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Artist:  Edvard Munch

Created: 1893

Medium: tempera on board

In this piece, we see a human figure standing on a bridge, and they appear to have a skull-shaped head and long hands covering the side of the head. Their face seems to be frightened with its wide eyes, flaring nostrils, and open mouth. The background has a swirling pattern of the blue and green land and the orange and yellow sky. What inspired Munch to create this piece was one day when he and his friends were walking along the road. He said he felt a gust of melancholy, and the sky turned a bloody red color. His friends kept walking, and Munch just stood there with anxiety, and he let out a scream at nature. The Scream was an inspiration to the Expressionist movement that took place in the early twentieth century. He portrayed his internal emotions through an external form, which was new for this time.

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 1952, oil on canvas, 93.5 inches by 155 inches 

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Pollock made these action paintings as a way to express his urges and desires and to evoke emotion similar to the expressionist painters such as Edvard Munch not caring about rendering an object or scene realistically or even rendering a scene in the first place. Pollock took a unique approach to making these paintings as he would lay down a canvas in his studio and have a paint can tied up he would swing allowing all the lines to cross and overlap at random.

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Cubism-Bottle of Rum and Newspaper- Aydin DiBell

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Cubism-Bottle of Rum and Newspaper- Aydin DiBell

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In Bottle of Rum and Newspaper Gris constructed the image from intersecting angular planes. Many of these have fake wood grain, suggests of a wooden table top, though the way they overlap and interlock denies any possibility of recession or perspective. The bottle and the newspaper are indicated with a bare minimum of clues: a few letters, an outline and hint of local color are sufficient to indicate the identity of the objects. The complexity of the work, however, lies in the suggestion that the overlapping and interpenetrating planes may represent to some degree visual memories of different views onto the objects. Using these complex images.

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1924. Oil with painted wood elements and cut-and-pasted printed paper on wood with wood frame. 

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Surrealism-Two Children Threatened by a Nightingale. Aydin DiBell

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Surrealism-Two Children Threatened by a Nightingale. Aydin DiBell

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One of the first pieces used when first demonstrating surrealism to the world in the surrealist manifesto. The piece uses elements of Chirico, a key influence to the surrealism movement, as well as a more modern version of surrealist ideals
Blends painting, writing, collage, and sculpture to break the mold and stand out from other pieces at the time. The surrealist movement attempts to awaken your subconscious mind, hence why the imagery is nonsensical and strange. Max Ernst used imagery from when he was a child and got a severe case of measles resulting in feverish dreams

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A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - Post-Impressionism

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A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - Post-Impressionism

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Artist: Georges Seurat

Created: 1884-1886

Medium: Oil on Canvas

George Seurat wanted to bring the idea of science into the impressionist period. He wanted to make the painting seem more luminous to appear brighter. He also wanted to bring this sense of timelessness and Classicism to the art of the Impressionist period. In this painting, we get this sense of organization. Everything is so well organized, and we get this illusion of space, which you wouldn’t see in an impressionist painting. Seurat painted this piece using a complementary color layer of small, horizontal brushstrokes. He then added a series of dots that turned into a solid form when you looked from a distance. In this piece, we can see people from different social classes relaxing in the park. This painting takes place just west of Paris on La Grande Jatte. We can see the figures in this painting are not interacting with each other, and we don’t get this sense of a straightforward narrative.  His painting created a controversy between artists that supported it and artists that didn’t. Seruart creating "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" was so different from any art created at the time.

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The Luncheon on the Grass -Impressionism

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The Luncheon on the Grass -Impressionism

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Artist: Edouard Manet

Created: 1863

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Luncheon on the Grass was not the first name of this painting. The first name of this painting was called The Bath. This piece was put in the exhibition of rejected artwork, which caused a storm of controversy. People didn’t like that the figures appeared to be modern instead of looking like they were from Greek and Roman mythology. We see the characters are dressed in fashionable Parisian clothing except for the one lady who appears to be nude. People also hated that they didn’t look timeless, and they looked like people you would see every day on the streets of Paris. We get this sense that the people in this are not interacting at all. They are all looking in different directions, and the spacing seems to be off. The lady who is scooping water looks too big for where she is placed, but we also get this sense that she is farther away from the other people.  Everything in this piece looks so flat, like the people are cutouts; there are no three-dimensional shapes. Overall in the piece, we can see the loose brushstrokes and the no sense of finish. This was very different from what artists have been used to.

