Reading Summary Unit 7

Ismael Arriaza

Art of the Americas before 1300

The Olmec brought the first Mesoamerican art style during the Formative and Preclassic period.  Mesoamerican art was based on monumental stone sculptures showing respect to individual rulers, carved jades, elegant ceramics, and architect that was made by the Olmec.  Olmec’s developed pyramids, plazas, and ballcourts.  A known figure of the Olmec people is the Great Pyramid which was made built on an earth mound around the La Venta.  Colossal heads, founded in San Lorenzo was another form of art by the Olmec people.  These figures were made from basalt.  The colossal head portrays an adult male that is wearing a close fitted cap with chin straps.  Each face is different which could have represented different people of their time.

In Teotihuacan which is now present day Mexico focal point was the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent.  This Pyramid shows the architectural style of the Teotihuacan.  The tablero or entablature is supported by the talud or sloping figure, which rises vertically.  Another form of art of the Teotihuacan people was the Bloodletting Ritual which was part of a wall painting.  In this painting there is an dressed man who enriches and revitalizes the earth with his own blood.  This painting was made of pigment on the plaster.

In Central America the Diquis culture was different from the Mesoamerican people.  There art 

consisted of fine featherwork, ceramics, tiles, and objects of gold and jade.  An example of the Diquis 

culture art is the Supernatural figure with drum and snake.  The figure is a male figure that is wearing 

bracelets, anklets, and a belt with a snake headed penis sheath.  The serpents that are coming from his 

scalp represent a headdress, the and the creatures coming from his legs represent a reptile costume. 

Gold was not only used for art but to show fear, and capture energy from the sun.

Reading Summary Unit 6

Ismael Arriaza

Chinese Art and Buddha

In the Neolithic period there are distinctive forms of Neolithic pottery which is used to identify different cultures.  An artifact of the Yangshao culture is the shallow red bowl with a turned out rim.  The rims are the earliest evidence of the beginnings of writing in China.  There is a pair of stylized fish inside that bowl that shows how fishing was important for the villages of that time period.  

The Shang Dynasty, the priests communicated with the supernatural world through oracle bones.  This was the Shangs form of writing.  An example of this writing was that a animal bone was inscribed with a question and it was heated unit it crack.  Once the bone cracked there was an answer that was interpreted.  Another form of art was the bronze fang ding.  The fang ding consisted of a square vessel with four legs which was decorated with images based on animal forms.

The Han Dynasty consisted of mythocentric age when people believed in a close relationship between the human and supernatural worlds.  An example of art where this can be seen was the T-Shaped silk banner.  It was painted with scenes representing the levels of the universe of heaven, earth, and the underworld.

Buddhism originated in India and was spread into Central Asia.  The monumental seated 

Buddhist sculpture in Cave 20 is one of the Buddhist sculptures found in China.  Attributes of Buddha 

can be seen on this monumental seated sculpture.  It is seen from the elongated ears, protuberance on 

the head which is known as the ushnisha, and the mouths robe that is known as the sanghati.  Buddhist 

art was also seen in the Sin and Yang dynasties.

Reading Summary Unit 5

Ismael Arriaza

Indian Art and Shiva

In Indian art there is a resemblance in design and construction of the ancient cities of the Indus Valley.  There have been terracotta figurines, strong, and bronze statuettes that have been found in the Indus Valley.  There are two main styles of Indian art.  One style can be resembled to Mesopotamian art in its motifs and abstract rendering.  The second style of art that can be seen is the foreshadowing the Indian artistic tradition in its naturalism.  Some examples of this is the Priest King which is also known as the torso of a man.  This can represent a leader or ancestor figure of the time.  The garment of the Priest King is patterned with a trefoil or three lobed motif.  From this sculpture traits from the Indus Valley people can be seen, such as low forehead, thick lips, and broad nose.  Another example is Nude male torso that was found at Harappa.  This is an example of the contrasting naturalistic style.  In this sculpture you can see the soft texture of the human body, and its muscular form.  The nude male torso had attributes of later Indian sculpture.

