Unit 2 Mediterreanean - Ancient Near East And Egypt Flashcards
White temple and its ziggurat
Identification: white temple and its ziggurat, Uruk or modern day Warka Iraq, 3500-3000 BCE
Form: buttresses spread across the surface to create a contrasting light and shadow pattern, ziggurat tapers down, so rainwater washes off, entire form resembles mountain, creating contrast between vast, flat terrain, and man made mountain, bent access plan: ascending the stairs requires angular changes of direction to reach the temple
Function: on top of the cigarette is a terrace for outdoor rituals and a temple for indoor rituals, the temple on the top is small, set back and removed from the populous; access preserved for royalty and clergy: only the base of the temple remains, the temple interior contained a cella and smaller rooms meant for the deities to assemble before a select group of priests
Materials: mud, brick building, built on a colossal scale and covered with glazed tiles or cones, white washed to disguise, mud appearance, white Temple
Context: Lord settlement at Uruk of 40,000 based on agriculture and specialized labor, possibly first true city in history; first with monumental architecture, ziggurat cited within the city, deity was Anu the God of the sky, God’s descended from the heavens to a high place on earth, ziggurats, were the high places
Cross, cultural comparisons: Yaxchilan Structure (26.2 a), templo mayor Tenochtitlan (26.5 A ), Acropolis (4.16a)
Statues of votive figures
Identification: statues of votive figures, square temple at Eshnunna (modern day tell Asmar Iraq) 2700 BCE, gypsum inlaid with Shell and black limestone
Form: figures are of different heights, denoting, hierarchy of scale, hands folded in gesture of prayer, huge eyes, and all, spellbound, perhaps staring at the deity, men bare chested, wearing belted skirt, beard flows, and ripple pattern, women dress, stripped over one shoulder, arms, and feet, cut away, pinky in spiral; chin a wedge shape; ear, a double volute
Function: some having descriptions on the back: it offers prayers, other inscriptions tell the names of donors or gods, figures represent immortal; placed in a temple to pray before a sculpture of a God,
Context: Gods and humans physically present in their statues, none have been found in Situ, but buried in groups under the temple floor paragraph cross, cultural comparisons: female, deity from Nukuoro (28.2), veranda post (27.14), Ikenga (shrine figure) (27.10)
Standard of Ur
Identification: Standard of ur, from the Royal tombs at ur, modern day Tell-Muqayar, Iraq, 2600 to 2400 BCE, wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone
Form: figures have broad frontal shoulders; bodies and profile; twisted perspective, emphasis on eyes, eyebrows, ears, organized in registers, figure stand on ground lines, reads from bottom to top
Content: two sides: war and peace side; may have been 2/2 of a narrative; early example of a historical narrative, war side: Sumerian, King, half a head taller than the the others brought before him, descends from his chariot to inspect captives, some who are debased by their nudity, in lowest register, chariots advance over the dead, peace side: food brought in a procession to the banquet, musician place a liar, ruler is the largest figure – he wears a kilt made of tufts of wool, may have been a victory celebration after a battle
Context: found in tomb at Royal Cemetery at Ur, in modern Iraq, reflects, extensive trading network: lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, shells from the Persian Gulf, red limestone from India
Theories: perhaps used as a sound box for a musical instrument; modern name of standard comes from the theory that it was once placed upon a pole and carried in a procession , two scenes may illustrate the dual nature of an ideal. Sumerian ruler: the victorious, general and the father of his people, who promotes general welfare
Cross, cultural comparisons: Bayeux Tapestry (11.7 a 11.7 B), column of Trajan [6.16), night attack on the Sanjo palace (25.3 a 25.3 B)
Stele of Hammurabi 
Identification: Stele of Hammurabi, Babylonian (modern day Susa Iran), 1792-1750 BCE, basalt rock (volcanic rock, very hard, symbolizes permanence)
Form: Stele: commemorative slab meant to be put in an important location
Function: Below the main scene is one of the earliest law codes ever written
- symbolizes a rulers need to establish Civic Harmony in a civilized world
- the image symbolically shows the Sun God of Justice Shamash giving Hammurabi the authority to rule and the laws
Content: Sungod, Shamash (patron of justice), placed on a ziggurat (sitting on a mountain), composite view (shows many angles), hands Hammurabi, in a position of greeting a rope, a ring, and a rod of kingship
Context: written in cuneiform, text in Akkadian language read right to left and top bottom
History: hora United Mesopotamia in his lifetime and increase the size of Babylon from a small power to a dominant kingdom after his death the Empire dwindled.
