[Bob Hook]

Miranda I drew a completely diffferent comparison on their environments. I saw the Nile and the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as both leading to agrarian societies based upon their rivers. The area between the Tigris and Euphrates was known as the Fertile Crescent. I think you and others raise an excellent point on how their environment impacted their art and culture. There is an obvious time advantage if you can raise your own food and store it for the future rather than having to hunt and gather what you need daily to survive.

[Bob Hook]

It is interesting to compare the art of Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures. Both were agrarian and grew around the great rivers of the Middle East. They both built temples to their gods. The Sumerian culture built the White Temple and Ziggurat Uruk in 3400-3200 BCE. This Ziggurat was dedicated the sky god Anu. Within 800 years the Egyptians built the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx of Giza. The difference is that these were built store the remains and to protect the Pharaoh’s remains for the future afterlife. This provides a critical distinction between the two cultures and it is reflected in their art.

The Mesopotamian art focuses more on attributing the courage and strength of animals upon their Kings. The relief sculpture Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions is a great example of this from Assyria. Later the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way were completed in Babylon around 575BCE. Dedicated to the King Nebuchadnezzar, the decorations were panels of lions, bulls and a mythical dragon figure meant to convey the power of the king. A person to be feared with close contact with the gods.

The Egyptians believed that their kings, pharaohs were deities. Their culture focused on preparing the pharaoh to rule in the afterlife. A great example of this comes from the tomb of Tutankhamen from 1327 BCE. His death mask of gold and lapis luzuli is an example of art designed to protect the remains for their future role in ruling in the afterlife. The tomb itself contained the tools, ornaments, foods, chairs, even symbolic ships. All executed of the finest materials available at that time.

[Bob Hook]

Valene, I liked your thoughts on how ancient civilizations often used religion and power to justify their actions and gain the support of their citizens. What is truly stunning is the fact you could make that same statement about many of the countries and their leaders even today. Hmmmm yet another reason to study art and history. Thanks

[Bob Hook]

Re; EL Chambers
I agree with many of your points about the hierarchy of the kings and priests. It is interesting to see the placement of slaves just above the animals. Yet, later on, there are many examples of art where fictional and real animals are utilized to imply the viciousness of leaders. An example being the Gate of Ishtar and the Processional Way.
I am also concerned that the view we get is biased by the objects that have been preserved and saved. The art reflects the lifestyle and beliefs of the wealthiest and most powerful. It would interesting to have more objects that reflect the everyday lives of the slaves and the people who formed and placed the bricks for the ziggurat.

[Bob Hook]

The social hierarchy is definitely demonstrated over many years of Ancient Near East. The early Sumerians demonstrated that there was a class in the burial of their dead. There were over two thousand graves excavated from around the ziggurat at Ur and most were buried with minimal ceremonial items. However, 16 graves were not in buried pits but in tombs accompanied with a large number of burial items of tribute. These were believed to be the wealthy and influential members of this culture.
The votive statues of the Early Dynastic period also provide some input into the hierarchy of class. These statues are surrogates thought to represent individuals praying to their gods continuously. Even this representation must have been biased to the wealthiest classes as their clothing and curled beards indicate a higher station in life.
Another grand example is the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way designed to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar. Here we have an entry to the city adorned with copper glazed bricks that are a brilliant blue, their tribute to Ishtar. The gate opens onto a processional that is lined with relief sculpture of vicious lions along with images of bulls, auroch, and a fictional scorpion dragon creature. All meant to convey the importance and fierceness of the king. In this case, the hierarchy is established with a walled city decorated whose large spaces were decorated with the finest of art using exceptional materials.

[Bob Hook]

I found it interesting that the Mesopotamian cultures tied their leadership to the gods in numerous visual ways. In a landscape that is basically flat they built ziggurats from mud bricks that were several stories high and on top of these structures, they created temples for the worship of their deities. They were designed to symbolically function as bridges between the heavens and the earth. Anu Ziggurat was built to worship the Sumerian god Anu, the sky god. Another example would be the Nanna Ziggurat, dedicated to the moon god.
The materials they used to adorn these ziggurats and artifacts found within and around them also offer clues into the social hierarchy of their society. The temples were whitewashed and even adorned with glazed bricks to highlight their visual appeal. Rare materials such as gold, silver, and copper were utilized in jewelry and other religious adornments. While semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli were used to highlight both their buildings and adornments. I equate the use of these special materials indicate that the leaders controlled great wealth and power in a culture that was agrarian with few natural building materials.
They also visually showed their power in artifacts that were found from the era. The Stele of Naram-Sin depicts the leader Naram—Sin as larger and he is placed at the top of the stele, the very definition of a hierarchy. He is also wearing a headdress with horns symbolically stating that he is a god. His army is below him and grounded in the natural world. Great harm is being inflicted on the enemy. Soldiers are shot through the neck with the spear, one is being thrown off a cliff and the other has turned to run in terror. These all combined to verify that Naram-Sin was acting as a god or as an agent of the gods.

[Bob Hook]

Kaitlyn:
I really appreciated your thoughts about the art in the caves. I had not considered that the images may have served to provide information to others who came later. Nomadic hunters could definitely understand that there were animals in the area. Thinking of these images as informational signposts is another possible reason for their existence, beyond art for art’s sake.

