Art History Blog

[nathanbildstein-blog]

Week 6

Chapter 5 was a very interesting chapter in my opinion. I was familiar with a lot of the information throughout this chapter. I like seeing these great pieces of architecture such as: temples, sculptures, mummification, pyramids, etc. It’s all so amazing how they are designed perfectly, and how they all look beautiful. Pyramids are a popular piece of architecture that many people can identify but don’t necessarily know the meaning of them. “The most monumental architectural expression of the Egyptian pharaoh’s power was the pyramid, his burial place and zone of passage into the afterlife” (pg. 53). Pyramids were a resting place for the king’s body, and there was also built in burial chambers within the pyramids. 

I really enjoyed learning about the temples and sculptures. The sculptures look as if it would have taken years to finally finish. There was over life sized statues of kings and other monumental figures. I read that the artists start with a block of stone and chip away very precisely to create these magnificent sculptures. Those artists truly have an incredible talent. To be able to create something so majestic out of stone is amazing. Temples are also something that I find unique about Ancient Egypt. To me, temples are similar to chapels or some place to relax and talk to God. The temples symbolized both earthly and celestial figures. The thing that I really liked about the temples is just simply how they look. They are built so perfectly, and to me it symbolizes power and excellence. They just look like a king, or god of some sort should be living there. They are similar to the white house or a big beautiful church. I feel like they are similar to those because there is a sense of power held within those 2 buildings I listed above. Obviously in the white house, the president is the decision maker for our country. In churches, the priest makes me feel so close to God, the most powerful icon in the world. 

Everything about chapter 5 was interesting and very unique. I liked how the sculptures, temples, pyramids, and everything else have such significance to Ancient Egypt. They are either places for worship, burial sites for people of power, or show worship towards people of power. There are so many things within Egypt that relate to certain things here in America. Not only did I like how they symbolize something, but they were all architecturally beautiful. The temples, pyramids, and sculptures looked very cool. I enjoyed learning about them, as well as just simply admiring their true beauty. Learning about other cultures and their statues/monuments has always amazed me. It also surprised me how many things are so different, but yet so similar to things in America. Chapter 5 was a very fun learning experience. 

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I really enjoyed reading Chapter 5 as well. I’ve learned a lot about Egypt over the years because different history teachers have taught different things about Egypt. My favorite thing to learn about was the pharaohs and the pyramids. The pyramids were such a beautiful creation. They took so much time and effort to put them together. I agree there are some things that happened in Egypt that we could relate back to America. For one both have so much rich history. 

[marissareichardposts-blog]

Blog 14

Chapter 13 was about gothic art. When I think of something or someone who is gothic I think of the color black. In school when someone would say someone looked gothic it’s because they had a lot of black on or they were wearing really heaving makeup. I didn’t know that there was such a thing like gothic art. Gothic art started in the middle of the twelfth century in France. I thought it was interesting that the Goths were blamed for the end of the classical style. The Goths are the Germanic tribes who invaded Greece and Italy.

There were lot of new elements of architecture that came from the gothic period. The first one is the rib vaults. Rib vaults are just an updated version of barrel vaults. Piers had to evolve because the vaults were evolving. The piers are what helps to support different structures. There were pointed arches that were created also. I liked the look of these the most. They are such a bold piece of architecture. This was a core piece of gothic architecture. The pointed part of the arch made it taller for obvious reasons. This class has given me an amazing opportunity to see so many different kinds of architecture. I love seeing the buildings and learning more and more about how architecture has developed over time.

Stain-glass windows, everyone knows what they are. They are stained glass that is translucent colored glass that is cut to form an image. They are most popular in churches. They will put different scenes that were in the bible onto stain-glass windows. They are always so colorful and eye catching. When I’m in a church I love to look at all of the images that are on the stain-glass windows. Big churches are the best because they have the most. Gothic stain-glass windows tended to be more blue and red they also had gold accents. The light and color is used to highlight the image and to make everything look even more beautiful.

As gothic art got more popular it spread across Europe and into England. The book said that English Gothic was more varied than French Gothic. A lot of Gothic art is in cathedrals. Cathedrals are so beautiful to look at my favorite cathedrals are the ones that are located in England. They just seem so prim and proper. For example the stain-glass windows those are in a lot of large cathedrals. I noticed that gold is a popular color in Gothic art.

