HUMANITIES
AND
ART
APPRECIATION:
AN INTRODUCTION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the students should be able
to:
understand the importance of Humanities and
Art Appreciation in every individual’s life;
gain a general knowledge of the history of art
from prehistoric time to the contemporary period;
and
recognize major periods of world art history.
WHAT IS HUMANITIES?
Human being is the basic subject of the Humanities
hence the word which comes from the Greek
“Humanus” means human.
WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY
HUMANITIES?
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
THE INCLUSION OF ART IN
CURRICULUM
In art, students can travel back to the early existence
of human being.
While art is universal; it crosses through time places.
It prepare students the tools necessary to face
challenges and to respond to issues that involved
society from which they are a part.
Thinking skills and creativity are so valued in the
workplaces.
ART IN A TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN TIME
Andres Bonifacio
Abraham Lincoln
Arts does not die; artists are not a dying
breed.
- Art is long; life is short.
HISTORY AS AFFECTING THE ARTISTS
Artists are influenced by the happenings that
surround them.
SOCIETY AND THE ARTISTS
Social, economic and political change also
cause change in art.
HISTORY
OF
ART
ANCIENT ART
Prehistoric Art
Art of the Ancient Near East
Egyptian Art
PHASES OF PREHISTORIC
ART
1. Upper Paleolithic – (Old Stone Age)
2. Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
3. Neolithic (New Stone Age)
These 3 periods roughly spanned 14,000 – 200
BCE.
Works of art from the Stone Age include cave
paintings, reliefs, and sculptures of stone, ivory
and bone.
PREHISTORIC ART
• Why did early humans create art?
- to prove themselves human these early men
had to grasp art because it is the only element
that separates them from the brutes, their
ancestors.
Paleolithic Art
Paleolithic art is the art of the last Ice Age in North America and
Europe.
Cave painting was discovered in France dating back 15,000 years.
- They used ground charcoal and mineral oxides and early “spray
painting” – used a hollowed out bone or reed to blow dried pigment
onto the wall.
- They were found in the darkest farthest parts of the cave.
There are also artistic pieces produced particularly in France and
Siberia. These are Stone Age statuettes of women, the archeologists
termed as Venus figurines. All resemble a female figure which is
usually fat or pregnant.
Chinese Horse. Lascaux Cave. Dordogne, France
15,000-13,000 BCE.
Venus of Willendorf
25,000 BCE
Mesolithic Art
The Middle Stone Age began with the final
retreat of the glaciers.
Wall paintings and stone sculptures that were
more abstract and highly stylized.
Mesolithic artists concentrated more on the
human figure.
Neolithic Art
Began about 8000 BCE.
Plants and animals were domesticated and life
became more stable.
Late Neolithic: writing appeared.
About 4000 BCE significant architectural
monuments were erected.
The most famous is Stonehenge in Southern England.
Megalith – comes from the Greek word meaning
“large stones”.
Dolmen. Megalithic. Donegal, Ireland.
Stonehenge. Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England.
Neolithic. 1800-1400 BCE.
ART OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
• Sumer
• Akkad
• Babylonia
• Assyria
• Persia
Historic societies are marked by written language,
advanced social organization, and developments in
government, science, and art and the development of
agriculture.
Sumer
Sumer was located in the Euphrates River Valley in
Southern Mesopotamia.
They had a system of writing called cuneiform
- cuneiform comes from the Latin word meaning “wedge”
because cuneiform writing was wedge shaped.
Sumer may have been among the first to establish formal
religion.
Ziggurat – large pyramidal platforms created to hold a
temple at the top.
- The ziggurat known to the Hebrews as the Tower of Babel was
270ft. tall.
Ziggurat of Ur
Statues from Abu Temple, Tel Asmar.
Sumerian, Early Dynasty Period. 2900-2600 BCE.
Akkad
Was located North of Sumer in the valley of
the Tigris River.
Their art commemorated its rules (such as
Sargon) and warriors instead of offering
homage to the gods.
The ruler and warriors were stylized by the
enemies were natural looking in position and
depiction.
Victory Stele of Narim Sin. 2300-2200 BCE.
Babylonia
Babylonia rose to power in Mesopotamia in
the 18th century BCE (around Iraq).
Hammurabi codified the laws of
Mesopotamia, inscribed on a basalt stele in
relief.
Used a more natural style of art.
Other Near Eastern art includes the Gate of
Ishtar of Babylon, Lion’s Gate in the walls of
Jerusalem.
Gate of Ishtar. Babylon.
Stele inscribed with the Law
Code of Hammurabi. Susa.
1760 BCE.
Lion’s Gate. Jerusalem.
Assyria
The Assyrian empire developed along the
upper Tigris river.
They were influence by the Babylonian art,
culture, and religion.
Carved stone reliefs were the most common
art form in Assyria.
Most of the scenes were of war and hunting.
The Dying Lioness. Nineveh. 660 BCE.
Persia
The Persian empire developed east of
Mesopotamia (around modern-day Iran)
Use more deeply carved relief. They are
fleshier, and more well rounded with more
detail.
Some of the figures twist and turn in space.
EGYPTIAN ART
• Old Kingdom
• Middle Kingdom
• New Kingdom
• Ptolemaic (after Alexander the Great)
Egyptian Art
Much of Egyptian Art was very religious.
The Nile River was revered as a god.
Three aspects of Egyptian art and life are unique:
- their link to religion
- their link to death
- and, their ongoing use of strict conventionalism in
arts. (There are very few variations in their art
throughout the periods.)