Lamassu from the Citadel of Sargon II
Identification: Lamassu from the Citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorisbad Iraq), 720-705 BCE, gypsum alabaster (high relief alabaster, some parts in the round)
Time period: reign of Sargon I I during the Neo-Assyrian
Note: excavated by PE Botta 1823-1824
Form: five legs when seen from the front, seems to be standing at attention, when seen from the side appears to be walking, face exudes harmony, calm, serenity, king with a crown and long square beard, figure stand between arches, symmetrical, and balanced, imposing
Materials: monolith (one piece of stone), 13-14ft, meant to hold up the walls and arch of a gate, stone is rare in Mesopotamian art, majority is of mud brick, detailed, textured beard, using parallel, horizontal regular lines, geometric figures, wearing crowns, deity
Function: ward off enemies visible and invisible, cuneiform curses for his enemies and declare power of the king
Context: built by Sargon II the citadel was surrounded by walls, it had seven gates, protective guardians protected each side of the gate, entrance of the royal throne room in the Citadel of Sargon, not high quality because so many were made
Cross cultural comparison: sphinx, buk (mask), mutu (praying mantra), like the thanks, both pieces are composite beasts, and show power, sphinx is funerary, the lamassu are not(current power of the ruler, not after his death)
Themes: power, human and animal, supernatural, deity
Audience Hall (Apadana) of Darius and Xerxes
Identification: Audience Hall (Apadana)(hypostyle hall filled with 72 columns, 2 carved stairways, homage to kingship of Darius, reception area), of Darius and Xerxes, Persepolis, Persia, (modern day Fars Iran), 520-465 BCE limestone
Form: built on artificial terraces, common among Mesopotamian architecture, columns, have an inverted lotus bell shaped base, the capitals are bulls or lions, everything seems to have been built to dwarf the viewer.
Function: built as a seat for spectacular receptions and festivals, entrance to the complex is through gigantic gates with lamassu figures, above is an inscription the gates of all nations, the complex is the seat of a great empire
Content: 36 columns covered by a wooden roof, held thousands of people, used for large receptions, adorn stairways contained reliefs of representatives of 23 subject nations on New Year’s festival, Hypostyle Hall, derived from Egypt inspired the complex, monumental scale, asymmetrical, layout, relief, carvings – profile, stylized, figures, hieratic scale; post and lintel
Context : Darius selected central location in Persia to protect the treasury, on the stairs, the immortals, the King’s guard of 10,000 men, painted and adorned with accessories
History: Persia was the first great empire in history (multi ethnic empire that ruled over regions, including Indus, Valley, northern Greece, Egypt, and Central Asia - suffering, values, beliefs, language, religions), built by Darius (patron) and Xerxes the first, destroyed by Alexander, the great, perhaps an act of revenge for the destruction of the acropolis in Athens, many cultural influences contributed to the building of the site, as a sign of Persian cosmopolitan imperial culture.
Pallette of King Narmer
Identification: Pallette of King Narmer, Hierakonopolis, Egypt, Pre Dynastic Period, 3000-2920, graywacke
Form: hierarchy scale, figure stand on a ground line, narrative, schematic lines, delineate, muscle structure, EX. Forearm veins, thy muscles, kneecaps, composite view, mostly profile, chest eye, ear, or frontal, hieroglyphics, explain and identify Narmer in the cartouche
Function: pallet used to prepare eye, make up to protect against right sunlight, likely, commemorative, pallettes carved on both sides, are likely ceremonial.