Gothic art also spread to Germany. I don’t know a lot about Germany so it was interesting to read about its art. The book talked about the Cologne Cathedral in particular. I liked the color of it, it is darker and it defiantly screams Gothic. Especially the kind of gothic that I grew up being influenced by. The Gothic style spread out even more and it was present for as long as into the fifteenth century.

[madisondurant20-blog]

Week 1

Victor Figol watercolor paintings warm my heart, they are always so colorful and visual appealing 

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I really liked this picture for multiple reasons. First of all the colors make me feel warm and fuzzy. They are bright and literally light up the night in this image. I love all of the detail that has been put into this picture. It looks like it has been raining and that makes it even better because you can see the reflection on the ground. My favorite part about this picture is the buildings in the background. 

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Blog 12

This chapter was about Romanesque Art. I have never heard of this kind of art before. I enjoyed reading about it and getting to see what it all about. First of all I liked learned what Romanesque means, it means “roman-like.” That helped me connect to where this art came from. Romanesque Art consisted of various styles. Art truly flourished during the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Western Europe.

Architecture was changing at this time. There were features like round arches, stone vaults, thick walls, and exterior relief sculptures. There are buildings that are still standing that have these features. The original buildings are still around. That is amazing. I will never understand how these buildings are still around. They were either built really well or they have been taken care of.

The architects during this time were kept very busy because they had to construct a lot of churches to accommodate the Rule of an Order. There were so many pilgrims that came that they had to build bigger and better churches. They often ran out of materials to build these buildings because there were so many buildings being built. All of the churches had to look aseptically pleasing. That had to of been very difficult for everyone involved. First of all who paid for all of these churches, did the state, did people get taxed? Second who all was building these churches? Most likely not the rich, it was probably the poor. I have a lot of respect for the people that built these amazing churches.

On page 186 in our textbook it showed an example, this church was in France. It is the biggest church I have ever seen. It showed such amazing workmanship. This church was called Sainte-Foy at Conques. This is the earliest example of a pilgrimage church. It was named after a virgin martyr that was still a child and she refused to worship pagan gods. This church was attractive to the pilgrims because of all of the saint relics. This church was full of vaults and different pathways and different galleries. I found this fact to be very interesting, at the main entrances of most pilgrimage churches there are relief sculptures to try and attract more people to come into that specific church. It was truly built to accommodate a very large amount of people. The amount of patience that the builders had to have is amazing.

I liked reading about manuscripts. A manuscript is illuminated and characterized by flattened space and lively patterns. They are eye catching and appealing. They can draw people in and make them think. I think that the best art is that art that makes you think. These manuscripts can either be horizontal or vertical. They always show some sort of symbol or story or person. The mural painting that were shown in this chapter were beautiful. They were so colorful and detailed. The tapestries were also very cool. I want to get a tapestry for my college dorm!

Adams, Laurie Schneider. A History of Western Art. McGraw-Hill, 2011. Pgs 184 to 197

[nathanbildstein-blog]

Ch. 11

Chapter 11 was very interesting to read about. The early middle ages from seventh to the tenth century was fascinating. Art and education development was very popular in the early middle ages, and I think those are things that are important for many cultures. The artwork in the book is beautiful. I really liked seeing the arches on page 172. The arches of the great mosque in Cordoba, Spain made the church look incredibly unique. It was very mesmerizing to see them. I have noticed that a lot of the artwork presented in the book comes from Cordoba, Spain, so I assume that was a very religious town in Spain. The northern European artwork was also fascinating. It mentions that there were invasions, so there was no monumental, painting, or sculptures produced. However, the invaders brought new art. For example, they brought a cover of a purse that truly looked amazing. It is made of gold, cloisonné enamel, and dark red garnets. It also has signs of Christianity on it. It combines Christian interlace designs and Germanic crafts with some cool Scythian animal style. I really liked this piece of artwork because it’s literally art, but you can use it in your everyday life. Another piece of art that I really enjoyed looking at was the Palace Chapel. The chapel has so many seats in it, which shows how big religion was to people. I really like how it goes up very high and has different patterns along it. The windows at the very top let in light, which I also find to be unique. I think the reason I like this chapel so much is because I grew up in a very catholic community. We have a couple chapels that I use on occasion, and it is cool to see the different, but yet so similar designs of them. Seeing all the candles, gold, and different designs is awesome. I personally think it’s amazing to see how many cultures do all this work for our Lord and savior. The Ottonian period section was cool to learn about. The architectural work within this time period was very neat. The church in St. Michael’s, Hildesheim was incredible. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during world war 2. The building was incredible. I really liked the green and red roofing, it connected everything so well. The architecture itself was incredible as well. They was cylinder roof tops, and also pyramid looking roof tops. Everything about the building was unique in style. The color, the shapes and sizes, everything was tied together great. The people who came up the with design of this building must have had very creative minds. I would love to tour some of these insanely gorgeous buildings from other cultures. I think that would be awesome. Overall, I thought this chapter was pretty fun. The architecture and different uses of art throughout the chapter was neat.  