Old Kingdom
Before unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
(c. 5500 BCE)
Art consisted mainly of funerary offerings,
such as small figures, carved ivory, pottery and
slate cosmetic palettes.
At the period’s end, large limestone figures
were created.
Sculpture
Religion was bound to the afterlife, so permanence in there art was
essential.
Tombs and pyramids carried scenes of every-day objects and common
earthly activities.
Wall decorations were carved in very low relief using a great deal of
incised detail.
Sculptures of the deceased were placed in the tombs with life-like
sculptures of family and friends.
Composite figures with head, pelvis, and legs are in profile and the upper
torso and eye are shown from a frontal view.
Canon of Proportions – relating the scale of anatomical parts to one
another.
Horus – god of the sun.
Statue of King Khafre. Old Kingdom.
2500 BCE.
Narmer Palette. Old Kingdom.
3200 BCE.
Architecture
The most spectacular and most famous of the
Egyptian Old Kingdom are the Great Pyramids
at Giza.
Served to protect tombs located underneath.
Great Pyramids. Giza. Old Kingdom.
2570-2500 BCE.
Middle Kingdom
At first, art stunted by political strife; then, Egypt
was eventually reorganized and art flourished.
Very little experimentation under the rigid stylistic
conventions.
Rock-cut tombs with carved out of living rock.
The entrance ways were marked by columned
porticoes of post-and lintel construction.
Halls lined with relief sculptures, such as those of
the Tomb of Ti.
New Kingdom
The Hykos conquered Egypt and introduced Bronze Age
weapons.
The Hykos was overthrown and the result was a stable period of
creativity.
This period was one of the most vital periods in Egyptian history.
The Egyptian society embraced a death cult and during the New
Kingdom period a new type of architecture was created. The
Mortuary Temple.
The Mortuary Temple was not a tomb, but was instead a place
where they could worship during life and be worshiped after
death.
Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
Thebes. New Kingdom. 1480 BCE.
The Armana Revolution:
The Reign of Akhenaten and
Nefertiti
The reign of Akhenaten in 14th century BCE
marked a revolution in religion and the arts for
the Egyptians.
He changed the capital to Tel el-Amarna
He also said that there was only one god, the son
god, Aton.
During his reign the art became more naturalistic
with curving lines and full-bodied forms.
Pillar statue of Coffin of Tutankhamen. Bust of Queen Nefertiti.
Akhenaten. New 1323 BCE. New Kingdom.
Kingdom. 1356 BCE. 1344 BCE.
SACRED/CHRISTIAN ART
From
Catacombs to Cathedrals
Early Christian
Early Christian Art is divided into two
periods:
• Period of Persecution
• Period of Recognition
Period of Persecution
Christians had to worship in secret so they
worshipped in private homes and catacombs.
Catacombs – underground burial place.
- Had chambers called cubicula that served as chapels.
- The ceiling of the subterranean chapel features a cross
inscribed in a circle, symbols of Christian faith and eternity.
The early Christian iconography was developed
based on a mixture of former Pagan symbols, Jewish
subjects, and events from the life of Jesus.
Catacomb of Priscilla. Rome.
The Good Sheperd in the Catacomb of Saints Pietro
and Marcellino. Rome. Early 4th century CE.
Period of Recognition
Constantine adopted Christianity as the faith of the
Roman Empire.
Christians started building places of worship.
- They were often on top of the old catacombs.
- They were based on the design of Roman architecture.
One of the first and most important churches of the
Early Christian Period was Old St. Peter’s Cathedral.
- based on the design of a Roman basilica.
- became the blueprint for Christian Cathedrals to come.
Saint Apollinaire as the Good Shepperd.
St. Apollinaire in Classe, Ravenna, Italy.
Byzantine Art
Term comes from the city of Byzantium where
Constantine made his capital, Constantinople (now
Istanbul).
Two centers for Byzantine Style:
- Western Empire (Italy)
- Eastern Empire (Turkey)
Mosaics are used to decorate interiors.
Figures poses are frontal and symmetrical
- Appear to be weightless; seem to hover in space.
Flat and decorative in style.
San Vitale. Ravenna. Byzantine. 526-547 CE.
Justinian and Attendants. 547 CE.
Hagia Sophia
Constantinople (Istanbul)
Hagia Sophia – Church of Holy Wisdom.
Built for Emperor Justinian
When the empire split, the Hagia Sophia
became an Eastern Orthodox church; a
mosque; now a museum.
Anthemius and Isidorus. Hagia
Sophia. Byzantine. 532-537 CE.
MEDIEVAL ART
Medieval Art
It has something to say about Middle Ages.
In England, it begins sometime in the 11 th to
the fifteenth century.
Art in this period still centers on religion and
had accomplish dual functions: as expression
of the artist or as channel of religious ideas.
GOTHIC ART
13th-15th century
Why Gothic?
“Gothic” was a
pejorative name used
during Renaissance
period to describe the
art of the Late Middle
Ages.
It was considered to
be a style of Goth
(Germanic) origin and
of lower quality than
Renaissance art. Notre Dame of Paris Catheral
Gothic Art
Gothic was an urban art. Cities were becoming
prosperous when gothic appeared.
Every city wanted to have its own cathedral,
the most characteristic symbol of gothic art.
Cathedrals were symbols of prestige for cities.
Iglesia ni Cristo
San Sebastian Church
RENAISSANCE ART
