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Venus of Willendorf
- From Willendorf, Austria
- Limestone (4 ½ inches high)
- Stone age art
- 28,000-25,000 BCE
- Breasts are far larger than normal, stomach bursts out farther in real pregnancy
- Made to represent not a particular woman, but womanhood in general.
- 10,000 have been found
- Portable
- Represents fertility and sexuality |
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Eshnunna Worshippers
- From temple of Eshunna , Iraq
- 2700 BCE
- Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone
- Tallest figure is 2 feet 6 inches
- Early Dynastic (Sumerian)
- Buried beneath floor of a temple at Eshunna
- Different heights of men and women may correspond to their importance to the community
- Figures represent mortals not deities
- Hands are folded in prayer
- Open eyes symbolize their wakefulness necessary to fulfill their duty (constant prayer) |
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ashurbanipal hunting lions
- Relief from the north palace of Ashurbanipal
- 645-640 BCE
- Gypsum, 5 feet high
- Carved for the Nineveh Palace of the conquerer of Elamite Susa, Asherbanipal
- Portrays a hunt in a controlled environment where king killed many lions (helped by servants)
- Assyrian empire |
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great sphinx
- Gizeh Egypt
- Dynasty IV 2520-2494
- 65 feet high, sandstone
- Meant to serve as an immovable, eternal silent gardian of the phorahs tombs
- Made to commermorated the pharaoh (Khafre) |
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Khafre Enthroned
- Gizeh Egypt
- Dynasty IV
- 2520-2494
- Diorite, 5 foot 6
- Carved for pharaohs valley temple near the great sphinx
- Falcon god horus is perched behind his head and offers his wings as protection, which indicates the kings divine status
- King is wearing a kilt with reflects kingship
- Body is represented in perfect proportion
- Seated with serenity, reflecting his enduring power of the pharoh and king ship in general
- This effect was done by givingthe figure great compactness and solidity |
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nefertiti
-Egypt, dynasty XVIII
-1353-1335
-painted limestone
- exhibits an expression of entranced musing
- delibertly unfinished, left eye undone
- exaggerated weight of crowned head and long neck alluding to a heavy flower |
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landscape with swallows
- Greece
- 1650 bc
- 7’6 high
- First known example of a pure landscape painting
- No narrative element |
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Funerary mask
Funerary Mask
- Mycenae, Greece
- 1600-1500 bc
- Beaten gold 1 foot high
- One of the first known attempts in Greece to render the human face
- Man with full beard portrays a grown mature man, perhaps a king |
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Kroisos
- Anavysos, Greece
- 530 BC
- Marble, 6’4
- Archaic Smile |
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Achilles and Ajax
- Italy
- 540-530 bc
- 2 feet high
- Found in the Etruscan tomb of vulci
- Exekias signed as both painter and potter
- Opposite of the archaic penchant for dramatic action
- Potrays achillesand ajax playing a dice game, both armed and ready to attack
- Black figred technique |
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Doryphoros
Doryphoros
- Roman marble copy of a bronze orginal
- Pompeii, Italy
- 450-440 B.C 6’11 high
- Polykleito’s vision of the ideal nude male athlete or warrior
- Contrapposto is more pronounced then ever before |
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parthenon
- Doric style temple
- Constructed according to strict math formulas, Greeks believed beautiful proportions came from math formulas
- Was almost destroyed several times
- 447-438 BC |
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Nike adjusting her sandal
- Athens, Greece
- 410 BC
- Marble, 3 foot 6
- Figure who’s garments cling so tightly to the body that they seem to be transparent
- Temple of Athena |
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battle of issus
- 310 bc
- Roman Copy from the house of faun
- Pompeii Italy
- Tessera Mosaic aprox 8 foot 10 x 16 foot 9
- Depicts battle of Alexander the great vs peria’s darius III
- First greek painting to successfully portray object in 3.4 view. Such as the horses rump this was achieved through subtle shading
- Portrays a reckless Alexander without any helmet defeating the immortakls protecting darius |
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Aphrodite
-Melos Greece
150-125 Bc
Marble 6 foot 7
Signed by sculpter Alexandros of Antioch on the meander
Left hand, separately preserved holds and apple paris awarded her when she was judged the most beautiful goddess.
Deseigned to tease the spectator |
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dying gaul
- Roman marble copy after a bronze original from Pergamon Turkey
- 230-220 bc
- Approx 3.5 inches high
- Trumpeter who collapses on his shield, blood pours from his chest
- Suffering is far more pronounced then earlier sculptures
- No longer present is the archacic smile |
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capitoline wolfe
- 500-480 bc
- Rome
- Bronze, 2 7 ½ high
- Wolf that nutured Romulus and reamus when they were abonded at birth
- Romu killed his brother
- Etruscan work
- The vitality noted in the human figure in Etruscan art is here concentrated in the tense, watchful animal body of the she-wolf |
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Dionysiac mystery frieze
- Pompeii, Italy
- 60-50 bc
- Second style wall painting
- Aprox 5 foot 4
- Painters with 2nd style sought to dissolve a rooms walls and replace them with an illusion of an imaginary three dimensional world
- Portrays dionysaic initiation rites
- Figures intereact with each other across the room |
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Arch of titus
- Rome
- After 81 AD
- Titus’ younger brother erected this arch in titus (who was emperor) in his honour
- Known as a triumphial arch
- Typical early arch, consists of one passage way only
- Inside the passageway there are two great relief panels which represent the return of titus after a conquest in Judaea |
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equestrian statue of marcus aurelius
- Rome,Italy
- Ad 175
- Bronze, 11 foot 6
- This statue inspired many renaissance artists to porty their patrons on horses
- Mistakenly throught to have commerated Constantine
- Possesses a super human grandeur and is much larger then any human would be to his horse
- Conveys awesome power of the godlike roman emperor as ruler of the whole world
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Gessii funerary relief
- Gessii, rome
- 30 bc
- Marble 2 ½ feet
- Art like this was ordered to be used as their tomb |
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Victory Stele of Naram-Sim
- From Susa, Iran
- 2254-2218bc
- Sandstone, 6 foot 7 in height
- Akkadian dynasty
- Represents the victory of Akkadian king Naram- sim at Sippar, the defeat of the Lullubi people
- King stands alone, much taller then everyone treading on all the dead lullubi bodies, he wears a helmet and is represented as a god. ( a first in Mesopotamian art)
- Naram sim seems to be scalling the ladder to heaven. |
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hatshepsut with offering jars
- Egypt, New kingdom
- 1473-1458
- Red granite, aprox 8’6 high
- Originally smashed by thutmose III after hatshepsut’s death
- Offering a goblet jar in each hand as a part of a ritual honor to the sun god (kings only kneeled before gods, not mortals)
- Represented anatomically as a male, wears ceremonial beard |
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