ART HISTORY FINAL BY MITCHELL GEHRKE Professor Carney 12/15/16

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1 ART HISTORY FINAL BY MITCHELL GEHRKE Professor Carney 12/15/16 GEHRKE!1

2 This Essay will focus on providing explanation and examples in order to answer the questions of how the native peoples of the ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the peoples native to the isle of Crete. We will look at some of their best works of art and discern how their geographical location as well as environments around them helped to shape these incredible works of art. Later we will also be discussing the evolution of the idea of naturalism and sense of style from the most early neolithic art pieces that eventually morphed into the legendary styles of the ancient greeks that would come to influence art for centuries to come. When talking about ancient civilizations there is none more ancient than the civilizations of Mesopotamia. These cities were the first result when humans decided to settle into one area instead of living the hunter and gathering life style. Here in these civilizations you see the advent of the wheel as well as one of the first writing forms called cuneiform. In terms of the environment these villages usually sit on one of two rivers the Tigris or the Euphrates. To the west lies the massive Syrian and Arabian Deserts and to the east like the Zagros Mountains. What you end up with is a fertile valley that is excellent for allowing life to flourish. In terms of the art you see similarities to other civilizations around this time period like Egypt with carved stone reliefs. Similar to the famous Egyptian pyramids the civilizations of the fertile crescent produced the ziggurat. A ziggurats were huge temples with construction similar to early step pyramid. These civilizations are ancient however for their age they show remarkable artistic GEHRKE!2

3 abilities even without technology they still managed to craft and sculpt beautiful monuments out of stone. Through these buildings we can see that these people put a lot of work into developing works of art that depicted their gods, kings, childbirth, and the concept of death. One example is the Head of an Akkadian Ruler (Stokstad & Cothren 2014). This piece was created roughly BCE out of a copper alloy. This piece was created with a method known as lost wax casting and is the earliest known example of the technique of hollow casting that is known. The piece displays an incredible amount of sophistication and detail which shows how developed these people actually were. Moving onto the artworks of the peoples of Crete, it is here that we start to see really advanced techniques developed the world of art. The ancient Greek s were known for their advanced civilized society that included invention of pure democracy. Their artists have also earned the honor of being recognized by the world as a collective representation of entire ancient world of art. Now lets go back to the ancient superpower civilization who s power and sophistication allows it to echo loudly even in our modern society, Egypt. Egypt is known for the cultivation of a culture that produced such miracles like the only one of the Wonders of The Ancient World that is left standing today and that would be, The Great Pyramid of Giza. Now anyone interested in art history knows that Egypt s climate can be described as dry. Egypt sits just east of the great Sahara Desert in which almost nothing survives in fact the only thing that made the country of Egypt habitable to humans is the great Nile River that runs right through the middle of Egypt and technically cuts all the way through the entire continent all the way to the South Atlantic Ocean. This dry climate made for an interesting medium that the Egyptians had to pursue their GEHRKE!3

4 monuments to their gods. Most of the grand monuments in Egypt that make the post cards are made from plentiful stones that are carved out from the mountain. Depending on the importance of the project or individual different stones were used. If you were not a high ranking individual or did not have any money to fund a proper sculpture or relief a lower quality stone like sand stone would be used. Sand stone in terms of an artistic medium is a very poor material because sandstone is filled with pores which does not bode well to its structural integrity. For a sculpture or relief this means that the art piece is easily damaged and will not last which makes the point of making a sculpture, a mute point. The most common material and stone used in Egyptian relief art is limestone. Limestone is what was used to build the Great Pyramid as well as the famous Sphinx as well as mostly everything that is part of the Funerary Complex of Khafre. When you look at Egyptian art it is either made from stone, precious stones and metal. What does this tell us about this culture? It tells us that they had an obsession with making things last beyond the life of one person. This theme is not unique to ancient Egyptian society because every culture had its own unique funerary rights and ideas about what happens after death. What makes Egyptian art so unique and beautiful is its ability to last. There are not very many things created by humans that have endured so much as Egyptian monuments and it is that endurance alone that makes the art worth talking about. When you look at art work depicting the human form throughout history you tend to see patterns in depicting human form in some type of abstract form. Depiction of the human body as well as characteristics about other environments vary wildly from culture to culture. Early Paleolithic art often depicts humans as well as wildlife in abstract pieces. For example there is a sculptural depiction of a battle of sea (pg. 25 Stokstad & Cothren 2014) the human figures are GEHRKE!4

5 very basic as well as the background and the rest of the landscape. This piece has been dated to roughly 1500 BCE to as late as 500 BCE. As apposed to a more realistic depiction of cave art, a carving of Bison (pg 12 Stokstad & Cothren 2014) located in a cave in Le Tub d Audoubert, France, these clay sculptures are more anatomically accurate than most other reliefs, paintings, or any other art form during this time period. I think that the study of realism and different styles throughout the history of art is truly amazing. It is abundantly clear that humans can think of countless ways to depict themselves or their subjects. From the ancient Egyptian carvings like the famous carving of Akhenaten And His Family (pg. 71 Stokstad & Cothren 2014) that depicts royalty with an unnatural curved abdominal region as well as very egg shaped heads in order to more separate the royalty from the everyday person. When you compare that abstracts with something like Greek sculpture where in almost every sculpture they tried to capture the exactness of the human form. The style of art is so broad and different that it is impossible to name all the techniques and forms that people have used to express themselves or their view points throughout the years of human history. For as long as humans have existed they have used one form or another to express themselves or what they believe in. Art is a powerful sense of identity and creativity that as long as humans remain intact as species, art will always be with us. Even as something so simplistic as a hand print that has been on a cave wall for 2000 years can be a representative piece about the undying spirit of humanity and our strive to understand and conquer everything we can see. GEHRKE!5

6 References Stokstad, M., & Cothren, M. (2014). Art History (5th ed., Vol. 1). NJ: Pearson. GEHRKE!6