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Andrew McRoberts (Pop Art) - Campbell’s Soup Cans

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Andrew McRoberts (Pop Art) - Campbell’s Soup Cans

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Created: 1962
Artist: Andy Warhol
Medium: Paint, 1′ 8″ x 1′ 4″

Andy Warhol famously appropriated familiar images from consumer culture and mass media, among them celebrity and tabloid news photographs, comic strips, and, in this work, the widely consumed canned soup made by the Campbell’s Soup Company. When he first exhibited Campbell’s Soup Cans in 1962, the canvases were displayed together on shelves, like products in a grocery aisle. At the time, Campbell’s sold 32 soup varieties; each one of Warhol’s 32 canvases corresponds to a different flavor. (The first flavor the company introduced, in 1897, was tomato).
Though Campbell’s Soup Cans resembles the mass-produced, printed advertisements by which Warhol was inspired, its canvases are hand-painted, and the fleur de lys pattern ringing each can’s bottom edge is hand-stamped. Warhol mimicked the repetition and uniformity of advertising by carefully reproducing the same image across each individual canvas. He varied only the label on the front of each can, distinguishing them by their variety. Warhol said of Campbell’s soup, “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, I guess, the same thing over and over again.”

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Andrew McRoberts (Photorealism) - Double Self-Portrait

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Andrew McRoberts (Photorealism) - Double Self-Portrait

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Created: 1976
Artist: Richard Estes
Medium: Oil on canvas

American painter Richard Estes has made a career out of fooling the eye. His canvases look like photographs but they indeed are not. Estes uses photography as a starting point for painting. He goes out and takes dozens of photographs of the same thing from different angles of street corners, diners, reflections on plate glass windows. Then he cuts, pastes and manipulates the pictures. Finally, at his easel, he tries to make his painting as faithful to the photos as he can. Estes if often called a photo-realist, or hyper-realist, an intense observer of the built environment. But he doesn't paint the view from his apartment window. Most of his painting are infact putting two and three photographs together in order to create a complete image, and then basically compressing them into the compositional size and shape that he's looking for in a finished painting. Estes studied art in Chicago in the '50s, then moved to New York where he got a job as a graphic artist. "I worked in advertising," he says. "That's where I started using photographs to make illustrations. I saw all the other people were doing it, all the other illustrators. They didn't put a model in front of them and make a careful drawing."

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Andrew McRoberts (Neo-expressionism) - Warrior

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Andrew McRoberts (Neo-expressionism) - Warrior

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Created: 1982
Artist: Jean-Michael Basquiat
Medium: Acrylic and oilstick on wood panel

Warrior is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. It is interpreted as "a semi-autobiographical work championing his creative vision as a black artist." In March 2021, the painting sold for $41.8 million at Christie's in Hong Kong, becoming the most expensive Western artwork sold at auction in Asia.

Basquiat painted Warrior on a wooden panel in his studio in the basement of the Annina Nosei Gallery. The painting depicts a commanding gladiator brandishing a sword, representing the eponymous warrior, on a backdrop of yellow and blue patches. It is reminiscent of Renaissance depictions of court knights such as Young Knight in a Landscape (1510) by Vittore Carpaccio.

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Caspar David Friedrich Oil on Canvas 1818

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Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog is a painting done by Caspar David Friedrich in 1818. In the painting we can see a man with his back turned to the viewer as he stares out at the background. The background is made out of these flowing lines of fog covering all but the top of the jagged mountains in contrast to the smooth hazy lines of clouds up above. The image is rich in contrast like the aforementioned mountains and clouds as well as the colors; the rich darkness of the man’s clothes and rock compared to the light of the fog and sky. The constant motion in the linework gives it the feeling of life and excitement.

By piecing together the title and elements shown in the piece the viewer is able to figure out that the man is about to start an adventure into the sea of fog. The fact the man is looking out towards the background holding what looks to be a walking stick suggests that is the direction he is planning to take. The fog may symbolize new mysterious land filled with adventure and discovery as well as uncharted territory, soon to be explored.

