Assignment 1

Writing Assignment:

Write one summary paragraph summarizing the introductory paragraph and five summary paragraphs: one for each topic in the reading assignment (6 paragraph)

Relate important points topic-by-topic.

Each summary paragraph should have space between paragraphs.

A run-on paragraph cannot be graded.

Do not use headers or ‘quotes’ from the reading assignment.

Take notes in your own words and then summarize.

Summaries that are too close to the original text will receive little or no credit

Glossary Terms (by category) Know these terms to read about the works of art below.

General terms

Subject matter: what is depicted in art
Content: meaning in art
Context: social environment of art including history
Aesthetics: making art look beautiful
Fine art: art for ideas, expression, and beauty (example: painting)
Applied art: art for a practical function (example: architecture)

Style terms

STYLE: an identifying appearance
Realistic style: made to look as our eyes see in the real world
Idealized style: made perfect
Representational style: depicting recognizable things in the world
Non-representational style: depicting no recognizable things, only formal elements
Abstract style: depicting recognizable things but not realistically
Cultural style: from a large or distinct geographic area (example: African)
Period style: determined by dates, usually centuries (example: Renaissance)
Movement style: group style (Example: Impressionism)
Individual style: of one specific and distinct artist (example: Van Gogh)

Formal terms

FORMAL ANALYSIS  or Formalism: describing art through its formal elements
Line: mark made by a moving point
Contour line: goes around something
Real line: actually drawn
Implied line: not drawn, connect the dots or edges
Directional line: points to something for emphasis
Organic shape: irregular bounded form (example: the human body)
Geometric shape: regular bounded form (example: square)
Volume: 3-D form with mass or space inside
Mass: solid 3-D form
Shading: gradation of lights and darks to show volume
Texture: physical feel of the surface
Pattern: something repeated
Plane: flat 2-D surface
Linear perspective: using angled lines to show depth
Atmospheric perspective: using fading in background to show depth
Foreshortening: using angles and proportion to show how a figure turns in space
Composition: how large shapes are organized in a work
Rhythm: moving the eye through a work
Symmetry: visual balance that looks equal on each side (mirroring)
Asymmetry: visual balance that looks unequal on each side
Proportion: size relationships of parts to a whole
Realistic proportion: size relationships as in real life
Hieratic proportion: large is important, small is not
Scale: size
Realistic scale: size as in real life
Hieratic scale: large is important, small is not
Diminishing scale: smaller in the background to show distance

Media terms

MEDIUM (media is plural): materials and techniques to make art
SCULPTURE: 3-D object making
Carving: subtractive sculptural process that removes material
Casting: additive sculptural process using a mold to form material
Modeling: additive sculptural process using materials such as clay
PAINTING: 2-D picture making using pigments in liquid
Fresco painting: pigments in water on wall of wet plaster
Tempera painting: pigments in egg often on paper or vellum
Oil painting: pigments in oil usually on wood or canvas
PRINTMAKING: using an inked plate to make multiple images usually on paper
Recessed printmaking: ink held in grooves below the surface of the plate. Example: etching or engraving
Relief printmaking: ink held on areas raised above the surface of the plate. Example: woodblock print

Date terms

BCE (BC) before the common era or birth of Jesus; must be written
CE (AD) after the common ear or birth of Jesus; usually not written
Centuries: 434 BCE is the 5th century BCE; 1801 is the 19th century

Title: Nude Woman (Venus of Willendorf)
Date: 25000 BCE
Culture: Europe, Austria
Period: Prehistory, Paleolithic
Scale: 4 inches high

Subject: This work is a rounded and full woman with her hands resting on her breasts. Her face is not shown but her breasts, stomach, navel, and genitals are emphasized. The back side is carved.

Content: Like many early prehistoric figures, we do not know the exact meaning but this woman is about fertility. Most prehistoric figures found are women and indicate the importance attached to  the survival of the clan (extended family) through child birth and an importance given to women. The navel and the large breasts and wide hips also relate to giving birth and the ability to care for a newborn. The lack of a face indicates that this represents the female form and not a specific person. The sculpture may have been protective.

Context: In the Paleolithic period humans were nomadic travelers and that may explain the small size since the sculpture would be easy to carry. Prehistory means before writing and this early period was also before farming and community living. Verbal and social skills are unknown for these times.

Style: To us this woman looks realistic (as the eye sees, naked) but for the time she was idealized (made perfect, nude). Most people could not be large like this because there was not enough food. Also the body is exaggerated to emphasize certain parts over others.

Medium: This is sculpture carved from stone. This is not easy to do and may explain why the arms and legs are close together (closed form). If they extended, they would probably have broken in the process of carving. From the attention to the detail and the shaping of the form we know that this figure was very important to those who made her.

Formal Analysis: This is three-dimensional (3-D). It has height, width and depth. The figure shows hieratic proportion (the breasts and stomach are large, and the hands and arms are small, to show  relative importance).

Title: Hall of Bulls
Date: 15000 BCE
Culture: Europe, Lascaux, France
Period: Prehistory, Paleolithic
Scale: Largest bull is 11-1/2 feet long

Subject: A variety of animals of different sizes and forms are going in different directions above a ledge-like rock formation in a cave. Most are outlined and some have color on their bodies. A few have spots.

Content: The emphasis is on animals of power and animals that were not food sources. Recent theories are that these animals were hallucinations based on sensory deprivation. Power animals and their symbolism are a common theme in art. These images may have had magical properties but we are not certain.