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I really liked that education started to develop. Education is so important and during this time their were so many discoveries. The architecture in the Early Middle Ages was beautiful and very detailed. The churches were probably my favorite things to look at. They had so much thought put into them. I like how you put your own personal stories into your blog post. You made a really great post! I really enjoyed reading it!

[marissareichardposts-blog]

Week 14 Blog

Chapter 11 was about the Early Middle Ages. Islam was talked about in the beginning of the chapter. Islam is a religion. It has been a very talked about religion as of late. People have very strong feelings about this religion. I am not one to judge how others live their lives so I do not pay attention to the things that are said. I found the Islamic art to be very interesting. The paintings were of abstract geometric and floral patterns. In islam they believed that sculpture were the work of satan and because of that sculptures are nonexistent in Islamic art. Their architecture was a big deal though. The architectural expression came through the creations of mosques. This is where Muslims went to pray. I just learned this year from a classmate that converted to Islam that you have to kneel and face Mecca when you are praying. They pray many times throughout the day. As Islam spread throughout the West they needed more mosques which helped to expand the architecture and art of the Middle Ages. The art that was put in these mosques was absolutely beautiful. They were so detailed and their was so much thought put into them.  

Anglo-Saxon metalwork was amazing. One example the book gave was the cover of a purse that was found in a pagan ship burial. A belief from back in that time was that boats carried the souls of the dead after they died to the afterlife. This purse cover was made of gold. It would be so amazing to have someone care about you so much that they make something out of gold for you. It is so interesting to me that the people thought that their souls were being sailed to the afterlife. I can see where they would get that from. I wish we had more things like that now-a-days. Everything is more black and white now. People do not like to think outside of the box.

Hiberno-Saxon art is from Ireland. I love everything about Ireland. It has so much rich history and I just think it is such a beautiful country. From 563 to 597 the expansion of art occurred. They created manuscript illuminations. I’ve never heard of them until I read this chapter. They are hand-decorated pages of text. They were important because of the bible and for the expansion of christianity. They put geometric designs on these manuscripts.

During the Ottonian Period was named after the three rulers Otto. They ruled an empire that only included Germany and parts of Italy. Metalwork and architecture were the two main points of this time. I love how much thought was put into the creation of the different churches and mosques that were talked about in this chapter. When people care about something it can turn out beautifully. All it takes is a little effort. I wish that happened more these days. This chapter showed me how were are laking effort these days.

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I chose to talk about Central America and their art. They commonly used a kind of stone called metates. This is used to make things for burials. At the start of this time period there were ceramic sculptures that had amazing details. Sculptures were very present during this time. The pictures that I saw of these art pieces were really great. There was one that was blue. It was long and it looked like it was a man with a helmet that a knight would wear. It had two holes that could be eyes or they could be something else. The top and bottom weren’t as wide as the middle was. This art piece was made from a form of stone. That was a Jade color.  There were a lot of sculptures that looked like animals. Those were my favorite. I am a very big animal person. I have three dogs and these sculptures even though they weren’t of dogs they reminded  me of them. My favorite animal sculpture was of the parrot. The parrot was also a shade of blue. The parrot had a long nose and it had defining details. By the end of this time there were more human like sculptures and more architecture.

Chapter 10 was about early Christian and Byzantine art. During this time christian art was a big deal and it was very present. There was also a lot of christian architecture which means that they were building places to worship in. For example they built basilicas, they had to build these because christianity was spreading throughout the world. It is interesting to read about churches being built and how they were just becoming a big deal because now a days it isn’t very hard to find some sort of church. I live in a town of around 800 people and we have 4 churches. I liked reading about how they first started because before 313 A.D. people were not allowed to construct places of worship they had to worship in the privacy of their homes.

