Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Unit One: Prehistory
Paeleolithic
Old Stone Age - Hunters and gatherers
Cave paintings- Lascaux and Altamira
Hall of the Bulls
Earliest sculptures:
fertility figurines - small in size
Venus of Willendorf
Neolithic
New Stone Age - farmers
Cromlech- a circle of giant standing stones summer solstice?
Stonehenge - Salisbury Plain in
Southwestern England
Unit Two - The Ancient Near East - The “land
between the rivers”
(Tigris and Euphrates)
Sumeria - (in Today’s Iraq)
Ziggurat - temple platform (symbolic mountain)
cuneiform - first writing- stylus impressed in clay
tablets
stele - standing slabs (usually stone) inscribed or
sculpted as monuments
Conventions of Art included:
Registers and frontality
Standard of Ur
wood and inlaid shell and lapis
sculpture-in-the-round was small in scale
Sumerian Votive statues (praying figures)
stylized hair and eyes
Assyrian wall sculptures (low relief) showed the
exploits of kings.
Lion Hunt 645-635 BC. From Nineveh,
Palace Sculpture included Gate Guardians
Lamassu - Sphinx-like winged creatures (5 legs)
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Babylon-One of the great cities of ancient world.
Ishtar Gate - used brightly colored
glazed, baked bricks. Built during the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar II (604- 562 BCE)
Persepolis -Persia (today’s Iran)
Great palace built by Darius the Great ( c.
1515 BCE).
Unit Three - Egypt
The land along the Nile River.
History is divided into Dynasties and Kingdoms
Hypostyle Halls
Temples in post and lintel construction; central
section is raised with clerestory window slits to
allow light in the central section.
Pyramids evolved from mastabas - lower, raised
platform tombs. Pyramids discontinued because of
expense and robberies.
Tombs moved to the Valley of the Kings.
Pylon temples- Ramses, Hatschepsut
Amarna Period- distinguishes the art of the era
following Ankhanaten. characterized by elongated
and feminine characteristics.
Tutankamen’s tomb was undisturbed and left us
many artifacts.
Rosetta stone allowed hieroglyphs to be decoded.
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
UNIT Four - Aegean Civilizations include:
Cycladic on the Cyclades islands; Minoanbased mostly on Crete, and Mycenaen on the
Greek Peninsula.
Sir Arthur Evans did the archeological dig and
restoration of the Palace of Knossos built by King
Minos
Fresco - Murals (wall paintings) done on wet
plaster makes them permanent and part of the
wall.
Leaping Bull Fresco-Knossos (1700-1500 BC)
Excavations at Mycenae uncovered a beehive tomb
known as a tholos. It used corbelled construction.
Among artifacts discovered in the
Treasury
of Atreus was a gold death mask an two gold
Vaphio cups.
Both used the Repoussé to hammer metal.
Unit Five- Greek Civilization
The Greek Orders of architecture:
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Parthenon- Doric Temple to Athena on the
acropolis in Athens.
Exterior frieze had metopes and triglyphs
Interior frieze depicted the Panathenaic
procession (parade of people)
Greek Sculptural Styles:
Archaic - 7th into the 6th century BCE
(c. 660- 500 BCE)
Classical - 6th and 5th centuries BCE
(c. 500-323 BCE)
Hellenistic - after Alexander beginning in the 4th
century BCE (c. 323-146 BCE)
contrapposto - S-curve of natural posture
What is a kouros?
Erectheum - Ionic temple on the Athenian
acropolis.
Porch of the Maidens
caryatids supported the porch
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Unit Six - Etruscan Civilization
Occupied the central Italian peninsula before the
Roman Empire. (c. 700-100BCE, when it was
assimilated by the Romans)
The Etruscan temple - square floor plan.
Except for foundations, light and perishable
materials were used: unbaked bricks for the walls
and wood for the structure.
The temples had very wide and low double
sloping roofs
Front Façade was dominated by a porch
which covered the entrance.
The roof was decorated with terra-cotta
sculpture decorative and protective elements,
painted in bright color, positioned on top of the
roofing tiles.
Etruscans were skill in bronze casting technology.
Capitoline Wolf - combines an Etruscan
bronze wolf with Baroque era statues of
Romulus and Remus.
