In this module we explore the relationships between the making of art, the making of history, and the making of war.

1. ART 299 VISUAL CULTURE GLOBAL CONTEXT
M4 ART, WAR & THE MAKING
OF HISTORY

2. Module 4 Overview
 “There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of
barbarism.”
 —Walter Benjamin

 Topics: what did Walter Benjamin mean by this? what is the relationship between
war, history, and art, as we see it in the works for this week?
 Terms: relief sculpture, pictorial narrative, stele, ground line, hierarchy of scale
 Read: Kleiner, Chapter 3, pp. 54-63
 Look:
 Victory stele of Eannatum (2-7)
 Statue of Gudea
 Head of an Akkadian Ruler (2-12)
 Victory Stele of Naram-sin (2-13)
 Ashurbanipal hunting lions (2-23)
 Palette of King Narmer (3-1)

3. Mespotamia, Sumeria
Victory Stele of Eannatum
“Stele of the Vultures”
c. 2450 BCE
limestone
Louvre

4. Stele of the
Vultures, detail of
soldiers

5. Stele of the Vultures, detail of the king and the vulture

6. Stele of the Vultures,
detail of the enemies
being devoured by the
vulture

7. Mespotamia, Sumeria
Lagash,
Statue of Gudea,
c. 2120 BCE
diorite

8. Mesopotamia, Sumeria
Lagash
Standing Gudea,
c. 2120 BCE
diorite
Louvre

9. Mespotamian, Sumerian
Lagash
Stele of Music
c. 2120 BCE

10. Mespotamian
Akkadian
fragment of a Stele of Victory

11. Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Head of a Ruler, bronze, c.
2400 BCE
http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/266/index.html

12. Mespotamia,
Akkadian,
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
c. 2250 BCE
limestone

13. Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, sandy limestone, c.
2250
http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/victory-stele-naram-sin
CLICK on FULL SCREEN for picture

14. Palette of King Narmer, c. 3200 BCE, reverse

15. Palette of King Narmer, c. 3200 BCE, obverse

16. Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions, c. 645 BCE, relief
sculpture