During the fifth century part of the Roman Empire was taken over by Germanic tribes. During this time artists prospered. A famous structure from this time was the San Vitale. It was a structure that had plain brick on the outside and beautiful and large mosaics. It was bright and very detailed. I wish that more buildings now-a-days had more paintings and color. I like looking at old churches and seeing how much detail was put into everything in them. We need to bring back things like mosaics and large paintings. A new method of transmitting miniature imagery came from this time period and it was called the codex. People would write on parchment paper. I wish I could read some of the things that they wrote back then. That would such a cool thing to know how to do. You would learn so much. I really enjoyed reading about Central America and some of the art that they had.

“Central America, 1–500 A.D. | Chronology | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/05/cac.html.

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Chapter 9

Chapter 9 was about Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome is one of the most interesting times in history and in every history class that I’ve taken we have talked about it. So much happened during this time that it is hard to talk about it all. I haven’t gotten to talk about the art part of Ancient Rome before so I’m glad I’m being given that opportunity. Rome is one of the most famous cities in the world. Everyone has heard of it and knows how rich its history is. Rome at one point was the most powerful place in the world. Everyone wanted to be like the people in Rome.

Rome was had famous for it architecture. They had lots of arches, domes and vaults. These were some of the staples in the Roman architecture. There was different kinds of architecture that was around in Rome. The first is domestic architecture this was a very simple kind of architecture. The focal point was the Domus which is like a large version of a foyer in a house. There were public buildings that had two characteristics they were forum and basilica. The forum was a open room that people could gather in. I think it is a great idea that there were big public buildings. In everyone town now-a-days there is a public space where people can gather and that all started back when Rome had public buildings where people could gather. A basilica is a huge roofed building. If you want to fit a lot of people like there was in Rome you would need a very large building. Something that I thought was very interesting was the public baths. Today we would think that that is disgusting and honestly I think it is gross. The public bath was from socializing, bathing, and swimming. This is like a recreational center that we have today. I would not deal well with this. They should've called it something different. A public bath just sounds like everyone baths together and sits in their own filth together, I think that that is very gross, I’m glad they were cleaning themselves but the way they did it was very weird. The Colosseum is one of the most famous structures in the world. It was used for people to joust and fight. I think it was made beautifully. I can not believe that it is still standing today and the fact that it is standing is amazing. People go and visit it today. I would love to visit the colosseum one day and just look at how they made it. It is so large it had to of taken forever to make. Roman architecture is truly amazing and I think it put the ground work for the architecture that we have today. I wished that more people appreciated how much work was put into making these buildings. They are truly amazing. I truly enjoyed reading about them in this very interesting chapter.

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Chapter 8

Chapter 8 talked about the Etruscan civilization. The book said that this civilization flourished between 1000 and 100 B.C. The Etruscan people had very elaborate burials. I thought that this chapter was weirdly similar to what I am dealing with this week. I had a classmate pass away tragically and I’ve had to see a burial and how they did a burial back then is so different from what we do now a days. They would shower with people gold, bronze and other materials that we wouldn’t often see at a burial these days. Unless you are rich most burials are simple and not extravagant.

The Etruscan people had a very unique language and historians haven’t found a language that is similar to it. They wrote right to left which is weird for us because we write left to right. There isn’t any Etruscan literature left. We know more about their art because they put it on their burial tombs.

Their architecture was inspired by Greece architecture. A picture of the temple of Apollo was given as an example in the book to show the architecture. I love that there was so many columns. I think columns give off a sophisticated look. The statues that were at the top of the building gave off the feeling that you were at an important place. They used a wooden roof, this speaks to the time period. I would of loved to see how they made these buildings because they didn’t have all of the tools that we have today. I wonder how they would get to the roof, did they make ladders? Did they have a some sort of crane? What did they use?

Potter and sculptures were inspired by the Greek stories and mythology. The Etruscan people made sculptures that told a story. They created these sculptures using bronze. There are not a lot of these sculptures around anymore. The sculptures and pottery examples that were given in the book were very interesting and fascinating to look at. They were very out there. They were very unique and I liked that because that makes it easier to see where they came from. When I am looking at art any kind of art I want to see unique art. I don’t want to look at a plain jain painting I want to look at an extravagant painting or fun sculpture. Those kinds of pieces of art make you think more.  