[Bob Hook]

To Aubri,
I agree with you on your thoughts that the cave art is not abstract but was the artists attempt to convey their message with the tools and techniques that were available. I think that the relief Bison are a great example of how they strived to create realistic looking images going so far as to add lines that we now recognize as main and long hair. The artist intent we may never know but we can appreciate the images they made.

[Bob Hook]

The basis of this discussion begins with definition of both of these terms. Abstractive art is art that derives some or all of it’s composition from examples from reality. Abstract art is not bound by these constraints and may have no basis at all in the real visionary world.

I feel that many of the cave paintings and the Bison appear to be more abstractive rather than abstract. There are reasons why they appear more abstract. The artists were working with the skills and materials that were available at that time. They were restricted by their lack of understanding of linear perspective. The first linear perspective was used by Fillipo Brunelleshi and was first painted in 1415 A.D. It depicted the Baptistery in Florence. The artist did try to convey a sense of perspective by displaying the animals from two different perspective a side view and a front view depicting the head and horns of the animals. Without linear perspective the depictions appear to be flat or more abstract. In these cases the abstract appearance comes from the artist lack of skills that would not be available for thousands of years.

There were also some social/political reasons for denying the authenticity of these drawings and to question the timeline. In the movie, Finding Altimaria, (2016), Directed by Hugh Hudson, the Spanish Catholic Church is depicted as wanting to deny both the timeline and authenticity of these drawings. Their existence brought concerns about the dogma associated with the Catholic creation stories. By denying their timeline the church was able to cast doubt on what they represented. They considered these depictions as more abstract and not abstract

[Bob Hook]

To begin to speculate about the intention of artists from thousands of years ago is very challenging filled with potential missteps. I think about how hard it is for humans to interrupt and agree on events that have happened in the last several hundred years. We still disagree on the nature of the event, even with our modern communication tools and written languages. Magnify those same problems over 15,000 years and you can begin to see how fragile our interpretations may actually be.
Given my modern biases and limits of my imagination, I can only speculate as to the meanings of these artifacts. I think that both the “Woman of Willendorf’ and the “Woman from Dolni Vestonice are meant to either admire the maternal image or to act as talismans to promote fertility. The Lion-Human image represents a person who shared characteristics with those of a lion. Was he strong and powerful or someone to be feared, we will never know. I see this as a reverse anthropomorphizing of a human, animal traits given to a human.
The cave art is absolutely meant to be preserved and viewed by others in the future. Given the transient nature of their shelters and the lack of permanence for their artistic materials, caves represented the only structure available to preserve their images. Could these caves have been the first art museums? Images of the world around them to be displayed and preserved.

[Bob Hook]

It worked and thanks for sharing. Those look like some more great dogs. Great art too! Did the idea for the octopus come from your diving experience?

[Bob Hook]

Hi Kaitlyn. Looks like some wonderful dogs. From all the introductory videos it looks like we are a pet loving class.

[Bob Hook]

Well it looks like WordPress does not like to play with Keynote. I’ll try again
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ydf3pmV93cYZ7ojbC7ZYDJiPbb0nZLsB/view?usp=sharing

[Bob Hook]

My Introductory Video
Like everyone else, I hope this link takes you to my video. Fingers crossed and here’s to a great class

[Bob Hook]

What is art? To define it I made several serious dives into the depths of Google, you know way beyond page 3, I discovered that there were very few definitions for art beyond those in various dictionaries and those of Leo Tolstoy in his book, What Is Art. My personal thoughts are that art is an outward expression of our inner feelings and emotions expressed in any medium the artist chooses. I then felt that maybe a comparison between what is art and what is craft would help me to answer the original question.
Thankfully my search was satisfied with a web article that compared art and craft. Probhat states that “Art is a form of work that is the expression of emotions.’ Further stating that ‘art is often defined as unstructured and open-ended, it has no limitations of expression.’ (Prabhat 2011) I agree with these thoughts.
I disagree when the other identifies craft as “a form of work, which results in tangible output, for example, molding and carving. In addition, Prabhat states that in art, it is the emotions that flow out, whereas, in craft, no emotion is involved. Pottery, metal works, glass works, and jewelry are some examples of craft works.’ It seems to be rather arbitrary to classify these are only crafts when there are many examples of each of these items in art museums.
After considering these thoughts for several days I think art can only be defined as art by the person who creates it and those who view it.
Cite
Prabhat S. “Difference Between Art and Craft.” DifferenceBetween.net. January 14, 2011 < https://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-art-and-craft/ >.
Question #2 What is Art History?

The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica define art history in the manner. “Art history also called art historiography, historical study of the visual arts, being concerned with identifying, classifying, describing, evaluating, interpreting, and understanding the art products and historic development of the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, the decorative arts, drawing, printmaking, photography, interior design, etc.’(Britannica 2019) Art history provides another view of past cultures. Their language and written words may be long ago lost or forgotten but through their expressions in art, we can still make a human connection with what the artist was experiencing.
Cite
Marco Sampaolo, Grace Young “Art History’ Encyclopedia Britannica, January 16, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/art-history

[Author]

Posts