Grade 9 Arts - Western and Classical Art Traditions PDF

# Introducing The Western and Classical Art Traditions ## (Week 2 | ARTS) ### What to know: In this lesson, you will learn about the different characteristics, functions and types of art forms (painting, sculpture, architecture) from Pre-Historic (including ancient Egyptian art forms), Classical...

# Introducing The Western and Classical Art Traditions ## (Week 2 | ARTS) ### What to know: In this lesson, you will learn about the different characteristics, functions and types of art forms (painting, sculpture, architecture) from Pre-Historic (including ancient Egyptian art forms), Classical (Greek and Roman) up to medieval era (Baroque and Romanesque art forms). Try to analyze the art form and discover how they develop in every period. # Ancient Art ## Pre-Historic Era Pre-historic includes all human existence before the emergence of writing. Their art is of interest not only to the art historians but also to archeologist and anthropologist, for whom the art is only one clue- along with fossils, pollens and other finds to an understanding of early human life and culture. ### 1. Paintings * **Prehistoric Paintings** * Their paintings were found inside the caves which may have been their way of communicating with each other. It may also be for religious or ceremonial purposes. * These paintings may be more of an artifact of the archeological evidence than a true picture of humans' first created art. * Prehistoric drawings of animals were usually correct in proportion. * **Cave of Lascaux**: 15000-10000 B.C. - Stone Age ### 2. Sculptures * **Archeologists** believed that their sculpture is a result of natural erosion and not of human artistry. * **Frequently** carving may have mythological or religious significance. | Sculpture | Details | | ------ | ------ | | **Venus of Willendorf** | * 28,000 B.C.E. – 25,000 B.C.E. * It is carved from limestone with excessively heavy breast and abdomen used as charm to ensure fertility. | | **Venus of Brassempouy** | * Musee d'ArcheologieNationale at Saint-Germain-enlaye * 25,000 years old * A sculpture of a lady with the hood. It is a fragmentary ivory figurine from the Upper Paleolithic era that realistically represents the human face and hairstyle | ### 3. Architecture * **Three main types of megalith stones:** * Man has developed a form of architecture based on megaliths (a big rock) from the Greek word _lithos_ (stone) and _megas_ (big). This architecture is made of huge stone blocks which were probably intended for burial. * **1. Menhir:** a huge stone standing vertically on the ground, usually standing in the middle of the field or arranged in rows. * **2. Dolmens:** the word dolmen originated from the expression means "stone table". These structures are in a form of table consisting of two huge standing stones supporting a horizontal giant stone. It is believed that it served as grave or as an altar. * **3. Cromlech:** a Brythonic word where “crom” means bent or curved and "llech” which means slab or flagstones. Literary it is a circle of standing stones. * **Stonehenge:** best preserved megalithic site in Europe, a group of stones arranged in concentric circles, with a large external circle of triliths (Greek word meaning three stones) two internal circles built in a similar manner and altar shape stone in the center. It is a temple where rituals were held. The structure and the movement of the sun in the sky has a relationship in terms of identifying the change of the seasons which helped the primitive man on their rituals and on their agricultural practices. # Classical Art ## Egyptian Art ### 1. Paintings * **Egyptian Paintings** * The purpose of Egyptian paintings is to make the deceased afterlife place pleasant. * With this in mind, themes include journey to the underworld introducing the deceased to the gods of the underworld by their protective deities. It emphasizes the importance of life after death and the preservation of the knowledge of the past. * Most paintings were highly stylize, symbolic, and shows profile view of an animal or a person. The main colors used were red, black, blue, gold and green taken derived from mineral pigments that can withstand strong sunlight without fading. * **Paintings from Sarcophagus of Tutankhamen**: XVIII dynasty, 1362 A.D- 1253 BC ### 2. Sculptures * **Egyptian Sculptures** * Symbolic elements were widely used such as forms, hieroglyphics, relative size, location, materials, color, actions and gestures. Their tombs required the most extensive used of sculpture. The most common materials used for sculptures are wood, ivory and stones. * **Characteristics of the sculptures:** * 1. Symbolisms were heavily used to represent the gods. They were represented as composite creature with animal heads on human bodies. * 2. Relief compositions were arranged in horizontal lines to record an event or represent an action. * 3. Most of the time the gods were shown larger than humans, the kings larger than their followers, the dead larger than the living. * 4. Empty space were filled with figures or hieroglyphics * 5. All individual components were all brought to the plane of representation. | Sculpture | Details | | ------ | ------ | | **Queen Nefertiti** | * Painted limestone * 18th Dynasty, 1375-1357 BC * Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library * Realistic, with heavy lided eyes, slender neck, determined chin and pure profile under her heavy crown. * Queen, refers to the Great Royal wife of the Egyptian pharoah. | | **The