Glimpses of History of Arts in Ancient Times and The Middle Ages PDF

Faculty of Arts and Design Pharos University in Alexandria Glimpses of History of Arts in Ancient Times and The Middle Ages Course: General Art History Year: Preparatory Academic Year: 2019/2020 Instructor Dr. Marwa A...

Faculty of Arts and Design Pharos University in Alexandria Glimpses of History of Arts in Ancient Times and The Middle Ages Course: General Art History Year: Preparatory Academic Year: 2019/2020 Instructor Dr. Marwa Abdel Rasheed Introduction: The curriculum seeks to form a general and concise idea of the history of the arts in ancient civilizations and in the Middle Ages. And highlighting the various techniques in the various fields of plastic arts (architecture – painting - sculpture). First: Primitive Art and Prehistoric Art: It is the art practiced by all primitive peoples before the rise of civilizations, and those peoples whose conditions of life have kept them in a primitive state today, as in Africa and some parts of South America. Therefore, the effects of primitive art known today may have been made in the distant past or Traditional ones were made soon. The earliest examples of primitive art were found in the cave "Lascaux" in southern France, which was found in 1940 AD and dates back to the period (1500 - 1000) BC, which is about 35000 years ago and have distinct examples of art photography in this era, and is composed of hundreds of animal images distributed Along the cave with slightly modified realistic shapes, red colors and vivid and dynamic movements (Fig. 1), a cave older than 37,000 years ago, the Abri castanet Cave, also found in southern France, about 400 kilometers from the cave. The drawings were discovered on the walls of the cave in 2007, showing incomplete drawings of an animal showing the head, the front legs and part of the body are the earliest drawings found by early humans when they were fishermen. (Figure 1) Drawing from Lascaux Cave represents a group of animals that were surrounded by primitive human beings Neanderthals resorted to simple tools that were all that could have been obtained from his environment, so he drilled his drawings with a piece of stone on the walls of the cave, and then discovered that some of these rock coloring properties knew the use of colors (black-red-brown) to distinguish the elements from each other Some, as he knew the primitive ways of printing by leaving the first trace of his hand on the wall of the cave some immersion of his hand color, or spray color around 1 his hand to keep the position of the area occupied by his palm empty while the rest of the surface becomes colored, and other means that reveal the instinct creative The human. It was also found that art had accompanied Neanderthals since the Middle Paleolithic period (12000-6000 BC), and that the world's inhabitants of that era were living in a similar way. Other ancient civilizations emerged and their art was accompanied by primitive art in caves, such as "Lascaux" in France and " Altamira "in northern Spain, discovered a collection of tools and images of familiar animals at the time, such as the American bulls" bison ", and horses, bulls, pigs and birds painted on the walls of these caves (Figure 2) and it seems more sophisticated today compared to other ancient human art, These caves were to be the art that reached the summit in about a year (12,000) BC. Primitive art was essentially the art of a fisherman who wanted to express what he felt. He was interested in drawing contemporary animals that he wanted to catch such as horses, wild buffaloes and deer, so his first drawings were limited to animal without man, Stone Age hunter thought he had acquired the same thing in the picture and thought he had dominated the subject when filming it. It was believed that the real animal is already suffering from the killing of the animal represented by the image, and this confirms that we found clay figurines of animals with many arrows. I counted an injury in the neck of a clay statue of a lion, and found images of some animals and found signs of some arrows. (Figure 2) Drawing in the cave of "Altamira" represents the process of hunting a group of people for some animals One of the earliest models and first steps of architecture is some architectural elements that had a religious liturgical use of worship. One of these early models is the Menhir (Fig. 3), a large straight stone unit that serves as a religious purpose, sometimes arranged in parallel rows of length. The mile consists of thousands of stone blocks (Figure 4). Sometimes these stones were arranged in a certain position with an upright vertical and were crowned by a horizontal plaque at the top such as the Dolmen (fig. 5), which served as a prehistoric mausoleum. Models of Architecture in Primitive Civilizations: 2 (Figure 4) Carnac, France (Figure 3) Menhir (Figure 5) Dolmen One of the hallmarks of this type of building is the Stone Henge Building in the Plain of southern England (Fig. 6). It stands on the site of huge rocks called Stone Hing. From the 2000 century BC. The building consists of four segments or concentric rings of stones, the outermost ring reaches a diameter of 100 feet, and the construction depends on the system of "load and lintel" where two vertical pieces are mounted topped by a horizontal piece (lintel). One of the hallmarks of this distinctive historical and archaeological building is the “light on it”. Some stones weigh 50 tons or more, and were extracted from miles away and dragged to the site by a rudimentary method that was available at the time. This step is followed by the remarkable achievement of lifting the lintel to the top without taking advantage of the modern cranes and devices offered to us. Although there was no mortar to hold these rocks in place, the method used to erect the monument has succeeded in making it erect since then. 3  Was the search behind the real reason for the establishment