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SATURDAY, 15 APRIL 2017


GUESS WHO'S BACK


So after a long time debating, and even moving over to Wordpress for a short
period of time, I have decided to come back to Blogger and continue blogging.

Please don't forget that I have my university blog
charlotteabrahamart.wordpress.com, which you are also welcome to visit! However
my plans during this summer would be to complete the 'Art History Timeline', and
the most recent posts, this one and 'Sourcing', would be moved to the front of
the line, so please do not get confused!

Happy reading!

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MONDAY, 29 FEBRUARY 2016


SOURCING


Just a quick break (well, I say quick, it has been a fair few months since
anything has been posted and I'm so sorry about that! New posts will follow soon
to complete the Art History Timeline feature) from the Art History Timeline
feature to bring you a post about sourcing.
This is something I have learned a large number of things about through Internal
Assessments, Coursework and also within Art.



THIS WILL BE USEFUL FOR GCSE, AS, A-LEVEL, IB AND EQUIVALENT COURSES

Within artwork in the classroom, sketchbook or even the art that I feature
within a post, everything has to have an original source. For example;

 * A copy of an artists painting (with or without personal alterations); source
   the original piece that you have worked from.
 * A completely original piece; this depends on whether you have used any
   sources to help you come up with the idea. This includes images, videos and
   even text, which must be sources. An original idea and piece with no
   inspirations will not have to be sourced.
 * A copy of personal photos; source this from your own work e.g. 'Sources: own
   images'

Some schools, and of course universities can be incredibly picky about how you
source your information within essays, sketchbooks and other places where
sources must be used. For much of my coursework I had to use the format of
'Harvard' in Microsoft Word. This is really simple to use as you just open the
referencing tab, add source with all the relevant information and update the
bibliography at the end of the document. Make sure you are sourcing in the
correct style that your school, college, or university wants. THEY CAN BE VERY
PICKY! If you do not source correctly, you can lose marks.

Throughout this, you should probably know the difference between sources within
a bibliography and appendices, both of which that appear at the end of the
document and contain the information that you have used or have quoted from.




SOURCES ARE PLACES WHERE YOU HAVE GOT INFORMATION FROM E.G. WEBSITES, BOOKS.





APPENDICES ARE IMAGES WHICH YOU REFER TO IN THE PASSAGE AND OTHER TEXTS SUCH AS
TRANSCRIPTS THAT HAVE BEEN PERSONALLY MADE.



Within art, it is suggested to put the sources that you have used at the bottom
of each page, along with the date and the page number. (This is easier in
sketchbooks for obvious reasons)

Within essays, cite as you go along. It is difficult to describe, however I will
be spending time doing this in my future posts, so have a look in them. I will
also do a short post to give people the idea on how to cite correctly (in the
Harvard style).

I hope this has been useful! And cite well, for I don't want anyone losing
marks!

Art History Timeline feature shall return soon.



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THURSDAY, 23 JULY 2015


HISTORY OF ART: INDIAN, CHINESE AND JAPANESE


The every day people, rather than the ones that were high in power.



Indian, Chinese and Japanese: 653 BCE - 1900 CE
Characteristics: Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World
Chief Artists and Major Works: Gu Kaizhi, Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Hokusai, Hiroshige
Historical events: Birth of Buddha (563 BCE); Silk Road opens (1st Century BCE);
Buddhism spreads to China (1st-2nd Centuries CE) and Japan (5th Century CE).


The art of the Indian, Chinese and Japanese are all heavily influenced by the
culture and the way of life of the people. These influences changed the art for
the time period to something that told us of the every day people, rather than
the ones that were high in power. 


Asian Arts, which includes Indian, Chinese and Japanese have the characterists
of showing the culture and history of the country where it is from. The
spiritual and natural are also high characteristics. Hiroshige displays this in
much of his art work.

Chinese Art





Chinese art are the forms of art that have been influenced by great
philosophers, teachers, religious figures and political leaders. In the
beginning of the era, the early forms of the chinese art included pottery and
jade. Ceramics were mainly unpainted and most often cord-marked. The Bronze Age
in China has more elaborate objects which included ritual vessels. Within the
Zhou Dynasty in China, the taotie motif is most common. This shows a
mythological being presented frontally as though squashed onto a horizontal
plane to form a symmetrical design.


In the early imperial China, th ematerial of porcelain was found and introduced
to the culture and the art. Porcelain was refined to the point that in English,
the word china has become synonymous with high-quality porcelain.




