- Khafra

o Idealized, male figure  bare-chested and buff

o Regalia of kingship on his head
o Gentle, composed facial expression
o Also, a form of naturalism  great care rendering body w/ appropriate proportions,
etc.
o Artists got canonical/identical proportions/shape right through grids
- Hapsetos
o Kneeling in offering form (offering gifts to God)
o See the same frontal, blocky approach to the figure
o See the same body type and headdress as the male figures
- Mummy case for King Tut
o Tomb = discovered in 1922 (almost completely in tact)
o Tut died in 1320 B.C.E.
o Seeing the innermost of several nested sculptures in his stone sarcophagus
o Idealized form
 Gold, lapis lazuli, etc.
 Series of masks w/ ordinate manufacture & precious materials  provide
comfort, luxury, and a beautiful image of the King
 *These are not meant to be seen by other eyes  made for the ongoing life
of the dead w/in his own private space
 In many tombs, we find little vignettes/models so that the dead could be
aware that life is proceeding around them
- King Aknaten
o Reign from 1353 – 1385 B.C.E.
o Temple of Aton in Aknon
o Just 1 pharaoh who breaks mold
o Tendency to look at continuity/unchanging nature of Egyptian art
o Hires artist to continue tradition but also to rupture in some ways
o The unchanging nature is not b/c of limits in skill– it’s a choice
o Lived during the New Kingdom period
 Old = when pyramids were made
 Aknatan & Tut were during the New Kingdom
o Veered away from religious traditions
 Instituted close to monotheistic religion  in place of series of Gods, he
replaces them w/ the Sun God, Aton  he sees himself as the representative
of this
 Some people think he predicted the coming of Christianity in some ways
 Not identified w/ animalistic or quasi-human Gods
o Gets artists to reconfigure his self-image
 We get a much more feminized, androgenous figure
 Arms = crossed against cchest
 Broad shoulders, tapered wasteline, swelling belly, tight-fitting skirt
 Voluptuous/curveous figure
 Lips = pronounced, tapered eyes (combination of Asiatic and African
features)
- Relief of Akhenaten
 o We encounter a family enjoying each other
o Akhenatic and Nefertiti (wife) = sitting in profile
o Sense of fleshiness to his body
o Both = holding children who are configured as miniature adults
 Nefertiti holds 2 female children
 Akhenaten holds a boy child (who he’s kissing)
o Very stylized, energetic form that emphasizes human interactions
o The Sun God gives radiates blessings to the family
o Details try to pin Akhenaten to a particular age– not in a generic form (wrinkles on
neck, etc.)
o Sunken relief carving: taking the negative space, carving down into it, and creating a
lower space into which they will model the figures and then carve again  creates
very soft volumes that highlight shadow effects
- Carved head of Nefertiti
o Resembles the Relief of Akhenaten
o Polychrome  painted to give figure sense of vitality & presence  plant her in the
world of actual appearances
o She conforms very beautifully to modern standards of female beauty  crosses lines
of ethnicity (she’s Northern African/Middle Eastern woman)
- Mother Greentia
o The Egyptians under Akhenaten = dealing w/ very diverse society of actual people
(come from variety of places, have different skin color, have various standards of
beauty, etc.)
o Slight worry crease in her forhead
o Beautifully symmetric eyebrows
o Mouth pulls down @ the corners giving her a stern expression
o Wears large headdress designating her as a quasi-divine figure
- Nebamun from Thebes
o 2D which are almost uniformly found in tomb structures or taken from/copied from
tomb structures
o Distinguish people by social class/roles rather than ethnicity
o Probably a ceremony  people tending to the dead
o Women w/ natural hair & men = shaven
o Sit in identical position  profile legs, shoulders forward, etc.
o Group of women provide entertainment below
 Barefoot, sit on the ground, play music for nubile young girls who dance
 Diversity of poses  the women are frontal-faced rather than rigid,
unnatural, stiffed poses (very uncommon for Egyptian art)  the nubile
women’s bodies are serpentine (hair = flowing/swinging, etc.)
- Man standing in middle of picture
o Striding forward & larger than everyone else
o Showing you as figure is rather than how they look
o See a variety of fish w/ different patterns of scales, a magnificent picture of a cat,
butterflies, ducks, drakes, etc.
o Almost a proto-autobahn  people who are intensely interested in the natural world
- Administrative official Tee at a hunt
o Aroudn 2400 B.C.E.
 o Low relief image w/ administrative official
o Servile, lower figures spearheading water animals (hopopotami & fish)
o Combination of stylization, artifice, etc. w/ ingenuity & observational skill
- Sekara
o 2500 B.C.E.
o Found in tomb w/ lower level official
o Compare to 2D high ranking = stiff, lower ranking = fluid
o Statue made of limestone
o Not the perfected, idealized body
o Openness to his face  looks very alert/attentive
o Very small scale  surprising even b/c figure has a kind of monumentality!
o His job = not to project authority  he’s doing a job
o Eyes have multiple layers of stone covered over w/ glass/crystal
- Façade of temple for King Ramses II
o Refinement & sensitivity of style are swept aside for monumentality, grandeur, etc.
o More generic the figures look, the more they convey high status
o The 4 figures all portray Ramses  all = 65 feet tall
o Rock-cut temple
 We’ve talked about Zigurots, etc.
 This architecture relies upon the pre-existence of stone formations  this is
a very tall, petrified sand dune
- Tomb lining
o Idea of moving up series of ramps & hidden/exclusive
o Walk in big façade, walk thru the hall, enter thru a series of thresholds (animated by
relief carvings, etc.), find deep relief figures at the end of the space (of the pharaohs
and the gods)
- Temple of Amuran in Karnak
o Pharohs had temples build not just for themselves but for the Gods
o This one was built over successive generations, including under Ramses II
o Elaborates/spacious complexes

