Art History - first 5 weeks

Prehistoric Sumer (Mesopotamia)
Box found in one of the Chambers at Royal Cemetary
War Panel - earliest rep. of Sumer Army - Trampling enemy - prisoners wounded and naked - humiliation - Brought to King
Peace Panel - Banquet scene
Panels shown in registers, King in Hierarcal scale, Abstract Figures, conceptual

Horizontal Bands/Panels

View from front

Upright marker stone

Figure of importance shown by artist's signals through position and larger size

Conventional means of warding off evil (eyes wide open)

Can be High or Low
3D etching in stone

mixture of frontal and profile view, eye usually frontal
Offers many details that go toward making up object portrayed though not necessarily anatomically correct

What art is made of, what it looks like, what KIND of art is it (relief, carved, sculpture, clay, stone, etched, mosaic, narritive)

What's happening in the images and how do you know what is happening

culture where it was found. It's purpose. Where it came from. Was it private, public, political, powerful?

Relief carving on Palette, stone, usually used to mix paint.
Back: Top images of sky goddess as horned animal, narmer is standing in middle in composite view - conceptual - hierarchal scale showing narmer ready to hit defeated enemy -
Front: Goddess at top, hierarchtic scale, Narmer with slaves, defeated enemies taking up lots of space
Showing unity of upper and lower egypt by crowns on both sides and blessing from sun goddess. Depicting harmony.

Close resemblance of how image truly is in nature

Depicted object as we would see it

Etching in to the stone, seems flat from side

Egyptian

Made of Diorite (meant to last forever) - found in Acropolis of Ancient Susa
decorated with a relief of Hammurabi being commissioned by the sun god Shamash (horns on crown depict great power) to inscribe the laws
1st actual written laws constructed in Babylon.
Enscribed in cunieform

Akkadian - god like kings (shown by horns) - relief stele made of sandstone.
Shows him stepping up to the Gods (depicted by Sun), trampling his enemies

From Northwest Palace in Calah
Alabaster Relief Carving
Assyrians have won - foes swimming away in fear - conceptual space: off proportion

Neolithic Iran SUSA - Clay vase with 3 animals: goats, birds, dogs - Abstraction of animals to use as art and show organic features of animals - Stylized Animal Form

Lamassu - Stone relief and sculpture -

Egyptian - Limestone Relief - Realism, sunken relief off proportion - Showing lots of emotion both optical and conceptual- would keep this in a home for worship - Shows new sun god (monotheastic)