In China, The Terracotta Army was made in the Qin Dynasty. It stands inside the
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and consists of more than 7,000 life-size
tomb terracotta figures of warriors and horses buried with the First Emperor of
Qin. The Terracotta Army belonged, and still belongs to Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
The Terracotta Army are there to guard his burial site as well as protecting the
entry to the afterlife. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the dynasty Emperor who
managed to unify China so that it became a central state and it was also because
of him that the foundations of the Great Wall were laid down.




Paintings in the traditional style involved the same technique as calligraphy
and is done with a brush dipped in black or coloured ink. In the Tang Dynasty,
the primary subject matter was the landscapes that generally involved mountains
and mountain water. These were known as shanshui paintings. The landscapes are
usually monochromatic and sparse. Its purpose is to grasp an emotion or
atmosphere so as to catch the rhythm of nature.





In the late imperial china, under the Ming dynasty, narrative painting became a
large part of the artwork. There was also a wider colour range and the
composition was busier. Song paintings became immensely popular during the time.
European culture also started to have its impact at this time.


Indian Art




Indian art can be classified into specific periods, which reflect particular
religious, political and cultural developments. The Indian art to the Western
culture can seem overly ornate and sensuous.


Bronze and stones were most commonly used in Indian sculptures. They became more
explicit, representing episodes of the Buddha's life and teachings.


Outside homes, Rangoli is used. This is a form of sand painting decoration that
uses finely ground white powder and colours.




Known as one of the 7 Wonders of the World, as one of India's greatest pieces of
architecture and art, the Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, in
memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It has been described and recognized as
"the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired
masterpieces of the world's heritage".




All together, the classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting,
literature, music and dancing evolved their own rules conditioned by their
respective media, but they shared with one another not only the underlying
beliefs but also the procedures by which the relationship of the symbols and the
spiritual states were worked out in detail.




Japanese Art


Japanese art used a wide range of art styles and media including ancient
pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper, and more
recently, and perhaps what Japan is famous for in the modern day, manga and
cartooning. However, painting is the preferred method of the Japanese artists.
In Japan, they also traditionally write with a brush rather than a pen. Some
still use a pot of ink, but more in modern times, you can get pens which do the
exactly the same style.





The Japanese ceramics are some of the finest in the world and are the earliest
known artefacts of the culture. There has also been identified a heavy use of
natural materials for architecture and a relationship between interior and
exterior spaces.

In history, Japan has been subject to sudden invasions with new and alien ideas,
which are soon followed by long periods of almost isolation from the outside
world. The Japanese have taken all this into consideration throughout history
and they are able to absorb, imitate and assimilate the elements of foreign
culture that complimented their aesthetic preferences.



In the 7th and 8th centuries, in connection with Buddhism, the Japanese created
complex artworks. However, in the 9th century, the Japanese started to turn away
from China and Buddhism and developed their own forms of expression through
their arts. After the Onin War, Japan was in a period of political, social, and
economic disruption that continued for over a century. The state that emerged
under the leadership of Tokugawa shogunate, organised religion played a small
role in people's lives, and the arts that survived through this period were
primarily secular.

Throughout Japan, painting is the preferred medium and the preferred way in
which artists like to express themselves through art. The Japanese, much like
the Chinese, wrote with a brush, and this familiarity with the brush has aided
the Japanese to become particularly sensitive to the values and aesthetics of
painting.



Within the Edo period, a popular culture that arose, the style of woodblock
prints called ukiyo-e became a prime art form and the techniques were fine tuned
to produce colourful prints on everything from daily new news to schoolbooks.

Most Japanese sculpture is associated with religion, and the medium of sculpture
is in decline due to the lessening importance of traditional Buddhism. However,
Japanese ceramics are still among the finest in the world and include the
earliest known artefacts of their culture.




Sources:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/art/gatewaystoart/ch/23/outline.aspx
https://www.slam.org/asia/intro.html
http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/JinkyDepio/asian-art-chinese-art-and-indian-art
www.sideshare.net/mobile/RodriguezArt/asian-art-14705443
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=chinese+art
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=indian+art&espv=2&biw=1536&bih=783&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI3oed5ODwxgIVybcUCh0e8wtZ#tbm=isch&q=traditional+indian+art&imgrc=_
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_art
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=japanese+art&espv=2&biw=944&bih=951&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCAQsARqFQoTCPeasuXh8MYCFckX2wodORsGqg#tbm=isch&q=japanese+art+flowers&imgrc=mcJnmACZbcySDM%3A

Up Next: Byzantine and Islamic Art

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MONDAY, 13 APRIL 2015


HISTORY OF ART: ROMAN




IN SOME WAYS, IT IS VERY MUCH LIKE GREEK ART.




