midterm

• Subject


  The visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the artwork
• Content


  The meaning that is communicated by the artist of the artwork
• Art Appreciation
• 3 Levels of Meaning

  • Factual Meaning
  • Conventional Meaning
  • Subjective Meaning
• Factual Meaning


  The most rudimentary level of meaning for it may be extracted from the identifiable or recognizable forms in the artwork and understanding how these elements relate to one another
• Conventional Meaning


  Pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork using motifs, signs, symbols, and other cyphers as bases of meaning
• Subjective Meaning


  Meanings from a viewer's circumstances that come into play when engaging with art
• Sources of Subject


  • Nature
  • Mythology
  • Religious Beliefs
  • History
• 4 Steps in Critiquing an Artwork

  • Describe
  • Analyze
  • Interpret
  • Evaluate
• Describe


  What do you see?
• Elements of Art


  • Line
  • Shape
  • Form
  • Texture
  • Value/Tone
  • Color
  • Space
• Principles of Art


  • Emphasis/focal point
  • Contrast
  • Harmony/Unity
  • Balance
  • Repetition/Pattern/Rhythm
  • Variety
• Interpret


  Based on the analysis, interpret the meaning of the artwork
• Evaluate


  Based on the interpretation, evaluate the artwork
• Why study the history of art? What is its relation to the study of humanities?
• Paleolithic Period


  Ancient times (30,000 BCE – 3,500 BCE)
• Paleo


  Meaning old
• Lithic


  Meaning "stone"
• Crude tools of man became more shaped, thinner and sharper – which became conducive to the development of art
• After the ice age ended, man became wholly human – imagination, concepts of identity and meaning came along
• The stone man achieved the invention of "representation" – probably the most important contribution of prehistoric man. It paved the way to the development of art
• Paleolithic Sub-Periods


  • Upper / Early Paleolithic
  • Middle / Mesolithic
  • Neolithic
• Upper / Early Paleolithic


  • Man lived in caves = artworks were in caves
  • Poses captured were fleeting or indicating movement – not stiff or stationary
  • Human figures were treated differently in representation
  • Representation of animals was descriptive rather than optical (twisted perspective)
• Twisted Perspective


  Horns, eyes and hooves are shown as seen from the front, yet heads and bodies are rendered in profile
• Paleolithic Art


  • First cave art in Altamira Cave in northern Spain
  • The caves at Lascaux, Dordogne, France
  • Venus of Willendorf, from Willendorf, Austria
  • Left wall of the Hall of the Bulls in the cave at Lascaux, France
  • Two bison, reliefs in the cave at Le Tuc d'Audoubert, France
  • Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle, France
• Middle / Mesolithic


  • Hunters left their caves to make rock shelters, semi-nomadic existence
  • Man became gatherers as well as hunters
  • Change in art forms: human form appeared and usually in groups
• Mesolithic Art Forms


  • Rock shelter paintings
  • Microliths
  • Petroglyphs
  • Rock-shelters
• Microliths


  Small blades of various shapes; made of stone; used in hunting; under 2 inches in length, also used as tools and ornamentation
• Petroglyph


  Images on rock made by carving into the rock and exposing a lighter color underneath
• Neolithic


  • Man learned to actually control his environment and settled into fixed abodes, domesticated animals and started planting
  • Changed from hunter to herdsman/farmer
  • Built communities, villages with cultivated fields
• Neolithic Art


  • Human figure, from Ain Ghazal, Jordan
  • Aerial view of Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England
• Megalith


  Great stones
• The Nile, The Pharaohs, The Gods, Life After Death
• Egyptian Gods


  • Horus, Seth, Thoth, Anubis, Isis, Ra, Osiris
• Egyptian Paintings


  • The image was frequently identified by inscription, resemblance with the depicted was not necessary
  • Infirmities and old age are rarely shown
  • Most images are glowing examples of prosperity, youth, and good health
  • The head of the character was always drawn in profile, while the body is seen from the front ("Frontalism")
  • Every figure in paintings either stands or sits with a formal, stiff, and rigid posture
  • Slaves and animals were painted more natural and relaxed, and with a smaller scale in drawings to show their limited importance
  • There was no attempt at linear perspective
  • Artists made colors from raw materials around them and therefore worked in a limited number of shades
  • Color was applied in flat tones - strict rules often applied to the use of a particular color for particular purpose
  • There were no individual artists with originality. Imitation and strict adherence to rules required
• Egyptian Art


  • Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt, relief in the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara
  • Menkaure and Khamerernebty(?), from Gizeh, Egypt
  • Amenhotep III Representation at Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor
  • Sunken relief of Thoth – Luxor temple
• Egyptian Architecture


  • Post and lintel construction
  • Walls immensely thick and sloping - structural requirement for balancing
  • Stone columns closely spaced - Large spans were not possible
  • Buildings had no mortar so stones or pieces had to be cut precisely so they fit together
  • Flat roofs - Domes and vaults were unknown in Egypt
  • Small Openings - large doors and windows are not possible in stone construction, this also secured privacy to the religious structures inaccessible to the public
  • Hieroglyphs - recording of historic events in stone obelisks, columns and walls
  • Religious symbols - (scarabs, solar disk) essential component for the decoration of all architectural elements
• Egyptian Architecture


  • Model of the hypostyle hall, temple of Amen-Re, Karnak
  • Facade of the temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel
• Reserve Columns


  Columns that do not offer any structural support but are mainly for decorative purposes
• Amarna Period


  • Akhenaton initiated both religious and artistic revolutions
  • Deliberate reaction against tradition, may be an attempt to portray the pharaoh as Aton, the sexless sun disk