Pharoah Menkaure and his Queen** | * Stone * 4th Dynasty, 2548 - 2530 B.C.E. * Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library * An example of portraits presented in rigid postures, and were simple and powerful with very little show of private emotion. | ### 3. Architecture * **Egyptian Architecture** * This architectural style was developed during the pre-dynastic period 4,000BC. * **Characteristics of Egyptian Architecture:** * 1. The structure has thick sloping walls with few openings to obtain stability. * 2. The exterior and interior walls along with columns and piers were covered with hieroglyphics and pictorial frescoes and carvings painted in brilliant colors. * 3. Ornamentations were symbolic including scarab (sacred beetle), solar disk and vulture, common motifs (palm leaves, buds, flower of lotus, and papyrus plants) * 4. Temples were aligned with astronomically significant events like solstices (comes from the Latin word _Sol_, meaning sun and _stitium_ meaning stoppage, as the sun appears to stand still on the first day of winter) and _equinox_ (a time or date when day and night are of equal length) with precise measurements required in determining the moment of that particular event. * **Pyramids of Giza** * It is the most substantial ancient structure of the world. The three pyramids are the funerary structures of the three kings of the fourth dynasty (2575 to 2465 BC) namely: * **Khufu** (Cheops) whom the Great Pyramid was attributed to; * **Khafa** (Chepren) whom the pyramid next to the Great Pyramid is attributed; * **Menkaura** (Mycerinus). * These pyramids were made highly confusing and with many tunnels to create confusion for grave robbers. * **Egyptian Temples** were built to serve as places of residence for the gods. They also served as key centers for economic activity. Ancient temples were made of perishables materials like wood, reed matting and mud brick. Their walls were covered with scenes that were carved onto the stone then brightly painted. Pharaoh fighting in the battles and performing rituals with the gods were the scenes found on the walls. * **Mastaba** * It is a type of Egyptian tomb in the form of flat-roofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides. It was made of mud bricks or stones. ## Greek Art ### 1. Paintings * **Paintings from Classical Greek Era** * Paintings during the classical era were most commonly found in vases, panels and tomb. It depicts natural figures with dynamic compositions. Most of the subjects were battle scenes, mythological figures, and everyday scenes. It reveals a grasp of linear perspective and naturalist representation. * **Most common methods of Greek painting:** * **1. Fresco:** method of painting water-based pigments on a freshly applied plaster usually on a wall surfaces. Colors are made with grind powder pigments in pure water, dry and set with a plaster to become a permanent part of the wall. Ideal for murals, durable and has a matte style. * **2. Encaustic:** developed to use by Greek ship builders, who used the hot wax to fill the cracks of the ship. Soon pigments (colors) was added and used to paint a wax hull. * **VASE PAINTING** * Kerch Style also referred to as Kerch Vases are red-figured pottery named after the place where it was found. * **Shapes commonly found are:** * **1. Pelike:** (wine container) * **2. Lekanis:** (a low bowl with two horizontal handles and a low broad foot) * **3. Lebes gamikos:** (with high handles and lid use to carry bridal bath) * **4. Krater:** (bowl use for mixing wine and water) * Most common motifs were mostly scenes from the life of women (often exaggeratedly idyllic), mythological beings that were popular among the people of the black sea, or a scene form mythical story or event. It used a technique called Polycromy, combination of different colors specially the brilliant one in an artistic manner. * **PANEL PAINTING** * There are paintings on flat panels of wood. It can be either a small, single piece or several panels joined together. Most of the panel paintings no longer exist because of its organic composition. * **The earliest known panel painting is the:** * **Pitsa Panel:** (Archaic Period between 540 and 530 B.C.E.) * **TOMB / WALL PAINTING** * Tomb or wall painting was very popular during the classical period. It uses the method frescos either _tempera_ (water-base) or _encaustic_ (wax). It has a sharp, flatly outlined style of painting and because it uses water-based materials, very few samples survived. * **Tomb of the Diver, Paestrum 480 BСЕ** * The image was painted using a true fresco technique with a limestone mortar. It depicts a symposium scene on the wall. In tomb paintings, artists rely on the shade and hues of paint to create depth and lifelike feeling. ### 2. Sculptures * **Greek Sculptures** * Early Greek sculptures were tense and stiff, their bodies were hidden within enfolding robes. * After three centuries of experiments, Greek sculptures had finally evolved and showed all the points of human anatomy and proportion. * One of the most popular styles of the Greek sculptures was the Hellenistic style. Hellenistic denotes a preference in sculpture for more elaborated patterns, mannered arrangement of figures and groups, and an emphasis on the representation of movement for dramatic effects. * **Myron; The Discobulus, 450 BC**: Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library ### 3. Architecture * **Greek Architecture** * Temples consisted of a central shrine or room in an aisle surrounded