Roman: 500 BCE - 476 CE
Characteristics: Roman realism: Practical and down to earth; the arch
Chief Artists and Major Works: Augustus of Primaporta, Colosseum, Trajan's
Column, Pantheon
Historical Events: Julius Caesar assassinated (44 BCE); Augustus proclaimed
Emperor (27 BCE); Diocletian splits Empire (292 CE); Rome Falls (476 CE)

The Romans were most interested in portraiture: in making statues that really
looked like on particular person, especially someone who is famous. Romans
looked at the opposite end of the spectrum of what Greek Art looked like. Greek
Art looked at the ideals in a human for example, what is the most beautiful, or
the most perfect body of a man? What can be classed as the most athletic man?
Romans and Roman Art were more interested in reality of the human body, even
though they were heavily inspired by Greek Art.




There was a rumour of the Roman civilisation, where it was believed that having
a good image of someone's face what important to keeping their ghost happy after
the said person died. This also prevented haunting. This may explain the reason
of the thousands of portraits that were created in the Roman era.

The Romans bought or stole much of the Greek art after invasions. Greeks even
gave their art as presents to the Romans. They also bought back Greek sculptors,
often as slaves, to make more art for them back in Rome. Augustus' Ara Pacis, of
the Altar of Peace, for example, shows a heavy amount of influence from Greek
art within the swirls on the front, in the frieze, which is alike the Parthenon
frieze and in the meanders underneath the frieze.




The Romans copied off of the Greeks frequently and continued the traditions or
portraiture and Greek imitations. The Roman artists, however, added more use of
art as propaganda to show what the emperors wanted people to know or to think.
The more famous of these are the Arch of Titus and Trajan's Column.

Wall paintings were also very common within the Roman era. The wall paintings of
the Roman era can be divided into four different main styles. The biggest
collection of wall paintings were found in Pompeii, with thousands of different
types of wall paintings in one area.
Style number one was the fresco painting on the walls of houses. This style of
painting is a cheap way of having marble-lookalike panels on the walls.
The second style is in which artists began to add little paintings within the
marble panels, and their lookalikes. For example, there were garlands, fruit,
flowers and birds painted onto the walls.
The third of the four styles takes the second style further by adding whole
scenes to the walls. In the painting from the Villa of Mysteries at Pompeii, you
are able to see life sized people talking to each other, and sitting on chairs,
as if you were looking into another room, and not just at a painting on the
wall.




Many other countries and civilizations took the Roman art and mixed it in with
different styles. The Gauls continued their art styles with new Roman ideas. So
did the Britons, the Spanish, the Carthaginians and the Phonicians, etcetera.
However, the Romans not only influenced others, and were influenced by the
Greeks, but they were also heavily influenced within the third century CE, or
200 CE.
Wars with the Germans in the north were accompanied by a new taste of bloodshed
in art. This influenced new monuments and artworks including monuments such as
the Column of Marcus Aurelius, were it is often showed that people are having
their heads cut off or their guts ripped out, or that they are suffering in a
cruel, inhuman way. You can also see this on the Arch of Septimus Severus.




The increasing use of the drill rather than a hammer and chisel make sculpting
easier and faster. This gave sculptures a different look to when the modern
techniques were used.
Within this section of the Roman era, there was an increasing, new concern for
the soul. There was an increasing number of Christians in the Roman Empire and
this is emphasised in the art. There was also emphasis on the eyes, otherwise
known as the windows to the soul, as they were often looking upwards to heaven,
or the Gods. The body was also less important, and because of this, the
sculptors take less care in carving the body accurately. Sometimes, the arms and
legs are too short, and the head too big.




In the fourth, and fifth century (300 and 400 CE), towards the end of the Roman
Empire and era, there is less blood and gore that is featured in the art of the
Romans. The interest in the soul and the tendency for disproportioned bodies
continue right up to the Fall of Rome. In this time, the Romans also concentrate
on the goddess Venus, who is often shown rising out of the ocean, or being
reborn into a new body and a new world.

 Sources:
www.google.co.uk/
www.historyforkids.org
www.visual-arts-cork.com
www.crystalinks.com

Up Next: Indian, Chinese and Japanese Art

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SUNDAY, 22 FEBRUARY 2015


HISTORY OF ART: GREEK AND HELLENISTIC




"THAT BRIEF BUT THOROUGH EMPIRE-BUILDING CAMPAIGN CHANGED THE WORLD: IT SPREAD
GREEK IDEAS AND CULTURE FROM THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN TO ASIA. HISTORIANS CALL
THIS ERA THE "HELLENISTIC PERIOD"."



