jBcRXBo_XD06lFhnNtnJEQ&um=1&tbnid=5dh1c11XtIV4eM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcitadel%2Bof%2Bsargon%2BII%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26um%3D1&ei=ssCpStX9PMLanAewvuykDw

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/afc-j30.shtml

Egyptian Art•Egyptian Art is separated into several periods the main 3 periods are:

•The Old Kingdom•Middle Kingdom•New Kingdom

Egyptians worked in various mediums. Everything from Paper, Stone, metal, pottery, even the written word.

The Egyptians were known for Hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs was a form of writing that involved the use of symbols and pictures.

When the sculpted the human form it was based on the ideal body composition. Figures of Royalty were represented, in the ideal format. Figures that were of common birth (workers, etc) were represented in not so flattering light.

Later on in the New Kingdom a realistic vision of it’s rulers start to appear.

Learn more about how Egyptians viewed beauty.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/beauty.htm

Egyptian Art

Egyptians were most famous for their engineering of the great pyramids.

The best known is the Pyramid at Giza.

The pyramids were used at burial chamber for their Kings/Queens.

The pyramids were cased in highly polished limestone. When the sun would hit the polished lime stone it would glow!

Egyptian

Another famous sculpture is the Sphinx. It’s the head of a man with the body of a lion.

There is some guess as to who the face of the Sphinx is. Some belief it the face of Khafre. However, there are some speculation the original face is much older.

For hundreds of years the Sphinx was covered up to his neck in sand. This preserved the rest of the body, but the face was exposed to the elements and suffered the most damage.

There had been many attempt to “unearth” the sphinx even some egyptian rulers tried. It wasn’t until 1925 did they finally remove all the sand away

Egyptian Art

An interesting point is that the Egyptians would generally portray the human form in ideal image. But animals were always represented realistically.

The Temple of Ramse II is another testament of the Egyptians building on a grand scale. Colossal statues of Rames II that were symmetrically positioned on each side of the tombs entrance.

The whole monument was moved in 1968 to save it from being submerged by water by the Aswan High Dam reservoir.

Egyptian Art

Tomb of Tutankhamen Commonly known as King Tut (1361-1352 B.C) His tomb was uncovered in 1922. Inside the tomb were sculptures, furniture, jewelry and

various accessories. The most famous of the the treasures was Kings Tutankhamen’s body (mummy) The innermost coffin was made from a quarter ton of beaten gold which was inlayed

with semi precious stones such as, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and turquoise. Its the face mask placed over the head of King Tutankhamen which is most widely known by the public.

Egyptian Art

King Tutankhamen tomb was one of the most well intact tomb found.

The purpose of Mummification was to preserve the body for eternity and give the Pharos immortality. King Tutankhamen would be considered a success in this belief system.

Often Pharos and Queens were buried with their possession and animals so they would have them on the other side.

More Egyptian Art