ART HISTORY SURVEY I - UNIT I - 1
PREHISTORIC ART
CULTURES, STYLES, IMPORTANT WORKS, AND DATES:
Paleolithic
35,000-8,000 B.C.
Woman from Willendorf
Clay bison
Caves of Lascaux, France
Neolithic Civilizations (Ancient Near East)
C. 6000 B.C.
Human Skull from Jordan
Catal Huyuk
Neolithic
8,000-2,300 B.C. (later in West)
Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England c. 2,000 B.C.
VOCABULARY, PLACE AND PEOPLE:
Abbe Henri Breuil, tectiform, corbeling, cromlech, dolmen, megalith, menhir, Neolithic
Revolution, passage grave, post-and-lintel, bas relief.
IMPORTANT EVENTS:
1879 Altamire Cave paintings discovered in Spain
1901 Abbe Henri Breuil discovered cave art in Dordogne, France.
1941 Lascaux Cave paintings discovered in Dordogne, France.
FUN STUDY:
National Geographic 174 (October 1988): prehistoric man; caves of Lascaux.
Stonehenge (1989) - Horizon Co. - Television special
Quest for Fire (1981) - Movie
Clan of the Cave Bear - Movie - (R)
ART HISTORY SURVEY I - UNIT I - 2
ART OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
CULTURES, STYLES, IMPORTANT WORKS, AND DATES:
Sumerian
Female head, Uruk (Warka)
Warka vase, Uruk
votive statues (2700 B.C.)
Bull Lyre, (Soundbox of Ur)
Standard of Ur
Akkadian
Stele of Naramsin
Head of Akkadian Ruler
3500-2300 B.C.
Lagash/Neo-Sumerian
Statue of Gudea
Ziggurat at Ur
2150-2000 B.C.
Babylonian
Stele of Hammurabi
1800-1600 B.C.
2300-2150 B.C.
Assyrian
900-612 B.C.
Guardian figures/ winged beasts (lamassu)
palace reliefs, Nimrud, Nineveh
Neo-Babylonian
Ishtar Gate
612-538 B.C.
Persian Empire
538-331 B.C.
Apadana (audience hall) of Darius and Xerxes at Persepolis
VOCABULARY, PLACES AND PEOPLE:
apadana, cuneiform, formalism/stylized, lamassu, stele, votive figures, Sir Leonard Wooley,
ziggurat; goddess: Ishtar, Gilgamesh
Nomatic Tribes: Luristans, Scythians
IMPORTANT EVENTS: 1927 - Royal tombs of Ur excavated by Sir Leonard Wooley
FUN STUDY: video series: Testament (1988, BBC), Legacy (BBC)
SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD (originally compiled in Greek travel books of the 2nd
century B.C.): Hanging Gardens of Babylon (video)
ART HISTORY SURVEY I - UNIT I - 3
ART OF EGYPT
STYLES, IMPORTANT WORKS, DATES:
Pre/Early Dynastic
3500-2700 B.C.
Palette of Narmer
Stepped Pyramid of Djoser
Old Kingdom
2575-2134 B.C.
Pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu at Giza
Great Sphinx
2530 B.C.
Khafre
Menkaure and Khamerernebty
“Ti” relief
Middle Kingdom
Rock-cut tombs
2040-1640 B.C.
New Kingdom
Temples, Karnak and Luxor
Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
Fresco, fowling scene
Amarna
Bust of Nefertiti
Akhenaten
Pharaoh Tutankhamun
Temple of Rameses II, Abu Simbel
Book of the Dead
1552-1069 B.C.
VOCABULARY, PLACES AND PEOPLE: block statue, canopic jar, clerestory, crozier, faience,
hypostyle hall, hieratic scale, ka, mastaba, necropolis, obelisk, pylon, Rosetta Stone, sarcophagus,
ushabti or shabti
Jean Francois Champollion, Akhenaten
gods/goddesses: Aten, Ra (Re), Osiris, Isis, Horus
IMPORTANT EVENTS:
1799
Rosetta Stone found by Napoleon's troops
c. 1820
Rosetta Stone deciphered (Champollion)
1922
Discovery of King Tut's tomb
FUN STUDY:
TV documentary and videos: Legacy, BBC (6 part series)
Pyramids, Unicorn Co.
Tut: the Boy King, NBC-TV
Movies: Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, Death on the Nile, Stargate
National Geographic video-"Quest for Eternity"
ART HISTORY SURVEY I - Unit I - 4
THE ART OF THE AEGEAN
CULTURES, STYLES WITH IMPORTANT WORKS, DATES:
Cycladic
figures
Minoan
Kamares Ware
Palace at Knossos
Toreador Fresco
Harvester Vase
Snake Goddesses
3000-1200 B.C.
Mycenaean
Lion Gate
Treasury of Atreus
Funerary Mask (Mask of Agamemnon)
Dagger blade
Warrior vase
3000-1200 B.C.
1300 B.C.
3000-1400 B.C.
1900-1400 B.C.
VOCABULARY, PLACES AND PEOPLE:
beehive tombs, corbeled architecture, fresco, megaron, repousse, tholos, Sir Arthur
Evans, Heinrich Schliemann
IMPORTANT EVENTS:
1870-1890
1900
Troy and Mycenae discovered by Heinrich Schliemann
Sir Arthur Evans starts excavation of Knossos
FUN STUDY:
Crete and Mycenae: Museum without Walls Series, Kartes Video, 1986
National Geographic, "Minoans and Mycenaeans: Greece's Brilliant Bronze Age", May
1972