They painted elaborate tombs guaranteeing a
happy afterlife. Banqueting scenes were popular.
Tomb of the Leopards - named after the
leopard above the banquet.
Cinerary Urns- the Etruscan like the Roman after
them cremated their dead. These urns were meant
to hold the ashes.
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Unit Seven - Roman Civilization
Roman art absorbed Etruscan style and the
Etruscan influence included temple architecture,
sculpture, portraiture and wall painting.
Rome was also deeply influenced by the art
of the Hellenistic world, which had spread to
southern Italy and Sicily through the Greek
colonies there.
Roman was more secular and utilitarian and
showed an interest in grandeur and scale, for
example:
Colosseum and public baths in Rome.
The Romans also developed the use of :
arch - used a keystone
arcade - row of arches
vault - combined arches to open space
i.e. groined and barrel vaults
apse - a half dome
dome - (Pantheon)
Concrete - allowed for a much grander
architecture, its culmination being found in
religious buildings such as:
Pantheon - Rome, temple to 7 planetary
gods, converted to a Christian Church.
Includes a coffered ceiling and an oculus.
Triumphal arch - example of Roman civic and
monumental architecture - used relief sculpture
and inscription to carry historic and
commemorative messages.
This narrative technique decorated the entire
surface of the commemorative Trajan’s Column.
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Republican portrait sculpture was especially
realistic.
Portrait of a Roman Nobleman - age and
wisdom gained through long, hard years of
life experience were accentuated in
portraiture in order to project the qualities
they valued most highly.
Where Rome extended, it took its arts and
architecture; Though the barbarian tribes who
finally overran the empire brought their own arts
and traditions they held the Roman culture in awe,
adopting and adapting their art
Unit 8 - Early Christian Art
As Christian Churches were needed they converted
Roman basilicas to churches.
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Before the edict of toleration in 311 CE, Christian
met and buried their dead in the catacombs - a
series of tunnels under rome.
These provide example of early Christian
iconography - symbolic representation,
especially the conventional meanings attached to
an image or images.
Early Christian iconography includes:
The four evangelists - Matthew - angel;
Mark - Lion; Luke - Ox; John - Eagle.
Halo - holiness
Mandorla - full body halo (almond)
Orants - figures with raised arms
representing prayer.
Christ as a shepherd - with sheep
representing his followers.
Christ is represented as a beardless youth in the
Greco-Roman tradition.
Symbolism is more important than naturalism in
Early Christian Art. Examples reveal truncated
figures, and an overall sense of the storytelling
instead of verism.
Unit 9 - Byzantine Art and Architecture
As a result of his reconquest of the empire's former
western territories, Justinian restored Ravenna's
status as a capital in Italy.
Mosaic portraits of Justinian and his wife,
the empress Theodora, appear there at the
Church of San Vitale (526–48).
By his death in 565, the empire bordered nearly the
entire Mediterranean Sea, a size unrivaled in
Byzantine history from that point onward.
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
The rebuilding of the Hagia Sophia from 532 to
537 was the paramount achievement of Justinian's
building campaigns. This building had important
influence far beyond the period.
Designed by the Greek scientists
Isidor of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthenius
of Tralles, a mathematician.
The dome is carried on four spherical
triangular pendentives - triangular
structures that implement the transition
from the circular base of the dome to the
rectangular base below.
An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn "image") is a
religious work of art, most commonly a painting,
from Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Conventions of Byzantine (Orthodox) images are
three Fs and a G.
Flat, Frontal, Floating and Gold
The influence of Byzantine art and architecture is
found well beyond Constantinople.
Important examples include:
St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, 1063 CE.
St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, 1561 CE.
Unit 10- The Early Medieval Era
The word “barbarian” comes from the Greek word
“barbaros,” meaning “foreign.” We will use it here
as a blanket term for non-Roman, nomadic, and
illiterate groups traveling throughout Europe. The
cultural exchange that occurred in Europe after
antiquity can be seen through artwork, among
other things; Romans borrowed from “Barbarian”
aesthetic, and vice versa.
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
Fibula - brooch that were made popular by Roman
military campaigns. They all consist of a body, a
pin, and a catch. Ornate fibulae became all the rage
in the early middle ages, and are one of the most
commonly found objects in barbarian* grave sites.
