Art that was created in the Mesopotamia
Greek for “the land between the rivers” - Tigris & Euphrates - Fertile Crescent - Southern Turkey to the Zagros Mountains
Sumerian Art - 3,500 - 2,332 BCE - Ancient Sumer (Southern Iraq)
Cuneiform - The first form of writing - wrote right to left
Epic of Gilgamesh - One of the first writings that was translated into many other languages
White Temple and Ziggurat: Uruk (modern Warka) Iraq, ca. 3,2330 - 3,000 B.C.E, mud brick, whitewashed, ziggurat is a platform for the temple, has stairs, bent axis plan - no direct access into the central hall of the temple.
Female Head (possibly Inanna): from Uruk, ca. 3,200 - 3,000 B.C.E, marble, 8 in. high, top of the head had a wig, special labor force to carve marble and attach wig, sunken eyebrows that would originally be inlayed as a sign of beauty, traded marble, and should have been in a temple, recovered by the U.S from Iraq
Warka Vase: Uruk, ca. 3,200 - 3,000 B.C.E, alabaster, 3 ft. high, recovered from Inanna temple, divided into phrases, called registers divided by bands of phrases, wavy lines at the bottom that represent water with plants and crops on the first level with animals above it that represent fertility, above is naked men offering things to Inanna, at the top is the presentation of offerings to Inanna, which is depicted larger and tall with a double staff, which is divinity along with a horned dress
Statuettes of Worshippers: Eshunna (modern Tell Asmar) Iraq, ca. 2,700 B.C.E, gypsum, shell, black limestone, the tallest statuette is 30. in high, buried underneath floor of the temple, meant to be statuettes of worshippers, male priests and figures have stylized beards, skirts, and women have a dress which is one-sided, while all of them hold the same container holding a gift to be used in a ritual, with wide eyes, inlayed black limestone, eternal wakefulness to Inanna, hands giving constant ritual offerings, simple forms, made in workshops, many look similar, stylized images, cuneiform carved into the bottom of donors or gods
Standard of Ur (war side): from Tomb 779, Royal cemetery Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar) Iraq, ca. 2,600 B.C.E., wood, shell, lapis lazuli, red limestone, 8*19 in., two-sided, battle and peace sides, funerary work, buried with a wealthy person, could be continuous narrative with registers, bands read left to right, bottom to top, lowest had chariots, A pattern of horses, rolling over bodies of enemies with chariots, second-level shows the capture of the enemies, wearing leopard coats and forcing another group to remove clothes, and making march unclothed, dehumanizing, king break register in top-level, everyone is looking at him, higher and taller than all other images, the bottom level of peace side shows people carrying provision and animals for a feast, the second row shows more animals being brought, and top-level shows the feast with musicians with the lyre;s and such instruments, servants showed, king shown breaking the border once again, wearing the same clothing
Bull-headed lyre: Royal Cemetery Ur, ca. 2,600 B.C.E., wood, gold leaf, lapis lazuli, 65 in. high, from king’s grave, bull’s head covered in gold leaf, hair and beard covered in lapis lazuli, front of the lyre is a panel with images, the panel has 4 sections with anthropomorphic shapes, top shows man in between bulls, heraldic composition - one figure shown in profile and other in frontal view
Cylinder seal: from the top of Pu-abi, Royal Cemetery Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar) Iraq, ca. 2,600 B.C.E., 2 in high, Pu-abi was a queen, seal shows banquet, images pressed into clay, cylinder seal ould be rolled across seal for maks of possession, stone shown as a mark of wealthy, as clay were marks of merchants, cuneiform in the seal, linear a and linear b cuneiform, linear b has a translation, while linear as is in indecipherable,
