APAH REVIEW
PART I
Paleolithic Sculpture
• Woman of Willendorf
•28,000 BCE
•Served as fertility
image (?).
•No facial features
•Ball-like, abstract
shapes
•Emphasis=
reproduction parts
of female body
Paleolithic Painting
• Lascaux Hall of Bulls
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C.13,000 BCE
Naturalistic, well observed
Animals placed randomly
Natural groundline
Deep recesses of caves
Spiritual (?)
Neolithic
•Landscape with Volcanic Eruption
•6150 BCE
•World’s 1st landscape, real place
•1st depiction of place devoid of both humans &
animals
•1st painting on manmade wall
Neolithic Structure
• Stonehenge
• c2,000 BCE
• Salisbury Plain,
England
• Post and lintel
• Megaliths
• Cosmic calendar?
• Harvest rituals?
• Religious?
• Summer solstice
Old Kingdom Egypt
Khafre
•2520-2494 BCE
•Diorite
•Rigid, Canon of
Proportions
•Flawless, ideal body
•Bilaterally Symmetrical
•Houses the “Ka”
•Iconography-Unified Egy
•Falcon= Horus
New Kingdom Egypt
•Akhenaton
•1353-1335 BCE
•AMARNA period
•Moved capital
•Elongated face, full lips,
and curves
•Crook and flail
•Departs from Canon of
Proportions (grid)
Sumerian
• Votive Figures
•Tell Asmar site
•c2600 BCE
•Limestone figures
•Surrogate figures
•Placed in temple
shrine
•Conical forms
Sumerian
• Victory Stele of NaramSin
•2254-2218 BCE
•Characteristics
•Godlike sovereignty
the kings claimed
•King is bigger than
everyone else
•1st time the King
appears as a god in
Mesopotamian art
Assyrian
•Lamassu
•720 BCE
•High relief, textures
•Characteristics
•5 legs=conceptual
•Human head, beard
•Bull body w/ wings
Persian
•Ambassadors Processional frieze
•Persepolis, Iran, c500 BCE
•At audience hall of Darius & Xerxes
•Reliefs on staircases, representatives of 23 subject
nations bringing gifts
•Subtly modeled surfaces
•Drapery echoes Archaic Greek sculpture
Persian
•Head of a Sasania King
(Shapur II)
•350 BCE
•Characteristics
•Suggests the splendor of
Sasanian dynasty
•Repousse
Minoan
•Bull Leaping fresco
•1450-1400 BCE
•Bull is elongated, movement
•Women have fair skin, Man has dark skin
•Narrative, probably religious ritual
Cycladic
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•Figurine of a Woman
•2500-2300 BCE
•Characteristics
•Abstract, flat
•Triangles dominate
•Emphasis on breasts
•Incised lines
•Fertility goddess (?)
Mycenaean
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• Lion Gate
•1300-1250 BCE
•Characteristics
•Capped with a
huge lintel
•Above lintel is
corbelled arch
•Relieving
triangle
Archaic Greek
Sculpture
• Kouros
•600 BCE
•Commemorative
•Life-size, nude, young men are
kouroi and life-size, clothed,
young women are korai
•Emulates the stance of
Egyptian statues
•Left foot advanced
•Nude  Perfect body
Archaic Greek Architecture
• Temple of Hera I
•550 BCE
•Characteristics
•Doric Temple
•Peripteral, Colonnade
•Columns= entasis
Classical Greek Sculpture
•Kritios Boy
•480 BCE
•Characteristics
•Contrapposto
•Broke the rule of
frontality
Classical Greek Sculpture
•Doryphoros, Spear
Bearer by Polykleitos
•450 BCE
•Greece’s Golden Age
•Contrapposto
•“The Canon”= set
standards for ideal
•Perfect, harmonious
ratios
Classical Greek Architecture
•Parthenon
•447-438 BCE
•Numerous optical refinements –
•ded. to Athena Parthenos
•Perfect, harmonious proportions in Doric temple design
•Golden ratio throughout plan
•Doric columns ext, interior Ionic frieze
Hellenistic Greek Sculpture
•Seated Boxer
•100-50 BCE
•Heavily Battered,
defeated veteran
•Nose broken, teeth
missing
•Appealed to the
emotions
•Realism
Etruscan
•Etruscan Couple
Sarcophagus
•c500 BCE
•Terracotta
•Happy memorial
•Portrait coffin
•m/f interaction
•Smooth, stylized
bodies
Roman Sculpture
•Augustus of Primaporta
•1st century CE
•Emperor as general
•Based on Spear Bearer
•Portrait head
•Chestplate=victory over
Parthians
•Cupid= proclaims his
divine descent
Roman Sculpture
•Equestrian Statue
•175 CE
•Characteristics
•Superhuman grandeur
and larger than a
normal human
•Shows mercy
Roman Architecture
•Pantheon
•120 CE
•Temple of all the gods
•Uninterrupted interior space
•Concrete dome
•Oculus
Early Christian
Architecture
•Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
•425 CE
•Characteristics
•Cruciform
•Longitudinal
Early Christian Mosaic
•Good Shepherd
•c 425 CE
•Christ with flock
•Lunette over door
•Some classical
elements
•Illusionistic shading
•Stylized landscape
•Stars of Heaven
•Halo, gold, purple
Byzantine Architecture
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•Hagia Sophia
•535 CE
•Characteristics
•Mystical Quality of
light floods interior
•Central plan w/
Longitudinal axis
•Pendentives for
the dome
Byzantine Mosaic
• Justinian and
Attendants
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550 CE, San Vitale, Ravenna
Church + State
Propaganda
Emperor at altar Christlike
Tesserae gold shimmering
Chi Rho on shield
