Beauty

Self-Expression

Religious Meditation

Represent Reality

Historical Documentation

Politics

Commodity

Therapy

Artwork (photo, painting etc..)

Artist

Audience (dealers, historians...)

Space (museum, street...)

Material

Tool

Ideas, skills (knowledge, passion..)

Title: Arnolfini Double Portrait

Artist: Van Eyck

Year: 1434

Composition: Oil on wood

Western Art

Could serve as a private wedding record/marriage certificate or depicts an engagement

Lion Panel, Chauvet Cave, France

Paleolithic/Old Stone Age

Oldest painting known today

Old Stone Age

30,000-5,000 BC

Agriculture

Hunting

Cave Habituation

The Hall of Bulls

Paleolithic/Old Stone Age

Lascaux Cave, France

Venus of Willendorf

Paleolithic/Old Stone Age

Austria, Limestone

Exaggerated female body parts implies that women's role then was first of all producing children

Not seen as able to walk or speak or carry

fertility figure/good luck charm

"cause and effect"

New Stone Age

5,000 BCE - 1000 BCE

Domesticated animals

Agriculture

Pottery

Stonehenge

Neolithic/New Stone Age

Salisbury Plain, England

Served as a graveyard, probably of a ruling dynasty

Shows how basic our urge to create meaningful form and order is...

Ancient Civilization - 3000 BCE - present

Arts and politics

Social values: continuity, order, stability, endurance

Emperors and Gods

Pyramids and Mummies

Palette of Narmer

Egyptian

Portrays victory, led by Narmer

Falcon - Horus, god of Upper Egypt

Images are logical and balanced

Egyptian pose - maintained for continuity, depicts each body part at its best for viewers

Doesn't suggest much motion, because of stability and order ideals

The Great Sphinx

Egyptian

Stability, order and endurance

Power and continuity

Menkaure and Khemerernebty

Egyptian

Idealized, youthful bodies

No motion depicted

Formal positioning showering power

Wife touching in "belonging together" way, showing serence, eternal existence

Akhenaten and His Family

Egyptian

Painted limestone relief

Sunken relief - outlines are carved into the surface, and the figures are modeled within them

Attempt to change Egypt (short-lived) - monotheism, more relazed, naturalistic and even intimate

Nefertit Bust

Egyptian

Timeless Elegance

Regal headdress, elongated neck

Republic = 509-27 bce

Empire = 27bce-476ad

- Devloped complex, open society--agrarian to urban, conquering, governing and assimilating

- Practical, prolem solving-engineers, lawmakers, rulers

- Valued the real (verism) over the ideal

- Adopted and transmitted "Classical" civilization of Greece: religion, scuplutre, architectural orders

- Urban architecture of interior spaces: attached or engaged Greek orders, arch, vault, dome and concrete

- Propaganda and conscious of posterity

Aqueduct

Roman Empire

Round Roman Arches

Carries water on the top - channel

Pont Du Gard

Roman Empire

Water Channel, Pediestiran Walk, Beauty

Roman round arch - compression + tension, admit light, reduce weight of the walls, decrease the amount of material needed

Keystone - topmost stone, make its stable, outward thrust

Colosseum

Roman Empire

Amphitheater for gladiatorial games and public entertainments

Could be filled with water for naval battles

Doric on the first level, Ionic on the second and Corinthian on the third

Logical and coherent

Water channels

Prisoners could be kept underneath

Made fast because of concrete construction method (bricks and stones)

Pantheon

Roman Empire

Temple to all the gods

The ceiling is coffered - ornamented with recessed rectangles, coffers which less its weight

Oculus - circular opening at the top (eye of Heaven) - sole illumination of building

Concrete

Portico - rectangular porch in the front

Form - post-and-lintel construction, corinthian order, entablature and pediment

Rotunda - round building

Dome sits naturally on the circular drum of the base

Double Portrait of Gratidia and Gratidius

Roman Empire

Realistic, completely carved out, more mobility

Ordinary people

Faith/Fidelity and Harmony

Augustus of Prima Porta

Roman Empire

Political figure, raising arm = enlarges the space it takes up and shows commanding power

Equestrian Statue of Macus Aurelius

Roman Empire

bronze

Arm in oratorical gesture - as if delivering a speech

Beard = philospher king

Politics and social order

City states and competition (Olympics)

