Transcript PowerPoint Paleolithic, Meso., Eygpt, African

Pre-Historic/Ancient
Near East
Pre-Historic Civilizations
The Paleolithic Period –
30,000 B.C.E. to 10,000
B.C.E.
Pre-Historic Civilization (Cont.)
Earliest examples of creativity of
mankind
Visual Arts – Sculptures and
Cave Painting
Painting – The Cave of Lascaux
France
Characteristics of Cave Paintings
• Animal Images in Profile
• Black Outlines
• Limited Colors (Red, Yellow, Ochre,
Brown, Black)
• Attempt at Naturalism and Realism
• Purpose: Ritual (Hunting)
Human Figures in Cave Paintings
• No attempt at naturalism
• More stick-like in appearance
Not creating realistic images of humans
is probably from superstitions/beliefs in
powers of images.
These beliefs are still present in some
cultures today.
How Were Prehistoric Cave Pictures
Painted?
Using sea-shells as paint containers and working by
candlelight, Stone Age artists employed a wide
variety of painting methods. Initially, they painted
with their fingers; before switching to lumpy
pigment crayons, pads of moss, or brushes made of
animal hair or vegetable fiber. They even employed
spray painting techniques using reeds or specially
hollowed bones. They employed foreshortening and
shadowing techniques. Each era introduced new
cave painting methods, and caves decorated over
many generations exhibit numerous styles - at
Lascaux, for instance, archeologists have identified
over a dozen different painting styles.
Sculpture
• Human and Animal Sculptures
-Most common human figures were
fertility figures and “Venus” figures.
• Most sculptures were “found objects” that
required very little manipulation
• Used for Ritual Purposes
Bison Licking Its Flanks
ca. 14,000 BC
Dordogne, France
Venus of Willendorf
c. 24,000-22,000 BCE
Oolitic limestone
4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) high
Architecture
• Post and Lintel Construction
• Use of Megalithic Stones
• Purpose: Ritual
Stonehenge
between 3000 and 1700 B.C.E.
•Built in three stages
•Circular Arrangement
•Post and Lintel Construction
Stonehenge
https://www.englishheritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge
/discover/virtual-tour/
Music, Dance, and Drama
Minimal Physical Evidence
• Footprints in dance-like patterns on
cave floors (Dance)
• Objects possible used as instruments
found in caves (Music)
• Images of masked figures
(Drama/Storytelling)
Purpose: Ritual
Mesopotamia
The Fertile Crescent/The
Cradle of Civilization
Earliest Civilizations in area
between Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers
Known Civilizations of this Region
(in Chronological Order):
Sumerian
Assyrian
Akkadian
Neo-Babylonian
Neo-Sumarian
Persian
Babylonian
Cuneiform – Writing System
http://www.penn.museum/cgi/cuneiform.cgi
Writing with WedgeShaped Characters on
Clay Tablets created by
Sumerians
How cuneiform
changed over
3,000 years
Sumerian Visual Art
Examples
• Sculpture
• Ceramics
• Jewelry
Tell Asmar Sculptures
Free-Standing Sculptures of Human Figures
Large Eyes (Windows to the Soul)
Posed Frontal, Stiff and Formal
Size Shows Rank or Importance
Beards and Pleated Skirts Symbols of
Power
• Hands Clasped as if Praying, Looking
Upward
• Purpose - Ritual
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Tell Asmar Statues
Repetion
Simplification (every gender looks the same)
Hierarchy shown in size of statues
Sumerian Sculpture
Use of Image of a Bull
Common in Sumerian
and other cultures
Symbolic of Power and
Strength
Ceramics Example
ca. 3100-2900 B.C.
Baked clay, painted
17.2 cm H, 23.5 cm W
The
potter’s
wheel was
created in
Meso.
around
6,000 and
4,000 BC.
Jewelry Example
Puabi's headdress ca. 2550–2400 B.C
http://sumerianshakespeare.com/117701/118101.html
Architecture - Ziggurats
Temples in the form of Stepped
Mounds of earth and brick.
Symbolic of man reaching toward
the gods in heaven.
In ancient Sumer, in the center
of each town, was the
Ziggurat. The Ziggurat was a
temple. The ancient Sumerians
believed that the gods lived in
the sky. In order for the gods to
hear better, you needed to get
closer to them. Ziggurats were
huge and built in steps, with a
wide base, narrowing to a flat
top.
Ziggurat of Ur
c. 2100 B.C.E.
built by the king
Ur-Nammu
Sumerian Musical Instrument
Bull-Headed
Lyre - Lyre of
Queen Puabi,
Ur, c. 2685
BCE
Dance and Drama
• Evidence of Singing and Dancing in Written
Sumerian Texts and on Relief Sculptures –
Usually Religious in Nature.
