Barron's: Chapter 2 - Ancient Near Eastern Art

Question 1

Sumerian Art

Answer 1

• 3500-2340 B.C.E.

- Iraq

Question 2

Babylonian Art

Answer 2

• 1792-1750 B.C.E.

- Iraq

Question 3

Assyrian Art

Answer 3

• 883-612 B.C.E.

- Iraq

Question 4

Persian Art

Answer 4

• 559-331 B.C.E.

- Iran

Question 5

Essential Knowledge

Answer 5

• Ancient Near Eastern art takes place mostly in city-states of Mesopotamia
• Art from this region is one of the foundations of art history
• Figures are constructed within stylistic conventions of the time, including hierarchy of scale, registers, and stylized human forms
• Ancient Near Eastern architecture is characterized by ziggurats and palaces

Question 6

White Templs and its ziggurat

Answer 6

• 3500-3000 B.C.E.
• mud brick
• Uruk, Iraq
• sumerian art
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons:
  
  • Yaxchilan Structure 40
  • Templo Mayor, Tenochtitlan
  • Acropolis

Question 7

Statues of votive figures, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna

Answer 7

• c. 2700 B.C.E.
• gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone
• Iraq Museum
• sumerian art
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons: Shrine Figures
  
  • Female Deity from Nukuoro (figure 28.2)
  • Veranda post (figure 27.14)
  • Ikenga (shrine figure) (figure 27.10)

Question 8

Standard of Ur

Answer 8

• 2600-2400 B.C.E.
• wood inlayed with shell, lapis lazuli, and limestone
• British Museum, London
• Sumerian art
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons: narrative in art
  
  • Bayeux Tapestry
  • Column of Trajan
  • Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace

Question 9

Stele of Hammurabi

Answer 9

• 1792-1750 B.C.E.
• basalt
• Louvre, Paris
• Babylonian art
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons: humans and the Divine
  
  • Jayavarman VII as Buddha
  • Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings
  • Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Question 10

Lamassu

Answer 10

• 720-705 B.C.E.
• alabaster
• Louvre, Paris
• Assyrian art
• Cross-Cultural comparisons: Hybrid figures
  
  • Sphinx
  • Buk Mask
  • Mutu, Preying Mantra

Question 11

Persepolis

Answer 11

• 520-465 B.C.E.
• limestone
• Iran
• Persian art
• cross-cultural comparisons: ceremonial spaces
  
  • Forum of Trajan
  • Forbidden city
  • Great Zimbabwe

Question 12

apadana

Answer 12

• an audience hall in a Persian palace

Question 13

apotropaic

Answer 13

• having the power to ward off evil or bad luck

Question 14

capital

Answer 14

• the top element of a column

Question 15

cella

Answer 15

• the main room of a temple where the god is housed

Question 16

cuneiform

Answer 16

• a system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge or arrowhead shape

Question 17

facade

Answer 17

• the front of a building. sometimes, more poetically, a speaker can refer to a side facade or a rear facade

Question 18

ground line

Answer 18

• a base line upon which figures stand

Question 19

ground plan

Answer 19

• the map of a floor of a building

Question 20

hierarchy of scale

Answer 20

• a system of representation that expresses a person’s importance by the size of his or her representation in a work of art

Question 21

lamassu

Answer 21

• a colossal winged human-headed bull in Asyrian art

Question 22

negative space

Answer 22

• empty space around an object or a person, such as the cut-out area between a figure’s legs or arms of a sculpture

Question 23

register

Answer 23

• a horizontal band, often on top of another tells a narrative story

Question 24

relief sculpture

Answer 24

• sculpture that projects form a flat backgroud

Question 25

bas-relief

Answer 25

• a very shallow relief sculpture

Question 26

stele

Answer 26

• a stone slab used to mark a grave or a site

Question 27

votive

Answer 27

• offered in fulfillment of a vow or a pledge

Question 28

ziggurat

Answer 28

• a pyramid-like building made of several stories that indent as the building gets taller; have terraces at each level