Content: relief, sculpture, king Narmer United, upper and lower Egypt, the goddess Hathor, depicted four times at the top, cow with a woman’s face, bat a sky, goddess, ability to see past and future, full symbolizes, power and strength of the king
- front: king, largest figure wears cobra crown of lower Egypt and reviews be headed enemies behind the king, four standard bearers, a priest, a foot washer/sandal bearer follows, center: mythical animals with elongated necks or harnessed, symbolizing, unification, bow, knocking down a city fortress, symbolizes king knocking over his enemies.
Back: Horus: falcon God, God of Egypt, triumph over Narmer’s foes, holds a rope around a man’s neck and head, and a papyrus plant, symbols of lower Egypt.
Narmer: bulls tail at waist symbolizes power; bowling pin shaped crown, king of united Egypt, beating down on enemies, (smiting pose, Egyptian predynastic works), servant behind King hold sandals as king stands, barefoot on sacred ground, divine King, defeated Egyptians beneath his feet
Theories: unification of upper and lower Egypt, under one ruler, expressed as concept or goal to be achieved, represent balance of order and chaos, reference journey of sun God.
Comparison: Delacroix Liberty Leading the People (20.4), Cotsiogo, Hide Painting of a Sundance (26.13 ), Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza (18.1)
Seated Scribe
Identification: Seated Scribe, Saqqara, Egypt, 2620–2500 BCE, old kingdom, fourth Dynasty, painted limestone, rock crystal for the eyes, magnesite, and copper/arsenic inlay for the eyes and wood for the nipples
Form: not a pharaoh: saying, chest and realistic body compared to idealistic features, reserve for pharaohs, scribe contrasted to ideally portrayed pharaohs, high cheekbones, hollow cheeks, distinctive jawline, meant to be seen from front, still has color, symmetrical, except for the hand curled around the pen, relaxed figure, rolls of fat - well fed (pharaoh face care of the scribe in exchange for positive reflection of the emperor)
Function: created for a tomb at Saqqara as a provision for the ka
Content: lifelike but not a portrait, conventional image of a scribe, inlaid crystallize, holes papyrus in lab writing instrument (now gone) in hand, ready to write
Context: attentive expression; thin, angular, face, in readiness for the words, pharaoh my dictate, seated on ground to indicate low station
Pyramids
Identification: Geat Pyramids, Giza Plateau, 2550–2490 BCE
Form: each pyramid is a huge pile of limestone with minimal interior that has the deceased pharaoh, each period had an adjoining mortuary temple used for worship
Function: giant monuments to dead pharaohs, Menkaura, Khufu and Khafre, preservation of the body and tomb, contents for eternity, some scholars also suggest that complex served as the King’s Palace in the afterlife.
Context: each pyramid has a funeral complex adjacent connected by a formal pathway used for carrying the dead pharaoh’s body to the pyramid to be interred, shape may have been influenced by a sacred stone relic called a benben, which is shaped like a sacred stone found at Heliopolis. Heliopolis was the center of the sun got cult , each side of the pyramid is oriented toward a point on the compass, a fact pointing to an association with the stars and son, Giza, temples east, the rising sun, and have been associated with the God Re,
Cross, cultural comparisons.
Taj Mahal (9.17 a, 9.17 B)
Houdon, George Washington (19.7).
Terra-cotta Warriors (24.8 A, 24.8 B)
Sphinx
Identification: the great Sphinx, Giza, Egypt, 2500 BCE, limestone
Form: craft institute from a huge rock; colossal scale, body of a lion, head of a pharaoh, and/or God, originally brightly painted to stand out in the desert behind the figure, which once rose near ramps rising from the Nile paragraph function: best think seems to be protecting the pyramids behind it although the Steer has been debated
Context: very generalized features, although some say, it may be a portrait of Khafre, cats are royal animals, and ancient Egypt because they saved the grain supply from mice.
