Art has evolved from serving ritual purposes within communities to becoming a commodity. Originally, art was used for rituals like preparing for hunts, as seen in the cave paintings at Lascaux. It also served to decorate dwellings and people to demonstrate beauty, status, and power. Over time, art became expressions of artistic skill and representations of wealth and status through materials like gold and gems. Now, art is often viewed and displayed in museums as cultural objects and commodities.

1. From Ritual to Commodity
ART 100
Week 3.2

2. agenda 9.11.14
Our goal today: understanding art through what it has
been used for.
ritual in which a whole community participates
decoration of people and dwellings for beauty, interest, status
statements of power that impress and intimidate
stockpiling of material wealth in the form of gold and gems
expressions of artistic skill in transforming paint and canvas
into a wealth of illusions

3. the “art” context
which John Dewey warned us, can easily get
in the way of our actual connection with art
every object, even the most prestigious,
prized possession of a great museum, was
made by a human with the intent of
communicating with other humans.

4. The Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, designed by Renzo Piano, 2009

5. Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877, installed at the Art Institute

8. Louise Lawler, Statue before Painting, Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Canova, 1982

9. Beginnings in ritual
Lascaux cave, Dordogne region of France, Hall of the Bulls, c. 15,000 BCE

10. “Magician” or “Birdman” from Lascaux

11. Historians speculate: this is not “art” but may be a magical
technique used as part of rituals preparing for the hunt.

12. The Game
As ritual:
You are an active participant
Everyday rules don’t apply in
this deviation from ordinary
space/time
Sacred beverages are
consumed
As spectacle:
You are consigned to watch
someone else doing
something; your role is limited
to viewing.

13. An ordered representation of
a chaotic and often hostile
universe, expressing our
wish for a desired outcome.

14. An ordered representation
of a chaotic and often
hostile universe,
expressing our wish for a
desired outcome.

15. decoration
So if art finds one set of origins in ritual, it finds another in
the human tendency to decorate anything and everything
that we make.

16. Marine shell bead excavated at Blombos Cave, South Africa,
dating to 70,000 years ago (string of beads at bottom is a reconstruction)

17. useful objects: combs
Jade comb,
China,
c. 400 BCE
Ivory comb,
Etruscan (ancient Italian)
6-5th century BCE

18. useful objects: swords
Ancient Persia, , c. 750-650 BCE
sword hilt, silver, (iron
blade)
Ancient Korea, Bronze Age sword hilt,
Between 900-300 BCE

19. Art has a definite
role to play in
assertions of wealth
and status.

21. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/mr-and-mrs-isaac-winslow-jemima-debuke-32678

22. Chuck Close, William Jefferson Clinton, 2006, oil on canvas
installed at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

23. Precious courtly objects
The original bling
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=TSyLLWZ5jp8

24. Crown Jewels, Tower of London
Objects like these were created to impress, intimidate
and symbolize the power of the monarch.

25. Status and
power
“I’m the emperor, and you
are definitely not.”
“This are the symbols of
my worldly power and
wealth.”
Napoleon appropriated
many symbols of royalty
although he had no claim
to royal blood.

26. Napoleon in his coronation garb,
painted on porcelain after a lost
painting by Gérard.

27. What creates value in art?
Reliquary of Ste.-Foy at Conques

28. Reliquary Statue of Sainte Foy
Abbey Church of Conques
Conques, France
Late 9th or 10th century with
later additions

29. Reliquary: receptacle used to
store or display sacred objects

30. Real gold Painted gold

31. Simone Martini (and Lippo Memmi),
The Annunciation, tempera on
panel with gold leaf, c. 1333, 10’1”
x 8’8”
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation,
fresco in cell 3, Convent of San
Marco, Florence , c. 1440

32. Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece (open), completed 1432, Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent,
Belgium

33. Jan van Eyck, Mary Crowned, detail of the Ghent Altarpiece, completed
1432, Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent, Belgium

34. Jan van Eyck, Mary Crowned, completed 1432
Jan Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665-6, oil on canvas, 17 1/2 x 15 3/8 inches