[Get notes from last class!!!]

- Pot w/ warriors marching solemnly around the outside

o Military atmosphere of the vase
- Lion Gate survival of the Myceneans
o Home of King Agamemnon
o Entrway is made of stone  said to be from the cyclopean giants (sophisticated
engineering sensibility)
o Post and lentil construction entryway w/ monolithic vertical stones holding up
horizontal stone at the top
 Surrounded by one of the few works of monumental sculpture  damanged
image of lions w/ heads missing; resting paws on the base of the column; we
don’t really find this column in Mycenean architecture, but we do see it w/
the Minoans  sort of an homage to the older culture which was supplanted
by the Myceneans
o Importance of viewpoint  from the ground it looks much more compressed
- Ground plan of palace complex (Tyrans in Greece)
o 1,400 BC
o Similar to Ancient Assyria where we have tightly guarded, defensive structures
 Oblong, narrow entryway to the complex
 Monumental, 20-foot thick walls surrounding the enclosed Megaron room
(where the King makes his appearance)
 We can contrast w/ the much more open-ended palace complex at Kenasos
(Minoan) w/ small rooms, etc.
o Image of cyclopean walls made of stone
o Passageways for soldiers
- Dome(ish) area for the dead
o There’s no sense of an afterlife here; no sense of Gods whom the dead would be
contacting  no sense of protection in Mycenean culture; it comes from your own
efforts
- Vase
o Men are going off to war autonomously w/o protection from the Gods w/ no hope
of coming back
- 8th century B.C.E.  new revival of figural art, literature, and writing we can read
o Earliest survival = in the form of pottery (oldest form of artistic creativity)
- Crater (geometric style pottery)
o Should hold a large amount of water/wine
o This particular one was found at a gravesite, so it’s a funerary marker
o Belongs @ The MET right now
o Found @ Diplong cemetary in Athens
o 1,470 B.C.E. (?)  made at the time of Homer (we can contextualize this w/in the
Greek myths recorded by Homer)
o Balance b/w purely decorative areas (lower part of the body of the vase) and the
base
 As we go upwards, we see human/animal activity but no sign of divine
activity; we have preparations for/performance of funerary ritual
 The function of the vase (funerary marker) and the imagery (performance of
funerary ritual) converge
o Figures of humans/animals = reduced to very simple yet elegant shapes
 Series of horses almost form combs
 Charioteer’s open frontal shoulders = reduced to simple triangle (reduction
of the human figure)
 Group of women = nearly identical to men
o Example of Schematic art: reduction of figures to simple signs (system of signs that
refer to something else)
o Emotion = suggested thru the depiction of the bodies, though the art is not
supposed to provoke feeling in the beholder
o Decorative elements (meander patterns, checker patterns, etc.)
- What kind of culture produced this?
o The idea of honor/being the best @ what you do  this is what happens when you
don’t have a strong system of Gods at 1st  being remembered in the afterlife =
important
o The pantheon of Gods develops  oftentimes humans are at their mercy
 o Tension b/w striving of the individual for honor and being at the mercy of Gods
- Large vase/amphora
o Tall neck at the top w/ handles and bulging/ample body
o Almost completely covered in decoration
o Use of registers (horizontal bands that run across the vase)
o Various animals (lions, birds of prey, etc.)  borrows from the artistic conventions
of the Near East (Orientalizing style)  horror vacui: fear/terror of empty space
(all of the animals are filled in, etc. creating a dense network of visual stimuli)  this
Orientalizing style replaces the geometric style for a while
o The fact they shift gears into this Orientalizing style so abruptly shows that artists are
not just creating art for utility  they’re changing taste/competing w/ one another
(potters = competing w/ one another for buyers)
- Crater Pot from Athens / François Vase
o 570 B.C.E. (Archaic period of Ancient Greece)
o Huge mouth leading into broad shouldered body
o Real interactions b/w figures that refer to ancient mythology
