ART HISTORY

• Aesthetic Significance
• Historical, Cultural, and Social Relevance
• Development of Art through Time
• Events
• Major Characteristics (Art Forms)
• Composition and Elements
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
• Four Types:
–Petroglyphs
–Pictographs
–Prehistoric Sculptures
–Megalithic Art
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
• Petroglyphs:
–Cupules: Cup-like scouring of the
rock surface
–Rock Carvings
–Engravings
CUPULES
ENGRAVINGS
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
• Pictograph:
–Cave Paintings
–Drawings
Painting of a Bison (c, 15,000 BCE)
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
• Prehistoric Sculptures:
–Small Statuettes
–Relief Sculptures
Venus Willendorf (25,000 BCE),
Fertility Statues
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
• Megalithic Art:
–Arrangement of large pieces of
stones
Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain England
(Cemetery)
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
The primitive men depended on
hunting on hunting of wild animals for
food and clothing, and lived mostly in
caves.
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
With an attempt to represent their
belief s and their world at that time,
they painted images on cave walls and
ceilings.
 PREHISTORIC PERIOD
• Cave Art: Engraved, Sculpted, or
Painted on rocks
–Animals
–Human Figures
–Tools and Weapons
–Local Maps
–Symbols
Altamira, Spain (Earliest Cave Arts)
Hand Paintings (Cave Art)
 EGYPTIAN
• Religion
• Immortality or life after death
• Perfection (Ideal world of Gods)
• Functional (Serve home for Gods)
 EGYPTIAN
• Pyramids:
–Base is a perfect square, showing
belief of perfection
–House remains of dead
kings/pharoas
 EGYPTIAN
• Pyramids: (INSIDE)
–Treasures
–Images of the king surrounded by his
family
–Osiris (god of underworld)
–Isis (Wife of Osiris)
–Other deities
 EGYPTIAN
Egyptian Art is not meant to be
seen. Most of its are was
discovered inside the pyramids and
temples.
 EGYPTIAN
• Architecture:
–Post-and-lintel system (oldest
method of construction)
–Columns: Lotus and Papyrus motifs
–Hieroglyphic Characters: recording
the deeds of the Pharoahs
Lotus and Papyrus motifs
Hieroglyphic Characters
 EGYPTIAN
• Paintings: Representational,
showing the image or object at its
most recognizable angle
–Human Figure: Show the faces,
waist, and limbs (profile), Eye and
Shoulder (frontality)
 EGYPTIAN
• Paintings: Kings are placed on the
same scale as the deities, larger
t h a n t h e e l i t e a n d a v e ra g e
Egyptian. Scenes in their
p a i n t i n g s w e r e s p e ra t e d i n
Parallel lines known as REGISTERS.
 EGYPTIAN
• Paintings: Registers serve to
convey information about the
scenes. The higher the scene, the
higher the status.
 EGYPTIAN
• Statues: Show frontal Image,
design to face the ritual being
performed before them
 GREEK
• Three Periods:
–Archaic
–Classical or Hellenic
–Hellenistic
 GREEK
• Archaic Period:
–Linear
–Geometric (painted in vases)
–Human Figure: Kouros and Kore
 Kouros (Nude Male)
and Kore (Fully Clad Female)
 GREEK
• Classical or Hellenic Period:
– Golden Age of Athens: (Cultural
Achievements
–Aesthetic Ideals
–Emphasis on form, Intellectual Order,
Harmony, Perfect Proportion, and
Balance
 GREEK
• Classical or Hellenic Period:
– Sculptures: Human Figures in three-
dimensional and in great detail. No
expression and no imperfection.
 One good
example of a
“perfect”
sculpture is that
of Polykleitos’
Spear-bearer
 GREEK
• Classical or Hellenic Period:
– Architecture: (THREE ORDER PLAY)
• Doric
• Ionic
• Corinthian
THREE ORDER PLAY
THREE ORDER PLAY
 GREEK
• Hellenistic Period:
–Greek culture intermingled with
Oriental Culture
–Art became dynamic, flexible, and
truthful
–Honest view of humanity (showing
emotions)
 GREEK
• Architecture:
–Pioneered in building TEMPLES, and
other PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
Temple of Hera, Olimpia (DORIC)
Ionia, (Ionic Order)
Temple of Apollo, Bassae (Corinthian)