The Etruscans most definitely believed in the afterlife and that showed in their art and how they treated death. When someone died they took mirrors, jewelry, weapons and other things with them so they would have them in the afterlife. This reminds me of when I put something special into my grandpa’s casket. My reasoning was so that he would have it forever. I think that it is a great idea to give the deceased some of the things that they treasured most in the world. I like that those kinds of traditions have continued.

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Week 8-- CH 7

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I agree beauty is all around us and we can find it in almost anything! I wish more people would look for the beauty in things rather than just seeing the negatives and ugly parts of things. I really enjoyed this chapter as well! I really liked how you pointed out the fact about Thomas Jefferson because I put that in my essay as well! It is amazing that we are still using things from back then today. Great post!

[marissareichardposts-blog]

Chapter 7 Blog

The podcast that I listened to was all about beauty and the different ways that it can be interpreted. It talked about how God and beauty related and how beauty and art are related. The guy that was talking was very interesting to listen to and I learned a lot. He had very interesting thoughts on beauty and how it was in Ancient Greece.

I have been waiting for this chapter! I love learning about Greece. I have heard about Greece in every history class that I have been in and I have liked it every time, but I have never really learned about the art from Ancient Greece. The chapter started out by talking about how Greece came to be. They had a very interesting government. They had independent city-states due to tyranny. The men were the ones that ran the government and they had a say in what went on. They had slaves and the women were not included in politics. The Ancient Greece government was what inspired Thomas Jefferson. He based our original government off of what went on in Greece.

The earliest known style of art in Greece was geometric style. This was when artists would put shape on pottery of paintings. They were horizontal designs that would emphasize the pottery that it is on. The shapes that were painted in a darker color onto a lighter colored surface. Another style that was used was orientalizing style. This was more pictures and symbols. It had more open spaces. It had more colors and had more details. I like the orientalizing style better than the geometric style. I like that it shows a story. The picture that the book showed was of men and it looked like they were holding something up. The colors made it more interesting and appealing to the eye. The last style was archaic style. It was a painting style. It is also known as the black figure. That is because of how much more black that is used. The book showed an example of this style on a vase and it had the least amount of color. It was mostly black with a picture in the center. This style also displayed a story, that made you wonder what they were doing.

In Ancient Greece they made a lot of sculptures. They would sculpt Gods and Goddesses for example they would sculpt the God Zeus. These sculptures are also very open. They are literally showing the naked side of people. They wanted to show the beauty that people showed on the outside and the inside and by them being naked they were showing the outside beauty. The podcast talked about beauty and the art that talked about beauty the most beauty that I have seen is through these sculptures. This chapter had been my favorite to read about. When I was reading I was drawn into it. I never knew about the different styles or the background information of some of these major art pieces!

[marissareichardposts-blog]

Blog #7

During this class I have learned a lot. I’m not typically an art person and I didn’t know a lot about it until I took this class. Doing these blog posts makes me look at different topics more closely. I’m not the kind person who likes to do worksheets or small quizzes, I prefer this kind of work. Doing essays makes me put my thoughts on paper and I like that. These essays make me look at different topics from all kinds of angles. Writing makes you put all your thoughts on a paper so it good to express different thoughts.

The two articles that I read were very interesting. I had no idea that this was a problem. I just thought they had these historic pieces I didn't know that it was so hard to get them. When I go to a museum I go to see the “old” things. Museum to me means that it has history in it. I didn’t know that the African and Asian art pieces were not as common to see. I have only gone to one art museum and that was in Saint Louis, Missouri and it was full of modern art not historical art. Knowing what I know now I will defiantly think more about where the art came from and how it got to the museum. If it is a historical piece the probably had to buy it somehow to put into the museum. People don’t just give things up you have to fight to get what you want. It is unfortunate that these art pieces are not around. Everyone deserves to see the beauty and culture that these pieces show. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a historical piece of art in person. I’ve seen only modern art.

I think as someone who is just getting into art I could try and expose my friends to it. I could make the effort to go see more art and learn even more about art. There is always room to learn and expand my mind. I could expose my friends to what I’ve learned this semester so far.