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Andrew McRoberts - Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims

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Andrew McRoberts - Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims

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Created: 1804
Artist: Antoine-Jean Gros
Medium: Oil paint 17'2ft x 23'5ft

On March 21, 1799, in a makeshift hospital in Jaffa, Napoleon visited his troops who were stricken with the Bubonic Plague. Gros depicts Napoleon attempting to calm the growing panic about contagion by fearlessly touching the sores of one of the plague victims. Bonaparte visits the plague stricken in Jaffa is an oil-on-canvas painting commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte and painted in 1804 by Antoine-Jean Gros, portraying an event during the French invasion of Egypt.This painting uses elements of the composition of Jacques-Loius David's 1784 Oath of the Horatii, also held at the Louvre, such as the three arcades from Oath, which defined three different worlds (the three sons making the oath in the left, the father brandishing the swords in the middle and the women abandoned to sadness in the right), a principle taken up in this painting as well.

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Created: 1818-1819
Artist: Théodore Géricault
Meidum: oil on canvas, 4.91 x 7.16 m

In this scene, we can see a raft rocking on the ocean's waves. It appears to be a shipwreck with many intertwined figures that move up the canvas. At the top, we see a black man waving a piece of red fabric to signal for help to something in the distance. This shipwreck was the French Naval ship Medusa, which was wrecked after sailing into the sandbar off the coast of West Africa. The colony's new governor, family, and other government officials were on the ship. The purpose of sailing was to ensure the continuation of the covert slave trade, even though France had abolished the practice. The important people on the ship were the only ones allowed to get onto the six lifeboats that the Medusa carried. The rest were left stranded on rafts made by the carpenter on board.  Géricault was inspired by many artists and incorporated their techniques into this piece, like the heightened emotion and tense figures that are called back to Michelangelo. There were no pictures of what the wreck had looked like, so Géricault researched everything there was to know about the wreck. He even spoke to many of the survivors who helped him design what the wreck had looked like at the time.

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Created: 1427

Artist: Masaccio

Medium: Fresco

The Tribute Money is one of many frescoes that are painted by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. Each fresco in this chapel tells a story from the life of Saint Peter. This story tells three separate scenes within the same fresco. Scene one, which is the middle one, tells the story of a Roman tax collector. He demands tax money from Christ and the twelve apostles who don’t have the money to pay him. Christ, who is wearing a pinkish robe with a blue toga wrap, points to the left and talks to Peter. He says, “So that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth, and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours” (Matthew 17:27).  In scene two on the far left, we see Peter kneeling down and retrieving money from the mouth of the fish. In scene three on the far right, we can see St. Peter is paying the tax collector. The technique of this painting was used by the ancient Romans, where we have the unfolding of a story within an image. Masaccio was able to make the drama of these three scenes into one piece.

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Created: 1450
Artist: Fra Angelico

Medium: Tempera on Wood, 154 cm × 194 cm

The Annunciation is an Early Renaissance fresco by Fra Angelico in the Convent of San Marco in Florence, Italy. When Cosimo de' Medic rebuilt the convent, he commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls with intricate frescos. This included the alterpiece, the inside of the monk's cells, the friar's cloister, the chapter house, and inside the corridors; around fifty pieces in total. All of the paintings were done by Angelico himself or under his direct supervision. Out of all of the frescoes at the convent, the Annunciation is the most well known in the art world. This painting in particular is supposed to have achieved heights of singular elegance. The way it handles space and lighting is revolutionary because it is a transition out of the Gothic period and into the Renaissance. Annunciation draws our eyes towards a recurring symbol that represented both the loss of paradise and the Virgin Mary's purity.

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Considered one of the highest achievements of Russian art, the painting depicts the three angels that visited Abraham but is also meant to represent the holy trinity. During Rublev's time the Holy Trinity represented spiritual unity, peace, harmony, mutual love and humility. This is no normal painting but what is known as an "icon" these paintings were used in churches and were worshipped and used in prayer. The painting is framed in a way that the heads of the three angel's form a circle. The angel on the left is seen blessing the cup, containing a calf's head, as the others look into the cup. The angels are also seen with halos around their heads. The type of paint is tempera made with pigments and a binding material most commonly egg yolk which was really interesting because of how durable and long lasting the paint is.