• Dance by both Men and Women in Religious
Ceremonies and for Social Purposes in Assyrian
Culture
• Babylonians had Religious Dance where Dancers
Performed in a Ring around a Sacred Sculpture
Egyptian
Civilization
3100 B.C.E. – 322
B.C.E
• 3 Kingdoms – Old, Middle, and New
• Kingdoms divided into Dynasties
– a Single Family in Power
• Following Last of Dynasties,
Ruled by Hellenistic Greece
• 30 B.C.E – Egypt becomes a
province of Rome
Egyptian Culture
Dependence on the Nile River
Life and Culture Centered on Religion
Belief in Life After Death
Pharoah (ruler) a God on Earth
Ka (soul) reborn after death to join the
gods in the afterlife
• Body preserved to house the ka
(mummification and pyramid burial)
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Egyptian Painting
• Most for Tombs and Temples
• Scenes First Carved in Low Relief into
Limestone Walls, then Painted in Bright
Colors on Top of a Layer of Dry Plaster.
• Scenes Reflected Egyptian Dieties and
Daily Life – Necessary to Ease the Journey
to the Land of the Dead and to Provide for
them in the Afterlife
Painting Rules
Body in Correct Proportion
Faces and Legs in Profile
Eyes, Shoulder, and Torso from Front
Pharaohs and Nobles in Stiff Poses, Standing or
Sitting on Lines Representing the Ground
• Persons of Less Importance in Comfortable
Movement and Natural Poses.
• Flesh of Men – Dark Red or Brown
• Flesh of Women – Yellow, White, or Pale Brown
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Egyptian Painting (cont.)
Paintings from the tomb of Unsu
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty
Sculpture
• Commemorate a Person or Event or
Substitute for a real person
• Huge in Scale
• Stone and Wooden Statues placed in
tombs to represent the dead
• Relief carvings and model figures of daily
life or activities of the dead in the next
world
Old Kingdom Sculpture
• Pharaohs – Seated with hands on knees or
Standing, one leg forward, arms at side or
crossed in front.
• Stiff, Formal, and Solemn
• Size to show social order:
Pharaohs larger than life
Scribes and Court Officials life-sized
Workers/Peasants smallest, always
shown working
• Statues of Gods as Animals reflecting their
personalities
Khafre!
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
The Great Sphinx
Facts about the Sphinx
• Head of Sphinx carved in about 2500 BC
Face is that of the Pharaoh Khafre,
measures 4.1 m wide . Body of a lion
• Sphinx is 73 m long, 20 m high. Carved
from the rock, different layers eroding at
different rates. Head cut from harder
strata than the lower body.
• Guards Khafre’s Pyramid
Egyptian Architecture
• Primary focus was creation of temples
and tombs
• Most famous tombs, the pyramids,
were built to protect the bodies of
Pharoahs for the afterlife and to serve
as a symbol of the pharoah’s power.
Development of Pyramids: Phase
One
Developed from
Mastabas which
were flat roofed,
single story
buildings with
sloping sides.
“Cities of the dead”
Phase Two– Stepped Pyramids
Most
Commonly
had four
or six steps
Stepped Pyramid of Djoser,
2600 B.C.E.
Designed by Imhotep
Phase Three – True Pyramids
The Great Pyramids at Giza
(Menkaure, Khufu, Khafre – left to right)
Inside Khufu’s Pyramid
Egyptian Dance, Drama, and Music
• Egyptians the first great culture to make
music and dance a part of life for all social
classes
• Music and Dance also used for
religious/ritual purposes
• Tomb and Temple paintings show
evidence of music and dance, but no
written music survives.
Egyptian Drama, Dance, and Music
(cont.)
• Egyptian music based on Pentatonic scale
of 5 whole steps (no half steps)
• Choreography of Egyptian dance appears
to consist of complex range of movements
from acrobatics (splits, cartwheels, and
backbends) to slow, elegant, and more
formal dance steps.
• Drama – religious performances of drama
and Satirical plays
Evidence of Music in Egyptian Art
Works
Resources
• http://www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
• http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfdiscovery.html
• http://w3.salemstate.edu/~ckramer/bison.html
•
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/Stonehenge/pic_suns
et1.html
• http://www.upennmuseum.com/cuneiform.cgi
• http://www.coconino.edu/apetersen/_ART201/sumeria.htm
• http://www.coconino.edu/apetersen/_ART201/sumeria.htm
•
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/7357/mesoart1.htm
• http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/First_Cities/clothing_
mesosyria_object_61ae.asp
Resources (cont.)
• http://www.multimedialibrary.com/FramesML/IM4/IM4page6.asp
• http://www.multimedialibrary.com/FramesML/IM4/IM4page11.as
p
• http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C
%3Ecnt_id=10134198673393291&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%
3Ecnt_id=10134198673393291&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=98527
23696500807&fromDept=false&baseIndex=28&bmUID=11508232
91644&bmLocale=en
• http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/sphinx_02.html
• Images from Collection of Melisa Gano
• http://www.genuineafrica.com/