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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.