ANCIENT ART IN GREECE

Corinthian Order:

- most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the
middle of the 4th cent. B.C. The oldest known example, however, is found in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (c.420
B.C.). The Greeks made little use of the order; the chief example is the circular structure at Athens known as the
choragic monument of Lysicrates ( 335 B.C.). The temple of Zeus at Athens (started in the 2d cent. B.C. and
completed by Emperor Hadrian in the 2d cent. A.D.) was perhaps the most notable of the Corinthian temples.

Greco-Buddhist frieze of Gandhara with devotees, holding plantain leaves, in Hellenistic style, inside Corinthian
columns, 1st-2nd century CE. Buner, Swat, Pakistan. Victoria and Albert Museum.
Source:Wikipedia

Bronze Sculpture, thought to be either Poseidon or Zeus, c. 460 B.C, National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
This masterpiece of classical sculpture was found by fishermen in their nets off the coast of Cape Artemisium in
1928. The figure is more than 2 m in height.
Source:Wikipedia
 in the Late Neolithic, the Dimini people made a new kind of pottery, black and
cream-colored, often in spirals. (They may have been influenced byWest Asian
styles.)

The Charioteer of Delphi, Delphi Archaeological Museum. One of the greatest surviving works of Greek sculpture,
dating from about 470 B.C. 
Source:Wikipedia

ANCIENT ART IN EGYPT

Seated Scribe

Of the materials used by the Egyptian sculptor - clay, wood, metal, ivory, and stone - stone
was the most plentiful and permanent, available in a wide variety of colors and hardness.
Sculpture was often painted in vivid hues as well. Egyptian sculpture has two qualities that
are distinctive; it can be characterized as cubic and frontal. It nearly always echoes in its form
the shape of the stone cube or block from which it was fashioned, partly because it was an
image conceived from four viewpoints. The front of almost every statue is the most important
part and the figure sits or stands facing strictly to the front. This suggests to the modern
viewer that the ancient artist was unable to create a naturalistic representation, but it is clear that this was not the
intention

The Book of the Dead is a funerary text that emerged in the New Kingdom as a
descendant of the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts of the Old and Middle
Kingdoms respectively. Its function was to secure a successful passage into the
afterlife for the deceased through the spells and images it contained. The
fragment illustrated here was cut from a larger roll. The text is from chapters 1
and 72 of the Book of the Dead and is written in cursive hieroglyphs drawn in
black ink within vertical columns reading from right to left. Depicted above is
part of a painted scene or vignette showing the funeral procession to the tomb.
 Clay funerary cones originally decorated the mudbrick facades
of private tombs at Thebes. They were embedded in rows to
form friezes and may have been intended to represent the ends
of roof beams. The flattened base of each cone, which was all
that remained visible, was stamped with the titles and name of the tomb owner. The cone shown here bears the name
of Merymose, the viceroy of Nubia during the reign of Amenhotep III.

This rectangular coffin was put together from local timber for a priestess of the goddess Hathor called Nebetit. The
head end is identified by a pair of stylized eyes, known as wedjat eyes, painted in a panel on the side. The coffin
would have been oriented in the tomb with the head end pointing north. This would have enabled the deceased, lying
on her side, magically to look out through the wedjat eyes at the sun rising on the eastern horizon - a symbol of
rebirth.

During Neolithic times, known to Egyptologists as the Predynastic period, the dead were buried in a contracted
position in shallow pits dug in the sand and were surrounded by grave goods consisting of pots that probably
contained food and drink, and personal items such as cosmetic palettes. These objects suggest that there was already
a belief in the afterlife. The vessel illustrated here is typical of the Naqada II period, being decorated in red line on a
light background. The elaborate motifs relate in part to life on the Nile, and show oared boats, water plants,
standards, and birds. Other examples also include wild animals and male or female figures. Such vessels were
probably made specifically for burial, rather than for everyday use.
 ANCIENT ART IN ROME

Michelangelo

Born 1475,died 1564. In the 89 years that he lived, Michelangelo

created many of the works of art that we think of when we think of
the Renaissance. A skilled painter who spent many years completing
the frescoes that adorn the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo had trained as a sculptor and created two of the world's
greatest statues--the enormous David and the emotional Pieta.

Art Work

Born 1483, died 1520. Popular with the popes of the period, Raphael
decorated the papal apartments of Julius II, continued to do so under Leo
X and, following Bramante, served as architect of St. Peter's. He is
credited with revolutionizing portrait painting because of the style he used
in the portrait of Julius II. He also designed the "cartoons" that are on the
tapestries of the Sistine Chapel. A tour of the Vatican Museums should include the Raphael Rooms where you can
see some of the artist's works (though Raphael died suddenly on Good Friday, 1520, before all the work was
completed and much of it was finished by his students). In his painting The School of Athens, he reflected the
classical influence upon Renaissance art, but he also paid tribute to the men who inspired him by using the faces of
da Vinci, Bramante and Michelangelo as philosophers participating in the debate between Plato and Aristotle.

TRAJAN'S COLUMN

Trajan's column was built just after 100 AD to remind people in Rome about the
Roman emperor Trajan's victories in a war in Dacia (DAY-see-ah) (modern
Rumania). It stands in Trajan's Forum in Rome, just below Trajan's Markets, and near
the old Roman Forum.
All around the column, there are pictures of the Roman soldiers fighting the war. In this picture you can see Roman
soldiers crossing the Danube (DAN-youb) river in boats with oars.

THE PARTHENON

Most of the carving was done in a beautiful new style, where all the figures moved very gracefully, and
the clothes were floating and very thin, almost transparent, so that you could see all the muscles and tendons of the
women wearing them.

The Colosseum

The Colosseum is perhaps the most famous of Roman architectural ruins. Its immense size, covering six acres and
accommodating 50,000 spectators, is enough reason for its fame. What it was used for is perhaps even more note-
worthy, as we know that this is where bloody fights between exotic animals and gladiators occured. A complex
system of pipes drained the blood-bathed stadium floor.. The picture at right shows the underground tunnels beneath
the floor of the stadium. The wild animals were contained here until the big event. There were 80 doorways allowing
the huge crowds quick entrance and exit from the stadium. Ionic on the second, and the Corinthian on the third. The
uppermost level of the structure once held pillars which held a giant canopy to

ASSIGNMENT
IN
HUMANITIES

Submitted by:
PATRICK E. DYCOCO
BSN III-B