Shiva was a major hindu god which was known in Vedic times as Rudra “the howler”.    Shiva means 

“benign” which exhibits a wide range of aspects or forms, both gentle and wild.  There are different 

forms of Shiva that are seen in the monumental relief panels in the Cave Temple of Shiva that make it 

more attractive.  It was carved on the Island of Elephanta.  The cave temple reflects the nature of Shiva 

by its complex layout and conception.  The forms of Shiva symbolize its erotic nature and aspect as the 

Great Yogi who controls his seed.  In the North South axis of the Cave Temple there is a relief on the 

southwall representing Shiva in his subtle body.  This represents his Sadashiva, which has different 

meanings on each body part.  The head, left and right shoulder have a meaning.  The reliefs are early 

examples of Hindu monumental tradition.

Reading Summary Unit 3

Ismael Arriaza

Art 100 Aegean Art and Ancient Greek     

Aegean Art was used as a big part of information about the Aegean people because there was not much left.  They made objects of terra cotta which is an orange brown low fired clay, with stylized designs, and painted before firing.  The Cycladic Art had female figures where the cycladic marbles looked more like modern eyes.  Dressed stone was another form of art which was used as a building material.  During the Old Palace Period, the minion builders focused more on special landscape features.  The minoan sculptures were mostly of small, fine works in woods, ivory, metals, and stones.  Minoans carved rhytons from steatite.  Rhytons were used for pouring liquids during sacred ceremonies.  They covered the walls of palace rooms with views of nature, and scenes of human activity.  They built stonehenge which is was a post and lintel construction with a relieving arch.  

Ancient Greece Art made ceramic decorations  One of these decorations was the centaur piece, which was a use of geometric forms in painted decoration abstract designs with a mixture of water and clay.  Metal sculptures made many figurines of wood, ivory, clay, and cast bronze.  The small ceramic model of the temple had a door at the end protected by a porch that was supported on two sturdy post.  The roofs were shaped of triangular areas.  The orientalizing period changed its style.  An example was the black figure pottery.  It was decorated with darks shapes of lines, and composite creatures on a background.  Clay was also mixed with metallic color pigments.  Stone and marble replaced the mud brick and wood construction on Greek temples.  Hera I is one of the temples which has a large rectangular stone post and lintel structure.  They developed the freestanding culture which was more natural and had more lifelike qualities.  They rested on the left leg, and the right knee bends slightly at the knees.  Mosaics were used to decorate their homes made from tesserae.

Ismael Arriaza

Art 100 Unit 2 Summary   

In the Prehistory and Prehistoric Art of Europe the three dimensional pieces are examples of sculptures in the round.  Relief sculptures have been produced in stone, bone, and ivory.  A form of art during this time period was the memory image.  The memory image was an image that depended on the generic shapes and relationship that came to mind when an image was mentioned.  Cave art was another form which the images depicted running, or resting animals.  Some of the animals used were the bison, the wild horse, the bear, etc.  Male and female figures were used, as well as handprint.  One of the most complex cave paintings are located at Lascaux.  They used contours of the rock as part of their compositions.  Henge circles were built of stone or post surrounded by a ditch.  Neolithic artists made ceramics of baked clay.
In the Art of the Near East the Sumerians made wedge shaped symbols into clay tablets.  The ziggurat 

had stepped pyramid structures with a temple or shrine on the top of it.  The inside of it was made with 

clay mosaics which were images made by small colored pieces that were on a hard surface.  Votive 

figures dated about 2900-2600 BCE, and were images that were made for the gods.  The Assyrians 

made a palace complex.  This showed the use as art as propaganda to support the political power. 

The Assurbanipal palace is decorated with panels covered in low relief.    The walls of the temples 

during Neo Babylonia had dark blue bricks that had glass placed over the bricks and fired.  In Persia it 

was more of a decorative art, which had ornamented weapons, and domestic wares.