Art History: Prehistoric to Rome

Paleolithic Age

Period: 35,000 BCE to 15,000 BCE

Earliest age of homo-sapiens which started to do cave aintings and very very general sculptures and forms.

Apollo 11 Stones

25,000 BCE

Drawing of charcoal on stone. Depicts human form encountering an animal form. Found in Namibia, in the Paleolithic Era.

Humans in America

25,000 BCE

Neolithic Age

Period: 15,000 BCE to 3000 BCE

The age of settling, art became slightly more advanced pottery became more important in order to store food.

Beaker with Ibex Motifs

4200 BCE

Burial object made of Terra Cotta found in Susa, Iran. There is a mountain goat depicted in the middle with other various animals around it.

Anthropomorphic Stele

3500 BCE

Found in the Arabian Peninsula made from Sandstone. Early human form.

Palette of Narmer

3000 BCE

Predynastic Egypt created out of Greywacke. Depicts King Narmer bigger than everyone else standing over beheaded enemies on the front side. On the back side it shows Narmer has a symbol of strength: a bulls tail. With a servent holding his sandels showing he is on sacred ground.

Old Kingdom Egypt

Period: 2649 BCE to 2150 BCE

Art was generally centered around preserving life after death and preserving the order of existence.

Great Pyraminds of Giza and the Great Sphinx

2550 BCE

Created in Giza, Egypt out of sandstone with limestone casing. Three pyramids (Menkaura, Khafre, Khufu) which held the Pharaohs mummified bodies after they died to honor them. And the Great Sphinx guarded and represented the Pharaoh Khafre.

Date of First Iron Object

2500 BCE

Hammurabi's Code

1750 BCE

Found in Ancient Mesopotamia created by king Hammurabi of the Babylonians. It has the first forms of a law system written on the stone. The picture at the top depicts King Hammurabi with Shamash, the sun god, implying divine power.

New Kingdom Egypt

Period: 1550 BCE to 1070 BCE

More abstract art, a lot less realistic. Started to give the idea of the bigger = the better.

Ambum Stone

1500 BCE

Made of greywacke, found in Ambum Valley, Papa New Guinea. Used as a pestle and mortar.

Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut and her statue

1473 BCE

Located on the Western bank of the Nile. Hatshepsut was the first female monarch and create this temple to show her power.Inside the temple there are writings that tell about her stories and life. There were many statues of her around the temple but were destroyed by following Pharaohs. one that survived shows her kneeling and offering something to the gods and sculpted with a false beard to show wisdom.

Akhenaton,Nefertiti,and three daughters

1353 BCE

Carving of Limestone created in the New Kingdom found in Egypt. It depicts a Pharaoh, Akhenaten, receiving the blessing from the sun god, Atem.

Amar

Period: 1353 BCE to 1292 BCE

Time period during Egyptian history which marks the change of royalty to Akhetaten.

Fall of Troy

1200 BCE

First Olympic Games

776 BCE

Rome Founded

753 BCE

Lamassu

720 BCE

Created by Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad, Iraq) by the Assyrians out of limestone. The Lamassu's were winged men-headed bulls that protected the entrance into an Assyrian palace and had an attempt of movement by showing all 4 legs.

Agora

567 BCE

Centrally public space in Athens, Greece that had commercial, civil, and entertainment shops/events. It had a central road going through called the Panathenaic way.

Anavysos Kouros

530 BCE

Archaic Greece,Archaic smile, Marble, life-like and realistic, depicts ideal form of human body. acted as a grave marker.

Peplos Kore

530 BCE

Archaic Greece, Archaic smile. Marble and wearing a Peplos which conceals her body which indicated respect and honor with women. Stylistically similar to Anavysos Kouros and potentially could be the Goddess Artemis.

Audience Hall of Darius and Xerxes

520 BCE

Persepolis, Iran created out of limestone. Guest hall with a total of 76 huge columns and carvings on the side. One side depicts war and battle showing the king's power and the other side shows People giving tribute to the King.

Republican Rome

Period: 509 BCE to 31 BCE

During this period Governors were annually elected and was more democratic. Art depicted battle victories or in humans, wisdom =, hard working, age, and soldiers.

Classical Greece

Period: 500 BCE to 333 BCE

Entered into the Greek Golden Age especially Athens. This period followed the victory in the Persian war which lead to many art pieces depicting victory.

Doryphoros

450 BCE

Sculpted by Polykleitos originally of Bronze by the Greeks but the Romans melted it down and remade it of marble. It gives the original canon of proportions for the human body and gives the idea of contrapposto (relaxed body form).

Persian Wars

Period: 449 BCE to 479 BCE

Acropolis

447 BCE

An ancient citadel located in Athens, Greece that sat high above the city. This was built to honor the Goddess Athena and acted as a treasury

Alexander the Great Dies

323 BCE

Hellenistic Greece

Period: 323 BCE to 31 BCE

Followed Alexander the Great's death and the Hellenistic culture spread far across the empire into other cultures and influenced the Romans. Emperors without a beard became very popularity showing age without showing weakness.

Alexander Mosaic

310 BCE

Depicts Alexander the Great fighting against the Persians (and winning). Roughly 1.5 million tiles in the mosaic. Great showing of depth and foreshortening.

Seated Boxer

100 BCE

Hellenistic Greece, made of bronze (last few bronze Greek sculptures). Beat up body, tired and hurt with copper infused in the bronze to be shown as blood. Not ideal body was unusual for sculptures and used a technique called lost wax for molding.

Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)

80 BCE

Large stadium where battles for entertainment were held, could hold 70,000 people. Made of concrete and stone built in Rome, Italy. It consisted of multiple levels up and into the ground. First level had Tuscan Columns, second had Ionic and third had Corinthian.

Assassination of Julius Ceaser

44 BCE

Imperial Rome

Period: 27 BCE to 284

Ausgustus's rule started the Imperial Rome time period and art now started to go back to classical times and idealizing figures usually emperors depicting them very strong and wise.

Portrait of Augustus from Prima Porta

50

Imperial Rome made of marble. Sculpture put everywhere to depict Emperor as divine, Wise and all powerful because it is an ideal human.

Pantheon

118

Imperial Rome made from concrete with stone facing. Temple for all gods, had a large dome with a oculus in the top for light. Coffers are in place around dome to take away weight.

Western Rome Falls

476