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Andrew McRoberts - Christ Pantocrator mosaic in Byzantine style

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Andrew McRoberts - Christ Pantocrator mosaic in Byzantine style

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Created: 6th century AD (501-600)
Artist: Marian Zidaru
Medium: encaustic, or colored wax

Pantocrator means "All-Ruler." This icon shows Christ as Creator, Savior, and Judge. His hand is raised in blessing. He holds the book of the Gospels, the good news of salvation for all who will receive him. Christ Pantocrator is a specific depiction of Chirst. He looks right at us in compassion, but demanding a response. The most common translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful". In this understanding, Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek word "all", "strength", "might", "power". This is often understood in terms of potential power; ability to do anything. Christ pantocrator signifies Jesus in his glory during his second coming seated on his throne. Another, more literal translation is "Ruler of All" or, less literally, "Sustainer of the World". In this understanding, Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek for "all" and the verb meaning "To accomplish something" or "to sustain something". This translation speaks more to God's actual power, God does everything. Byzantine mosaics are possibly the most enduring symbol of the Byzantine art period. Like early Christians, the Byzantines created their mosaics out of colored glass. Byzantine painting used complicated patterns to intricately illustrate religious figures. At the same time, Byzantine artists did not have any techniques for illustrating shadows or other ways of creating a three-dimensional feeling. The major form of Byzantine painting was frescoes, especially on basilicas. Wood panels were also painted so that people could bring images of religious figures with them while they traveled.

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Dedicated to sun god Amaterasu, this shrine is actually comprised of several smaller shrines. The most interesting fact about the construction is that there are no nails, instead they used joined wood. The shrine houses the Sacred Mirror so it is seen to be one of the holiest and most important sites in Japan. There has always been considerable amounts of people flocking to the shrine with 3.62 million people visited the shrine in 1625. It is said that the divine Yamatohime-no-mikoto departed from mt. Miwa in search of a permanent location to worship Amaterasu where she wandered around for 20 years before finding the ground te shrine is today.   The shrine follows the style of  shinmei-zukuri or extreme simplicity with its basic fundamentals rooted in the Kofun period, and more specifically Yuitsu-shinmei-zukuri, which is not used in the construction of any other shrine, and shares looks similar to the first rice granaries. A fascinating practice done at the shrine is that every 20 years it is rebuilt exactly at a adjacent site, in fact it is set for rebuilding this year.

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Lustration of the Infant Jina Mahavira: Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript

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Lustration of the Infant Jina Mahavira: Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript

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Created: late 14th century
Artist: Bhadrabahu, in the manuscript of Kalpa Sūtra
Medium: Opaque watercolor on paper. 9.3 x 28.7 cm (3 5/8 x 11 5/16 in.)

Vardhaman Mahavira was known as Jina which means conqueror of physical comforts which had no impact on him. Mahavira taught that people can save their souls from the contamination of matter by living a life of extreme asceticism and by practicing nonviolence toward all living creatures. This advocacy of nonviolence encouraged his followers, monastic and lay, to become strong advocates of vegetarianism. Mahavira’s followers were aided in their quest for salvation by the five mahavratas. Attributed to Mahavira (though they show connections with contemporary Brahmanical practice), these great vows were the renunciation of killing, of speaking untruths, of greed, of sexual pleasure, and of all attachments to living beings and nonliving things. Mahavira’s predecessor, Parshvanatha, had preached only four vows. This painting typifies the finest achievement of the late fourteenth-century western Indian style. It is a masterful rendering of a popular subject, the bathing of Mahavira at birth. The jina's identity is indicated by the pair of kneeling buffalo, his cognitive symbol. The infant is seated on the lap of the presiding god Shakra (Indra), and two attendant gods (further manifestations of Shakra) hold lustration vessels aloft in anticipation of his first bath (a legend shared with early Buddhism). An innovation of this period is the introduction of fantastic rocks to indicate the celestial Mount Meru—the setting for this divine abhisheka—a mannerism absorbed from Iranian paintings of the period.

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Created: 2nd century BCE

Artist: unknown

Medium: Silk

The funeral banner of Lady Dai was discovered in the second century. She was a person of a high-ranking Han official civil servant. In her tomb, they found a painted silk banner that was over six feet long and still in good condition. The banner was divided up into four horizontal registers. The lower register shows one of the earliest examples of a painting of a specific individual and her servants. Dai, in this portrait, shows her in her afterlife enjoying the immortal comforts of her tomb. In the register below this scene, we see a sacrificial funerary ritual taking place in a mourning hall. We also see images of heaven and the underworld, along with many animals that symbolize both these places. Her banner gives us insight into many funeral practices during the Han Dynasty.