by rows of columns. These buildings were designed in one of three architectural styles or orders. | Order | Description | Examples | | ------ | ------ | ------ | | DORIC | The Parthenon 447-432 BC, Athens. The Greatest Classical temple, ingeniously engineered to correct an optical illusion. The columns were slightly contorted, swollen at the center and leaning inward to correct what would otherwise have been an impression of deadness and top heaviness. | | | IONIC | | | | CORINTHIAN | | | ## Roman Art ### 1. Paintings * **Roman Paintings** * Most of the paintings in this era were copied or imitated from Hellenic Greek paintings. * Fresco technique was used in brightly colored backgrounds; division of the wall into a multiple rectangular areas (tic-tac-toe design); multipoint perspective; and a tropme-l'-oeil effect. * **MOSAIC** * It is an art process where an image is created using an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stones, or other materials. * This technique use for decorative art or interior decorations * **Head of Alexander** **The full image is a Roman floor mosaic in the House of Fun Pompei, dated100 B.C. The whole mosaic depicts the battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia.** * **Boscotrecase, Pompeii** * **Fresco from the Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii 80 BC** * This fresco painting was believed to depict ceremonial rites, either marriage or an initiation of a woman in a mystery cult. ### 2. Sculptures * **Roman sculptures** * Most Roman sculptures are made of monumental terra-cotta. They did not attempt to compete with the free standing Greek works of history or mythology but rather they produced reliefs in the Great Roman triumphal columns with continuous narrative reliefs around. * **The Portonacio Sarcophagus between 180-190 BCE Museu Nationale Romano Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library** * Used for the burial of Roman General involved in the campaign of Marcus Aurellius * The best known and most elaborate of all "sarcophagus" (It is a box-liked funeral receptacle for a dead body. Comes from a Greek word "sarx" meaning flesh and "phagein" meaning "to eat") * It depicts battle scenes between Romans and Germans * Carved in marble * **Sarcopagus, from cervetiri, c. 520 BCE, Museo Nazionale de Villa Giulia, Rome Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library** * -Made of Terra Cotta - length 6'7” (2.06 m) -a husband and wife are shown reclining comfortably, as if they were on a couch ### 3. Architecture * **Roman Architecture** * They built sturdy stone structures both for use and to perpetuate their glory. The emperors erected huge halls and arenas for public games, baths and procession. They built them of gigantic arches of stone, bricks and concrete or with barrel vaults. * **The Colosseum, AD 70-82, Rome** # Medieval Art ## Byzantine Art ### 1. Paintings * **Byzantine Painting** * The lively styles of paintings which had been invented in Greek and Rome lived on in Byzantium but this time for Christian subjects. * By the 11th century, the Greek and Oriental styles seem to blend together in magnificent, imposing images, which adorned the churches in large and small forms. * **The court of Empress Theodora, Mosaic 6th century AD San Vitale, Ravena** * Theodora was an Asian Queen with dark eyes and hair with fierce expression; ### 2. Sculptures * **Byzantine Sculptures** * The dominant themes in Byzantine sculptures are religious, everyday life scenes, and motifs from nature. * Animals were used as symbols (dove, deer, peafowl) while some had acrostic signs (form of writing in which taking the first letter; syllable or word of different lines and putting them together it can be read a message) that contained a great theological significance. ### 3. Architecture * **Byzantine Architecture** * It has a lot in common with the early Christian architecture. Mosaic decoration was perfected by the Byzantines, as was the use of clerestory to bring light in from high windows. Byzantine's advancement in developing the dome created a new style in global architecture. * **Hagia Sophia means "Holy Wisdom".** * It narrates how a magnificent construction transformed from being a church, into a mosque and what is now known as the Hagia Sophia museum. * One of the biggest domes ever created with 108 feet in diameter and because of its grand size it can still be seen from miles away. * **Hagia Sophia. Istanbul, 537 BC** ## Romanesque Art ### 1. Paintings * **Romanesque Painting** * These are largely placed mosaics on the walls of the churches that follows a strict frontal pose. It has a remarkable variety of artistic traditions such as modeling and treatment of faces and draperies that follow Byzantine convention while the refreshingly decorative feeling comes from southern French styles. It also shows traces of Mozarabic influence (Arabize influence) through elongated oval faces, large staring eyes and long noses, figures against flat colored bands and heavy outlining. * **Christ in Majesty, painting from the Church of Saint Clemente, Tahull, Lerida Spain, c. 1123 Musue Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona** ### 2. Sculptures * **Romanesque Sculptures** * Some of the famous sculptural pieces are reliquaries, altar frontals, crucifixes, and devotional images. Small individual works of art were generally made of costly materials for royal and aristocratic patrons. These lightweight devotional images were usually carried in the processions both inside