Soldiers left
Priests right
Byzantine Painting
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•Virgin (Theotokos) and Child
•C. 1200 CE
•Virgin of Compassion
•Mary style=long nose long
fingers, small mouth
•Use of gold back
•Gold rays in Christ child’s
robes
•Placed before altars
Hiberno-Saxon
•Chi-Rho-Iota page
•Book of Kells, c. 900
•Manuscript illumination
•Initial letters of Jesus in
Greek= XPI
•Gospel of Matthew
•Holy words into intricate
abstract designs
•Recalls Celtic metalwork
•Angel, human, animal figs
Hiberno-Saxon
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•Book of Kells, Chi-Tho-Io
•Late 8th or Early 9th Century
•Characteristics
•Elaborately Decorated
•Illuminations
Carolingian
•Saint Matthew, Folio 15
•800 CE
•Charlemagne’s Gospel Book
•Illusionistic brushwork
•Color and modulation of
light and shade to create
shapes
•Roman, classical style
and motifs, e.g. toga
Ottonian
•Gero Crucifix
•c. 970
•Monumental suffering
•Statue and reliquary
•Much more dramatic
than earlier depictions
of crucifixion
•Distended body,
blood streaks
Romanesque Architecture
•St.- Sernin,
Toulouse
•c 1100 CE
•Pilgrimage
Church
•Cruciform plan
•Simple ratio
geom
•Ambulatory
•Transept
Romanesque Sculpture
•Last Judgment
•Tympanum by Gislebertus
•c1130
•Autun Cathedral
•Christ as judge
•Christ in mandorla
•Souls weighed, Christ’s lft
•Saved souls=Christ’s rght
Gothic Architecture
•Chartres Cathedral
•c 1150 CE
•Stained glass oculi
•Lux nova
•Flying buttresses
•Ribbed groin
vaulting
•Spires, verticality
•Heaven on Earth
Gothic Sculpture
•Saints Martin, Jerome,
and Gregory Jamb statues
•Chartres Cathedral, c1230
•Attached to columns but
break rigid vertical lines
•Drapery falls softly
•Distinctive personality
revealed in faces
Gothic Painting
•Moralized Bible
•C.1230
•Queen of France Blanche
of Castile, Louis IX (her
son), and two monks
•Ink, tempera, gold leaf
Ancient Japan
•Haniwa figure
•c 500
•Cylindrical
•Low-fired clay
•Placed on graves
for protection
Ancient Japanese Painting
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Tale of the Genji, c.1125
Handscroll - Story of love+intrigue
Upturned ground, strong diag
Elevated viewpoint omits roofs & ceilings
Flat fields of color
Ancient China
•Travelers Among
•Mountains and Streams
•By Fan Kuan
•c. 1000 CE
•Hanging scroll, ink on silk
•Precise detail
•Smallness of man in nature
•Perspective reads vertically
Islam
•Dome of the Rock, 687-692
•1st great achievement of Islamic architecture
•Use of calligraphy on tiles
•Site is sacred to Muslims, Jews, and Christians
•Domed octagon, interior= rich mosaic ornament
Ancient North America
•Incised Shell Gorget
•1250-1300 CE
•Characteristics
•Running Warrior
•Composite profile
•Elaborate
headdress
•Gifts to the dead
Ancient Mesoamerica
•Colossal Olmec Head
•900-400 BCE
•Mexico
•Basalt, 10’ h.
•Ruler portraits
•Probably not deities
•Intensity of expression
Ancient South America
•Raimondi Stele
•1st Millennium BCE
•Characteristics
•Represents “staff god”
•Multiplicity and dual readings
•God transforms before the
viewer’s eye
•Core aspect of Andean
religion
Ancient Africa
•Nok Head
•500 BCE
•Nigeria
•Terracotta
•Flaring nostrils & alert yes
are unique to Nok art
•Expressive face
•African context= ritual
Ancient India
•Shiva as Nataraja
•1000 CE
•Nataraja=Lord of the
Dance
•Portable image
•Dwarf under feet=
ignorance
•Nimbus-circle-of fire
•Drum=universal
heartbeat
•Lively w/ central axis
Early Renaissance
Sculpture
•Saint Mark by Donatello
•1411-1413
•Contrappasto
•1st with voluminous
drapery
•Stirring limbs
•Holds Gospel book
Early Renaissance Painting
•Tribute Money by Massacio
•1427
fresco
•Characteristics
Continuous Narrative
Light coming from a specific source
3-D modeling, shading
Vanishing Point
Linear, Aerial Perspective
Contrapposto Roman figure
EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
• Foundling Hospital
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Filippo Brunelleschi
c.1425, Florence, Italy
Homage to Antiquity
Roman motifs
Math= basis for design
Perfect geometry
Loggia
Medallions by della
Robbia
High Renaissance
Sculpture
•David by Michelangelo
•1501-1504
•Formal references to
classical antiquity
•Compositionally and
emotionally connected to
an unseen presence
•Head turned to show
pent up energy
•contrapposto
High Renaissance Painting
•School of Athens by
Raphael, 1510
•Fresco, Vatican, Rome
•Imaginary gathering of
philosophers, scientists
•Summarizes ideals of HR
•References to Antiquity
•Aristotle & Plato at
vanishing point, linear
perspective
High Renaissance Architecture
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•Capitoline Hill by
Michelangelo
•1537
•Organized units
symmetrically around a
central/ unique axis
•Architecture as human
body for Michelangelo
•Trapezoid plane
•Equestrian statue of
Marcus Aurelius