SmARThistoryPrehistoric Art: 15,000-25,000 BCE

The caves at Lascaux, France

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/00.xml

Venus of Willendorf

ca 25,000 BCE

exaggerated proportionsfertility?/ good crops?

•freedom of expression

•vitality

•life like

•materials from earth- used cave surfaces

•purpose? rituals for hunting? document of hunting expeditions? fertility rituals?

Ancient Art

•Egyptian

•Greek Roman

•Byzantine

•Early Christian

Ancient Egypt

•pyramids

•tomb art

circa 3000 BC - 1500 BC

pyramids at Giza- 2500 BC

descriptive perspective stylization

Queen Nefertiti, 1360 BC

compare views of women

Egypt

•tomb art and architecture

•geographic isolation allowed for consistent culture for thousands of years

•belief in afterlife stimulated growth in art

•descriptive perspective

•stylization of body position and proportion

Ancient Greek

circa 1600 BC-AD 0

vases

statuary

Aphrodite of Milos

•humans at center: humanistic culture

•rational, proportion, balance, unity

•human body is beautiful- idealized

•art flourished in all forms- architecture also followed ideals

Ancient Greek Art

Roman portrait sculpture

how different from Greek?

•Christianity!

•Rome to Constantinople 337 AD

•glass and gold mosaics

•stiff, stylized figures

Byzantine Art

Hagia Sophia532-537 AD