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Created:  547 AD

Artist: Unknown

Medium: Gold, glass, and marble

The San Vitale is a church that was constructed in 547 AD. One of the most famous images of political authority from the middle ages is the Mosaic of Emperor Justinian. This is held in the sanctuary of the San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. The Mosaic program is seen as a visual testament to the two significant ambitions of Justinian's reign. Justinan saw himself as a defender of the faith and that it was his duty to establish religious uniformity or orthodoxy throughout the empire. In this work of art, we see Justinian, who is posed from and center. We can see he is haloed and is wearing a crown and a purple imperial robe. Standing next to him are Bishop Maximianus of Ravenna and members of the imperial administration. Very far to the left appear to be a group of soldiers. If we look from right to left, we can see they are holding the gospel book,  the cross, and the bowl for the bread of the Eucharist. Justinian's gesture of carrying the bowl can be seen as an act of homage to the True King, who appears in the adjacent apse mosaic.

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4th Century AD, Medium: Limestone, Marble, Artists: Zotikos and Filotas, etc.

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Built for the Roman emperor Diocletian as a place for him to reside after his retirement. An interesting fact I encountered was that he was the first emperor to willingly retire citing old age and health issues. The palace is massive covering 705 feet from East to West with walls 85 feet high. It was built during a transition into the medieval ages and shares aspects of it in the design. Perhaps one of the reasons it is still around today is that it was used as a cathedral by Christians. To me, the most interesting aspect of the castle are the sphinxes that decorated the palace taken from the burial of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III some of which survive to this day.

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Created: 315 AD
Artist: Constantine I
Medium: brick-faced concrete covered in marble. Corinthian order

The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in AD 312. The arch is constructed of brick-faced concrete covered in marble. The three bay design with detached columns was first used for the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (which stands at the end of the triumph route) and repeated in several other arches now lost. It is the largest surviving Roman triumphal arch and the last great monument of Imperial Rome. The arch is also a tour de force of political propaganda, presenting Constantine as a living continuation of the most successful Roman emperors, renowned for their military victories and good government. The monumental arch stands approximately 20 meters high, 25 meters wide, and 7 meters deep. Three portals punctuate the exceptional width of the arch, each flanked by partially engaged Corinthian columns. The central opening is approximately 12 meters high, above which are identical inscribed marble panels, one on each side, that read:

To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the Greatest,
pious, fortunate, the Senate and people of Rome,
by inspiration of divinity and his own great mind
with his righteous arms
on both the tyrant and his faction
in one instant in rightful
battle he avenged the republic,
dedicated this arch as a memorial to his military victory

Fun fact: the arch is a 2 minute walk from the colosseum.

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Created: 72 AD
Artist: Roman emperor Vespasian
Medium: Travertine

The Colosseum was built around 72 AD under the Roman emperor Vespasian. It was an elliptical amphitheater in the center of Rome, used for gladiator fights, animal hunts, and executions. The outside of the colosseum was very simple, but the inside was a very complex interior structure. Taking part in Greek architecture, you can see the Colosseum has the pilling of one order style on top of another. The top two stories consisted of the Corinthian order. The second story consisted of the ionic order, and the lower story looked like the Doric order. There are eighty arches around the Colosseum, and only four out of the eighty arches are numbered. The four axial entrances are unmarked, and they were the main entrances. The colosseum could hold roughly 50,000 spectators there. The seating arrangements went where the emperor and magistrates sat in the front, and the priest and senators were behind them. Then the businessmen and wealthy people, and at the top were the plebeians. On a typical day, there would be the animal hunts first, followed by the executions during lunch, and last, the gladiator fights.

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Built from marble from the surrounding mountain Penteli, this temple was dedicated to the blacksmith god Hephaestus. It’s dimensions are 13.71 m north to south and 31.78 m east to west and boasts six columns on its narrow ends and thirteen columns on the long sides. The temple has a pronaos, or porch built onto the front as well as a cella or interior chamber that holds cult artwork, and a Opisthodomos or rear chamber of a temple. An interesting thing about the construction of the temple is that it is made with two different building styles which can especially be seen in the sculptures decorating the temple. The temple also had 68 different metopes and friezes including 10 which showcased the great feats of Hercules.