Greek and Hellenistic: 850 BCE - 31 BCE
Characteristics: Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural
orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)
Chief Artists and Major Works: Parthenon, Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos,
Praxiteles
Historical Events: Athens defeats Persia at Marathon (490 BCE); Peloponnesian
Wars (431 BCE - 404 BCE); Alexander the Great's conquests (336 BCE - 323 BCE)


The world "Hellenistic" comes from the word Hellazein, which means "to speak
Greek or idenity with the Greeks".


Between 334 and 323 BCE, Alexander the Great and his armies conquered much of
the known world, creating one of the worlds biggest known empires that stretched
from Greece and Asia Minor through Egypt and the Persian empire in the Near East
to India. This contact with cultures around the world spread Greek culture and
its arts, and exposed Greek artistic styles to a host of new and exotic
influences.


The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE traditionally marks the beginning of
the Hellenistic period.





Hellenistic Art is a richly diverse art period in subject matter and in
stylistic development. It was essentially created during an age characterized by
a strong sense of history. For the first time the Greeks had museums and great
libraries. Examples of these include those at Alexandria and Pergamon. The
artists of the Hellenistic period copied and adapted earlier styles and also
made great innovations. The representations of the Greek Gods took on new forms.
One famous example is the nude Aphrodite who reflects the increased
secularization of traditional religion. Also prominent in Hellenistic art are
the representations of Dionysos, the God of wine and legendary conqueror of the
East, as well as those of Hermes, the god of commerce. In strikingly tender
depictions, Eros, the Greek personification of love, is portrayed as a young
child.





Because of the new international Hellenistic milieu, there was a widened range
of subject matter that had little precedent in earlier Greek art. There were now
representations of unorthodox subjects such as grotesques, and of more
conventional inhabitants, such as children and elderly people. These images, as
well as the portraits of ethnic people, especially those of Africans, describe a
diverse Hellenistic populace that Alexander the Great created.


Hellenistic Greece became a time of substantial maturity of the sciences. In
geometry, Euclid's elements became the standard all the way up to the 20th
Century, and the work of Archimedes on mathematics along with his practical
inventions became influential and legendary. Eratosthenes calculated the
circumference of the earth within 1500 miles by simultaneously measuring the
shadow of two vertical sticks placed one in Alexandria and one in Syene. The
fact that the earth was a sphere was common knowledge in the Hellenistic world.
This precision was also evident in art within the Hellenistic period with exact
proportions of the human form.

"Alexander's empire broke apart on his death, with several Hellenistic
(Greek-like( kingdoms appearing. The great art centers of the mainland gave way
to cities on Islands such as Rhodes or in the eastern Mediterranean (Alexandria,
Antioch, and Pergamum).

Sculpture had tendencies toward classicism, rococo, and baroque -- in other
words, no clear direstion or restriction. Art glorified the gods and great
athletes, but it also serves to decorate the homes of the newly rich.

Heroic portraits and massive groups were popular, but so were humble themes and
portrayals of human beings in all walks and stages of life—even caricature
became popular. From architecture came an awareness of space that added
landscapes and interiors to sculpture and painting. 
Whereas Hellenic art was restrained and attempted to show the perfect and the
universal, Hellenistic art was preoccupied with the particular rather than the
universal. Patrons and artists alike preferred individuality, novelty (including
ethnicity and ugliness), and artistic inventiveness. Hellenistic art built on
the classical concepts, but became more dramatic, with sweeping lines and strong
contrasts of light, shadow, and emotion. 
Idealism gave way to naturalism, the culmination of the works of fourth-century
b.c.e. sculptors Lysippos, Skopas, and Praxiteles, all of whom emphasized
realistic expression of the human figure. Greatness and humility, characteristic
of the Charioteer of Delphi, gave way to bold expression during tense moments,
typified by the Boy Jockey.
Unlike Hellenic art, sculptures showed extreme emotion: pain, stress, anger,
despair, or fear, but depiction of the outward subject was insufficient for many
Hellenistic sculptors. Posture and physical characteristics were used to show
thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. 
Hygeia, of which only the head remains, is a statue that reflects the
Hellenistic style. Although done in conformance to classical standards and
ideals, Hygeia has an expression of concern and understanding."


There was also more and more art collectors who commissioned original works of
art and copies of earlier Greek statues. Likewise, increasingly affluent
consumers were eager to enhance their private homes and gardens with luxury
goods such as fine bronze statues and statuettes, intricately carved furniature
decorated with bronze fittings, stone sculptures and elaborate pottery with
mold-made decoration. These items, that were considered as lavish and known to
be only in high society, were manufactured on a grand scale as never before.





