WEEK 7

• Art History

  The study of objects of art considered within their time period. Art historians analyze visual arts' meaning (painting, sculpture, architecture) at the time they were created.
• Art history encompasses the study of objects created by different cultures around the world and throughout history that convey meaning, importance or serve usefulness primarily through visual representations.
• Why is art history important?


  • Understanding Cultures - Visual art recounts stories of our past and it gives an account of past events
  • Develop Critical Thinking - Studying art history drives you to analyze paintings, photographs, sculptures, etc. rather than just memorizing facts
• Cave Art

  Emerged around 40 – 50,000 years ago. Transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic period and the advent of the modern human. Cave painting is considered one of the first expressions of the human animal's appreciation of beauty and a representation of a mystic or sacred side to life.

  
• Cave Art Techniques

  • Finger tracing, modeling in clay, engravings, bas-relief sculpture, hand stencils, and paintings done in two or three colors
• Examples of Cave Art

  • The painted cave acknowledged as being Paleolithic, meaning from the Stone Age, was Altamira in Spain. The art discovered there was deemed by experts to be the work of modern humans (Homo sapiens).
  • Most examples of cave art have been found in France and in Spain, but a few are also known in Portugal, England, Italy, Romania, Germany, Russia, and Indonesia. The total number of known decorated sites is about 400.
  • The most common subjects in cave paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns, called finger flutings.

  
• Egyptian Art

  Ancient Egyptian Art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th century BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It is also very conservative: the art style changed very little over time.
• Egyptian Paintings


  • Egyptian art is known for its distinctive figure convention used for the main figures in both relief and painting, with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown as seen from the side, but the torso seen as from the front. Animals were also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art.

  
• Egyptian Architecture

  • Ancient Egyptian architects used sun-dried and kiln-baked bricks, fine sandstone, limestone and granite. Architects carefully planned all their work. The stones had to fit precisely together, since no mud or mortar was used. When creating the pyramids, ramps were used to allow workmen to move up as the height of the construction grew.
• Egyptian Sculpture


  • Nefertiti Bust by Thutmose
  • Tutankhamun's mask

  
• Greek Art


  Began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art. It absorbed influences of Eastern civilizations, of Roman art and its patrons, and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine era and absorbed Italian and European ideas during the period of Romanticism (with the invigoration of the Greek Revolution), until the Modernist and Postmodernist.
• Greek Architecture


  • The two principal orders in Archaic and Classical Greek architecture are the Doric and the Ionic.
• Greek Architecture


  • Parthenon, Acropolis
  • Temple of Olympian
• Greek Sculpture


  • Greek sculpture characteristics: the proportions were awkward and the poses stiff, they already bore many traditional traits of Greek art: primarily male, nude, well-muscled, anonymous, and blank-faced. By the 6th century BCE, the realism of the figures had vastly improved.
• Greek Sculpture


  • Doryphoros(Spear Bearer)
  • Discus Thrower (Discobolus)
• Greek Painting

  • The essential characteristic of classical Greek art is a heroic realism. Painters and sculptors attempt to reveal the human body, in movement or repose, exactly as it appears to the eye. The emphasis will be on people of unusual beauty, or moments of high and noble drama.
• Roman Art


  Roman Art refers to visual arts that were designed in ancient Rome, during the time of the Roman Empire. Roman Art comprises of architecture, sculpture, and mosaic works. In the modern world, luxury objects in the form of metal works, gem engravings, ivory carvings, and glass are considered minor forms of Roman Art.
• Roman Sculpture

  • As with Greek sculpture, the Romans worked stone, precious metals, glass and terracotta but favored bronze and marble above all else for their finest work. However, as metal has always been in high demand for re-use, most of the surviving examples of Roman sculpture are in marble.
• Roman Sculpture

  • The Orator
  • The Four Tetrarchs
• Roman Architecture


  • Roman architecture made use of arches, vaulting, and concrete to enable interior space to be much larger in its buildings.
• Roman Architecture


  • Roman Colosseum
  • Aqueduct of Segovia
• Roman Paintings


  • Romans refined the technique of painting mosaics and murals and emphasized natural themes such as landscapes and narrative themes drawn from literature and mythology. The primary colors used in Roman painting were deep red, yellow, green, violet and black.
• Roman Paintings

  • Alexander Mosaic
• Medieval Art


  The medieval period of art history began at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in 300 CE and continued until the beginning of the Renaissance in 1400 CE. The Middle Age is Divided into three parts: Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic.
• Byzantine Art


  • Some of the world's greatest mosaic were created during this time. Mosaics were intended to publicize Christianity. Imagery incorporated halos spotlighting sacred figures. Human figures were flat, stiff, symmetrically placed, with no movement.
• Byzantine Art


  • Justinians and Attendants 547
• Romanesque Art


  • Roman Catholic faith is established. Builders construct churches borrowing elements from Roman architecture, like rounded arches and columns. This borrowing gave way to the name Romanesque. Churches were built using the layout of the crucifix.
• Gothic Art


  • The height of the Middle ages artistic achievement are the Gothic cathedrals, characterized by soaring vertical pointed arches. The 2 new engineering breakthroughs made these intricate structures possible: 1.) Ribbed vaulting (arched ceilings) 2.) Flying Buttresses
• Gothic Art


  • Notre Dame in Paris
• Chinese Painting


  Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as guó huà meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which became popular in China in the 20th century.
• Chinese Painting


  • Gong B
• Buttress


  • A support -usually brick and stone- built against a wall to support or reinforce it
• Flying buttress


  • A free-standing buttress attached to the main structure by an arch or a half arch
• Use of flying buttress


  • Allows load bearing walls to contain cut-outs, such as for large windows, that would otherwise seriously weaken the vault
• Gong Bi


  Drawing details with fine strokes and rich colors
• Yi Bi


  Drawing with rough strokes and light colors
• Ukiyo-e


  A style of Japanese woodblock print and painting from the Edo period depicting famous theater actors, beautiful courtesans, city life, travel in romantic landscapes, and erotic scenes
• Early ukiyo-e artists


  • Brought with them a sophisticated knowledge of and training in the composition principles of classical Chinese painting; gradually these artists shed the overt Chinese influence to develop a native Japanese idiom
• Renaissance art


  The painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy, literature, music, science, and technology
• Renaissance art


  • Took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity, perceived as the noblest of ancient traditions, but transformed that tradition by absorbing recent developments in the art of Northern Europe and by applying contemporary scientific knowledge