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Andrew McRoberts - The Temple of Athena Nike

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Andrew McRoberts - The Temple of Athena Nike

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Created- 427-420 B.C.E.
Artist- Kallikrates
Medium- Pentalic Marble

Suprising The Temple of Athena Nike is quite small in comparison of the Parthenon, erechtheion, and propylea. The temple of Athena Nike (Athena as a goddess of victory) is the smallest temple at the Acropolis in Athens, placed at its southwest corner, at the edge of a high cliff. Its construction was completed in the year 420 B.C.E., during the so called High Classical Period, according to the design of Kallikrates. The temple by Kallikrates replaced an earlier small temple, which got completely destroyed during the Persian wars. The temple of Athena Nike, built in Ionice order of beautiful white Pentelic marble, has columns at the front and back but not on the sides of the cella; this kind of floor plan is called an amphiprostyle. There are only four columns on each side due to the size. The columns are monolithic, which means that each one of them was made of a single block of stone, instead of horizontal drums, as it is in the case of the Parthenon. Its side columns have volutes both in the front and at the side, in order to create a pleasant view from any viewpoint. The Greeks considered their temples as a kind of monumental sculpture, which was supposed to be viewed from all sides and experienced in connection to its surroundings.

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Created: 447–432 BCE

Artist: Pheidias

Medium: Marble

The Parthenon in Athens was a huge marble temple to the goddess Athena. The building was decorated with marble sculptures that represented scenes from mythology and Athenian cult. The Parthenon remained largely intact until the seventeenth century, and early Christians turned the temple into a church. After Athens was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, it became a mosque and then later turned into a store for gunpowder. An explosion blew out the heart of the building, and further damage was done in an attempt to remove sculptures from the west pediment.

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Adorned with a fearsome lion head, this vessel would usually house perfume or oils. On the many levels it depicts 18 warriors, a hare hunt, and a horse race. The 18 warriors are seen in battle with spears thrusting and you can also see several of them are bloodied and kneeling. The distinctive lion head is thought to be hand modeled rather than a mould, and is painted with reds, brown and purple. Another interesting detail is that each warriors shield has a different design.

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Created:  around 570 B.C.E.

Artist: Kleitias

Medium: ceramic

Alessandro François, an Italian, found hundreds of fragments of the vase in the mid-1800s when he was excavating the ancient Etruscan tomb in Italy. The vase was made in Greece around 570 B.C.E. It was common for vases to be made in Athens, Greece, and then shipped to Italy. There are 270 figures on the vase that depict mythological stories from oral tradition and poetry. The François Vase is a volute krater vessel used for mixing water and wine. The vase is decorated in registers which are horizontal bands of decoration sometimes referred to as a frieze. The main register appears at the center of the vase and is the tallest. The register shows the marriage of  Peleus to the nymph Thetis, a celebrated event attended by the Greek gods. Many other scenes tell stories of many of the Greek Gods.Wealthy and educated individuals would attend parties where this vase would serve diluted wine mixed with water. The scenes on the vase might have been used as conversation starters.

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Andrew McRoberts - Greek Vessel: The Creusa Painter, Volute Krater (mixing vessel) with Ariadne Crowning Dionysos

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Andrew McRoberts - Greek Vessel: The Creusa Painter, Volute Krater (mixing vessel) with Ariadne Crowning Dionysos

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Artist: The Creusa Painter (Greek)
Created: 400- 380 BCE
Medium: Red Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware. H (to rim): 20 3/16 in. (51.3 cm); H (to top of handles): 23 1/4 in. (59.1 cm); Diam (with handles): 17 3/4 in. (45 cm); Max diam (body): 14 9/16 in. (37 cm)

On this large vessel used to mix wine and water, a young warrior takes leave of his wife and returns from battle victorious. On the side pictured here, Ariadne crowns her husband Dionysos, god of wine, rebirth, and the theater, with a laurel wreath while in a cave. Around them, Pan, the god of the forest, satyrs (part-men, part-goats), and maenads (female followers of Dionysos) prepare for a celebration. The two figures are framed by an undulating reserved band which outlines the cave and forms the groundline of the hill above. This begins on the left behind the leg of a maenad carrying a kottabos stand and ends on the right by becoming a groundline for another maenad carrying a deer. Along the upper edge of this reserved band spring incised tufts of grass, and above Dionysos head, a grape vine. The stems of the grape leaves are incised and the grape bunches have dots of thick slip. This vessel is currently being displayed at the Teledo Museum of Art.

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Quartzite Head of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III

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Quartzite Head of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III

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This carefully carved stature depicting Amenhotep III demonstrates incredible talent not just for its size but techniques and subtlety done by the artist. The way the eyes are carved gives it impression that he is staring down at you, which is appropriate because he was a pharaoh. During his successful reign Egypt was able to reach it's peak artistically and as a result there are over 250 sculptures recovered of him depicting him throughout all ages. The artist rendered the stone differently depending on where it was located. For instance his hair and lips were rendered much more roughly than the smooth skin.

