The Venus of Willendorf is a small Paleolithic statue from 25,000-21,000 BC that emphasizes the female form, especially the breasts, stomach, and thighs. It is thought to represent a fertility goddess due to its exaggerated reproductive features. While the torso and head are emphasized, other parts like the arms are hardly noticeable, showing an early focus on fertility and reproduction.

1. MAS10 - REVIEWER

2. VENUS OF WILLENDORF
Artist: Unknown
Date: 25,000 B.C to 21,000 B.c
Period: Prehistoric

3. The most famous Paleolithic sculpture.
Carved out of limestone
Bulbous oval shape emphasizes
the head, breasts, torso and thighs.
Considered “Portable art.”

4. Fertility:
Emphasis of
the body parts
related to
reproduction
and nursing.
This leads some
to speculate
she was a
fertility goddess

5. Scrawny
Arms:
While the
reproductive
anatomy was
exaggerated
other parts
such as facial
features or
her arms are
either absent
or hardly
noticeable.

6. History of Mesopotamia (currently IRAQ)
• Over the centuries, many different people
lived in this area creating a collection of
independent states
• Sumer- southern part (3500-2000 BCE)
• Akkad- northern part (2340 – 2180 BCE)
• Babylonia- these two regions were unified
(1830-1500 BCE and 650-500 BCE)
• Assyria- Assyrian Empire (1100 -612 BCE)

7. Religion
• Position of King was enhanced and
supported by religion
• Kingship believed to be created by
gods and the king’s power was
gods were worshipped at huge divinely ordained
temples called ziggurats
• Belief that gods lived on the distant
mountaintops
Polytheistic religion consisting of over
3600 gods and demigods • Each god had control of certain
things and each city was ruled by a
Prominent Mesopotamian gods different god
Enlil (supreme god & god of air)
• Kings and priests acted as
Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)
interpreters as they told the people
An (god of heaven) what the god wanted them to do
Enki (god of water & underworld) (ie. by examining the liver or lungs
Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)
of a slain sheep)

8. Ziggurats
• Large temples dedicated to
the god of the city
• Made of layer upon layer of
mud bricks in the shape of a
pyramid in many tiers
(due to constant flooding and
from belief that gods resided
Ziggurat of Ur -2000BCE on mountaintops)
• Temple on top served as the
god’s home and was
beautifully decorated
• Inside was a room for
offerings of food and goods
• Temples evolved to ziggurats-
a stack of 1-7 platforms
decreasing in size from
bottom to top
• Famous ziggurat was Tower of
Babel (over 100m above
ground and 91m base)

9. • Etruscan Sarcophagi
are made of
terracota

10. GREEK ART
• Divided into four periods:
– Geometric period
– Archaic period
– Classical Period
– Hellenistic period

11. GEOMETRIC PERIOD
• Spanned approximately two centuries, 900 to
700 BCE.
• Dark age of Greece – collapse of civilization.
Greece was gripped by chaos and poverty.
• So called due to its predominant style of
geometric shapes and patterns in works of art.

12. • Dipylon Vase – a
large krater used as
grave marker and
found in the dipylon
cemetery of Athens.

13. ARCHAIC PERIOD
• Spanned roughly from 660 – 480 BCE.
• The expansion of trade with eastern countries
influenced their art form.
• Flowing forms and fantastic animals –
MESOPOTAMIAN ART
• Growing emphasis on the HUMAN FIGURE.

14. GREEK ARCHITECTURE
• Greek life was dominated by religion and so it
is not surprising that the temples of ancient
Greece were the biggest and most beautiful.
• Political purpose – celebrate and glorify their
success in war.
• Developed Three architectural system or
Orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

15. DORIC ORDER
• Originated on the Greek
mainland, was the earliest,
simplest and most commonly used.
• The Doric style is rather sturdy
and its top (the capital), is plain.

16. IONIC ORDER
• The Ionic style is thinner and
more elegant. Its capital is
decorated with a scroll-like
design (a volute).

17. CORINTHIAN ORDER
• The Corinthian style is seldom
used in the Greek world, but
often seen on Roman temples.
Its capital is very elaborate and
decorated with acanthus leaves.

18. TUSCAN
COMPOSITE

19. PARTHENON
• Parthenon - temple of Athena Parthenos
("Virgin"), Greek goddess of wisdom, on the
Acropolis in Athens.
• The Parthenon was built in 5th century BC,

21. GREEK SCULPTURE
• Emerged as a principal art form.
• Began in 600 BCE, the Archaic age was best known for
the emergence of stone statues of humans, such as
limestone called kouros sculptures
• Kouroi figures – male sculptural figures depicted nude.
• Kore figures – female counterpart of the kouros figure.
Clothed and embellished with intricate carved detail.

24. GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE
• the time Athens rose to prominence and Greek
expansion
• the Classical age could be seen as a turning point
in art.
• creating statues and mastered marble
• celebrating mankind as an independent entity

25. GOLDEN AGE GREEK SCULPTURE
• Diskobolos, 450 BCE

26. Contrapposto
• Figure rests weight on one leg, which is
planted firmly on the ground, while the torso
is slanted or forms a diagonal, creating an S-
like arrangement for the body

27. • Polykleitos – Doryphorus
(Spear Bearer), 450-440

28. • Diaduomenos" is believed
to be a Roman marble
copy of an original Greek
bronze statue, c.440 bce,
73" high.

29. • "Old Market
Woman," 2nd
Century bce, 49
1/2" high.

30. LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD
• Brought a more humanistic and naturalistic
style, which emphasizes on the expression of
the emotion.
• Praxiteles – proponent of the late classical
period style

32. • Laocoon and his sons

33. HELLENISTIC PERIOD
• began around the death of Alexander the
Great
• Characterized by excessive, almost theatrical
emotion and the use of illusionistic effects to
heighten realism.

34. • Venus de Milo

36. ROMAN ART
• Roman art combined native talent, needs and styles
with other artistic sources, particularly that of Greece.
• Mt. Vesuvius is important in history for Burying the city
called Pompeii during the eruption on 79 CE.
• Imitators of Greek Art.
• Master builder – builds from concrete

37. ROMAN SCULPTURE
• Introduced Realism in sculpture – Rome’s
unique contribution to the arts.
• portrait sculpture of Roman emperors were
often used for propaganda purposes

39. ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
• The most significant contribution of the
Romans to architecture were the Archs and
the use of concrete to replace cut stone.
• legendary for the durability of its construction
• Aqueducts - based on the arch, were
commonplace in the empire and essential
transporters of water to large urban areas.

40. A series of repeating arches is called an Arcade

41. COLLOSSEUM
• Colosseum – a structure consists of two back-
to-back amphitheaters forming an oval arena,
around which rows of marble bleachers.

44. TRIUMPHAL ARCHS
• A triumphal arch is a
structure in the shape
of a monumental
archway, in theory built
to celebrate a victory in
war, but often used to
celebrate a ruler.

46. • Pantheon – temple dedicated “to all the
planetary gods”
• used concrete in the construction of the
building

47. Artistic Achievements of the Renaissance
•Renaissance art has the following characteristics:
•It imitates the classical work of Greece/Rome and
rejects the medieval forms of art.
•It is very realistic.
•It portrays secular themes and glorifies the
achievements of the individual.

48. RENAISSANCE ARTISTS
• Donatello (1386–1466).
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
• Michelangelo (1475–1564)
• Raphael (1438–1520)

49. RENAISSANCE ARTISTS
• Donatello di Betto Bardi (1386–1466).
•was the most influential Florentine artist before Michelangelo. He revived the
classical figure of the nude body with its balance and self-awareness

53. RENAISSANCE ARTISTS
•Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475–1564)
•Born in 1475 in a small town near Florence, is considered
to be one of the most inspired men who ever lived

55. David
Michelangel
o created his
masterpiece
David in
1504.

56. Sistine Chapel
About a year after creating
David, Pope Julius II summoned
Michelangelo to Rome to work
on his most famous project, the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

57. Creation of Eve Creation of Adam
Separation of Light and Darkness The Last Judgment

58. La Pieta 1499
Marble Sculpture

59. Moses

60. RENAISSANCE ARTISTS
•Leonardo di ser peiro da Vinci (1452–1519)
•is known as a “Renaissance man,” a person expert in many fields who has a wide
range of interests.

62. 1452-1519
Painter, Sculptor,
Architect, Engineer
Genius!

63. Mona Lisa
Monalisa, sfumato technique, a painting
of an unknown lady

64. The Last Supper

65. Notebooks

68. RENAISSANCE ARTISTS
•Raphael Sanzio da Urbino (1438–1520)
•He is considered to be the greatest painter of the Renaissance.
•Famous for his work, the SCHOOL OF ATHENS

69. Raphael
Painter
1483-1520

72. The School of Athens

73. Pythagoras
Plato and Aristotle
Socrates

74. Raphael (back)
Euclid
Zoroaster & Ptolemy

75. Sandro Botticelli, Renaissance Painting

76. Neoclassical Art

77. Art Characteristics
 Rejected the excess & ornamentation of the Baroque period
 Formal
 Used for Propaganda
 Greek and Roman themes
 Restraint in color, space and emotion
 Interested in:
 Discipline
 Order
 A moral view of the universe
 The idea of “art as enlightenment”
 Style features:
 Clean, linear style
 “Simple but elegant”
 Neutral colors
 Shallow depth of background (not much 3-D)

78. Jacques-Louis David (1744-1825)
• Studied in Rome=knowledge of Classics
• Influenced the “official” art of Europe and
America
• Clear sense of “right” and “wrong”
• Political Propaganda supported
Democracy/Republic
• Addressed art to the middle-class/
(“bourgeoisie”)

79. Art: Jacques-Louis David
• Oath of
the
Horatii,
1784, oil
on
canvas

80. David portrayed the French Revolution.
• Death of
Marat

81. David was used by Napoleon to
spread propaganda.
• Napoleon
Crossing the
Alps

82. • Students in 19C art academies were taught to
draw using plaster casts from museums and
draw from nude models

83. DEFINITION OF TERMS
• Byzantine
Characterized by a rich use of color and figures
that are applied flat and stiff. The figures also
tend to appear to be floating and have large eyes.
• Academic Art
a highly established, often realistic, tradition,
showing expert command of artistry and other
techniques in painting.

84. • Romanesque
A type of architecture exterior shows a heavy,
fortress-like structure is enlivened by round
arches, colonettes, and other Roman motifs.
- Chiarascuro
a technique first seen during the gothic era in
the frescoes in the (Arena Chapel) Scrovegni
Chapel in Padua by Giotto

85. • Genre painting
Are paintings of scenes of everyday life
• Fresco
a painting done on wet plaster
• Classic
highest standard/excellence in art, refers to
classical greek and roman culture