 All the figures are labelled w/ names attached to them  people could recite
the stories to onlookers like they would recite stories from Homeric myths
(using these figures as visual cues/props)
o Warriors fighting against centaurs
- Black figure amphora
o 540 B.C.E. in Athens
o Signed by Exixias
o Harmony b/w imagery depicted & shape of vase itself
o Red figure pottery
o Stage setting w/ red clay  then black silhouettes  then further incising
o Beautifully ornamented capes flowing over shoulders
o Two of the heroes from the Homeric epics (Achilles and Ajax)
 Even when off-duty from fighting, they still compete w/ one another (in a
game of backgammon here)
 Positioned in a way that is very symmetrical (both have one foot forward,
both = reaching forward, etc.) but there are some slight differences
- Black figure vs. red figure [Don’t really understand this!]
o Artists become dissatisfied w/ the lack of detail they can show in black figure
painting
 It’s good for showing silhouettes, but you can’t really do expressive detail
(b/c you’re using a needle to chip away pigment)
o Red figure painting is a little different
 They paint all of the ground black and leave the silhouette open w/ red clay
 after they fire it, they can go back thru w/ a fine paint brush and add the
detail/interior lines  more flexibility for showing musculature/expressive
poses
o Dionysian revelers dancing around in playful antics
- Temple of Hera (wife of Zeus)
o Dominant mode of architectural expression for the early Greeks
o Egyptians = tombs; Melians/Minoans = palaces; early Greeks = temple architecture
 o Distinctive but not combative relationship w/ natural landscape (i.e., temples often
erected on hills)
o Only the priests/priestesses would get to enter the Cella (inside of the temple)
 Messy/noisy rituals in the colonnaded area (which sets people away from the
ordinary public sphere, but also keeps them in an open environment)
- Greeks systematize the world
o They maintained this system throughout all of their temple buildings (you would
know something is doric order, the size, shape, etc.)  parts should interact in a way
that is harmonious
- Pediment from Korfu
o Interested in symmetrical compositions, but they tend to loosen up as figures appear
in them
o This is a more decorative pediment w/ figures pulled up/shrunked down based on
their position in the pediment
o We see a monstrious figure (gorgon) here  if you look in her face, you turn into
stone (she’s guarding the temple
o Encapsulates stasis + untrammeled motion (face/torso = frontal while legs are in
motion)
- Temple of Aphaia
o Hera’s temple = very squat, but here we have a 2:1 relationship (much more graceful
and airy looking)
- All of these = painted in their original form
- Athena figure
o Depicted with characteristically masculine garb
o Clothes look like imported textiles from the Near East (same texture as Orientalized
pottery)
- Two different lying figures
o One on top has a strangle artificial smile, face turned towards viewers, etc. (while
other viewer is looking down in profile– he doesn’t care about whether you’re
looking at him)
o The twist of the upper body (focus on the contours like black figure vs. red figure)
 the one on the top would be black figure (you could show it all)
- Statue
o 600 B.C.E.
o Approximately life-sized
o Coros type (Greek term for boy)
o Made out of corse piece of marble
o Very similar to the figure of menkarah w/ his wife
o Like ancient Egyptian stature, figure = bound to contours of the block from which it
was carved
o Sculpture is interested in how the body = split up into pieces (symmetry of the body
along sharp vertical lines that run subtly)
o Youth, aristocratic self-presentation (strong body but controlled– Greek interest in
forming/shaping the self)
- Statue
o More bulk of a real human body
- Critios Boy
 o Another choros figure
o Completely different sensibility b/c instead of having all of the weight reside on both
legs equally, the sculptor made it more realistic
- Male statue
o More natural stance (asymmetry)  new interest in naturalistic anatomy (you can’t
imagine Choros figure breaking out of stance b/c the whole thing would shift out of
symmetry)
o Think about the movement