Ancient Art
Ancient Art dates before 800 BC and is classified by geography. This time period includes works from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa, and Asia.
- Ancient Art: ArtsyBetween approximately 5000 BC and 300 AD, “advanced” civilizations (generally, those with written language) thrived in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Sumeria, Akkadia, Mexico, Rome, Japan, China, and India.
- Ancient Egypt: Oxford Art OnlineThe civilization of ancient Egypt flourished in the Nile Valley in north-eastern Africa for three and a half thousand years, from c. 3000 BC to AD 395. ‘Egypt is the gift of the Nile’, remarked Herodotus the Greek traveler and historian writing in the 5th century BC. The Nile’s annual floods made Egypt an extremely fertile place and supported the vibrant life that developed along its banks.
- Neolithic Art – An Exploration of Neolithic Period ArtNeolithic artwork is part of Prehistoric art, not only did it serve functional purposes, as is so characteristic of Prehistoric art, but it served aesthetic purposes too. Neolithic art is our visual record of the beginnings of civilization. This article will explore the question, “what is Neolithic art?”
Research & Reference
- Ancient Attitudes to ArtArticle from The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization on the ancient attitudes to art.
- Ancient Egyptian ArtArticle from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide on ancient Egyptian art.
- Ancient Greek Art: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on ancient Greek art. This page includes links to reference materials, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Ancient Roman Art: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on ancient Roman art. This page includes links to reference materials, journal articles, and a mind map.
30 Masterpieces of the Ancient World
Thousands of years before Picasso or Gauguin put brush to canvas, artists all over the world were creating works of stunning opulence, realism, and drama--always with a clear purpose. Ancient art history expert Diana Krumholz McDonald whisks you around the globe in search of the greatest art ever created and to deliver insight into the fascinating cultures that produced them.
Perspectives
Living History: Experiencing Great Events of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
This course will take you around the world to look at and examine in depth some of the greatest masterpieces of ancient art. We will explore spectacular artworks from diverse places and times, starting with cave paintings that were made at the dawn of human creativity in the Paleolithic age to the contents of tombs and buildings, remarkable stone sculptures, and wrought gold and textiles that were made as recently as 600 years ago. Each of the selected masterpieces is the creation of a time and culture that make it unique, and each is among the finest examples of art from its culture.
Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art
The myriad ways in which colour and light have been adapted and applied in the art, architecture, and material culture of past societies is the focus of this interdisciplinary volume. Light and colour's iconographic, economic, and socio-cultural implications are considered by established and emerging scholars including art historians, archaeologists, and conservators, who address the variety of human experience of these sensory phenomena. In today's world it is the norm for humans to be surrounded by strong, artificial colours, and even to see colour as perhaps an inessential or surface property of the objects around us. Similarly, electric lighting has provided the power and ability to illuminate and manipulate environments in increasingly unprecedented ways. In the context of such a saturated experience, it becomes difficult to identify what is universal, and what is culturally specific about the human experience of light and colour. Failing to do so, however, hinders the capacity to approach how they were experienced by people of centuries past. By means of case studies spanning a broad historical and geographical context and covering such diverse themes as architecture, cave art, the invention of metallurgy, and medieval manuscript illumination, the contributors to this volume provide an up-to-date discussion of these themes from a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective. The papers range in scope from the meaning of colour in European prehistoric art to the technical art of the glazed tiles of the Shah mosque in Isfahan. Their aim is to explore a multifarious range of evidence and to evaluate and illuminate what is a truly enigmatic topic in the history of art and visual culture.
Bronze Monsters and the Cultures of Wonder
The eighth and seventh centuries BCE were a time of flourishing exchange between the Mediterranean and the Near East. One of the period's key imports to the Hellenic and Italic worlds was the image of the griffin, a mythical monster that usually possesses the body of a lion and the head of an eagle. In particular, bronze cauldrons bore griffin protomes--figurative attachments showing the neck and head of the beast. Crafted in fine detail, the protomes were made to appear full of vigor, transfixing viewers. Bronze Monsters and the Cultures of Wonder takes griffin cauldrons as case studies in the shifting material and visual universes of preclassical antiquity, arguing that they were perceived as lifelike monsters that introduced the illusion of verisimilitude to Mediterranean arts. The objects were placed in the tombs of the wealthy (Italy, Cyprus) and in sanctuaries (Greece), creating fantastical environments akin to later cabinets of curiosities. Yet griffin cauldrons were accessible only to elites, ensuring that the new experience of visuality they fostered was itself a symbol of status. Focusing on the sensory encounter of this new visuality, Nassos Papalexandrou shows how spaces made wondrous fostered novel subjectivities and social distinctions.
Diplomacy by Design
Art and international relations during the Late Bronze Age formed a symbiosis as expanded travel and written communications fostered unprecedented cultural exchange across the Mediterranean. Diplomacy in these new political and imperial relationships was often maintained through the exchange of lavish art objects and luxury goods. The items bestowed during this time shared a repertoire of imagery that modern scholars call the first International Style in the history of art. Marian Feldman's Diplomacy by Design examines the profound connection between art produced during this period and its social context, revealing inanimate objects as catalysts--or even participants--in human dynamics. Feldman's fascinating study shows the ways in which the exchange of these works of art actively mediated and strengthened political relations, intercultural interactions, and economic negotiations. Previous studies of this international style have focused almost exclusively on stylistic attribution at the expense of social contextualization. Written by a specialist in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology who has excavated and traveled extensively in this area of the world, Diplomacy by Design provides a much broader consideration of the symbolic power of material culture and its centrality in the construction of human relations.
Art of the First Cities
This illustrated work highlights one of the most important and creative periods in the history of art: a time marked by the appearance of the city states of the Sumerians, the citadel of Troy, the splendid royal tombs at Ur, and the monumental cities at Mohenjodaro and Harappa.