Art History

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Art History

• Hallema Mitchell

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Methods and Inquiries of Art

• Art then- any kind of visual material that is
  created and has special meaning
• Fine Art-paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture,
  and architecture made for a specific audience
• Art Now- Tattoos, pottery, textiles
  

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Methods and Inquiries of Art
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Continued

• There is no official definition of art, it can be
  defined many different ways.
• Definitions Change over time

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The Nature of Art Historical Inquiry

• Formal Analysis-visual quality, elements of art
• -line
• -shape
• -form
• -space
• -texture
• -value
• -color

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Continued

• Contextual Analysis- Thinking Outside of the box
• -Time Period
• -Religion
• -Social
• -Cultural
• -Economic

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Sources, Documents and The Work of Art Historians

• Close examination of an artwork
• -original piece
• -materials used
• -origin of idea
• -time period

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Development of Art History

• Art history came about in the Mid 18th century
• Ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23-79
  C.E)
• -Natural History (Historical and Contemporary
  Art)
• Giorgio Vasari (1511-74)
• -Artist and Author
• -The Lives of the Great Artists
• -Period of the Renessiance

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Continued

• Histories are individual stories
• Contain Biases
• Art History has been revised
• -feminist historians
• -expanded its scope

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Art of The Western World

• Study of artifacts
• Climate and materials
• Unexplored Sites

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Art of the Old Stone Age

• Paleolithic Period
• Chauvet Cave
• Found in1994
• Historians use the best information to date
  artworks from the past
• Large colored drawings of animals
• Red, Yellow ochre and Charcoal

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Middle Stone Age

• Mesolithic Period
• Change in climate
• Created 7000B.C.E- 4000B.C.E)
• Depicts human figure and activity

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New Stone Age

• Neolithic Period
• Megaliths (great Stones)
• Stonehenge (2100B.C.E)
• Rings or rows of rough-hewn stones in Western
  Europe

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Ancient Mesopotamian Art

• Sumerian Temples
• Ziggurats (step pyramids)
• -administrative and economic center
• Relief Carvings
• -battles
• -Sieges
• -Hunts
• -important beliefs

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Continued

• Ishtar Gate
• -gateway to the ziggurat on the temple Bel
• -greatest works of architecture

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Persian Empire

• Present Day Iran
• (c. 538 B.C.E-330B.C.E)
• Architecture
• Persepolis
• -wood
• -brick
• -stone

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Ancient Egyptian Art

• Sphinx
• Great pyramids at Giza
• Huge Pharaohs
• Queen Nefertiti Head

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More Ancient Egyptian Art

• Hierarchical Scale- figures or objects to
  determine their relative sizes within an artwork
• Fractional Representation- Each part of the body
  is shown clearly
• Mummification

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