lesson 3

• Art history


  The historical study of the visual arts, being concerned with identifying, classifying, describing, evaluating, interpreting and understanding the art products and historic development of the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, the decorative arts, drawing, printmaking, photography, etc.
• Cave paintings


  Painted drawings on cave walls or ceilings, mainly of prehistoric origin, dated to some 40,000 years ago (38,000 BCE) in Eurasia
• The exact purpose of the Paleolithic cave paintings is not known
• Famous cave paintings


  • Lascaux cave in southwestern France
• The paintings are remarkably similar around the world, with animals being common subjects that give the most impressive images
• Earliest known cave paintings/drawings of animals

  At least 35,000 years old, found in caves in the district of Maros, located in Bantimurung district, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
• Previously it was believed that the earliest figurative paintings were in Europe. The earliest figurative paintings in Europe date back to the Aurignacian period, approximately 30,000 to 32,000 years ago, and are found in the Chauvet Cave in France, and in the Coliboaia Cave in Romania
• Oldest known cave painting

  A red hand stencil in Maltravieso cave, Caceres, Spain, said to be made by a Neanderthal
• Neanderthals are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago
• In 2021, cave art of a pig found in an Indonesian island, and dated to over 45,500 years, has been reported
• Sulawesi was already considered by some experts to be the site of the earliest known representational cave art in the world
• Other cave paintings


  • Padah-Lin Caves of Burma (11,000 year old paintings)
  • Tabon Caves in the Philippines (oldest artwork may be a relief of shark above the cave entrance)
• Ancient Mesopotamia


  The beginnings of monumental architecture in Mesopotamia are usually considered to have been contemporary with the founding of the Sumerian cities and the invention of writing, about 3100 BCE
• Famous works from ancient Mesopotamia


  • Code of Hammurabi
• Hammurabi's Code


  A collection of 282 rules, carved onto a massive, finger-shaped black stone stele (pillar) that was looted by invaders and finally rediscovered in 1901, in Sumerian written language called cuneiform
• Egyptian history


  Usually divided into different dynasties, with the first ruler being King Menes (also called King Narmer), who united Egypt under one government and founded the capital city of Memphis
• Narmer palette


  • The human form is portrayed in a way that became standard in Egyptian art
  • Statues of males are darker than females
• Old Kingdom of Egypt


  The first great period of Egyptian civilization, which began during the rule of King Joser. The advances of the period were due mainly to Imhotep, the king's first minister, who was a skilled architect, statesman and scholar, and probably the architect of the famous step pyramid at Saqqara
• Step pyramid at Saqqara


  The first stone building in history and the first of the many pyramids to appear during the next 1,000 years
• Great Pyramid of Giza


  The oldest and largest of the three pyramids complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt
• Purpose of the pyramids


  To house the pharaoh's bodies and serve as reminders of their almighty power
• The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact
• Valley of the Kings


  A royal burial ground, with exquisitely decorated tombs for the pharaohs who ruled Egypt between 1539 and 1075 BC. There are over 60 tombs in this small area, although only a handful are open to public
• Deir el-Bahri


  The most beautiful temple, built about 1470 by the famous Queen Hatshepsut. A series of terraces was surrounded by colonnades and connected by ramps, built entirely of fine limestone
• Contrapposto


  An Italian term meaning "counterpoise", used to describe the standing pose of figures in Greek sculpture where the weight is shifted to one leg, creating a slight s-curve in the torso and hips
• Greek Gods


  • Medussa, Zeus, Poseidon
• Classical Greek pottery


  People offered small terra cotta figurines as gifts to gods and goddesses, buried them with the dead and gave them to their children as toys. They also used clay, pots, jars and vases for almost everything, painted with religious or mythological scenes
• Most of our knowledge of Classical Greek art comes from objects made of stone and clay that have survived for thousands of years
• Roman art and architecture

  • The Romans wanted their art and architecture to be useful. They planned their cities and built bridges, aqueducts, public baths and market places, apartment, houses and harbors
  • Although the practical uses of art were distinctly Roman, the art forms themselves were influenced by the ancient Greeks and Etruscans
• Roman arch


  Can support much more weight than the post and lintel (a beam supported by two columns)
• Roman aqueducts


  Often three levels of arches piled on top of another
• Baths of Caracalla


  An ancient Roman structure that was constructed at the end of the Roman republican period, basically cylindrical in shape and faced with travertine that has an entablature frieze surrounded with skills of bulls and garlands
• Roman sculpture


  • Greatly influenced by the Greeks, but the Romans showed their skill and originality in their portraits, portraying their emperors, generals and senators with a degree of realism unknown to the Greeks
• Roman sculptures


  • Statue of Jupiter - King of the Gods
  • Roman River God - Arno
  • Neptune - God of the Sea
• Roman painting


  Usually done as a form of decoration, such as the fresco paintings on the inside walls of houses in Pompeii, used to make the room seem larger or create a pastoral landscape
• Roman painting


  • The Loves of the Gods, a monumental fresco cycle completed by the Artist named Annibale Carraci, located in Rome
• Chinese art and paintings


  China has one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world, with the beginnings of Chinese art traced to 5,000 B.C., when Stone Age people made decorated objects of bone, stone and pottery
• Earliest Chinese paintings


  Ornamental, not representational, consisting of patterns or designs not pictures. Stone Age pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots and lines, rarely with human figures and animals
• Six Dynasty period in China

  People began to appreciate paintings for its own beauty, and started writing about art. This is when we begin to know about individual artists, such as Gu Kaizhi
• Gu Kaizhi's art


  • Admonitions of the Court Instructress, an ink and colour on silk hand scroll