Context: Paintings such as these are found in several hundred European sites. They were made in a period of 10,000 to 20,000 years. Many of these paintings are in difficult to reach caves that were not dwellings. These caves were probably considered special or sacred sites and we know that the paintings at each site were done over a long period of time.

Style: These works are artistically very sophisticated. The style is abstracted from observations of real animals. Most of the animals are in profile to show their most common characteristics and size. The large bull and some others are shown with the front of their bodies twisted so we can see two horns (composite view).

Medium: These works are a combination of drawing and painting. The lines are drawn with chunks of red and yellow stone. These stones were also ground into powder and combined with water to make paint. Brushes were made from sticks and plants. Stone lamps filled with animal fat lit the areas for painting and viewing.

Formal Analysis: These paintings are two dimensional (2-D) on a flat surface and have height and width. Many of the animals are made from contour lines that go around their bodies. Some of the coloring acts like shading to show shape. The twisted bodies show an early form of linear perspective and foreshortening

Title: Stonehenge
Date: 2000 BCE
Culture: Europe, England
Period: Prehistory, Neolithic
Scale: 24 feet tall

Subject: We see large stones (megaliths) arranged in a circle called a stonehenge. There are smaller stones around this and then there is a circular mound of earth.

Content: This structure functioned as a solar calendar and astronomical observatory. There is a point from the structure that marks where the sun rises at summer solstice (longest day of the year). Such circular arrangement is limited to Britain. Stonehenge was a religious shrine relating to nature worship and had mystical and social significance. Most probably it was a pilgrimage site.

Context: Stonehenge was made in the Neolithic period of prehistory when humans farmed and lived in small communities. Skills included weaving, pottery, and metalworking. Such a structure required a high level of social organization. Not long ago a settlement was discovered in the area and the building of such structures may have resulted in the first villages.

Style: This type of architecture is called post and lintel where vertical stones (posts) are crossed by a top horizontal stone (lintel). Post and lintel construction dominates the ancient world until the Roman era.

Medium: The large ring of megaliths is 97 feet in diameter. The largest stones weight 50 tons. Moving and arranging these stones by dragging was an enormous effort. Stonehenge was probably built in several stages centuries before and after 2000 BCE.

Formal Analysis:  The circular composition is contained and complete

Title: Ziggurat at Ur
Date: 2100 BCE
Culture: Mesopotamia, Sumer (present day Iraq)
Period: Ancient,
Scale: 50 feet high

Subject: This is a high platform called a ziggurat. It has three ramp-like stairs of a 100 steps each.  A temple with corners toward the four main directions would have been on top of it. This is the best preserved example of a ziggurat.

Content: A ziggurat is a human-made “holy mountain” found in many cultures. It symbolizes that the gods are higher than ordinary people. The temple on top would have emphasized this by being accessible only to the priests and ruling class. The central hall of the temple was the home of the god and contained an altar. This room was considered a waiting room to meet the god. The tallest ziggurat was in Babylon and was 270 feet high. The ziggurat was a symbol of political and religious power.

Context: Sumer was the first great civilization in Mesopotamia (between the rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates). Ur was its great city. Rulers and priests organized society into a division of labor, including farming, manufacturing, trade, administration, and the military. For the first time people lived in city-states.

Style: The ziggurat is formed by geometry. These forms are 3-D so they are called volumes. Architecture is called applied art because it serves a practical function; the ziggurat is a foundation for the temple. Ziggurats were built before the great pyramids in Egypt.

Medium: Ziggurats and their temples were made of baked brick. Later such bricks would be glazed (painted and baked) with color and designs.

Formal Analysis: The geometry, scale, and mass of the ziggurat are monumental. The emphasis is vertical. The stairs and vertical lines formed bydifferent levels on the surface create directional lines pointing upwards. The slanted walls also direct the eyes vertically

Title: Stele of Hammurabi
Date: 1800 BCE
Culture: Babylon, Susa (present day Iran)
Period: Ancient Scale: 7 feet high

Subject: A king (Hammurabi) stands before a seated sun god (Shamash). Shamash extends his staff and a ring to Hammurabi who makes a gesture of respect. There is cuneiform writing below them on a tall pillar like sculpture (stele).

Content: The extensive writing on the stele is a code of laws and punishment. The code is one of the first to establish rights and the idea of justice for ordinary people. The depiction of the king and god show that Hammurabi, who was famous for his military conquests, gets his authority to enforce these laws from the god. Both wear crowns and have beards as symbols of male power. The king stands to honor the god who is seated on a elevated throne. The staff and ring represent a measuring rod and coiled rope, the symbols of the architect. Thus, Hammurabi is depicted as being an able empire builder. In general staffs are associated with the power of the ruler.

Context: In the 18th and 17th centuries BCE, Babylon ruled many of the city-states around it. They were eventually conquered by the Assyrians. In Mesopotamia the chronological order of rule follows: Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, Neo-Babylon, and Persia. These empires established what we consider as the foundations of civilization. Their art showed the power of the rulers and their gods. Their kings were the first to call themselves rulers of the world and to assume divinity.

Style: Mesopotamia is known for many firsts in art. The first coherent narratives, the first writing, and the first life-size hollow bronze casting. In general Mesopotamian sculpture is known for idealized and abstracted figures with elaborate surface carving and pattern.

Medium: This sculpture is of basalt, a very hard stone that was meant to last. The wedge shapes of cuneiform were usually done in clay but here they were inscribed in stone to last forever.

Formal Analysis: Our stele shows one of the earliest examples of sculptural foreshortening (angled figure). Here we can see this in the shoulders of the god and the different lengths of the forearms. The curved top and sides contain the volume.