My favorite part of this chapter was learning about The Palace at Knosses. It was amazing it had so many rooms and compartments. There was a thorn room, different halls, porches, and other rooms. It was amazing for the time and very large. It had 16 rooms in total. Another interesting fact from the Aegean time is that we don’t know a lot about their religion. People have tried to uncover this but haven’t been successful.

This chapter talked about pottery which was new. I’ve taken a pottery class before. It is honestly so relaxing. I really enjoyed working with my hands to create something. You can make so much with clay. I made a bowls mostly because I wasn’t very good. I did learn a lot about myself when I was doing pottery. I had to be patient in order to create something that actually resembled a bowl.

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Blog #5

I have learned about ancient Egypt in quite a few of the history classes that I've taken. The things that stuck with me the most were the pyramids, pharaohs, and the Nile River. All of my teachers put more emphasis on these three topics. The pyramids are a structural mystery to lots of people. The pharaohs are like the ancient kings and the Nile River helped to take care of the people of Egypt.

In this chapter, I learned more about the Nile, and the the Old Kingdom and how it changed to the New Kingdom. Then Tutankhamon’s tomb which I found very interesting. I’ve never heard of it before! The tomb is for the young pharaoh Tutankhamon. Tutankhamon was wearing a solid-gold mask. The mask was also very colorful. The coffin that he was in consisted of three coffins. The two outer coffins were made of wood and the third coffin which was closest to the mummy was gold as well. The thought of being buried in a gold coffin is pretty cool honestly. That was an honor back then, he was a king in life and in death. His people made sure he was buried properly. One of the most interesting things that I learned was that they put the pharaoh’s organ in a separate container in the place that the pharaoh was buried.

The pyramids, everyone knows about the pyramids. When I think of pyramids I automatically think of Egypt. The pyramids are the most monumental architectural thing to come out of ancient Egypt. Back when they were first built the sides were more smooth and shiny. Overtime they became more ruff and worn. Khufu also known as the Great Pyramid is the largest pyramid made during the Old Kingdom. The pyramids were used as the burial grounds for kings and queens. Like I said before I find it amazing that how much they honored their dead. They literally built something around someone or different people. They wanted to honor the people that they loved most so they spent years building these pyramids.

During the Middle Kingdom they created a different form of tombs which was like a chamber. As time went on they continued to evolve and make new things. That was true throughout all of history. Everything evolves and changes but it all ends up okay in the end. They made a new and more convenient place for their dead to be buried.

Since this is an art history class I think I should talk about the sculptures that were made  during this time. These sculptures were made to represent different people. They made sculptures to represent the pharaohs or different animals. They would start with a block of stone and end up with an image that was so similar to who they were making it for.

This chapter was very interesting. I learned more in-depth about Ancient Egypt. I really found the pharaohs to be the most interesting. Their people truly loved them and honored them as much as they could. The most amazing thing is that a lot of pyramids are still standing today.

Adams, Laurie. A history of western art. McGraw-Hill, 2011. pgs 51 - 67

[aprilarthistory1]

Chapter 4: Ancient Near East

I thought the most interesting thing about this chapter was that with all of the ancient east places forming sedimentary societies, you see how their locations change their cultures, and how the art and tools evolve along with the societies.

The Neolithic Era is a time of agriculture and craftsmanship, people are exploring architecture and building cities, using natural landscapes and resources for survival and adaptation, and though all those stabilizing factors, new stories and remembrance oriented sculptures and pottery are developing along with the people, such as in early Ziggurats in Mesopotamia, built to protect themselves in flat lands, and also constructed with potery and seal impressions on them, or in the melding of household burials and a rooftop walkway system, in tradition of honoring ancestors. They are combinations of tradition, necessity, and art that being to shape societies.

Also once there are more settlements, you see how the advancements and geographical locations interact with each other. Monumental king sculptures were common and cataloged rulers, written word was created to form epics and creation myths along with documenting histories, which gives us much deeper insight into these societies compared to prehistoric ones. With more emphasis on culture and class as a whole, we also see the emergence of laws and royal burials and many other social practices and distinctions. I think the dominance of kings and their links to Gods became much stronger due to the ability to create and portray new epics and myths through art, and I also think that those stronger iconic connections to deities is why there was such an emphasis on new atisin crafting and stylized sculptures and carvings. Art was able to become more symbolic and could be used as more than just decoration. Animal forms were always highly used in places of symbolism, but I feel like they grew even more, such as like the lion for protection and the bull of fertility, and mixing human and multiple animal forms together. A pinnacle example of animal stylization in art to represent and capture movement and meaning, is I feel in a place like Iran, with its distinctive style of art and beyond realistic depictions, into almost surreal and strikingly formoriented meaning, it had in my opinion one of the most interesting and advanced art style.

