ARTH 111 Exam 1 Essay

Question 1

Altamira “Ceiling of the Bisons” ☆

Answer 1

(Paleolithic, 15,000-10,000 BCE) - Depicted a herd of bison, marked on the ceiling with a set of pigments, accentuated the natural wall projections,

Question 2

Lascaux Caves ☆

Answer 2

(Paleolithic, 15,000-13,000 BCE) - Contains thousands of painted figures of humans and animals, “Hall of the Bulls” huge scale paintings where heads look straight but show both horns as if head was turned, trying to make informational paintings, cataloging of parts

Question 3

Chauvet Cave

Answer 3

(Paleolithic, 30,000-28,000 BCE) - Many paintings of animals, harnessed the natural curves of the cave walls, pictorial overlapping, narratives in some of the scenes e. fighting rhinos

Question 4

Woman of Willendorf ☆

Answer 4

(Paleolithic carving, 25,000-21,000 BCE) - Carved from a pebble of limestone, abstracted female form with rounded shapes

Question 5

Plastered skulls ☆

Answer 5

(Paleolithic. 7200-6700) - Painted and embellished with seashells, life-sized, used for commemoration and perhaps ancestor worship, the beginning of naturalistic portraiture, animism - the spirit of the ancestor could inhabit the bones and this plastered head

Question 6

Human Figures, Ain Ghazal ☆

Answer 6

(Neolithic, 6750-6250 BCE) - Up to 3 ft. tall, figures have lively expressions, slightly more realistic but still some abstraction, reaching towards some naturalism

Question 7

Catal Huyuk ☆

Answer 7

(Neolithic, 5750) - Expression of communal codependence with houses that share walls
Detail of wall painting from a house - Deer Hunt - theme of hunting, stag (horned animal) with human figures running after it, scene instead of more random placement - clear sense of narrative, lively motions of the humans
“Landscape with volcanic eruption” from walls of a shrine, people call it the first landscape, implied horizon line with mountain that rises above it

Question 8

Newgrange tumulus

Answer 8

(Neolithic, 3200-2500 BCE) - Sacred geometry, ties to the solstice sunrise: passage lined up so that on the solstices it peaks right down the full length of the passage, primitive dome made of laid corbels, about 6 tombs found: probably a royal burial

Question 9

Stonehenge ☆

Answer 9

(Neolithic, 2800-1500 BCE) - Standing stones set in concentric circles, surrounded by more concentric circles in mounts and trenches, solstice light alignments with certain stones

Question 10

Clay cuneiform tablets from Uruk and cylindrical seals

Answer 10

(Mesopotamia, 2500 BCE) - Development of literary text

Question 11

Ziggurat at Uruk ☆

Answer 11

(Mesopotamia) “House of Heaven”, rises like a mountain, baked clay bricks bound with bitumen, rectangular stepped tower surmounted by a temple (White Temple), used for worship and connection of the human world with the gods

Question 12

Ziggurat at Ur

Answer 12

(Mesopotamia) Constructed of mud brick with a baked brick facing, geometric organization around axiality and symmetry, bottom is the earthly realm, as you climb up you are ascending a sacred mountain, cella found at the top

Question 13

Female Head probably depicting the Goddess of Love and War Inanna ☆

Answer 13

(Mesopotamia) - Face carved from limestone,
studying the natural world to make this work more realistic, balancing the natural world with a goddess like depiction

Question 14

Vase from Uruk showing the presentation of offerings to Inanna ☆

Answer 14

(Mesopotamia, 3200-3000 BCE) - Made of alabaster, represented the drinking cups that were used in elite households and in temple practice, drinking vessel for the gods, pour libations in the vase - ritual offerings of drinks for the gods so they favor the giver, geometric motifs, animals, and shapes carved into the sides, river on the bottom, growing out are river plants, next register has a solid line which could be the bank of the river and on top are herds that a successful community is able to raise, above is the products of the harvest, the top has all of the things brought into the presence of the goddess, barrer with a basket standing in front of the larger goddess - bringing offerings to the goddess, hierarchy of scale - more important figures get to be bigger than less important

