MIDTERM QUIZLET NGEC6

• Humans make art for many reasons and with whatever technologies are available to us
• Prehistoric art refers to artifacts made before there was a written record
• Long before the oldest written languages were developed, people had become experts at creating forms that were both practical and beautiful
• Types of Stone Age art

  • Petroglyphs (cupules, rock carvings and engravings)
  • Pictographs (pictorial imagery, ideomorphs, ideograms or symbols)
  • Prehistoric sculpture (including small totemic statuettes known as Venus Figurines, various forms of zoomorphic and therianthropic ivory carving, and relief sculptures)
  • Megalithic art (petroforms or any other works associated with arrangements of stones)
• Parietal art


  Artworks that are applied to an immoveable rock surface
• Mobiliary art


  Portable artworks
• The earliest forms of prehistoric art are extremely primitive
• It is not until the Upper Paleolithic (from roughly 40,000 BCE onwards) that anatomically modern man produces recognizable carvings and pictures
• Paleolithic sub-periods


  • Lower Paleolithic
  • Middle Paleolithic
  • Upper Paleolithic
• Paleolithic Man lived solely by hunting and gathering, while his successors during the later Mesolithic and Neolithic times developed systems of agriculture and ultimately permanent settlements
• Stone tools were the instruments by which early Man developed and progressed
• The earliest recorded examples of human art were created during the Lower Paleolithic in the caves and rock shelters of central India
• The Venus of Berekhat Ram and the Venus of Tan-Tan were dated to between roughly 200,000 and 500,000 BCE
• Mesolithic period dates


  • 10,000 - 4,000 BCE - Northern and Western Europe
  • 10,000 - 7,000 BCE - Southeast Europe
  • 10,000 - 8,000 BCE - Middle East and Rest of World
• Mesolithic art


  • Reflects the arrival of new living conditions and hunting practices caused by the disappearance of the great herds of animals
  • Gives more space to human figures
  • Characterized by keener observation and greater narrative in the paintings
  • Moves from caves to outdoor sites in numerous locations
• Neolithic period dates


  • 4,000 - 2,000 BCE: Northern and Western Europe
  • 7,000 - 2,000 BCE: Southeast Europe
  • 8,000 - 2,000 BCE: Middle East & Rest of World
• Neolithic culture was characterized by stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, and farming (staple crops: wheat, barley and rice; domesticated animals: sheep, goats, pigs and cattle), and led directly to a growth in crafts like pottery and weaving
• The establishment of settled communities (villages, towns and in due course cities) triggered a variety of new activities, notably: a rapid stimulation of trade, the construction of trading vehicles (mainly boats), new forms of social organizations, along with the growth of religious beliefs and associated ceremonies
• By 4,000 BCE, after less than 5,000 years of farming, the total human population had risen to 65 million
• Classical Art encompasses the cultures of Greece and Rome and endures as the cornerstone of Western civilization
• Classical Art


  • Pursued ideals of beauty, harmony, and proportion
  • The human figure and the human experience of space and their relationship with the gods were central
  • Variations of those ideals were later adopted during the Renaissance in Italy and again during the 18th and 19th century Neoclassical trend throughout Europe
• The Greek ideal of beauty was grounded in a canon of proportions, based on the golden ratio and the ratio of lengths of body parts to each other, which governed the depictions of male and female figures
• Greek temple designs started simply and evolved into more complex and ornate structures, but later architects translated the symmetrical design and columned exterior into a host of governmental, educational, and religious buildings over the centuries to convey a sense of order and stability
• While Greek and Roman sculpture and ruins are linked with the purity of white marble in the Western mind, most of the works were originally polychrome, painted in multiple, lifelike colors
• Early Medieval Art reflect the differences between the development of the Catholic religion in the west and the Byzantium Empire of the east
• Byzantine Art style


  • Totally flat - one dimensional
  • No perspective
  • No shading
• Byzantium


  The Eastern part of the Roman Empire that stayed intact after the Western part disintegrated
• Constantinople


  The name Byzantium was renamed to
• The Roman Empire was split into two sections - the Eastern and Western part
• The Western part of the Roman Empire disintegrated but the Eastern, or Byzantium Empire, stayed intact
• Early Medieval Art


  Reflected the differences between the development of the Catholic religion in the west and the Byzantium Empire of the east
• Byzantine Art


  The style of art used in the very early years of the Dark Ages or early Medieval period
• The Dark Ages period

  410 AD - 1066 AD
• The Medieval times of the Middle Ages

  1066 - 1485
• The Dark Ages were followed by the Medieval times of the Middle Ages and changes which saw the emergence of the early Renaissance Art
• Byzantine Art Style


  • Totally flat - one dimensional
  • No perspective
  • No shadows
  • Figures generally depicted front-facing
  • Long, narrow and solemn faces
  • No attempt to portray realism
  • Pietistic painting (Christian art)
  • Artists were members of religious houses such as monasteries
  • No sculptures as these were looked upon as a form of idolatry
  • Sombre tones were used
• Early Medieval Art was initially restricted to the production of Pietistic painting (religious Christian art) in the form of illuminated manuscripts, mosaics and fresco paintings in churches
• There were no portrait paintings in Early Medieval Art and the colors were generally muted
• Romanesque Art Style


  • Production of Pietistic painting (religious Christian art) in the form of illuminated manuscripts, mosaics and fresco paintings in churches
  • Medieval art in the form of brightly colored stained glass windows
  • Illuminated manuscripts
  • Colors generally muted except those used in manuscripts and stained glass windows
  • Figures varied in size in relation to their importance
  • Religious shrines and caskets decorated with fine metals, gilt work and enamel
  • Romanesque embroidery including the Bayeux Tapestry
  • Large, stone, figurative sculptures
  • Small Ivory Carvings
  • Murals
• Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that lasted about two hundred years of the 12th and 14th centuries