This document provides an overview of Western art history and some non-Western art traditions. It discusses the major periods and styles from prehistoric art through medieval art in Europe and the Near East. Key points covered include Stone Age cave paintings, Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian art and architecture, Greek temples and sculpture following set proportions, Roman adaptations of Greek styles along with innovative uses of concrete, Byzantine mosaics and architectural fusion styles, and Gothic cathedrals employing pointed arches, vaults, and stained glass designs.

1. Overview of Western Art and
Non Western Art

2. Introduction to Art History
• Art History: an academic discipline dedicated to the reconstruction of the social,
cultural, and economic contexts in which an artwork is created
 wants to arrive at an understanding of art and its meaning in historical context
 related to anthropology, sociology, and history
• aesthetics: the philosophical inquiry into the nature/expression of beauty
• art criticism: the explanation of current art events to the general public via press
• Methods and Inquires of AH
 Before, art limited to fine art only. (paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture,
architecture)
 now much more broad – includes “craft” (textiles, pottery, body art)
 even things like mass-produced posters; telephones; forks
 meaning of a piece of art changes over time and by the person viewing it
• The Nature of AH Inquiry
 formal analysis: focuses on visual qualities of the work (needs observation and
description)
 contextual analysis: examining the context the artwork was created in as well as
later contexts it was in and used in (cultural, social, religious, economic context)
• Sources, Documents, and the Work of Historians
 start by closely analyzing the work of art itself
 then use written sources to figure out its context
 may also use interviews with the artists and consumers

3. Stone Ages
ART OF THE OLD STONE AGE (2.5 million years ago – 12,000 BCE)
•Chauvet Cave
paintings & engravings created using red ochre & black charcoal
depict animals such as horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalos, & mammoths
•Venus of Willendorf
small stone female figures
exaggerated bellies, breasts, & pubic areas
might have been used as fertility figures
ART OF THE MIDDLE STONE AGE (12,000 – 8,000 BCE)
•began using rock shelters instead of caves
•created around 7000 BCE – 4000 BCE
•began portraying human figures
ART OF THE NEW STONE AGE
•megaliths (“great stones”)
•Stonehenge (Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England)
built in many phases around 2100 BCE
concentric rings made with sarsen stones
& bluestones
post and lintel construction

4. Mesopotamian and Egyptian Art
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN ART
• Between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Religion was central aspect of Sumerian life
• Built massive temples at the centers of their
cities
• Ziggurats: stepped pyramids
• Hanging gardens of Babylon
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART (3500 BCE – 332 BCE)
• the Sphinx, great pyramids at Giza, statues of the Pharaohs,
portrait head of Nefertiti
• Hierarchical scale: uses the status of figures or objects to
determine their relative sizes within an artwork
• Excellent conditions for preservation
• Most famous Egyptian tombs: King Tutankhamen
 made of gold
 decorated with blue glass & semi-precious stones

5. CYCLADIC, MINOAN, AND MYCENAEAN
ART
• Cycladic
 Simplified, geometric nude female figures
 Decorated pieces of pottery as
well as marble bowls and jars
• Minoan
 Centered around city of Knossos on Crete,
site of the legend of the Minotaur
 Art depicts sea life & includes
statues of a female snake goddess
 naturalistic pictorial style
 frescoes painted on palace walls
and pottery designs
• Mycenaean
 Built elaborate tombs
 Astonishing levels of mastery in goldsmith & relief sculpture

6. Ancient Greek Art
• Archaic Period
 emulated frontal poses of Egyptian statues
 Archaic smiles
 vase painting: red and black figure painting
• Early & Middle Classical Period (Early and High)
 Contrapposto: natural shift of weight upon one foot
 Polykeitos’s cannon of proportions for perfect statue
– Mathematical formulas to temple design

7. Ancient Greek Art
• Late Classical Period
 humanized deities, athletes, and heroes
 Corinthian capital more popular
 Period closes with Alexander the Great
• Hellenistic Period
 Artwork becomes much more violent and emotionally intense
 Classical rules broken more often
 Portrayals of subjects that weren’t portrayed before

8. Greek Columns

9. Etruscan Art
• Admired Greek art & architecture but did not copy
• Temples made of wood and mud brick instead of stone, columns and
stairs only at the front
• Underground tomb chambers
• Tomb walls covered with frescoes, usually depicting funerary banquets
attended by both men and women
• Sarcophagi were also made to bury the dead

10. Roman Art
• Many of Roman artworks were variations of Greek arts
• Pioneered the use of concrete as a building material (Pantheon);
• Concrete allowed Roman builders to fill the spaces between their
walls with rocks and rubble

11. Roman Art
•Built bridges & aqueducts
•Colossal triumphal arches portrayed Roman emperors or
Roman military victories
•Statues often used to highlight Roman ideals; political
propaganda; role-playing
•Later had a notable impact on art of Renaissance

12. Byzantine Art
• Justinian built/restored more than 30 churches
• Hagia Sophia: masterpiece; fusion of central and
longitudinal plans, dome rests on pendentives
• Famous for mosaic murals
• Artwork more abstract, flattened
• Iconoclasm

13. Medieval Art
• Art of this era preserved largely by the Church
• Illuminated manuscripts: helped exchange of artistic ideas
between northern and southern Europe
• Nomadic Germanic peoples: metalwork was abstract,
decorative, geometric; often small-scale, portable jewelry or
ornaments
• Vikings: artistic designs and sculptures on wooden ships

14. Gothic Art
• Gothic style
 developed first half of 12th century, popular into 16th century
 Pointed arches, ribbed vaults (a framework of thin stone ribs or arches
built under the intersection of the vaulted sections of the ceiling), flying
buttresses (additional bracing material and arches placed on the
exterior of the building)
 beautiful stained glass, higher ceilings

15. Medieval Art
Later Medieval Art
• Architecture of churches became a dominant art form
• Roman arch (Romanesque) design
• Barrel vaults used; window and door openings quite rather small

16. Reims Cathedral Rose Window and lancets