PREHISTORIC, EGYPT &

GREEK ART 1
SCULPTURE
The oldest surviving art objects
are sculptures made from bone,
ivory, stone or antlers.
They are engraved, carved in
relief or three-dimensional

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Venus of Willendorf (28,000-25,000 BCE)
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Easter Island Monoliths 4
The Dying Lioness 5
CAVE PAINTING
Most commonly images of bison,
deer, horses, cattle and boars that are
pierced with arrows
Located in far recesses of caves,
away from the sunlit entrances

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Cave Painting at Lascaux, France 7
Cave Painting at Lascaux, France 8
Cave Painting at Lascaux, France 9
EGYPT
Sculpture and paintings
followed a rigid formula for
representing the human figure

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EGYPT
Sculpture:
Standing or seated with few projecting
breakable parts
Pose is always frontal & bisymmetrical with
arms close to the torso

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Egyptian Carving 12
Egyptian Carving (notice the size) 13
Abu Simbel- Egyptian Statues 14
Menkeur Triad 15
EGYPT
Paintings
Rigid figures often with one
leg advanced
Size indicated rank
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In Predynastic times, Egypt was divided geographically and politically into Upper Egypt (the
southern, upstream part of the Nile Valley), which was dry, rocky, and culturally rustic, and
Lower (northern) Egypt, which was opulent, urban, and populous.
•Probably because of its relative impermanence, painting was little used as a medium of
representation; it appears to have served principally as accessory to sculpture. A rare
example is the painting of geese from a tomb at Meidum.
The Early Dynastic Period saw the:
Formation of cultural identity
Stone Artifacts
Mud minor arts - pottery, vases and bowls
Brick architecture.

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Tomb of Rameses 18
Book of the Dead 19
GREECE
Greek artists achieves a
breakthrough in realistic trompe
l’oeil effects.
Their paintings were so lifelike that
birds would peck at the murals of
painted fruit.
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Still Life with Glass Bowl of Fruit and Vase
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GREECE
Vase Painting
Earliest style was red clay
with black forms
Later style was a black base
with a red form
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Dionysus in a Sailboat
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Dionysus in a Sailboat- Detail
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Medias Name Vase
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Medias Name Vase-Detail
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Hercules Attacking a Centaur
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GREECE- SCULPTURE
Contrapposto
The weight of the body rested on
one leg with rest of the body
realigned accordingly
Illusion of the figure in arrested
motion
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Contrapposto
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Doryphoros by Polyskeitos
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Discus Thrower
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Aphrodite of Knidos
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GREECE- ARCHITECTURE
Greek Temples became the
standard for much of our modern
architecture
Think of all the banks, museums and
buildings that look like Greek
temples
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Parthenon
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Temple of Poseidon
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GREECE- ARCHITECTURE
Column Types:
Doric: less embellished
Ionic: scroll-work top
Corinthian: stylized leaves on
top
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Greek Column Types
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