The keenest of collectors were the Romans who decorated their town houses and
country villas with the Greek sculptures according to their interests and
tastes. The wall paintings from the villa at Boscoreale, some of which clearly
echo lost Hellenistic Macdonian royal paintings, and exquisite bronzes in the
Metropolitan Museum's collection testify to the refined classical environment
that the Roman aristocracy cultivated in their homes. By the first century BCE,
Rome was a center of Hellenistic art production, and many Greek artists came
there to work.


The conventional end of the Hellenistic period is 31 BCE, the date of the battle
of Actium. Octavian, who later became the emperor Augustus, defeated Marc
Antony's fleet and, consequently, ended Ptolemaic rule. The Ptolemies were the
last Hellenistic dynasty to fall to Rome.


Interest in Greek art and culture remained strong during the Roman Imperial
period, and especially so during the reigns of the emperors Augustus (r. 27 BCE
- 14 CE) and Hadrian (r. 117 CE - 138 CE). For centuries, Roman artists
continued to make works of art in the Hellenistic tradition.

Sources:
www.infoplease.com
www.visual-arts-cork.com
www.history.com
earlyworldhistory.blogspot.co.uk
ancient-greece.org
www.google.co.uk

Up Next: Roman Art

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MONDAY, 12 JANUARY 2015


HISTORY OF ART: ANCIENT EGYPT




"ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART REACHED A HIGH LEVEL IN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE, AND WAS
BOTH HIGHLY STYLIZED AND SYMBOLIC."


Egyptian: 3100 BCE - 30 BCE
Characteristics: Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting
Chief Artists and Major Works: Imhotep, Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of
Nefertiti
Historical events: Narmer unites Upper and Lower Egypt (3100 BCE); Rameses II
battles the Hittites (1274 BCE); Cleopatra dies (30 BCE)


"Ancient Egyptian art must be viewed from the standpoint of the ancient
Egyptians to understand it, The somewhat static, usually formal, strangely
abstract, and often blocky nature of much Egyptian imagery has, at times, led to
unfavorable comparisons with later, and much more 'naturalistic,' Greek or
Renaissance art. However, the art of the Egyptians served a vastly different
purpose than that of these later cultures."


One has to remember that the artwork of the Ancient Egyptians were not created
to be seen by people in this world. Much of the artwork that was in tombs and
pyramids were there to symbolize the wealth and power of the one who had laid to
rest there and they would take this into the afterlife along with everything
else that they were buried with. The artwork, whether statues or relief, were
there to benefit a divine being, such as Tutankhamen, or the deceased recipient.




There are technically twelve different periods of Ancient Egyptian Art. These
include;
Prehistoric (before 3000 BCE +- 100 BCE)
Early Dynastic (c. 3000 BCE - 2680 BCE)
Old Kingdom (2680 BCE - 2259 BCE)
Middle Kingdom (2258 BCE - 1786 BCE)
New Kingdom (1786 BCE - 1069 BCE), including the Amarna Period (1085 BCE - 1055
BCE)
Third Intermediate Period (1069 BCE - 664 BCE)
First Persian Period, Late Period and Second Persian Period (664 BCE - 332 BCE)
Ptolematic Kingdom (332 BCE - 30 BCE)
Roman Egypt (30 BCE - Fourth Century CE)

There are many characteristics of Ancient Egyptian art that are spread across
all time periods of the Egyptians. This includes the hierarchical scale of
portraying. This means that the size of people drawn or painted determined how
important they were in the social order. For example, a Pharaoh like
Tutankhamen, is usually the largest figure depicted to symbolize the ruler's
powers. The Egyptians often believed these to be superhuman powers because they
were made the Ruler. Therefore, figures of high officials or tomb owners are
usually smaller. The smallest that you can be drawn if you were a servant, an
entertainer, animal, tree and also architectural details.




The Egyptians are commonly known for their sculptures and architecture. The
Pyramids, Sphinx and The Valley of The Kings come under this.

The technique that the Egyptians used is called sunk relief, which is well
suited to very brilliant sunlight, like that in Egypt. This is where the image
is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface. In a simpler
form the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like in hieroglyphs, but in
more cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area
shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat
surface. Because there is large amount of brilliant sunlight in Egypt, the
Ancient Egyptians used this to their advantage as the strong sunlight is used to
emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was made to soften the
edge of the sunk area, leaving a face at a right-angle to the surface around it.
The main figures in reliefs adhere to the same figure convention as in painting,
with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown to the side, but the torso
from the front, and a standard set of proportions making up the figure, using 18
"fists" to go from ground to the hair-line on the forehead. Some conventions
make statues of males darker than female ones. This points out very quickly as
to which statue is which gender. This would also generally make the eye drawn to
the male figures.