Classical at the root of Western Civilization

Man measure of all things, and gods have human form and human behavior

Guided by desire for realism/naturalism and idealism

Perfection of the individual, in soul/mind and body

Human scale and canon of human proportions

Architectural orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian

Doric

No base

Simple capital

Ionic

Stepped Base

Carved Capital

Corinthian

More detailed stepped base

Stylized Acanthus leaves carved capital

Dipylon Vases

Wine krater + Grave marker

Greek, Geometric Period

Funeral Activities

Art as history

Wasn't made to a linear perspective

Shows Greeks viewed death much more simply than Egyptians

Kouros

Greek, Archaic

Originally Colored

Vs. Egyptians - the body parts are all carved out, naked, anonymous boy

Mimics Egyptian pose of one foot forward and proportions

Served as offerings to gods and grave markings

Abstract face and body

Lifelike, convincing presence - naturalism

Warrior A

Greek, Classical (finest work)

lifelike representation

idealized, manly body

contrapposto

bronze, too expensive, Romans used marble

Controposto

S-shape

Counterpoise or Counterbalance

Play of opposites

Right leg is bent and relaxed

Right shoulder is raised

Legt hip is raised

Weight rests on left foot

At rest, potential for motion, can't stay on the foot forever

Developed by Greeks

Parthenon

Greek, Classical

Dedicated to Athena (warrior maiden)

Doric style

Ornamented with rich sculpture

Golden ratio (found in clamshell)

Didn't use straight lines so that the building would actually appear straight

Athena Statue in Parthenon

All gold and ivory

Three Goddeses

Greek, Clasical, Parthenon

create a triangle

drapery flows as to show the human body

seem to breathe and be capable of movement

East Pediment, Parthenon

Greek, Classical

human action - sacrifcie and victory

carved proportionally, very 3-D

very detailed dress - emphasizes the human body

Reminants found in British museum

Idealized, beautiful people

Dignify the body -> different from Egyptians who showed a spirit

Metope, Parthenon

Greek, Classical

High relief - a sculpture which forms project more bodly from their background - about half their understood depth

Mythical creatures - not commonpeople

North fieze, Parthenon

Greek Classical

Low Relief - Shallow - only project slightly from background

dedicated to human world

sacrifices to Athena

clothed, humbled, not idealized - more realistic, separate man from gods

Lacoon Group

Greek, Hellenistic (last phase)

Did away with classical values of balance and restraint in favor for dynamic poses and extreme emotions

Father + sons

In action - shows movement, sons aren't stable, more defined, imbalance

Physical pain

Aphrodite of Melos

(Venus de Milo)

Greek, Hellenistic

Retained Classical balance and restraint

Females were now allowed to be portrayed in the nude (only goddesses and mythological)

Pencil (graphite/lead)

Metalpoint (Silverpoint)

Charcoal

Chalk

Pastel

Crayon

Pen + Ink

Bursh + Ink

Type of painting

pigment + wax + resin

heated, cooled and potentially a final "burning in" to fuse the colors

early Greek

very permanent

pigment + water applied to plaster support

fresco secco - dry fresco

buon fresco - applied to wet limesplaster (most common)

large murals, lots of planning, hard physical labor

Sometimes done with sketches, holes and connecting the dots process

Every stroke = permanent, must dry and be chipped off if you want to remove it

Italian Renaissance

Aqueous, dries to tough, insoluble film

color retains unlike oil

not easy to blend

dries quickly

usually built up with crosshatching

typically applied to wood panel primed with gesso - (ground of white pigment + glue)

fresh tempera doesn't keep, must be made daily

pigment + oil

Jan Van Eyck - first important oil painter

switched from wood to linen canvas

dries very slowly

can harm paper and yellow or darken over time

blends very easily

(oil painting)

thin viels of translucent color applioed over a layer of opaque paint

gives a smooth finish

(oil painting)

less fussy, all in one sitting, all opaque colros on white ground

(oil painting)

heavily loaded brush, piling the paint in a thick texture

"paste"

rough finish

pigment + water + gum arabic

intimate art - small in scale, free in execution

transparent

can be layered over one another

watercolor + inert white pigment

opaque

pigment + acrylic resin (polymerized)

tough, flexible and waterproof film

large range - translucent to opaque, thick or thin

can imitate oil, watercolor, gouache and tempera

permanent

dries quickly

keep brushes in water

Encaustic

Fresco

Tempera

Oil

Watercolor

Gaouche

Acrylic

gluing or pasiting

still flat

2-D

Picasso - accredited first to use it

Modeling

Casting

Carving

Assembling

Additive process - starts with a simple framework or core or nothing and adds until finished

