Unit 1: Understanding Art History: Early Roots of Visual Art



Unit 1: Understanding Art History: Early Roots of Visual Art

Key concepts

• What are the goals of the course?

• Why study art history? How does it relate to our lives today?

• What is art? (variety of images across cultures and time periods)

• How does art make us human? What universal themes and concepts exist in art?

• How can we understand and apply philosophies of aesthetics & art? How does aesthetics differ by culture?

• How can students use visual analysis (art elements & design principles) to describe art?

• How do art historians use contextual analysis? How do gender, patronage, social factors, politics, culture and ethnicity influence and inform artwork?

Skills Introduced

• Methodologies of studying art history

• Contextual analysis

• Philosophies of art and aesthetics

• Use of basic art vocabulary (elements and principles)

• Study skills related to art history

Reading & other resources:



website (art elements & design principles)

cave of Lascaux

DVD: How Art Made the World (BBC)

Textbook, Starter Kit, Introduction and excerpts from Ch 1

Assignments and/or Assessments:

• Classwork: Fab Five contextual Art Analysis spreadsheet for selected artworks (Subject, Function, Artistic Decision Making, Context, and Cultural Impact)

• Small group: What is art? Activity/discussion. Create poster.

• Pretest (not graded)

Homework:

o Set up binder, print out syllabus

o Read intro pages (or website) on art elements. Complete handout part 1 with examples.

o Explore the caves at Lascaux at the website above. Write a short paragraph in your binder … what purpose(s) do YOU think the cave paintings served, based on your research? Was it narrative art, or religious art used in ritual, or simply documenting their world? Why would this art be placed in a difficult to reach, dark cave? Were the hand prints a form of tagging, like graffiti today? Support your hypothesis with 2-3 specific examples.

Flashcards/Images to know

Woman of Willendorf (also known as Venus of Willendorf)

Caves at Lascaux (Hall of the Bulls)

Unit 2: Ancient Near East (Mesopotamia)

Key concepts:

• Iconography (Sumerian Votive Figures, etc.)

• Figurative Art (Venus of Willendorf, Sumerian votive figures)

• Narrative Art (Stele of Naram Sin)

• Functions of art in ancient societies (and today)

• Development of the Fertile Crescent.

• Sumerian firsts

• City States (Babylon, Jericho, Chatul Hayuk) and relationship to art/architecture

• Persian empire & key developments (coinage, cylinder seals)

Vocabulary to know:

Ziggurat

Stele

Hierarchy of Scale (hieratic scale)

Iconography

Register

Cuneiform

Cylinder Seal

Relief sculpture

Fertile Crescent

Resources and Reading:

In Chapter 2, read about Ancient Near East, the contributions of Mesopotamia, and the flashcard images

How Art Made the World DVD, More Human than Human (note worksheet)

Babylone, thematic site on the cultural and lasting artistic contributions of this ancient Near East city-state.

Flashcards/Images to know

SUMER

Female Head (Innana?) from Uruk

Uruk Vase, 3000 BCE, alabaster, Iraq Museum, Baghdad

Ziggurat at Ur (modern Iraq), 2100 BCE

Bull headed Lyre (royal tomb at Ur, 2500, wood, gold, lapis, bitumen, shell)

Votive Statues (Statues of Worshippers)

AKKADIAN

Stele of Naram Sin, from Susa, Iran, 2250 BCE (Louvre)

Gudea (Sumerian Prince statue?)

BABYLONIAN

Stele of Hammurabi, 1780 BCE, Basalt, 7’ relief sculpture (Louvre)

ASSYRIAN

Lamassu (lion-bull-man) from palace of AshurnasiripaI, 883 BCE

Ashburnipal II Killing Lions (modern day Nimrud, Iraq)

NEOBABYLONIAN

Ishtar Gate, 575 bce

Tower of Babel

PERSIA

Royal Audience hall (apadana) of Darius I and Xerxes I, Persepolis, Iran 500 BCE

-columns: base/shaft/capital, fluting

-metalworking: repousse

Assignments and assessments

• Read appropriate selections from text chapter on Ancient Near East, make flashcards.

• Flashcards: title, place, time period, media, significance.

• Explore Babylone thematic website (Louvre) and pretend you are an archaeologist presenting her findings to a museum that is paying you BIG bucks. Make a labeled timeline on a long sheet of paper (cut a piece in half and tape it together?) with some key events and artistic/architectural findings. Make sure you include the Sumerians, the Akkadians, and the Assyrians and how these (possibly) were affecting Babylon. Place all the flashcards artworks on the timeline.

• Complete a Fab Five Art Analysis worksheet (notes, bullet points are OK) on an artwork of your choice from Chapter 2 in your text, or from the Louvre website. Be ready to present your analysis in class.

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