Ancient Art

MesopotamiaGreeceRome

Mesopotamia• Sumerians• Akadian• Hittites• Babylon• Assyrians• Neo Babylon• Persians

Characteristics• Political influence• Religion• Mud• Divided in architecture

and figurative art

White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk (Modern Warka), Iraq, ca. 3200-3000 BCE

Home of Gilgamesh

Reconstruction Drawing

SUMERIANS believed gods reside above the world of humans= elevated structures toward sky

Sumerian Art: simple forms (cones and cylinders), oversized eyes and tiny hands are disproportionate, open-eyed stare symbolizes the eternal wakefulness necessary to fulfill their duty

Akkadian Art

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin(2254-2218 BCE)/commemorates Naram-Sin’s defeat of Lullubi people/king stands alone, hierarchy of scale, he is scaling the ladder to the heavens/horned helmet symbolizes divinity- first time king appears as a god in Mesopotamian art/composite view of figures/no registers/first landscape since Catal Hoyuk

Detail of Victory stele of Naram-Sin

Stele: A carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events.

Lion Gate, Boghazkoy, Turkey, ca. 1400 BCE. Limestone, lions approx. 7’ high

Hittite : built walls and towers around citadel for protection out of heavy stone, lions are guardian beasts located at the gateway to citadel.

Stele-Law Code of Hammurabi(1780 BCE)

Babylonian Art

Reconstruction drawing of the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin, Iraq, ca. 720-05 BCE/ citadel was unfinished

Assyrian Art/Architecture

Babylon: city’s famous hanging gardens were counted among Seven Wonders of ancient world.

Enormous ziggurat= Tower of Babel/ mud-brick city

Persepolis (royal audience hall in background), Iran, ca. 521-465 BCE

Rounded forms/treatment of drapery folds= Greek influence

Persian Art/Architecture: Darius I and Xerxes

Greece• Many polis, many islands

• Language, culture, religion

• Perfection• Humanity.

Periods

• Minoic, Micenic• Alexander• Helenism

Acropolis.

Calicrates.

Atenea Nike, 427 – 424 a.C.

Ictino e Calícrates. Partenon. 447 A.C.

Evolution of kuroi

Fidias. Atenea Partenos

Zeus of Olimpia

Birth of Atena, Partenon.

Milos’ Venus

Louvre, París.

Rodas. Laoconte

Rome

• Heritage from greece• Pre Catolic – Catolic• Tecnology and science

Cannon Vault.

Forums (Agustus)

Pantheon.

Circus.

Porta triumphalisPodium

Cárceres

Meta segunda

Spina

Meta primera

Triumph Arcs (Titus and Constantine)

Ponte do Gard. Fins s. I. Vers, Francia.

Segovian aqueduct

S II

Octavio Augusto.

Marcus Aurelius.

Tiberius

Adrian

Fresco in Rome.

Ara Pacis. Between water and air

Traxan Column in detail.

Alexander in Issos