Most commonly done with clay

Fired clay - terra cotta (terra cotta warriors)

Often used in the beginning to test ideas

Involves a mold of some kind, into which liquid or semiliquid material is poured and allowed to harden

Indirect method - artist may never touch the final piece

Metals - specifically bronze

smooth rounded shapes + glowing, shining surfaces

Casting form of sculpture

most common method when using metals

1. clay core

2. layer of wax over it

3. wax rods, pins and wax cup

4. clay casing

5. heated, clay dries, wax melts, wax cup = pouring cup

6.molten bronze poured in, air forced out

7. clay mold broken

8. channel and pins cut away, core removed (optional)

a subtractive process in which one starts with a mass of material larger than the planned scuplture and takes away material until only the desired form remains

more aggressive than modeling, more direct than casting

usually wood or stone

Process by which individual pieces or segments or objects are borught together to form a sculpture

Covers both assembling (parts placed on each other) and constructing (parts are joined together through welding, nailing or similar procedure)

Free-standing - no background

Low-relief/bas-relief

High relief - a least halfway removed from background

Sunken relief - doesn't remove the background

A path traced by a moving point

symbols of perception

all lines are symbolic

indicates boundaries - record borders of form

can be expressive in themselves

convery direction and motion

countours - the boundaries we perceive of 3-D forms

countire lines - the lines we draw to record these boundaries

directs our eyes around an image and suggests movement

we follow diagonal lines most readily (almost always imply action)

flat lines = placid

vertical lines = assertive, defy gravity

linear forms and lines formed by edges

ex: dotted line, line of sight, direction of pointed finger

a two-dimensional form

occupies an area with indentifiable boundaries

boundaries can be formed by a line, shift in texture, or shift in color

3-D form that occupies a volume of space

cannot be fully understood from a 2-D representation like a picture

shades of light and dark

often depicted in scales for measurement purposes

every color can be spoken in terms of its value

Developed during the Renaissance

Italian for light/dark... before value was created from photography

artists emply values to record contrasts of light and shadow in the natural world

contrasts that help model mass for our eyes

two sets of closely spaced parallel lines placed over each other in opposing directions

= optical mixing

doesn't work without light

= reflected light rays

absorbs all the rays except for the color depicted

red, yellow, blue

they cannot be made by mixing other colors

orange, green and violet

made by combining two primary colors

red-orange side of the rainbow

associated with sunlight/fire

Cool colors

blue-green side

sky, water, shade...

the name of the color according to the categories of the color wheel

ex: blue, green or blue-violet

Hue

Value

Intensity

"color scheme"

selective use of 2+ colors in a single composition

the surface quality

the perception of smoothness or roughness, flatness or bumpiness, fine or course

observed by the way it reflects light and associating it with a sense memory of touch

can be less literal in a painting or drawing when markings our eyes associate with tecture are there, whether they actually depict texture or not

the decorative, repetitive motif or design

- can create visual texture

- lends to flatten perception of mass and space

overlapping - the one in front is partial (foreground)

positioning

foreshortening

perspective

based on the systematic application of:

(1) forms seem to diminish in size as they recede from us

(2) Parallel lines receding into the distance seem to converge, until they met at a point on the horizon line where they seem to disappear (vanishing point)

Created during the Renaissance

The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci

linear perspective

Vanishing point - behind Jesus's head

developed during the Renaissance

atmosphere that interposes itself between us and the objects we perceive

(principle of design)

The sense of oneness, of things belonging together and making up a coherent whole

visual unity - unity based on the elements of shape, color, line etc...

conceptual unity - through unity of ideas

Mirror image of shapes/forms on either side of an imaginary axial dividing line; elements correspond to one another in size, shape and placement

- Implied center of gravity is on the vertical axis

- often used in religious art

(Approximate symmetry)

slight differences between axial areas of a work

A less visually interesting area

(complement to emphasis)