Viking Art - The main symbol of the Viking Age
is the Viking ship. Not only was it used as a war
and trade vessel, it demonstrated true individual
design and art.
Ship burial in Norway, near the sea at Oseberg
The head of the ship represents a roaring
beast with surface ornamentation in the
form of interlaced animals that twist and
turn as they are gripping and snapping.
Anglo-Saxon Art - Multiple bronze, gold and
silver objects of Anglo Saxon origin, found in
Suffolk, England, including: a helmet, sceptre,
sword, hanging bowl, bowls and spoons, shoulder
clasps, a belt buckle, and purse lid.
Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, c. 700
Cloisonné is a technique for
decorating metalwork objects
Celtic Art - from the people of Ireland and
Scotland. Displays a preference for geometrical
decoration over figurative subjects, which are often
extremely stylized. Energetic circular forms,
interlaces and spirals are characteristic.
Muiredach’s High Cross Ireland, early
10th century.
Manuscripts -More medieval books survive from
the Middle Ages than any other artistic medium.
Scholars refer to them as manuscripts. Books that
contain artistic decoration are called illuminated
manuscripts. Those that survive from the
European Middle Ages are generally religious
books that reflect the canon, doctrine and practices
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
of Christianity, though there are Jewish and
Muslim books that survive from this time period as
well.
The Book of Kells - c. 800, Ireland is an
illuminated manuscript Gospel Book in
Latin containing the four gospels of the
New Testament, together with various
prefatory texts and tables.
Carolignian Art
Charlemagne, King of the Franks and later Holy
Roman Emperor, instigated a cultural revival
known as the Carolingian Renaissance. This
revival used Constantine's Christian empire as its
model, which flourished between 306 and 337.
Manuscripts, sculpture, architecture and other
religious artifacts were produced during the period
780-900. These artists worked exclusively for the
emperor, members of his court, and the bishops
and abbots associated with the court.
Geographically, the revival extended through
present-day France, Switzerland, Germany and
Austria.
Palatine Chapel, Aachen, 805 -is octagonal
with a dome, recalling the shape of San
Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, This space served
as the seat of Charlemagne's power and still
houses his throne today.
Ottonian Art
After Charlemagne’s legacy had begun to die out,
the warlike tribes in what is now Germany (then
Saxony) banded together. Newly secured borders
ushered in a period of immense prosperity and
artistic productivity for the Saxon empire.
Otto I (who became emperor in 962) lends his
name to the “Ottonian” period. He forged an
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Review Art History Fall Exam-Thobaben
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important alliance with the Pope, which allowed
him to be crowned the first official Holy Roman
Emperor since 924. This contact with Rome was
extremely important to Ottonian artistic
development, since each Ottonian king was
determined to define himself as a Roman Emperor
in the style of Constantine and Charlemagne. This
meant perpetuating a highly intellectual court and
creating an extensive artistic legacy.
St. Michael's Church, Hildesheim (10011031)
Bronze Doors to St. Michael’s
Clerics like Bernward of Hildesheim, who designed
the church, also cast his 15' doors depicting the fall
and redemption of mankind out of single pieces of
metal. This was an enormous undertaking, and the
process was so complex that it would not be
replicated until the Renaissance.
Essay Review - Art History
Be prepared to answer the following.
Know details! You will have 40 minutes to write.
Throughout history, art has been used as
propaganda to shape public opinion. Propaganda
takes many forms, such as architecture, paintings,
and print media, and is used to promote religious,
political, and social ideologies.
Select and fully identify two works, in any medium,
that were used to shape public opinion.
Citing specific elements in each work, analyze how
each work conveyed its propagandistic message to
its intended audience.
AP Essay Review
You have one (10 minute) essay on the Canon of
Polycleitus.
The second, longer essay (30 minutes) is about
artworks placed in public spaces.
Please review your materials and familiarize
yourself with details about two such examples.
Everyone:
Part Two of your exam is homework
based.
• Please review ALL of the homework
you submitted including HW #1
(The Hall of the Bulls) which we did
together in class.)
• AP students will need to identify
and comment on all 9 homework
assignments.
• Regular art history students will be
identifying and commenting on only
the 5 submitted.