Akkadian Art: Sargon of Akkad first ruler of Akkadian empire, used cuneiform, 2,332 - 2,279 B.C.E., ancient Assyria, Sargon means true king
Head of an Akkadian Ruler: from Ninevah (modern Juyunjik) Iraq, ca. 2,250 - 2,200 B.C.E., copper, 14 ⅜ in. high, stylized hear and beard, holo cast is where you carve an image into clay, cover with wax, and cover the whole thing with molten copper
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran, ca. ,2254 - 2,218 B.C.E., sandstone, 79 in. high, called himself King of the 4 cardinal directions, a victory of lubali, spolia - reused for something else, horned headrest means divinity and having gods at his side, the king is equal to gods, the shape of stele represents mountain and ladder to heaven, rejection of standard registers, fallen enemies at sides, cuneiform at the top, idealized, person signing praises
Neo-Sumerian Art - 2,100 - 1,800 B.C.E, Ancient Sumer (Southern Iraq)
Restored Ziggurat - Ur, ca. 2,100 B.C.E, mud brick, built by 3rd dynasty of Sumerians, baked bitumen, 50 ft. high, baked in tar, top on ziggurat as a temple, 3 different ramps that converge on a tower
Seated Statue of Gudea (King) holding temple plan: Girsu (modern Telloh) Iraq, ca. 2100 B.C.E, diorite, 29 in. high, diorite is one the hardest rocks to carve, portrayed as a priest, one-shoulder robe, shaved head, rejection of Accadian style, buried underneath temples
Babylonian Art - 1,800-1,600 B.C.E, Ancient Akkad (Central Iraq)
Stele with code of Hammurabi: from Susa, Iran, ca.17,00 B.C.E., basalt, 98. in high, oldest complete law code, cuneiform of law code, place in city center, Hammurabi receiving law code from shamash, God who is holy, horned helmets shown, given a ring and a rod, written in Accadian, lots of bible code comes from here
Assyrian Art : 721 - 612 B.C.E - Ancient Assyria (Northern Iraq)
Ashur is the king of Accadian gods
Lamassu (winged human-headed bull): Dar (modern Khorsabad) Iraq, ca. 720 - 207 B.C.E, crown on a human head. Stylize wings, the body of a bull, 5 legs, profile for legs, and front view of 2 legs, guardians for the citadel created by Sargon the second, the image of ruthlessness, citadel protected by Lamassu
Assyrian acres pursuing enemies: from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (modern Nimrud), ca. 875 - 860 B.C.E., gypsum, 2ft. 10 ⅜ in. high, low-relief, follows in the line of Sargon the second, cultivates the image of being ruthlessness, palace decorated with these, attempt at showing depth, army shooting at the citadel, soldiers swimming in water to the wall, soldiers swimming are large to show depth, blowing into something to float in the water
Ashurbanipal hunting lions: from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Ninevah, ca.650 - 40 B.C.E., gypsum, 5ft. High, the lion represents power, by hunting the lion, the king is more powerful than it, muscles in soldiers, the archer is stylized, 2 people pushing the spear into a muscled lion, the mane of lion is stylized, mouth open roaring, lion kept in a cage, already captive making the hunt easier, lioness shot with arrows dragging legs, but lions and lioness have dignity and grace
Neo-Babylonian Art: 612 - 330 B.C.E, Ancient Akkad (Central Iraq)
Ishtar Gate (restored) - from Babylon, Iraq, ca. 575 B.C.E., glazed brick, recreated in Berlin, made by Nevoconezar, from the old testament, city gate, hand-made bricks, figures are gold lions, flanked by floral motif, the lion is in the act of roaring (ferocious), repetition of bull and dragons, bull represents addad, god of storms, Marduk is the chief god of Babylonian
Persian Art - 224 - 636 C.E.
Darius
Audience Hall of Darius and Xerxes: Persepolis, Iran, ca. 520 - 465 B.C>E, limestone, king’s audience hall, where you would got to greet king, large murals that would lead you to the apadana, the low level would have stairs to go up to the audience hall, low reliefs, hypostyle hall, lions attacking bulls, royal power of persian kings,
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