(AM1) Art Gallery

Art Gallery

AP Art Gallery

This review has been designed to help you narrow down the most important works of art covered in this module. It is NOT meant to be a replacement for reading the text or other class activities, but to serve as a supplement. You are responsible for keeping up with the reading in your text as well as provided supplemental readings/websites.

Near East and Egyptian Art Overview

The recording of history begins with the invention of writing in the ancient Near East. In Mesopotamia, large, urban areas centered on manmade mountains topped by temples. From these temples, priests sought to appease the gods. City-states were often threatened by other city-states and by foreign invaders. Mesopotamian history is noted for its instability and shifts in the balance of power. Despite the constant changes, two major characteristics are found in all Mesopotamian art: narrative and power. Art tells stories, often of the might and exploits of kings and men favored by the gods.

Ancient Egypt produced art that is monumental and unchanging. Egyptian art was created for divine kings and for the ka of the dead. Egypt counted on the pharaoh to keep order, prosperity, and stability. The culture prized the regular and predictable: the journey of the sun; the annual flooding of the Nile; and the voyage to the afterlife. It is this regularity that establishes standard forms of depicting the human figure and influences the subject matter in art for a couple of thousands of years.

Near Eastern and Egyptian Art and Architecture

Near Eastern Art Characteristics

  • Marked by different Mesopotamian peoples and their shifting focus of power. Do not have cultural uniformity and continuity that are reflected in the traditions of ancient Egypt.

Characteristics/Conventions:

  • The enduring architectural monument was the temple. Reflects the view of life in which human beings were meant to serve the gods, who personified the powerful forces of nature.
  • Strong fortifications were necessary. The city-states of Mesopotamia were so often at war with each other.
  • Depicting the power and authority of the king. Kings sensed that art could help glorify their reigns and tell narratives that would last into the ages. Resulted in steles to commemorate military victories and laws - palaces to glorify.
  • Hybrids of animals and men are common themes. Protective guardians and symbols of power.
  • Deification of the king.
  • The use of hierarchy of scale, composite figures, and registers.
  • Use of whitewashed plaster, glazed tile, and paint on mud-brick buildings due to lack of good stone in region.

Egyptian Art Characteristics

  • Marked by CONSERVATISM: rules and conventions established in early period persist for 3000 years. Egyptian art is characterized by solemn idealism and solidity of form. There is little fluctuation, with the exception of the Amarna Period under Akhenaton.

Characteristics/Conventions:

  • Architecture on a monumental scale - funerary monuments and temple complexes.
  • Stress placed on deifying the pharaoh. Monumental works created to show their power and authority.
  • The use of registers, with the bottom line as the ground line was used as the means to tell narratives.
  • Art is generally a combination of text and images.
  • On flat surfaces, things may be seen from the front, the side, or above.
  • Sculptural works, carved from blocks of hard stone, are usually blockish, with a dominance of vertical and horizontal lines to communicate permanence and stability.
  • High rank is portrayed with strict conventions. Royal figures are hieratic (after a specific style) and naturalistic. Everyone else is portrayed naturalistically.

Conventions used for depicting the pharaoh or the pharaoh's family:

  • Stylized and idealized, intended to look divine.
  • In prime of life.
  • Broad shoulders, narrow hips.
  • Some muscle definition, but not "too much."
  • Calm facial expression.
  • Hieratic perspective/scale.
  • Flat surface: composite view (face, hips, legs and feet in profile, torso frontal).
  • Sculpture: facing strictly frontal.
  • Poses: either sitting with both feet on the ground, standing with one foot a few inches forward, or striding forward.

Review the Near East and Egyptian works in the Art Gallery presentation below.

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