Also thought, art was a way to carry out a cities achievements. Kings could create massive structures like the Ziggurat of Ur and Ishtar’s Gate and be immortalized in them until even the present day.

With all these monumental achievements though, it’s easy to see hows depictions of war and conquering were glorious, and that resource rich places were the leaders art creation.The use of more resources and creation of more cities lead to the downfall of many dynasties. The Mesopotamian clay and earth sculptures gave way to Babylonian citadels and sculptural guardians gods, which eventually peaked with Persia and it’s vivid gold objects and colossal structures for kings, such as palaces and the Apadana in the city of Persepolis, before Alexander the Great came.

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I thought this chapter was very interesting as well. I learned a lot and it looks like you did to. It’s amazing that they changed from hunting to using agriculture to feed there nations. The Ziggurat of Ur was an amazing creation, I wish we knew more about how they managed to make it. Did they have to use some sort of crane, or was it all made by hand. This was a really great post, you were detailed and through. 

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Chapter 4 Blog

This chapter talked about many different topics. Some of them were the Neolithic era, Neo-Sumerian, the Ziggurat of Ur, and the Scythians. During the Neolithic era culture developed and was changing. The people that lived during this time changed from hunting and gathering to having more agriculture and animal herding (A history pg 33). On page 34 of our textbook it talked about how “the most constant artistic and religious presence,” in this time period was the female goddess and her male sidekick. We still see that today or a male and his female sidekick. It can go either way, and in recent times it has been the male and his female sidekick but I have a feeling that that will be changing due to whats been happening in the news.

I learned a lot about history in this chapter I started out by ready about Jericho and that is one of the “world’s oldest fortified sites” (A history pg 34). In Jericho they had plastered skulls, these plastered skulls were made to look like the dead. These skulls were one of my favorite things to learn about from this chapter. I think it is amazing that they made the materials that they needed and as a way to honor their dead they did this. I defiantly believe that their were more traditions to honor the dead back then. We do things now to honor the dead but it’s not as much (depending on your religion and culture).

An amazing invention that happened during this time in history was the clay tablet. I think that was one of the best things to happen to this world because it helps us see how they lived back then. They “wrote” things down too. These tablets show the earliest-known written language. On these tablets it looks like pictures but that is how they communicated, that was their written word.

The Ziggurat of Ur was another major part of the chapter. It was a large structure. The textbook said on page 42 that three stages were constructed around a mud and brick basked core. This was all made into a shrine. Then there were stairways that led to the top of the building. The shrine was at the top in the middle. This structure was truly amazing. I wish I knew how they did it. Did they fashion their own crane to lift larger materials or was it all man power?

There were a couple of techniques that were brought up in the book as well. One was glazing which was a technique that would keep clay objects waterproof. Another technique is round arches. As most know an arch is a curved line. Both were used in architecture during this time. Overall this chapter went though various periods and talked about different civilizations. I learned a lot about different structures like the Ziggurat of Ur. I really liked seeing how life was back then. They were very detailed and creative. What they accomplished was truly amazing.

Adams, Laurie Schneider. A history of western art. McGraw-Hill, 2011. Pgs 33 to 50

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Blog Week 3 Venus Figurines

A Venus Figurine is what is referred to as an “Upper Paleolithic statue.” Paleolithic refers to the Late Stone Age dating between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago. These statues were made of soft stone and normally depicted women. Most of the statues found dated back 26,000 to 21,000 years ago. Europe holds most of these statues, but some have been found as far as Siberia. Around 144 statues have been found and all being about the same size.

Most of these pieces of art carry the same features. They include faceless heads, no arms or legs and exaggerated body parts. They were only inches tall. Venus of Hohlefels is the oldest figurine found and when I look at it I see a tiny head, large breasts, no hands or feet and a wide stomach. It was named after the cave it was found in. The most popular figurine is the Venus of Willendorf. The difference I can see from these two statues are the Willendorf has a larger head but no arms. Venus of Willendorf was found in 1908 in the Danube Valley, Austria. She was unique and made of limestone.