Question 15

Set of statues from Abu Temple ☆

Answer 15

(Mesopotamia) - Made of limestone, alabaster, and gypsum, stature is formal and looking up almost as if worshiping, wide-eyed before the presence of the divine, figures were brought and given to the temple, maybe stand-ins for the person who brought them

Question 16

“Royal Standard” of Ur ☆

Answer 16

(Mesopotamia) - Wood inlaid with shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli (blue parts), richly decorated with a mosaic inlay of shells, two-sided - war side and peace side
War side: Charieaters trampling the bodies of enemies with enemies taking captive
Peace side: Preparation for a banquet
Bringing things for the feast, like animals and war booty
Hierarchy of scale
Composed in stacked registers, the figures are predominantly shown in a

Question 17

Victory stele of Naram-Sin ☆

Answer 17

(Mesopotamia: Akkadians) - A vision of rulership dominance and commemorating victory, the king is climbing a mountain, his soldiers follow behind him as he crushes the enemies beneath his feet, hierarchy of scale, stele - carved stone which is stood up, made of pink sandstone, enemies have more motion to them

Question 18

Gudea with a temple plan ☆

Answer 18

(Mesopotamia: Akkadians) - Made of Diorite a rare mineral, ambitious in his self representation, shown in humble/meek pose which make us suppose that his statues were meant for the decoration of temples, in his lap is the plan of a temple, presenting a gift to the devine in the temple he built to devote to the gods

Question 19

The Stele with the Law Code of Hammurabi ☆

Answer 19

(Mesopotamia: Babylonians) - Made of basalt volcanic stone which is durable and long-lasting, approximately 7 feet tall, Hammurabi is the standing figure who comes into the presence of a god, document about justice in the context of a society in which there are systemic injustices

Question 20

The Palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad ☆

Answer 20

(Mesopotamia) - Laid out with some of the ideal planning which is arranged around axis, surrounded by a set of walls and towers, meant to speak the message of the king’s greatness, Lamassus: figures that marked thresholds part bull part human serve as mighty guardians
meant to be viewed from straight on and from the side separately

Question 21

Ishtar Gate ☆

Answer 21

(Persian: Neo-Babylonian Period) - One of the main entrances to the city approached by an axial boulevard, made of baked clay bricks but the bricks are glazed so that they can be decorated with bright colors, visual expression of grandeur in the height of the arch

Question 22

Palette of King Narmer ☆

Answer 22

(Predynastic and Early Dynastic, 3100 BCE) - One side has the king beating his enemy, other side you see long neck fantasy animals, used to mix eyeblack in the circle the necks create, exudes a military mightiness, organized into horizontal registers, bull smashing through the walls of a city on the bottom register, Narmer has a composite pose: features abstracted, proportions = canonical

Question 23

Burials & Tomb types: the Mastaba

Answer 23

Box shaped structure with walls that taper inward as they go up, provides a house for the Ka, architectural expression of the idea of a burial mound, solid stone structure above the ground (rubble faced with ashlar masonry blocks)

Question 24

The step-Pyramid of King Zoser (Djoser) at Saqqara ☆

Answer 24

(Predynastic and Early Dynastic, 2630-2611 BCE) - Made of limestone, stacking of mastaba forms make the first pyramid, heroic scale, most prominent piece of a vast complex, includes altars, a temple, and a tomb
Planning Principles: Axiality, Bilateral Symmetries, Progression of spaces towards climax

Question 25

The Pyramids of Giza ☆

Answer 25

(Old Kingdom, 2490-2528) - Metaphors for the rays of the sun falling to the earth, manifestations of the divine on earth, Pharaoh believed to be a god who walks on earth
The Great Pyramid of Khufu: Perfect square aligned almost perfectly with the cardinal directions, originally had a smoother face
Kafre’s pyramid: still maintains some of its outer sheathing near its top
Menkaure’s pyramid: distinguished by a giant gash in the North face who resolved to destroy the pyramids but did not get very far

Question 26

Seated Statue of Khafre as the “Horus King” ☆

Answer 26

(Old Kingdom, 2520-2494 BCE) - Stylization of his features, on his shoulders is the spirit of Horus as a bird which reaches out and folds his wings around the head of Khafre as if the god is protecting him and whispering in his ear describing divine kingship

