Venus of Willendorf- 24,000 BCE, Stone Sculpture Portable art, Austria

• Venus=Goddess of Beauty/Sexuality

• Sexual symbol (hunters and gatherers)

• well-fed=rich and desirable

• Austria

• fertility figurine-strong children because she’s well-nourished, ensuring survival

• Representative of ideal form of beauty

Altamira Cave- 35,000-11,000 (BCE), Parietal art (cave art), Spain

• Bison with turned head

• combinations of perspective

• running boar is shown in motion

• Lorblanchet & the spitting image

• too many legs

• running away, being hunted

• Has legs that fade which represent him running from the past

Catal hoyuk, Neolithic, 6500-3400 BCE, Turkey

• Mudbrick houses with wall paintings

• Men taunting/hunting a deer (a); the Eruption of Hasan Dag (b))

• nomadic and hunter/gatherer life style

• shows early architecture, mud bricks=how houses are made

• use of plaster, development in ancient society

Stonehenge, 2300-1500 BCE, Stone Architecture

• England

• post-and-lintel architecture

• Communal construction

• Change in social structure, someone had to be in charge of this mass effort, requires a lot of people/work

• still standing today--strong architecture

• used for burial site back in the day

Warka Vase- Uruk Culture, 3300-3000 B.C.E., Alabaster Vase

• Uruk culture

• stone

• broken into registers

• naked man bringing offerings

• Alabaster-soft, white stone used for production

• shows how mesopotamian sculptures were used as storytelling devices

• each register with different meaning/significant

• Uruk-one of first cities

• Has Istar on it which is the earliest representation of Aphrodite

• Earliest representation of religious ritual being portrayed in art

• Represents hierarchy of society

Nanna Ziggurat at ur- Sumerian, 2100-2050, B.C.E., mud-brick

• Ur/Sumerian

• Shrine/Temple

• dedicated to the moon god NANA

• Structured to prevent rain-flooding, complex

• Ur-one of first cities

Standard of Ur- shell, lapis lazuli & red limestone inlaid in bitumen, 2600 B.C.E

• wooden box

• Taken into war---theme of success in battle

• covered in men in chariots / with swords

*Hierarchical Scale*-more important figures painted larger

Lamassu- Assyrian, 883-859 B.C.E., Stone Sculpture

• Protective creatures of the city (symbolic)

• At the gate outside the city

• human face/ lion-like body

• intimidate foreigners at the entrance

• 5 legs so people can see it naturally from the front and from the side

Palette of Narmer, Egyptian Early Dynastic, 2950-2775 BCE, Stone relief sculpture

• Narmer attacks a figure of comparable size showing that he is an enemy of importance

• There are other defeated enemies underneath him

• They are in same position as enemy attacked now

• Displays a hierarchical scale with Narmer being at the top (he's the biggest)

• Mascara on face because face is darker than the rest of his body

• Hieroglyphs name the king

• Has crown of upper egypt in right picture and lower Egypt on it in left picture
• Animal chomping on something in lower Egypt signifies breaking the wall between upper and lower Egypt
• Falcon represents living kings

Imhotep, Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, Egyptian Old Kingdom, 2630 BCE, Stone Sculpture

• Located in the “city of the dead” (necropolis)

• earliest known monumental architecture *monumentality*

• exceptionally great

• built of finely cut stone

• signals a tomb, NOT a temple

• Djoser-Egyptian Pharaoh, organizer, God of Crafts

• Imhotep- God of craftsmen

Statue of Menkaure and Queen Khamerernebty II, Egyptian Old Kingdom, 2490-2472 BCE, Stone Sculpture

• with his posture, portrays pharaoh as young athletic figure

• arms wrapped around, she is showing loyalty

• fully clothed but tight dress--also athletic figure

• standing one foot forward, fist clenched=powerful stance

Book of the Dead, Egyptian New Kingdom, 1285 BCE, Painted Papyrus

• portraying the judgement of Osiris--judges your status in afterlife

• contains magical texts to help the dead pass the tests in order to succeed in the afterlife

• Anubis portrayed leading people to the afterlife

• Portrays someone going to be judged

Cycladic Figurine- 2600-2400 BCE, Stone

• generic face, arms crossed

• Nude women

• Early Bronze Age

• angled lines on bodies demonstrate how cycladic people may have painted their own bodies

• idea of perfect body has changed (Venus of Willendorf)

Toreador wall painting- Aegean Minoan Late Bronze Age, 1550-1450 B.C.E., Fresco

• Portrays dangerous ritual of jumping over bulls

• Women dressed like men

• King Minos---Minotaur may have inspired work

• New type of artwork

• Females in white, men in red

• Flying Gallop Pose (“Need to know this”)

The Lion Gate at Mycenae- Aegean Mycenaean Late Bronze Age, 1250 B.C.E., stone architecture and relief sculpture

• defensive gate

• Cyclopean Masonry

• complex---influenced by turkish architecture

• entrance of fortress of Mycenae

• used to intimidate foreigners

• post-and-lintel structure

• Relieving triangle on top

• Corbelled vaulting

• Lions represent power

• Can’t use a battering ram on the entrance because you have to turn to enter