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Created:  570–526 BCE

Artist: unknown

Medium: wood, clay or faience

Ushabtis were figurines that were designed to be placed in someone’s tomb. They were made out of various materials such as clay, wood, and faience. Faience is a type of ceramic that is usually green or blue. They were about 7-8 inches tall. The purpose of the Ushabtis was to be a servant for the dead in the afterlife. The statues were inscribed with a spell from the Book of the Dead. The spell would bring the Ushabti to life and give them instructions for performing work for the dead. Wealthy people would have been buried with enough Ushabtis to have one for every day of the year.

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Artist: Unknown
Created: 1323 B.C
Medium: Gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, obsidian, turquoise and glass paste
Size: 54 × 39.3 × 49 cm

The mask of Tutankhamun is a gold mask of the 18th-dynasty ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. It was discovered in 1925 in the tomb KV62 in the Valley of the Kings, and is now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Tutankhamun's burial chamber was found at the Theban Necropolis in the Valley of the Kingsin 1922 and opened in 1923. It would be another two years before the excavation team, led by the English archaeologist Howard Carter, was able to open the heavy sarcophagus containing Tutankhamun's mummy. On 28 October 1925, they opened the innermost of three coffins to reveal the gold mask, seen for the first time in approximately 3,250 years. The death mask is one of the best-known works of art in the world and a prominent symbol of ancient Egypt.

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Dedicated to sun gods Amon-re and Re-Horakhte it also is a monument for King Ramses II. Although not a traditional pyramid due to being carved from living rock, instead of stone being moved, the temple follows the structures of the other temples. Four massive statues are carved out of the stone and also carved are small figures meant to resemble Ramses children and the queen. Inside the 185ft the halls have other statues of Ramses and his victories.

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Created: 2551–2528 BCE

Artist: Khufu

Medium: quarried core stones

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the tallest of the three pyramids at Giza. It stands 481 feet tall. The pyramid was built with great precision measuring 750 feet on each side and is almost level within less than an inch. The pyramid contains 2,300,000 stones. Fine outer casing stones, which have been removed, were made from limestone. It is believed that a gold-covered capstone sat atop the pyramid at one time. Inside the pyramid is the Grand Chamber which leads to the King’s Chamber. Below that is the Queen’s chamber. Also, five boat pits were discovered, which were meant for the King to use in his afterlife.

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Andrew McRoberts - Luxor Temple of Amenhotep III Mortuary

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Andrew McRoberts - Luxor Temple of Amenhotep III Mortuary

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Created: 1400 B.C.E
Artist: Amenhotep III architecture's
328 feet (100 meters) wide by 1,968 feet (600 meters) in length.

The Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, also known as Kom el-Hettân, was built by the main architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, for Pharaoh Amenhotep III during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. The mortuary temple is located on the Western bank of the Nile river across from the eastern bank city of Luxor. The Temple of Amenhotep III has an exciting story in Egyptian history. Amenhotep III, pharaoh of the Dynasty XVIII, built this temple in 1400 BCE. However, the Colossi of Memnon, set becide, are two massive mono stone statues of king Amenhotep III. These colossi are the significant remains of this vast mortuary temple. It measured 328 feet (100 meters) wide by 1,968 feet (600 meters) in length, which is longer than five football fields.

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Artist: unknown

Created:  3500-3000 BCE

Medium: Alabaster

The Warka vase stands three feet and weighs almost 600 pounds. The vase depicts the social hierarchy found in Mesopotamia. Each band of the vase tells a story. The bottom band shows barley and reeds, which were vital crops.   The next band shows a herd of lambs. Above that is a band of servants carrying vessels of fruits, grains, and wine. The top band is the largest and is believed to be King Uruk. This is a busy scene and it appears they are celebrating the goddess Inanna.

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ca. 604–562 BCE, Babylonian, Ceramic and Glaze 

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To the Babylonians the lion represented Ishtar the goddess of love and war. Located on one of the most important streets in Babylon it served to protect and guide citizens for the ritual processions from the city to the temples. Due to the rarity of stone in southern Mesopotamia city builders used molded glazed bricks which led to a vibrancy and beauty to the city. This piece was created during the prime of Babylon and is surrounded by other animals and mythical creatures representing their own gods and temples.

