I wanted my students to learn a little art history. So we started from the beginning and went to the Greek pottery. Then I had them create vases depicting one of the five Greek styles of pottery. The week before I discussed cave paintings/art. So this is really the 2nd part to the art history.

1. HISTORY AS WE KNOW
IT
From Lascaux, Altamira and Chauvet to Greece
30,000 BC to 400 BC.

2. AFTER THE ICE
Temperatures increase: Glaciers melt.
Forests expand/animals migrate
People start forming villages around bodies of water
Hunters and Gathers become farmers: agriculture
begins.
People start settling down; building permanent
structures for homes: Architecture begins!!!

3. NEOLITHIC ERA
Britain: cromlechs- celtic words crom meaning “circle”
and lech meaning “place”
must have played vital role in culture since it took
MUCH effort and time to create.
Most FAMOUS cromlech is the Stonehenge
(2800-1500 BC) of Salisbury Plain in Southern
England.

7. THE MYSTERY
Blue Stones Imported from Wales: 100 miles away
from location.
40 ton and 50 ton stones imported from 20 miles away.
sacred place- created over a 400 yr span of time.
different groups of people added on to the Stonehenge
for their own use.
Post-and-lintel style. Like dominoes stack two next to
each other vertically then lay one down horizontally
on top of the vertical ones.

8. USES OF STONEHENGE
Funeral/burial place
Sacrifes
Beaker People came used Post-and-lintel style to
construct outer ring of stones.
Brought these stones weighing 40/50 TONS to
construct the post-and-lintel structure.
Used Stonehenge to predict Lunar Eclipses and keep
track of time.

9. IMPORTANCE OF
BEAKER PEOPLE
discovered June 21 as Summer Solstice.
person standing in the center of the Stonehenge
would be able to see the sun rise over the “Stone
Heel” on June 21 of 1800 BC.
Solstice: meaning longest day/most sun of the
season.
Began using/experimenting with metals leading us
into the BRONZE age!

10. MESOPOTAMIA
Ancient Near East: including North Africa, lower Europe
and Eastern Asia.
Writing Invented: able to communicate, keep records,
create permanent bodies of literature/history.
The Epic of Gilgamesh: oldest surviving epic poem
Jerico- architecture made of mud brick on stone
foundation, walls were plastered then painted: they
buried their dead under the floors.
Mesopotamia was the center of the Near Eastern
Civilization. Also means: “land between rivers” Tigris
and Euphrates.

11. The Epic of Gilgamesh:
search for immortality- undertakes journeys through
forests and underworld- encountering gods and
struggles with morals.

12. MESOPOTAMIA

13. Ziggurats- “raised up” built mountains/platforms for
the god,gods that watched over them.
Their architecture was considered: “load-bearing”
structures
They also reinforced their structures with cylinder
seals- known as glyptic art- Greek word meaning
“carved”

14. ARCHITECTURE
ADVANCES
Ishtar Gate- Glazed Brick- now in Berlin
It is from Babylon-the capitol of Mesopotamia
started glazing brick to preserve and decorate.

15. ISHTAR GATE

16. ADVANCES IN WRITING
Papyrus: plant fibers used to write on.

17. ROSETTA STONE
3 languages found on the Rosetta Stone (made of
black basalt) : hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek
This stone made it possible to decipher thousands of
preserved Egyptian texts.

19. GOING FROM HERE...

20. TO HERE... PROGRESS

21. MESOPOTAMIA &
EGYPTIANS
The Rosetta stone found in the Delta (where the Nile
spills out) included 2 Egyptian languages and Greek.
Egyptians believed in Mummification and used
Canopic jars to hold “special” organs.
These jars were painted and decorated as well as the
tombs/chambers of the tombs in which they buried
their dead.

23. CANOPIC JARS
The jars contained organs (thought to be special)
The brain (however) was discarded as USELESS
The jars were under the protection of Horus’s four
sons.
Each son had a different characteristic head. (man,
baboon, jackal and falcon).
Horus: Falcon god, sky god

27. EGYPTIAN
ARCHITECTURE

28. mastabas- “bench” single story trapezoidal structure
burial chambers.
pyramids advanced into the commonly known
geometric shaped step pyramids.

30. AEGEAN PEOPLES
Minoans were Aegean people that lived near the
Aegean Sea (located between Greece and Turkey).
They mostly resided on the island of Crete
Palace at Knossos: mj Minoan site, traditional site of
Minos (legendary king).
In Greek mythology the palace was called “labyrinth”
Importance: Palace at Knossos contains paintings/
reliefs throughout. It also contained Frescos.

32. Relief: something that has been carved into and an
image stands out from it.
Fresco painting: color pigments added to water and
applied to WET plaster. As the plaster dries it bonds
with the pigments and allows everything to “stick”
together.
Labyrinth: Greeks later coined it as meaning “maze
like”.

36. MINOAN POTTERY

38. ARCHITECTURE
Lion Gate, Mycenae (limestone 13th Century BC
Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae 13th Century BC

41. The Lion Gate crowned the entrance to the citadel of
Mycenae.
The Treasury of Atreus is the tomb of Agamemnon.
It is not sure if he was buried here but because of the
building’s size it was definitely meant for royalty.

42. GREECE...AT LAST

43. Greeks thought of themselves as the “most civilized”
of nations. They believed that any foreign language
spoken sounded like “bar-bar” and unintelligent. They
also believed that any foreigner was a “barbarian”
meaning uncivilized.
polis- meaning city-state

44. GREEK
ARCHITECTURE
Temple of Apollo at Delphi
Greek Architecture
includes many
columns and temples
honoring their many
gods.

46. GEOMETRIC STYLE
amphora- two handle storage jar
Each pattern is framed by horizontal borders that
encircle the pot to emphasize its shape, and two rows
of stylized animals decorate the neck.
Original purpose was to serve as a grave marker

48. ORIENTALIZING STYLE
Shapes have become larger and more curvilinear than
those of the Geometric style, and the geometric
patterns are now relegated to borders of the
mythological representations.

49. Both events on
these amphoras
represent Greek
heroes -
Odysseus and
Perseus-
destroying the
primitive foreces
of terror and
cannibalism.

50. ARCHAIC STYLE
This style is known as black-figure
Patterning still functions as a border device, and the
central image is a narrative scene.
In this next Archaic style vase Exekias is transforming
the personal rivalry between the two Greek heroes of
the Trojan War into a board game.
Exekias is the most insightful/dramatic black-figure
artist known to us.

52. CLASSICAL STYLE
red-figure- started using red for the color of the
people depicted on the vases.
decorative patterns decrease, more of the narrative
appears.

53. CLASSICAL TO
LATECLASSICAL
white-ground: the clay appears white
More natural figures appear and this style depicts
“grave dedications” soooo.... many grave scenes