Art History | Ancient to Medieval
Resources
Khan Academy → http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/
Metropolitan Museum of Art → Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/
Prehistoric
First art objects made 25,000 years ago
Appear to be the artists’ attempt to understand natural phenomena (religion).
Made effort to recreate nature.
Cave painting
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Lascaux, France (c. 15,000 – 13, 000 BCE)
Altamira, Spain (c. 12,000 BCE)
Chauvet, France (c. 25,000 - 17,000 BCE)
Carvings – Venus of Willendorf (c. 25,000 – 20,000 BCE)
Architecture – Stonehenge (cromlech, henge – c. 2750 – 1500 BCE)
Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East
Tigris and Euphrates river valley – the Fertile Crescent
Neolithic – c. 500 BCE
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Sumeria (c. 3500 – 2340 BCE) city states Uruk and Ur
Akkadians (c. 2300 – 2100 BCE) Akkad, near modern Baghdad
Babylonians (c. 1900 – 539 BCE) King Hammurabi
Assyrians (c. 1300 – 612 BCE) Nimrud, Iraq, Palace of Sargon II
Neo-Babylonians (612- 539 BCE) Ishtar Gate, King Nebuchadnezzar
Ziggurat – stepped pyramid made of sun dried brick, city planning
Relief sculpture
Cuneiform writing – tablets, cylinder seals
Potter’s wheel, wagon wheel, plow
Metallurgy – monumental cast bronze head of an Akkadian ruler (Sargon 1?) c. 2300 BCE
Ancient Egypt
Divided into Kingdoms and Dynasties:
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Old Kingdom: Dynasties 3 – 6
(c. 2649 – 2150 BCE)
Middle Kingdom: Dynasties 12 – 14 (c. 1991 – 1700 BCE)
New Kingdom: Dynasties 18 – 20
(c. 1550 – 1070 BCE)
Divine King, Polytheistic, funerary culture
Hieroglyphic writing (Rosetta Stone of 196 BCE, discovered 1799, held key to deciphering)
Distinct system of proportions, composite view
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Palette of Narmer (c. 3100 BCE)
Mekaure and Queen Khamerernebty (c. 2490 – 2472 BCE)
Architecture: Pyramids, Funerary Complex, hypostyle hall
Painting: Tomb walls, sarcophagi, funerary masks
Aegean – Pre-Hellenic Civilization
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Cycladic (c. 3000 – 1200 BCE) islands
Minoan (c. 3000 – 1100 BCE) Crete
Mycenaen (c. 1600 – 1100 BCE) mainland Greece
Seafaring and situated in midst of trade routes.
Created metal wares as export.
Marble abundant on Cycladic Islands (Paros and Naxos)
Seem to have polytheistic religion with gods with human appearance, ancestors to Greek gods?
Palace Complex at Knossos on Crete – Toreador fresco and sculpture
“Marine style” clay vessels
Mycenae – beehive grave complex, use of gold, citadel
Ancient Greece
Influential to development of western civilization
Archaic – c. 600 – 480 BCE
Classical -- c. 450 – 400 BCE
Hellenistic – death of Alexander the Great 323 – 31 BCE
Architecture – orders, sculptural adornment, sanctuary
Sculpture – marble, cast bronze, relief, temple adornment
Painting – red and black figure vase painting, frescoes
Etruscan and Roman
Byzantine