LESSON 7: ART HISTORY

(The Beginnings of Arts, Western and Asian Art)

 THE BEGINNINGS OF ART

• It begins around 44,000 years ago with the first known

cave paintings in Sulawesi, Indonesia that predate
writing in the journey of human race
• It can tell us stories, express the condition and beliefs of
an era, and lets us connect to the people who lived
ahead of us
 WESTERN AND ASIAN ART
PRE-HISTORIC AND ANCIENT ART
• Pre-historic and ancient art were around 44,000 B.C.E. It can be considered
as the art period that includes cave paintings, fertility statues and bone flutes
to approximately the end of the Roman Empire. A variety of art styles were
produced over this lasting period. Thia Art period includes those prehistory
to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the nomadic tribes
PRE-HISTORIC ART
• Pre-historic cave art in Sulawesi, Indonesia was discovered in the 1950’s.
This art is indigenous mammals; a small water buffalo, a warty pig, and pig-
deer, and hand stenciled. Archeologists discovered their age to be around
forty thousand years, at least same age as the oldest known in Europe
• CAVE PAINTINGS
Lascaux, France Sulawesi, Indonesia

• Seventeen thousand years ago, humans painted on the walls of the

caves of Lascaux, in France the realistic images of bison, bulls,
horses, stags, and other animals. They made stencils of their hands
too.
 PRE-HISTORIC ART
Venus of Willendorf,
Austria CHARACTERISTICS
Cave paintings, Fertility goddesses, Megalithic
structures

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Civilization from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece
and the Romans

INFLUENCIAL WORKS
Sulawasi Cave Paintings, Lascaux Cave
Stonehenge, paintings,
Northers England Venus of Willendorf, Stonehenge

SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS

Ice Age ends (910,000BCE-8,000BCE); new
stone age and first permanent settlements
(8,000BCE-2500BCE)
 ANCIENT
ART
• Ancient Art period includes the works found in classical civilizations like the Greeks and
Celts as well as that of the early Chinese dynasties.
ANCIENT ART
CHARACTERISTICS
Religious and symbolic imagery, decorations for utilitarian objects,
mythological stories
MESOPOTAMIA- warrior art and narration in stone
EGYPTIAN- Afterlife focus pyramids and tomb paintings; massive,
monumental structures
GREEK AND HELLENISTIC- Greek Idealism; perfect proportions;
PYRAMIDS OF GIZA architectural orders (Doric, Iconic, Corinthians)
ROMANS- Roman realism; practical and down to earth; the arch
LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Civilization from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and the Romans.
INFLUENCIAL WORKS
Mesopotamia
Code of Hammurabi; Standard of Ur; Gate of Ishtar
EGYPTIAN
Imhotep’s pyramid; Great pyramids; Temple of Rameses; The Great Sphinx
COLLOSSEUM
GREEK AND HELLENISTIC
Parthenon; Myron; Phidias; Polykeitos; Praxiteles
ROMAN
Augustus of Primaporta;Colosseum; Trajan’s column;
Pantheon
SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS
MESOPOTAMIA
Sumerians invent writing (3400BC); Hammurabi writes
his law code (1780BCE); Abraham founds monotheism
GREEK AND HELLENISTIC
Athens defeats Persia at marathon( 490BCE);
Peloponnesian
ROMAN
Julius Caesar was assassinated (44 BCE); Augustus
proclaimed emperor (27 BCE); Diocletian split empire
(CE 292) Rome falls (CE 476)
ASIAN ART

Hindu Art
• This Art reflects the plurality of beliefs, Hindu
Temples, which depicts their architecture and
where sculptures are found, typically are
devoted to different deities. Hindu Art is
portrayed by holy symbols like the Om, an
invocation of divine consciousness of God; the
swastika, a symbol of auspiciousness; and the
lotus flower, a symbol of purity, beauty, fertility,
and transcendence. It is believed that the
Christian "Amen" and Islamic "Amin" are both
derived from Om
CHINESE ART
• The important qualities include a love of
nature, a credence in the moral and educative
capacity of art, an appreciation of simplicity,
an gratitude of accomplished brushwork, an
interest in viewing the subject from various
perspectives, and a loyalty to much-used
motifs and designs from lotus leaves to
dragons. The art forms most worthy to
mention are calligraphy and painting though
Chinese art also encompasses fine arts, folk
arts, and performance arts.
JAPANESE ART
• Japanese art covers a wide range of art
styles and media, including ancient calligraphy on
pottery, calligraphy on silk and paper,
ink painting, kirigami, origami, and ancient pottery silk and paper,
dorodango sculpture, and, ukiyo-e
paintings and woodblock prints, and
more recently manga, a modern
method of Japanese cartooning and
comics. Japan's art has frequently been
complicated by the definitions and
expectation established in the late 19th
and 20th centuries when Japan was
opened to the west ink painting kirigami,
 Dorodango
origami sculpture

Ukiyo-e paintings woodblock prints

THANKYOU
PREPARED BY : GROUP 5