Question 27

The Great Sphinx ☆

Answer 27

(Old Kingdom) - Khafre’s face on the Sphynx, a portrait of Khafre as a divine guardian figure, hybrid body of animal-human combination is godly, the Pharoah partakes of the divine; the divine partakes of the Pharoah, stands at the threshold between the inhabited land and the dessert area

Question 28

Menkaure and Khamerernebty ☆

Answer 28

(Old Kingdom, 2490-2472) - Very formal pose, idealization to show importance

Question 29

Burials & Tomb types: Rock cut tombs at Beni Hasan ☆

Answer 29

(Middle Kingdom) - Represent a Middle Kingdom alternative in burial practice, columns carved out of the live rock (the actual stone of the site), immitate architectural structure

Question 30

Colossal Statue of Amenhotep ☆

Answer 30

(New Kingdom) - Instituted a new style, curved lines, elongated face, differs from the Canon

Question 31

Female figure, Cyclades ☆

Answer 31

(Cycladic , 2500 BCE) - Made of white marble, flat not meant to stand up, laid in tombs as company for the dead or laid in shrines are votive offerings that represented the devotees, suppose that these were painted, abstract: head shaped like a shield and elongated neck

Question 32

Palace Complex at Knossos ☆

Answer 32

(Minoan, 1600-1400 BCE) - Tree trunks made into columns that taper towards the bottom and painted bright red, complex in plan, elevation, and sections, multiple entrances almost pegged to the cardinal directions

Question 33

The Bull-Leaping Fresco ☆

Answer 33

(Minoan- 1500 BCE) - Acrobatic characters acting out the three stages of when you leap a bull, bull is not perfectly anatomically accurate, artist deliberately elongated the torso and made the shoulders and neck massive, human figures also abstracted in a way that is specific to Minoan art, very thin waists and curved trapezoid chest and hips and thin ankles long necks

Question 34

Lion’s Gate at Mycenae ☆

Answer 34

(Mycenean, 1300-1250 BCE) - corbelling system surrounding the triangle in the middle, sculpture of two lions facing each other on either side of a column, abstracted musculature

Question 35

Kouros sculpture ☆

Answer 35

(Archaic 600-590) - Made of marble, Kouros means a youth, appear as grave markers as idealized figures of strength and liveliness, the face has giant eyes with an almond shape, geometric tendencies throughout

Question 36

“Anavysos” Kouros ☆

Answer 36

(Archaic 540-525 BCE) - Made of marble, sculpted lines instead of incised, closer to naturalism, traces of polychromy, painting on the marble, slight smile about liveliness

Question 37

Charioteer from Motya

Answer 37

(The Classical Period, 450–440 BCE) - Very pronounced engagement of the left leg with the right leg relaxed and sticking out, compression of the left side which the figure is leaning on

Question 38

Temple of Hera II, aka Temple of Poseidon ☆

Answer 38

(Early and High Classical Period, 500 BCE) - Peripteral temple, core of the temple, with the portico, the pronaos, the cella or naos with the cult statue, sits in the landscape like a sculpture, Greeks obsessed with divine order

Question 39

The Parthenon ☆

Answer 39

(Early and High Classical Period, 447-432 B.C.) - Canonical use of the Doric order, made out of Pentelic marble, entasis, optical distortions: slightly curved lines bowed in the middle, Doric entablature, figurated metopes in the frieze, painted on the marble sculptures as well as the decorative geometric scroll patterns and motifs, sculpture in the pediment, acroterion on the corners of the pediment, peripteral colonnade

Question 40

Nike of Samothrace

Answer 40

(Hellenistic, 190 BCE) Use of contrapposto, wings, mighty/powerful pose

Question 41

Temple of Portunus, Rome

Answer 41

(Republic, 75 BCE) - Rectangular temple, perfect example of the early Roman temple, portico with Ionic columns canonical with entasis, Ionic engaged columns continued around the sides

Question 42

Portrait of a Roman general from the Sanctuary of Hercules

Answer 42

(Republic, 75-50 BCE) - Statue with drapery, perfect body, highly particularized face, meeting of Greek canonicity with the Roman intensity towards honesty