Pharaohs were always regarded as Gods. The larger sculpture survives from
Egyptian Temples and Tombs; massive statues were built to represent Gods and
Pharaohs and their queens, usually for open areas in or outside temples. This
allowed the people of Egypt to see the power and importance that the Gods and
Pharaohs held. The Great Sphinx of Giza however, was never repeated and is a
statue in a million, but avenues lined with very large statues including
sphinxes and other animals formed part of many temple complexes.

The most sacred cult image of a God in a temple, usually held in the Naos (a
small shrine), was in the form of a relatively small boat or barque holding an
image of a god, and apparently usually in precious metal - none have survived
due to grave robbers who looted many graves of Pharaohs and temples dedicated to
the Gods and the Pharaohs.




There were very strict conditions that had to be followed while crafting statues
and specific rules governed appearance of every Egyptian God. For example, Horus
(the sky God) was essentially to be represented with a falcon's head, Anubis
(the God of funeral rites) was to be always shown with a jackal's head. Artistic
works were ranked according to their compliance with these conditions or
conventions, and the conventions were followed so strictly that, over three
thousand years, the appearance of statues changed very little. This is why
Ancient Egypt and its art seems to have changed very little over the time period
of the Ancient Egyptians. The conventions were intended to convey the timeless
and non-aging quality of the figure's ka.

Painting wasn't too big in Ancient Egypt. Less prestigious works were in tombs,
temples and palaces and they were painted just on a flat surface. Stone surfaces
were prepared by whitewash, however if they were a little rough, a layer of
coarse mud layer was applied with a layer of smooth gesso above. Some finer
limestones could take the paint directly. The pigments the Egyptians used were
mostly mineral and chosen to withstand the strong sunlight that they experienced
without it fading. The binding medium that they used in painting still remains
unclear to us today. Egg tempera and various gums and resins have been tested,
however none come out in the same way. It is clear that true fresco painted into
a thin layer of wet plaster was not used. We believe that the paint was applied
to dried plaster, in what is called "fresco a secco" in Italian. After painting,
Egyptians would have applied a varnish or resin protective coating. Due to this
technique that we believe the Egyptians used, many paintings with some exposure
to the elements have survived remarkably well, although those on fully exposed
walls rarely have.




Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived though due to the extremely dry
climate that Egypt experiences. The paintings were often made with the intent of
making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The themes that were painted
included journeys through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the
deceased to the Gods of the underworld, such as Osiris. Some tomb paintings
found show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive
and that they wish to carry on for eternity.

In the New Kingdom and later, the Book of The Dead was buried with the entombed
person and was considered an important introduction to the afterlife.







Even though painting wasn't big in Ancient Egypt, it was consistent, like the
statues were. They are painted in such a way to show profile view and a side
view of the animal or person. For example, the head may be in profile view but
the body is from a frontal view. The main colours were red, blue, green, gold,
black and yellow.

Bibliography:
www.google.co.uk
www.wikipedia.co.uk
www.wikipedia.co.uk
www.khanacademy.org

Up next: Greek and Hellenistic

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MONDAY, 5 JANUARY 2015


HISTORY OF ART: MESOPOTAMIA




"MESOPOTAMIA IS A GREEK WORD MEANING "BETWEEN THE RIVERS,"..."




Mesopotamia: 3500 BCE - 539 BCE
Characteristics: Warrior art and narration in stone relief
Chief Artists and Major Works: Standard of Ur, Gate of Ishtar, Stele of
Hammurabi's Code
Historical Events: Sumerians invent writing (3400 BCE); Hammurabi writes his law
code (1780 BCE); Abraham founds monotheism


Mesopotamia was an ancient region in the eastern Mediterranean bounded in by the
northest by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau,
corresponding to today's Iraq, mostly, but also parts of the modern-day Iran,
Syria and Turkey. The rivers that the name 'Mesopotamia' refers to is the Tigris
and the Euphrates rivers and the land was known as 'Al-Jazirah' (the island) by
the Arabs referencing what Egyptologist J.H Breasted would later call the
Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian civilization began.









We know little about religion within Mesopotamia however we have taken a lot of
what their religion was from their poetry, "The Epic of Gilgamesh" being the
most important. The Sumerians were highly religious people and had a theocratic
culture where gods ruled the earth and man was created to serve them. They
practiced tithing and so 10% of their goods went to the gods. There was also a
leader of each state who was considered a local god who talked to the head gods.
There were many temples and statues that were built in their name. In Ur, their
own head god had an earthly home of the city of Ziggurat. These temples were
built up in layers and would tower above the flat land of the area, as if
reaching to the heavens.







