Exam #2 | Chp 6 | Art Pieces Flashcards
- Piece:*
- *Venus of Willendorf**
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
- Period / Movement:*
- *Paleolithic**
Importance:
• Fertility Goddesses and Gods
• Earliest fertility artifacts from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods were small sculptures of females depicted:
•• as fleshy.
•• with swollen bellies.
•• with accentuated breasts and thighs.
• Although sometimes labeled a fertility goddess, this small sculpture was likely more a charm or a fetish.
• She may have been used:
•• during childbirth.
•• to ward off death.
•• to wish for good health.
•• for good fortune.
Other Info:
25,000-20,000 BCE
Austria
Limestone
- Piece:*
- *God Te Rongo and his Three Sons**
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
Period / Movement:
Polynesian
Cook Islands
Importance:
• Fertility Goddesses and Gods
• In the 19th century, male fertility pieces were produced by Oceanic cultures.
• In comparison to the rest of the figure, the large penis emphasizes the virility of Te Rongo.
• Male sculptures were carved for religious rituals by Ta’unga, or “priests.”
• The art object was:
•• meant to endure, passing from one generation to the next. • a symbol of prestige and rank.
•• exclusive to those of power and rank.
•• a source of sacred information.
Other Info:
1800-1900s
wood
Piece:
Initiation Rites of Dionysos,
Villa of the Mysteries
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
Period / Movement:
Roman
Pompeii, Italy
Importance:
• This fresco depicts a solemn ritual associated with sexual intercourse and fertility by the mystery cult of Dionysos.
• The illusionist frieze (a decorative horizontal band found in architecture) shows figures striking classic Greek poses against “Pompeian Red” panels.
• The nearly life-size figures, with convincing volume and anatomy, move and turn in a shallow space on a trompe l’oeil (“fool the eye”) ledge.
Other Info:
50 AD
Fresco
Piece:
Akua’ba Doll
(not identical to image in handout)
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
Period / Movement:
Ashanti
Ghana, Africa
Importance:
• Akua’ba Ghana are fertility sculptures created:
•• for women having difficulty conceiving.
•• to ensure a healthy and beautiful baby.
• In these figures, we see the interpretation of beauty reduced to uncomplicated, minimal forms.
Other Info:
20th Century
Wood
- Piece:*
- *Wedding Portrait**
- Artist:*
- *Jan van Eyck**
- Period / Movement:*
- *Flemish Renaissance**
- Importance:*
- *ART DEPICTING PRIMORDIAL AND HUMAN COUPLES**
• The union of human couples is documented in art across cultures.
• The Wedding Portrait is more than a double portrait, it is a wedding certificate, with obvious and hidden symbolism:
•• in the bedroom rather than church, suggesting hope for many children. •• the woman holds her clothing as if pregnant.
•• shoeless, they are on holy ground.
•• he raises his hand in a gesture of blessing.
•• one candle burning in the chandelier represents divine presence.
•• the frame of the mirror depicts the passion of Christ.
•• oranges on the chest and windowsill represent the conquest of death.
•• the dog symbolizes fidelity.
•• on the bedpost finial is a statuette of St. Margaret, patron saint of childbirth.
•• van Eyck depicts witnesses, including himself, in the mirror.
Other Info:
1434
Oil on wood panel
National Gallery Collection, London
Piece:
Aztec Marriage Couple,
Codex Mendoza
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
Period / Movement:
Aztec
Mexico
- Importance:*
- *ART DEPICTING PRIMORDIAL AND HUMAN COUPLES**
• Aztec Marriage Couple depicts a man and woman seated on a mat, the bride powdered with yellow earth and adorned in red feathers.
• The formal vows took place in the groom’s home, the marriage performed by tying together their wedding garments—tying the knot.
