Bach to Brancusi

1
Bach to Brancusi

• The History of
• Art and Music

http//witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprehistoric.html
2
The Birth of ArtPrehistoric to Medieval

• The roots of painting, sculpture and architecture
  are established

3
Prehistoric Art The Beginning

• Art begins circa 25,000 B.C. with the first
  surviving sculpture, cave paintings and huge
  stone monuments for rituals.
• Prehistoric art had supernatural significance
  magic powers.

4
Venus of Willendorf

• 25,000-20,000 B.C.
• This tiny female statuette is one of the earliest
  known human figures.
• It was probably a fertility fetish, symbolizing
  abundance.

5
Cave Paintings at Lascaux, Francec. 15,000-13000
B.C.Archeologists speculate artists created the
animal images to guarantee a successful hunt.

• http//www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/
  en/index3.html

6
Stonehenge

• http//www.amherst.edu/ermace/sth/sth.html

7
- an example of early colossal architecture or
monumental sculpture made from massive, upright
stones in a circular arrangement. - seems to be
an accurate astronomical calendar
8
isolated from the circular stones is a
heel-stone, marking where the sun rises in the
East at the summer solstice.
9
At Carnac, in the French province of Brittany,
rows of thousands of megaliths (large boulders)
stretch for several miles in parallel lines.
They were associated with worship of the sun or
moon.
10
Easter Island MonolithsAt one time more than 600
of these 30 foot tall statues stood sentry on
this tiny Pacific island.
11
Mesopotamia The first architects and urban
planners

• First cities built with mammoth temples called
  ziggurats and palaces lined with bas-relief
  sculpture
• http//www.crystalinks.com/ziggurat.html

12
Babylon, the first city was the cradle of
ancient art architecture, as well as the site
of the Tower of Babel

• Tower of Babel 1563, by Bruegel the Elder

13
and the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World, which rose above
the Euphrates River. Some believe Mesopotamia was
the site of the garden of Eden. As far back as
3500 B.C., the Sumerians mastered irrigation and
flood control to create a fertile oasis amid the
sandy plains of what is now Iraq.
14
Egypt The Art of Immortality

• http//images.google.com/images?qEgyptianArthl
  enlrsaNtabiioiimagest

Mask of Tutankhamen, 1352 B.C.
15
Egyptian Art

• Tomb art developed with wall paintings
• Statues conforming to rigid conventions for 3,000
  years
• Colossal architecture (pyramids) constructed

16
Ancient Greece

• They invented a lot more than the Olympics
• Striving for ideal beauty results in sculpture,
  architecture, vase painting with balance,
  proportion, harmony
• Style called Classical because it set standard
  for technical perfection
• http//www.ancientgreece.com/art/art.htm

17
Rome The Organizers

• The Roman Empire produced realistic portrait
  sculpture, idealized busts of emperors
• Engineering wonders like aqueducts and arenas
  based on arch, vault and dome.
• http//harpy.uccs.edu/roman/html/roman.html

The Pantheon, A.D. 118-125, Rome.
18
Pre-Columbian Art of the Americas

• Pre-Columbian refers to the period before
  Columbus landed in the New World in 1492.
• Native American artisans of North, Central and
  South America created stylized human and animal
  forms in ceremonial objects.
• Arrowheads from 10,000 BC pottery from 2,000 BC
  have been found, evidence of how ancient the
  culture was.
• Art was vitally important to tribal society.
• http//www.artsbma.org/showglry.asp?IDGArt-of-t
  he-Americas-Pre-ColumbianA0

19
Navaho sand paintings

• Southwest US tribe
• Shamans (priest-healers) create temporary
  paintings to heal disease, promote fertility, or
  assure a successful hunt.
• Use natural pigments powdered rock in various
  colors, corn pollen charcoal.

20
Hopi kachina doll

• Carved painted kachina dolls out of cottonwood
  roots to represent gods and teach religion.

21
Kwakiutl totem poles
22
Eskimo shaman mask

• Alaskan tribe that carved masks with moving parts
  used by shamans often combined odd materials in
  surprising ways.

23
Mayanstepped pyramid

• In Guatemala Mexico

24
Aztec

• Gold figurine

25
Incan

• Gold funeral mask

26
African Art The First Cubists

• Religion shapes art of wooden masks, elongated
  sculpture
• Semiabstract forms influence modern art later
  (see Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, etc)
• See p. 22 of text (A.M.L.)
• http//www.africanart.org/

27
The Middle Ages The Reign of Religion

• Spiritual art made to inspire religious devotion
  replaces lifelike portrayal
• See p. 24 of AML
• http//images.google.com/images?qmedievalarthl
  enlrsaNtabiioiimagest

28
Golden Age of Byzantine Art

• Icons
• Mosaics
• Hagia Sophia
• http//images.google.com/images?svnum10hlenlr
  qByzantineartbtnGSearch
• See p. 24 AML

29
Romanesque Art stories in stone

• Architecture
• Giotto
• Illuminated Manuscripts
• See p. 26 in AML
• Romanesque architecture and art, the artistic
  style that prevailed throughout Europe from the
  10th to the mid-12th cent., although it persisted
  until considerably later in certain areas. The
  term Romanesque points to the principal source of
  the style, the buildings of the Roman Empire. In
  addition to classical elements, however,
  Romanesque architecture incorporates components
  of Byzantine and Eastern origin.
• http//www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rmsq/hd_rmsq.htm

30
Gothic Art Height and Light

• Architecture
• Sculpture
• Stained glass
• Tapestry
• See p. 28 of AML
• http//www.beloit.edu/arthist/historyofart/gothic
  /gothic.htm