Within the art itself, the sizes of entire figures were determined by a hieratic
imaging system. The most important people were made the tallest. In the same
vein, a beard on a figure signified a man in a powerful position.


Two-dimensional depictions usually show figures' heads, legs and feet in
profile, while their shoulders and torso are shown frontally.





The famous statues found at the Abu Temple in Tell Asmar from around 2700 BCE
are examples of the way Sumerian sculpture is typically based on cones and
cylinders - arms and legs like pipes, skirts smooth and round, flaring out at
their bottoms. Faces are dominated by very large eyes; but, for reasons we might
take for granted, artists of many cultures have placed emphasis on eyes.





The Early Bronze Age of Mesopotamia (3000 BCE - 2119 BCE) was the age at which
the arts were beginning to become more detailed. The cultural stability
necessary for the creation of art in the region resulted in more intricate
designs in architecture and sculpture, as well as "a number of specific and
momentous inventions: the plough and the wheel, the chariot and the sailboat,
and the cylinder seal, the single more distinctive art form of ancient
Mesopotamia and a pervasive demonstration of the importance of property
ownership and business in the country's daily life," were all either invented or
improved upon during this time.







Libraries were also formed; the Akkadian Empire of Sargon was the first
multi-national realm in the world and Sargon's daughter, Enheduanna, the first
author of literary works known by name. The library at Mari contained over
20,000 cuneiform tablets and the palace was considered one of the finest in the
region.


Bibliography:
www.google.co.uk
www.google.co.uk
http://www.ancient.eu/Mesopotamia/
www.dummies.com
www.artlex.com


Next: Ancient Egyptian Art

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Mesopotamia, temples



MONDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2014


HISTORY OF ART: THE STONE AGE




"THE STONE AGE WAS A TIME THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, WHEN HUMANS LIVED IN CAVES AND
JUNGLES. LIFE WAS SIMPLE, AND THERE WERE ONLY TWO MAIN THINGS TO DO - TO PROTECT
THEMSELVES FROM THE WILD ANIMALS AND TO GATHER FOOD...."




The Stone Age: 30,000 BCE - 2,500 BCE
Characteristics: Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures
Chief Artists and Major Works: Lascaux Cave Painting, Woman of Willendorf,
Stonehenge
Historical Events: Ice Age ends (10,000 BCE - 8,000 BCE); New Stone Age and
first permanent settlements (8,000 BCE - 2,500 BCE)


The Stone Age is the first known era of humanity where we killed and mated for
survival. As far as we know, humanity at that stage did just that to survive in
what was then, the wild, especially after the end of the Ice Age.


However, Art played a vital part in telling the story of their lives and beliefs
to us now. The Stone Age art illustrates the early human creativity through
small objects, early sculptures and architecture (such as Stonehenge and
Avebury), and of course, cave paintings.





Whenever researching "Stone Age Art", you will always come across three
different periods;


The Paleolithic Period
Spanning from 30,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE this is the longest phase of human
history. Also known as The Old Stone Age, the span of this is not totally known
and can vary from website to website, however the beginning can range from
40,000 BCE to 30,000 BCE. The very earliest human artifacts show evidence of
workmanship with an artistic purpose are the subject of some debate, but it is
clear that such workmanship existed 40,000 years ago. The most outstanding
feature was the development of the human species - Homo sapiens.
By 20,000 BCE, human settlements of hunters and gatherers were all over the
world, with an exception of Antarctica. The earliest settlements occurred in
Africa, where rock paintings and engravings represented the oldest form of art
found in this continent. Depictions of stylized human figures and richly
coloured animals were used for magical purposes in order to ensure a successful
hunt. Paleolithic people were generally nomadic hunters and gathers who
sheltered in caves, used fire and fashioned stone tools.
The different cultures within the Paleolithic Period are identified by their
distinctive stone-tool industries.
During this time, Art was being explored on the walls of the caves, of which
they told stories of hunts and myths that were around in that day and age. Most
people think of cave paintings when the Stone Age is mentioned, however many
people don't realise there is a lot more. Fine art came into play within this
era.
The oldest known form of art was found on every continent expect Antarctica
dating from at least 290,000 BCE. This art was named "Cupules". This was
invented by archeologist Robert G. Bednarikto to describe simple, round
hemispheric cavities, used to be known as "pits", "hollows", "cups", "cupels",
"cup stones", "pitmarks", "cup marks" and "pot-holes". The oldest piece was
found in an ancient quartzite cave called Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka, Madhya
Pradesh, in North Central India. This cave is 25m long horizontal cave and in
the center stands a boulder called Chief's Rock which stands 2.5m high and 3.4m
wide. In 1990, nine cupules were found on Chief's Rock and a year later a
further cupule was found with meandering line next to it. These were covered by
deposits from the Acheulian and later periods, so allowing dating. However,
micro-erosion analysis suggested that these cupules were made 700,000 years ago.
Cave art can allow us to understand more about the ways of our ancestors, such
as how they hunted and ate, how they viewed and understand the world around
them. The cave, or rock art can generally be divided into either Petroglyphs
(carvings into stone surfaces), Pictographs (rock and cave paintings) and
Petroforms (art made by aligning or piling natural stones).