and outside the churches. * **Last Judgement, tymapnum (an architectural element with in the arch or pediment) of the west portal, Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun Burgundy France, c. 1120-35 by Gislebertus Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library** ### 3. Architecture * **Romanesque Architecture** * Romanesque architecture displayed solid masonry walls, rounded arches and masonry vaults. It is the period of great building activities in Europe, castles, churches, monasteries arose everywhere. * The doorways of Romanesque's churches are often grand sculptured portals. Wood or metal doors are surrounded by elaborate stone sculpture arranged in zones to fit architectural elements. * **The groin-vaulted crypt of Worcester Cathedral** ## Gothic Art ### 1. Paintings * **Paintings from the Gothic Era** * Paintings have been confined in the illumination of manuscript pages and the painting of frescoes on the walls of churches in cosmopolitan style, elegant, mannered and sophisticated. * **Lady and the Unicorn tapestry, 1506-1513** * Subjects usually depicts popular legends and love stories, patterns like _mille fleur"_ or thousand flowers show influence which may have been due to the crusades. * **STAINED GLASS** * Windows were created to transform the vast stone interiors with warm and glowing color and at the same time to instruct Christians in their faith. * **Rose window from the North Transcept, about 1230** ### 2. Sculptures * **Gothic Sculptures** * Gothic sculptures have a greater freedom of style. They no longer lay closely against the wall, but begun to project outward. Figures were given their own particular attitudes instead of being set into particular patterns and are more lively and realistic. * **Resurrection of the Virgin, end of the 12th century Cathedral Amiens Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library** ### 3. Architecture * **Gothic Architecture** * This design included two new devices: _pointed arch_ which enabled builders to construct much higher ceiling vaults and _stone vaulting_ borne on a network of stone ribs supported by piers and clustered pillars. * Has rich architecture and design * Thousands of sculpture figures * Splendid stained glass windows * **Cathedral of Chartres, also known as the Notre dame Cathedral** # Reviewing Art Elements * **ART ELEMENTS** are considered as the building blocks of art * **1. LINES** * These things could be lines that shape the sides of the street; edges of objects like furniture, jewelry, buildings; silhouettes of persons or shapes of persons themselves. A line can be thick or thin; straight wavy, curved, or angular; continuous or broken; dotted, dashed, or a combination of any of these. Artists use lines to define shapes and spaces in their artworks. * **2. SHAPE AND FORM** * Shapes are defined by artists using lines and contrasts in color and texture. These shapes in objects can take on various forms like squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, oblongs, and figures like animals, plants, human figures, mountains and other forms. * **3. VALUE/TONE** * It refers to the use of light and dark within a piece of art. The contrast between the two can be used to create depth. This is shown in shading a portion of the drawing of an object to make it appear three-dimensional. * **4. COLOR** * S It is produced when artists use various pigments and dyes to create a range of different hues which the viewer's eyes and brain interpret as colors. * **5. TEXTURE** * It could be the simulated appearance of roughness or smoothness in visual arts or the actual surface feel of a work of art or craft. In sculpture, texture results from the type of materials that are used. . * **6. SPACE** * This refers to the physical space within objects and the area that separates them. The area occupied by objects is called the "positive space". The area between the objects is often referred to as "negative space" * **Principles of art are the rules and techniques that artists use to create works of art. They can also be used as bases in saying something about the works of art.** * **1. RHYTHM, MOVEMENT** * In art, it refers to the repetition of motif or elements of art (lines, shapes, colors, etc.) at regular or irregular intervals. * **2. BALANCE** * S It refers to the idea of maintaining consistency of art elements in various areas in an artwork. Balance could be in the form of the following: * **a. Symmetrical balance:** when same shapes, colors and other art elements are evenly distributed on either side of either the vertical or horizontal midpoint of a piece. * **b. Asymmetrical balance:** when different shapes, colors and other art elements are evenly distributed on either side of either the vertical or horizontal midpoint of a piece. * **c. Radial symmetry:** when various art elements (shapes, lines, colors) branch off from a central point. * **3. EMPHASIS** * When an extraordinary or a different line, color, or shape is placed in the midst of a regular pattern. * **4. HARMONY** * When art elements complement one another. * **5. UNITY** * It relates to the sense of oneness, wholeness, or order in a work of art. Combining similar colors, shapes, lines, textures, and patterns in an artwork. * **6. VARIETY** * It is a principle of design concerned with diversity or contrast. Variety is achieved by using different shapes, lines, colors and other elements of art. * **7. PROPORTION** * It refers to the relationship of certain elements to the whole and to each other.