The Kostenki figurine found in Siberia, Russia shows a woman that is pregnant and has her hands rested on her swollen belly. She is made of mammoth bone and has more detail like hair and a girdle.

Many people have different theories of why these figurines were called Venus. One of those is because the Romans believed Venus meant beauty. Others have speculated that these are how women viewed themselves because there were no mirrors. To me, I see very rounded women in all aspects that are most important to possibly a woman’s role. The large breast, stomach and sexual parts are possibly exaggerated because a woman’s role is to produce young. Women didn’t have as many rights as we do now. Their “job” was to cook, clean and raise children. The only thing I can think of why some do not have hands are feet is because they just weren’t as important to the woman’s role. Many of the figurines have smaller heads. I would see this as they do not have a say in things and the men were the decision makers. I also found that some figurines were found in and around temples and may hold religious meaning. What comes to mind with that piece of history is that maybe there was some sort of worship when babies were born into the world. Possibly, like how we baptize our young. Bringing young into the world may have been some type of offering by God or their religion and that’s why they created these figurines. Nobody will ever know what these figurines meant. Drawings or art of actual humans were not found until a later time. That is why I find these so rare and fascinating! I had not heard about Venus Figurines and I really enjoyed researching them.

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/venusfigures.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_figurines

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I liked how you chose to research Venus figures. I have never heard of these before this class. It was very interesting to learn about the different theories on these figurines. I believe these were made to show how women were viewed back in history. They probably thought that women were only made for reproductive reasons. It is neat that some of these figurines were made for religious reasons. I think it is difficult to figure out when some of these figurines mean since the people who made them are not alive anymore.

[marissareichardposts-blog]

I really liked your post! It was detailed and I understood what you were saying. I didn’t research the Venus figurines so I enjoyed reading about them. Your point of view that they were most likely created as a symbol of how women were back then seems accurate. I would agree that the way the statues look that it shows them as women who are barring children. I also thought it was cool that they were found around temples! 

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Stonehenge

Stonehenge and the Theories Behind It

I’ve seen the Stonehenge in movies like Brave (it is a Disney movie). I’ve also heard people compare Stonehenge to Easter Island. In my opinion I think that Easter Island is more famous because as a child we are told about it. When people told us about Easter Island we automatically thought that the Easter Bunny lived there and obviously that is what stuck with us.

The Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire, England. It was created during the Bronze Age and Neolithic period. This age and period was from 3000 B.C. to 2000 B.C. This monument is made up of a ring of 13 feet high and 7 feet wide standing stones. Each one of the stones weighs around 25 tons. The area that the Stonehenge is located at also has hundreds of burial mounds. It is a sacred place. It was a place of burial.

The website I used said that the Stonehenge was made in a horseshoe arrangement. It has five central trilithons, then the heel stone, and finally the embanked avenue, all of them are aligned to be facing the sunset of the winter solstice and then facing away from the sunrise of the summer solstice. It was all meticulously placed, everything has its place. Historians believe that people would gather here during the winter rather than being their during the summer. Which is opposite to what we would do. I would go during the summer and not during the winter. I found that to be very interesting.

I found a good amount of theories on why the Stonehenge was created. The first is that it was created as a place for burial, and I stated before that they found bodies at the Stonehenge so that seems to be a realistic assumption. It was a burial for the elite, it was a honor to be buried at the Stonehenge. They found men women and children, 63 individuals in total. The next theory was that is was a place to go to heal yourself. People have said that the Stonehenge had healing properties. Some of the remains that were recovered seemed to show signs of illness or injury. So the people might of gone to the Stonehenge to be healed and fixed but obviously it didn’t work out well for them. Another theory is that it was created for team-building exercises. During the time that the Stonehenge was created people believed in “increased unity,” so the Stonehenge could of been created to help people work together and connect with each other.

I personally believe that it was created to bury people. I also think that the theory that it was a burial place for the elite and rich is accurate. History shows that only the “special” people got to have “special” burials. The bodies that were found also backs up this theory. I think it is fascinating that they can tell that it was not only men but women and children. This is the theory that I agree with the most.

References

Pappas, Stephanie. “5 Strange Theories About Stonehenge.” LiveScience, Purch, 12 Mar. 2013, www.livescience.com/27832-strange-theories-about-stonehenge.html.

“Stonehenge.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Jan. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Stonehenge.