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Iron Age III, ca. 800-500 BCE
Northwestern Iran
Gold
H x W x D: 9.3 x 18.1 x 0.5 cm (3 11/16 x 7 1/8 x 3/16 in)
Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Smithsonian Institution
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

This fragment is the lowest part of a trapezoidal breastplate made of sheet gold, decorated with parallel registers of figures in repoussé technique. In the upper register are two antithetical pairs of creatures, human-headed winged bulls and crested griffins, flanking a “sacred tree.” In the lower register, a “sacred tree” with palmette top is flanked by a pair of horned griffins and a pair of winged bird-men carrying buckets and holding pine cones. This is a fragment from the lower part of a much larger pectoral, or breastplate, made of sheet metal and embellished with figures and ornament arranged in horizontal bands. A breastplate shielded the chest from arrows or other weapons. The decoration on this example consists of mythical guardian creatures, whose images were believed to provide magical protection for the wearer.

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Artist: Unknown
Created: 3,500-3,000 B.C.E
Jade (nephrite), 5.7 x 17.2 x .4 cm (Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: Gift of Therese and Erwin Harris, F1991.52)

I found this prehistoric piece fascinating because of its many uses that it upholds. From the sharp teeth at the bottom to use as a weapon to the mask like figure it holds representing something great in the Hongshan culture. This pendant is made from jade and it's object is rectangular in shape. It’s very thin and the color is an almost clear grayish green. Find a pair of eyes in the middle to start shaping a face. Their “pupils” are two symmetrically positioned holes drilled from front to back. Above the eyes are two semicircular slits. Seven pairs of teeth-like points line up along the bottom edge, flanked on each side by a pair of large curls. These elements seem to suggest a face with eyes, brows, teeth, and curly hair or ears at the sides. Subtle relief carving, designs that slightly rise above the surrounding surface, highlight the curves and contours of the piece. A single hole in the middle of the piece means that it could be worn as a necklace.

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What interested me the most was the similarities to the famous Thinker statue made in 1904 nearly 7,000 years after this piece. It made me stop and think about how smart people actually were to make a piece so emotional and thought provoking when even into the neolithic period I imagined early humans to only focus on survival. Something else I noticed is it's very advanced compared to similar sculptures with the clear details on the face. In addition there is a companion piece known as the Sitting Woman who is shown with her hands on her knees also deep in thought.

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Artist: Unknown

Created: 2550–1600 BCE

Medium: Sarsen stone

Stonehenge is located on  Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It is one of the most recognizable monuments of the Neolithic period. It is a massive circle, 97 feet in diameter and 24 feet high. Bodies have been found at the site, and they were adult males between the ages of  25–40 years old. It is believed these men were of elite status and possibly the first leaders of Windsor. Further research has shown that the sunrise of the midsummer solstice is precisely framed by the end of the horseshoe. Opposite that point, at the center of the bend of the horseshoe, the sun is also aligned during the midwinter sunset.

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Artist: Unknown
Created: 20,000- 10,000 BCE

I found this prehistoric piece fascinating because of the shear craziness that it happening in this piece. The amount of detail in the carvings for every animal to have it's special line and shape that resembles to animals in our world currently. The female element is hidden in the darkness in this piece but it's almost like the light is shining on the animals for a reason. The similarities in the drawlings of the animals during the Paleolithic Period to the animals currently living, signifies the animals by they have been reproducing for all this time. The name says it all, the goddess has created all of this.

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Artist: unknown

Created: 24,000 and 22,000 B.C.E

This prehistoric art sculpture is relatively small but fits in the palm of your hand. Named Venus of Willendorf, it is believed to represent fertility. The prominent features of the statue are the reproductive parts. The arms, hands, and feet are either missing or made smaller. The lack of facial features is something else to be noted. The face is believed to be covered by hair or a beaded headdress. It has been suggested that she is a fertility figure, a good-luck totem, or a  mother goddess symbol.

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What really gripped me about this piece was the fact that this is the oldest statue ever recovered, and it was found in a German cave in 1939 while more pieces have been discovered and re-attached. Carved out of ivory it depicts a half lion half humanoid figure that could have been used in rituals based on where it was found. Similar depictions have been found in surrounding areas indicating that this was important to at least one culture. There is an ongoing debate on the gender of the figure since its discovery.

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Artist: Unknown
Created: 25,000 - 20,000 BCE

I found this prehistoric piece fascinating because it was one of the first relief sculptures known. Also, this sculpture is very mysterious as it can be interpreted many different ways. The Venus symbolizes fertility, and the horn can be seen as a drinking horn or even a musical instrument. Some even believe it represents a cornucopia, a symbol of abundance.