Other Info:
1434
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Piece:
A Pair of Lovers
(Poem of the Pillow)
- Artist:*
- *Kitagawa Utamaro**
- Period / Movement:*
- *Japanese**
Importance:
ART ABOUT LOVEMAKING
• Lovemaking is essential in procreation.
• Sexuality is a libidinal urge that is gratifying, positive, and even energizing.
• Various cultures have their own ways of defining and depicting this universal act.
• This work reflects the ukiyo (“floating world”) theme, which refers to the Buddhist
concept of the transience of life.
• Gently and intimately erotic, this print captures a private moment between lovers.
• It is a visual poem of line, pattern, and color that composes the floating world image of the lovers’ pleasure.
• These shunga prints (spring pictures) centered on female beauty, the theater, and entertainment, and were collected like posters or baseball cards today.
Other Info:
1788
Wood block relief print
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Piece:*
- *Krishna and Radha in the Grove**
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
Period / Movement:
India
Kangra School, Kangra
- Importance:*
- *ART ABOUT LOVEMAKING**
• Erotic images appear regularly on Hindu temples and in miniature paintings of the 17th and 18th century.
• This miniature painting of ideal sexuality depicts the diety Krishna in a tender lovemaking scene with the shepherdess Radha.
• Radha and Krishna in the Grove was meant to be instructive, and the mythical sexual act was intended to be reincarnated regularly among living couples.
Other Info:
1760
watercolor on paper
Gouache on paper
- Piece:*
- *Olympia**
- Artist:*
- *Edward Manet**
- Period / Movement:*
- *Realism**
Importance:
ART ABOUT SEXUALITY IN WESTERN CULTURE
• Sexuality is complicated in modern Western art because:
•• of power relationships between men and women.
•• homosexuality and heterosexuality are also part of political debates.
•• sexuality is used to sell products.
•• abstract works on sexuality capture the energy, but leave other specifics undefined.
Manet’s Olympia scandalized the public because:
• her sexuality and nudity were contemporary and Western.
• Olympia was recognizable as a famous Paris courtesan.
• her unromantic expression made clear that sex and money would be exchanged.
• it shattered romantic illusions.
• it reveals the difference in social status according to race.
Manet’s defenders praised the work for its innovative qualities:
• thick paint applied directly on the canvas
• flat, bright color
• light areas separate from the dark, few midtones
• gestural mark making
• flatness versus illusion of depth
Other Info:
1863
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
- Piece:*
- *Torso of a Young Man**
- Artist:*
- *Constantin Brancusi**
- Period / Movement:*
- *Modern Sculpture**
Importance:
Sexuality, Politics, and Consumerism
• Sexuality is used to deliver a range of messages beyond reproduction. It:
•• attracts attention.
•• addresses politics.
•• examines the complexities of gender and gender norms.
Abstracted Sexual Imagery
• Brancusi’s sculpture is an abstracted form of male sexuality. The simplified torso is an obvious phallic symbol.
• Brancusi was influenced by:
•• the philosophy of the 11th-century monk Milarepa. • Romanian folk art.
•• African tribal art.
•• He created works intended to capture the essence and universality of pure form.
Other Info:
1924
Polished brass
Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.
- Piece:*
- *Kidder Figure**
- Artist:*
- *Unknown**
- Period / Movement:*
- *Mayan**
Importance:
IMAGES OF PREGNANCY, CHILDBIRTH, AND PROGENY
• Images of childbirth are seen in many cultures and have existed for ages.
• Maya pregnant figures represent the bearers of human offspring, as well as mothers of nature and progenitors of plant life.
• Some Moche sculptures of childbirth may have been teaching tools for birthing positions and techniques.
• More recent Western examples of pregnancy in art show the physical effects of pregnancy on a woman’s body.
• The Kidder Figure is a pregnant seated female.
• She emphasizes her enlarged abdomen by resting her hands on it.
• Her face reflects contentment and joyous anticipation of the birth event.
Other Info:
250 BCE – 100 AD
Ceramic vessel
