PRE-HISTORIC ART

Painting

Pre-Historic Art
Sculpture
SCULPTURES FROM PRE-HISTORIC
PERIOD
SCULPTURES FROM PRE-HISTORIC ART

Venus of Willendorf
28,000 B.C.E.-25,000 B.C.E.
It is carved from limestone in
11.1cm in height with excessively
heavy breasts and abdomen used
as charm to ensure fertility.
 LIMESTONE

• Limestone- a hard sedimentary rock,

composed mainly of calcium carbonate
used as building material and in the
making of cement.
SCULPTURES FROM PRE-HISTORIC ART

Venus of Brassempouy
A fragmentary ivory figurine from
the Upper Palaeolithic in 3.65 cm in
height.It was discovered in a cave
at Brassempouy, France in 1892 by
archaeologist Paul Pan. About 25,000
years old, it is one of the earliest known
realistic representations of a human
face
 IVORY

IVORY a hard creamy white substance

composing the main part of the tusk of an
elephant, walrus, narwhal.
Ancient Egypt Sculpture
QUEEN NEFERTITI was a
queen of the 18th Dynasty of
Ancient Egypt, the Great Royal
Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten.
Nefertiti and her husband were
known for a religious revolution,
in which they worshipped one
god only, Aten, or the sun disc
Aton, also spelled Aten, in
ancient Egyptian religion, a sun
god, depicted as the solar disk
emitting rays terminating in
human hands, whose worship
briefly was the state religion.
Ancient Egypt Sculpture
Aten, or the sun disc
Aton, also spelled Aten, in ancient
Egyptian religion, a sun god, depicted as
the solar disk emitting rays terminating in
human hands, whose worship briefly was
the state religion.
Aten, the Sun disk god, is the
personification of the Sun. Aten
takes his name from the
Egyptian word "yati" meaning "to
be far away" (which obviously
refers to the Sun high in the
sky).
Clearly aware that the Sun is
vital for life, the ancient
Egyptians praised the multi- Aten is represented as a radiant sphere with
armed Sun disk called Aten very long hands with which he bathes the world
early in their history (from the with his light, a necessary condition for plant,
year 2500 BC according to the animal, and human life. In some
Egyptian collection of texts representations, the Sun disk god has hands
called "Pyramid Texts"). holding the Egyptian cross "ankh" (the
Egyptian symbol of life) which seems to be
stretched out to the earth to bring it food and
fertility (thus representing the beneficial
effects of the rays of the Sun).
Ancient Egypt Sculpture
What is the significance of the statue
of Menkaure and a queen?

This was the modern world's first

glimpse of one of humankind's artistic
masterworks, the statue of Menkaura
and queen. The two figures stand
side-by-side, gazing into eternity. He
represents the epitome of kingship
and the ideal human male form. She
The Pharaoh Menkaure is the ideal female. (queen)
and his Queen
SCULPTURES FROM THE
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
SCULPTURES FROM THE
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
 Byzantine Scupture
The dominant themes in
Byzantine sculptures are
religious, everyday life
scenes, and motifs from
nature.
The Barberini Diptych an early
example of Byzantine Ivory
work.
The emperor is accompanied in the main panel by a conquered
barbarian in trousers at left, a crouching allegorical figure,
probably representing territory conquered or reconquered, who
holds his foot in thanks or submission, and an angel or victory,
crowning the emperor with the traditional palm of victory (which is
now lost)
Romanesque Sculptures
Some of the famous sculptural pieces are
reliquaries, altar frontals, crucifixes, and devotional
images. Small individual works of art were generally
made of costly materials for royal and aristocratic
patrons. The Romanesque and Gothic periods
comprise the great age of cathedrals; the foremost
sculpture of this age is architectural.

Last Judgment Tympanum (an

architectural element with in the arch or
pediment) of the west portal, Cathedral
of SaintLazare, Autun Burgundy France,
c. 1120-35 by Gislebertus
The figures in the space are formed into a gothic style pointed
arch. The arch contains different levels, which creates
emphasis and drama to amplify the importance of Christ.
Additionally, the large number of auxiliary figures, seemingly
flying in a chaotic nature, creates an unearthly affect. The
figures surrounding the main scene of judgement day are holy
people in Heaven. In the first register beneath Christ, souls are
formatted in orderly lines, those on the left have been granted
access to Heaven with St. Michael carrying a moral and justice
scale, while the souls on the right are behind the devil and
being led into Hell. This sense of order is expressed because
the wait is over, and the final decision has been made for these
souls. In the bottom register, the resurrection of the body is
taking place, in an anxious, sporadic rhythm.
Gothic Sculptures Gothic sculptures have a greater
freedom of style. They no longer lay closely against
the wall, but begun to project outward. Figures were
given their own particular attitudes instead of being
set into particular patterns and are more lively and
realistic. The Gothic age witnessed the return of
statues as the principal sculptural type. Gothic
statues are still usually architectural ornaments,
however; independent, free-standing statues would
not be revived until the Renaissance. Indeed, given
that free-standing statues had been worshipped by
the pagan Greeks and Romans, they were firmly
discouraged by the medieval Church.
Greek Sculptures

Hellenistic style. Hellenistic denotes a preference in

sculpture for more elaborated patterns, mannered
arrangement of figures and groups, and an emphasis on
the representation of movement for dramatic effects.

Shows an attitude of
maximum tension, full of
compressed energy, and
about to explode an action.

Myron; The Discobulus, 450 BC

Roman Sculptures

Most Roman sculptures are made of monumental terra-cotta. They

did not attempt to compete with the free standing Greek works of
history or mythology but rather they produced reliefs in the Great
Roman triumphal columns with continuous narrative reliefs around.

Used for the burial of Roman General

involved in the campaign of Marcus
Aurellius
The best known and most elaborate of
all “sarcophagus”(It is a boxliked
funeral receptacle for a dead body.
Comes from a Greek word “sarx”
meaning flesh and “phagein” meaning
“to eat”) It depicts battle scenes
between Romans and Germans.
Carved in marble.
The Portonacio Sarcophagus
between 180-190 BCE
 Roman Sculptures

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses is an

anthropoid (human-shaped), painted
terracotta sarcophagus found in the ancient
Etruscan city of Caere (now Cerveteri, Italy).
The sarcophagus, which would have originally
contained cremated human remains, was
discovered during the course of
archaeological excavations in the Banditaccia
necropolis of ancient Caere during the
nineteenth century and is now in Rome. The
sarcophagus is quite similar to another
terracotta sarcophagus from Caere depicting
a man and woman that is presently housed in
Sarcophagus of the the Louvre Museum in Paris; these two
Spouses (Rome) sarcophagi are contemporary to one another
and are perhaps the products of the same
artistic workshop.
Gothic Sculpture

Resurrection of the Virgin, end of the 12th

century Cathedral Amiens
 Critical Thinking Question:

1. What were the three forms of medieval

sculpture?

2. What was like in the middle ages?

3. What is historical sculpture?