The Mesolithic Period
The Mesolithic Period, or the Middle Stone Age was the shortest of the Stone Age
periods spanning from 10,000 BCE till 8,000 BCE.
The cultures in the Middle Stone Age included gradual domestication of plants
and animals, formations of settled communities, the use of the bow, and the
development of delicate stone microliths and pottery.
From the Paleolithic through the Mesolithic, cave paintings and portable art
such as figurines, statuettes, and beads predominated, with decorative figured
workings also seen on some utiliarian objects. Venus figurines were also
becoming more popular. Venus figurines are an umbrella term for a number of
prehistoric female statuettes protrayed with similar physical attributes. They
were carves from soft stone and the latter are among the oldest ceramic known.
Also in this period, personal accessories and adornments were made from shell
and bone.
Archaeological discoveries across Europe found over two hundred caves with
spectacular paintings, drawings and sculptures that are among the earliest
undisputed of representational image-making. Paintings and engravings along the
caves' walls and ceilings fall under the category of parietal art.





The Neolithic Period
This last period saw the transformation of nomad human settlements into agrarian
societies in need of permanent shelter. From this, there is evidence of early
pottery, as well as sculpture, architecture and the construction of megaliths.
Weaving also came around in the New Stone Age that spanned from 8,000 BCE to
3,000 BCE.





Bibliography:
Google Search
Ancient Craft
Art Lex
Boundless


Next: Mesopotamian Art

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age



MONDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2014


HISTORY OF ART




THE GENERAL RESPONSE TO THE WORDS "THE HISTORY OF ART" IS A HUFF AND A MOAN...


...But let me change your mind...


Within the next few weeks I plan to take you through the whole of the History of
Art, attempting to make it enjoyable as it is for me, for you!

Keep your eyes peeled for the start with "The Stone Age"
(not shown on this timeline)




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Labels: art, history, history of art, timeline



FRIDAY, 10 OCTOBER 2014


PAINT




"THE PROGRAM OR THE PHYSICAL GLOOPY ART STUFF?"




Paint, as many people know, comes in different types, packets and of course
colours. This is your quick guide to the many different types of paint that is
out there in the world.


 1. Oil Paint - This is a thick and slow drying paint with a strong colour. It
    is great for pieces that includes plenty of colour and even better for
    textured paintings. However, oil paint can be expensive and they are not the
    best paint for beginners.
    
 2. Water-colour Paint - These are can be much thinner paints compared to oil
    paints (it does depend if you have a pallet of water-colours or tubes of
    them, depending on the thickness and intensity of the colour). They can be
    great for their colour, even though you have to mix most of them yourself.
    Water-colour paint is one of the best for quick, slightly rough painting,
    and is one of the best paints to use for landscapes.
    
 3. Poster Paint - Poster paint is the best for children as it dries relatively
    quick, it's cheaper than all other paints and you can have lots of fun with
    it without worrying about it going everywhere. It doesn't have the strongest
    of colours, nor textures, which is makes it best for kids.
    
 4. Acrylic Paint - This paint is my favorite and I personally use it all the
    time. It is not the most expensive of the paints, and produces some
    wonderful colours. It doesn't take half as long to dry as oil paints do.
    Acrylic paints are the best for young artists, GCSE and A level students, or
    anyone who has art as a hobby.  These paints also come in one of the widest
    variety of colours that you could possibly see and with every company, there
    is a slightly different shade, creating even more shades. This paint is also
    the best to experiment with. I shall emphasize this again and again, acrylic
    paint is fabulous.
    
 5. Printing Paint - This paint is used for many different things, of which
    includes monoprinting. This is a very slow drying paint (not as fast as
    acrylic, but not as slow as oil!). It allows you to paint a lot of detail or
    a large surface without drying, so you can press on to it and still get the
    whole pattern. It is easy to mix and not one of the well known types of
    paint. It is the best to do monoprinting with.
    


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