Brendan Maher

AP Art History.
Stonehenge: An analysis of formal qualities and function.
Stonehenge, a truly remarkable structure obscured entirely in mystery, is the
oldest example of architectural engineering mixed with artwork in human history.
Through its lofty and remarkable presence many elements paramount to the
creation of artwork are ever-present. The most obvious and plain element
Stonehenge displays is its usage of line, an almost mechanical precision can be
found just beyond the material the artists where condemned by their station in time
to use, great boulders of Bluestone and Sandstone rough and lumpy in consistency
served the builders. A copious stack of evidence would lead us the believe that in at
least moments of its lengthy existence Stonehenge served as a sort of burial ground
for the peoples living near it. This raises an important question, why was it so
meticulously constructed as to accept the rays of the Northern Summer Solstice
through its north-easterly facing archways? The presence of these facts together
exhibits the value people near Stonehenge felt toward the presence of the afterlife
and its correlation with the stars and sun. An 800 year build process would only
serve to verify the importance these people saw in securing an afterlife worth
participating in and having their loved ones secure their own share in that afterlife. I
see a close comparison within a much more recent however still ancient tool, the
astrolabe, used to guide sailors and entire fleets of ships through the ocean at night.
This was a device imperative to the survival of countless droves of seafaring
individuals yet a challenge most remarkably tasking in its procedure would be to
find an astrolabe unencumbered by the decorative pomp and frills one would expect

to find within the palace of Versailles. We as humans seem to instinctively shroud

our most important assets in are most beautiful artistic adornments. We do the
same when we seek to please the deities existing on the perimeter of or mortal
senses and residence. We as mortals seek to show the Gods we confide in
adornment through the same mediums and practices we find pleasing ourselves, do
we as humans believe to know the mind of God? If so, do we all share an intrinsic,
human, God-Complex?