History: head of the sphinx badly mauled in the middle ages, fragment of the sphinx is beard in the British Museum
King Menkaure and Queen
Identification: King Menkaure and Queen, 2490-2472 BCE, Graywacke, 4.5 feet high, pyramid complex, incomplete upon death – statues found in valley temple
Vocabulary: Dyad: two person statue.
Function: receptacle for the Ka of the pharaoh and his queen, wife’s simple and affectionate gesture, and/or presenting him to the gods.
Form: ka statue: receptacle for soul; ideal form as a ruler for all eternity in the afterlife as a king God, has eternal gaze looking out over Egypt. Two figures attached to a block of stone; arms and legs, not cut, free, traces of red paint on menorah’s face and black paint on the Queenswood, figure seem straightforward, but simultaneously anchored to the stone; unusual for female figure to be strutting with male, figure stare out in face, eternal gaze.
Content: youthful, fit figures; king with square royal beard and head, kilt, fist clenched, hold ritual cloth; queen, hourglass, shape, translucent garment, almost equal in height; both striding, smooth, hieratic scale, formal, frontal, rigid, stylized equals canon of proportions
Materials: graywacke, extremely hard stone, symbolizes permanence of the pharaohs presence and strength on earth.
Context: Mancora‘s powerful physique and stride, symbolize king ship, as does his garb, names on the head, artificial beard, and kilt with tab, original location was the temple of Mancora‘s pyramid complex at Giza , society view of women is expressed in ankle length, tightly draped down, covering queen‘s body; men and women of same height indicated equality, societies view of the king is expressed in broad shoulders, muscular arms, and legs and firm stomach
Theory: because of the prominence of the female figure, it has been suggested that she is not his wife, but his mother, or the goddess Hathor, although the figure has no divine attributes
Cross, cultural comparisons: Lindauer, Tamati Waka Nene (28.7), wall plaque from Oba’s Palace (27.3), Augustus of Prima Porta (6.15)
Temple of Amun Re and Hypostyle Hall, Temple
Identification: Temple of Amun Re and hypostyle Hall, Karnak near Luxor Egypt, Temple: 1550 BCE, Hall: 1250 BCE, new Kingdom, 18th and 19th dynasties, cut sand stone and mud brick
Form: axial plan, pylon temple, hypostyle hole, massive lentils, link the columns together, huge columns, tightly packed together, admit little light into the sanctuary, tallest columns, have papyrus capitals; a clerestory allows some light and air into the darkest parts of the temple, columns, elaborately painted, columns, carved in sunken relief, bottom of columns, have bud capitals, massive walls, enclose complex, enter complex through massive sloped, pylon gateway into a paristyle courtyard, then through a hypostyle hall and then into the sanctuary where few were allowed
Function: Egyptian temple for the worship of Amun-Re, Egyptian temple for the worship of Amun Re, God housed in the most secret part of the complex, only accessed by priests and pharaohs.
Context: adjacent is an artificial sacred lake – symbol of the sacred waters of the world that existed before time, located on the east side of the aisle, linked by a robe with corn neck temple for the Opet festival, the complex was built near this like overtime; symbolically, it rose from the water, civilization, theory that the temple represents the beginnings of the world: pylons are the horizon, rises to the sanctuary of the God, temple roof is the sky, columns represent plants of denial: lotus, papyrus, palm, etc.
History: don’t buy succeeding generations of pharaohs over a great expanse of time
Cross, cultural comparison: Lakshmana Temple (23.7a, 23.7 B, 23.7 C, 23.7 D), Santa sabina (7.3a, 7.3b,7.3 C)
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
Identification: mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor Egypt, 1473-1458 BCE, new kingdom, 18th Dynasty, sandstone partly carved into a rock cliff
Form: three column terraces, and two ramps, visually coordinated with natural setting, long, horizontal and verticals of the terraces and colonnades repeat the patterns of the cliff behind, patterns of dark and light in the colonnade are reflected in the cliffs, terraces were originally placed his garden with exotic trees, rock has a golden hue, monumental scale, axial approach
Function: Hatshepsut declared that she built the temple as a garden for my father Amun, she claimed to have been of divine birth, was used only for special religious events, lack subsidiary buildings for restoring offerings, combination, priests, temple, administration, workshops, and other function structures, four reasons of cultic purity, the Royal burial could not be in the temple, royal tomb, was located in the mountain behind the temple and reached by way of the valley of the Kings, annual ceremony for Amun re connection of living v afterlife
Context: first time achievements of a woman are celebrated in art history, Hatshepsut’s body is interred elsewhere, temple aligned with the winter solstice, when light enters the farthest section of the interior, located on the west side of the aisle across from thieves, perhaps designed by Senenmut, a high ranking official in Hatshepsut’s temple
Cross, cultural comparison
Acropolis, Athens (4.16 a)
Wright, Fallingwater [22.16).
Nan Madol[28.1a, 28.1 B)
Kneeling statue of Hatshepsut
Identification: kneeling statue of Hatshepsut, mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egypt, 1473–1458 BCE, red granite
Form: male pharaonic attributes: nemes or head cloth, false beard, kilt, wears white crown of upper Egypt, queen is depicted in male costume of a pharaoh, slender proportions and slight breasts indicate femininity
Function: statue of the god brought before the sculpture in a procession, procession of the mortuary temple passed in front of the statue of Hatshepsut, one of 200 statues placed around the complex
Context: one of 10 statues of Hatshepsut with offering jars, part of a ritual in honor of the sun, God; pharaoh would kneel only before a God, inscription on base says she’s offering plants to Amun the sun, God,
Cross cultural comparisons: Nio guardian figure (25.1 C, 25.1 D), Staff God open parentheses 28.5 A, 28.5 B), Lamassu [2.5)
Akhenaton, Nefertiti and Three Daughters
Identification: Akhenaton, Nefertiti and Three Daughters, 1350-Amarna period
Akhenaton= follower of Aten- he and his wife only followers of Aten-upset Egyptian priests without access to the divine
Content: Akhenaton and Nefertiti and three daughters, informal scene, children sitting in parents laps, not formal, frontal and rigid, but with royal regalia, eldest daughter being held in arms, kiss exchanged, second daughter on pointing to King, youngest daughter on shoulder, playing with her earring; son God Aten as a sun; sun rays with ankhs=breath of life
Form: state religion shift indicated by an evolving style in Egyptian art: smoother, courage, surfaces, low hanging/Swollen bellies, Slack jaws, elongated heads, thin arms, epicene bodies, heavy lidded eyes, at the end of the sun’s rays, ankhs(symbol of life) point to the king and queen, choice to abandon the formal and rectilinear forms for curvilinear forms (new art form: ma’at=truth), composite view, frontal eyes
Function: the domestic environment was new in Egyptian art; the panel is for an altar in a home
Technique: sunken relief, which is less likely to be damaged than raised relief, sunken relief creates deeper shadows, and can be appreciated in the sunlight
Context: Akhenaton abandoned Thebes and created a new capital, originally named Akhenaton and later changed to Amarna ; the style of art from this period is called the Amarna style, the state religion was changed by Akhenaton to the worship of Aton, symbolized by the sun disc with a cobra; he changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaton, to reflect his devotion to the one God Aton; this is an early example of monotheism, Akhenaton and Nefertiti have a private relationship with their new God Aton, after Akhenaton’s rain, the Amarna style was slowly replaced by more traditional Egyptian representations
Cross, cultural comparisons: Vermeer, woman holding a balance (17.10), Courbet, Stonebreakers (21.1), grave stele of Hegso (4.7)