of such a building of the interesting things for researchers to seek the urgent purpose of urging to make this humanitarian effort? For centuries this has been thought of by art historians. Then, in 1964, astronomer S. Hawkins provided an explanation of the mystery of the Stone Hing building. Hawkins found that the time of sunrise at the time of the summer solstice is usually on June 21, the sun shines through a key that opens directly to an altar in the middle, and a similar calculation shows that the stone position was organized to allow the predictability of the winter solstice Winter, day and night in the spring And autumn and even solar eclipse and the moon. In other words, Stone Hing seems to be a giant calendar, recording the mysterious changes of seasons and stars. Is Stone Hing a magic tool? Or the beginning of science? Or a connection between the two? Either way, the building provided a successful picture of the means taken by its makers to keep it upright to this day. (Figure 6) The Stone Henge Collection in the Plain of southern England Second: Ancient Egyptian Civilization: For many centuries, Egyptian civilization has attracted the attention of researchers, scholars and the general public both inside and outside Egypt. This is due to the greatness of this civilization's human heritage, which is rarely repeated in another civilization. These unique architectural monuments have been associated with spiritual and ideological dimensions. The ancient man, and those formative treatments that challenged the hardness, rigidity and formulation of stones in distinctive artistic models with many functional and symbolic values all deserve our special attention from examination and study, they are part of the fundamental component of identity, and are the real gateway to self- discovery. Actors inside the piss Yeh Egyptian. 4 Age of Egyptian civilization: According to the latest Western studies, the age of Egyptian civilization is now estimated by researchers and in-depth scientists in Egyptology to be approximately 16 thousand years, due to the detection of fishing tools and some utensils and other daily necessities in an area called Now the "Ezbet El Sabil", which is the area away from the city of "Kom Ombo" by about a kilometer and a half, and therefore the references to this civilization derived a name taken from the name of the village, "the civilization of the Sabile", which refutes the earlier statements about the age of Egyptian civilization Which was estimated at about seven thousand years. Factors of the Egyptian civilization: The permanent and stable presence of the Nile provided a formation of cultures on both sides of the Nile, from the depths of Africa.The Nile River traversed many countries to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, bringing fertile soil from the African highlands on its way across thousands of miles. The largest width of the Nile is about 12 miles) and the presence of the Nile has led to the growth of crops, and made life and its survival possible within the consciousness of the Egyptians (in the sense that it formed the idea of the existence and survival of the Egyptians), as a god, and as a symbol of life (they took God as a symbol of life) And moved the ancient Egyptian from the stage of Bedouin to the stage of stability and the establishment of civilization. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, for example, were not characterized by this state of stability and regularity of their sessions, unlike the Nile, whose regularity contributed to the division of the year into seasons and months, and the organization of dates of agriculture and harvest, and was linked in the minds of Egyptians The idea of continuity, eternity and the permanence of life.... and so on. The material of natural rocks brought from the mountainous slopes on both sides of the Nile was an important factor in establishing an architectural and artistic heritage that has not been detrimental to the times. This is not evidenced by the large number of temples and sculptures that history has preserved for us to date. These natural factors would not have been possible if they had not found the brains and hands that harnessed them in favor of civilization, so it is fair to say that Egypt - as the "gift of the Nile" as Herodotus described it - is also the gift of Egyptians to history and civilization. 5 Doctrine and Architecture of the Ancient Egyptian: The architecture left by the Egyptian civilization was related to the doctrinal dimension of the ancient Egyptian, especially his idea of resurrection and immortality, and the continuation of another life after death, so the ancient Egyptian was interested in building tombs and temples more than building houses and palaces, which confirms Herodotus' view "Egyptians are the most religious people on earth. Similar rules of eternity and harmony appear in the design of the Egyptian cemetery, where the symbol of infinity, the house of silence of death, can touch the standard shape of the Mastaba, a trapezoidal figure built of brick or stone, with erect slopes. The chamber is buried in the ground and the connection between the two is done by a pillar passage (Fig. 3). (Figure 3) Horizontal and vertical layout of the mastaba shape In about 2610 BC. The pyramid of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty was built in Saqqara, the city of the dead in Memphis, when we compare the mastaba to the later real pyramids in Giza.It can be said in fact that the pyramids are a group of terraces that decrease in size as they rise up, one above Other (Figure 4). (Figure 4) Pyramid of Saqqara - 2610 BC A tomb such as the Pyramid of Djoser had a specific function: to protect the king's mummy and possessions, and to symbolize the magnitude of the eternity and immortality of the king, this structure and the ensembles of temples (now believed to be a shrine of healing) composed of cavity balconies, and a great courtyard, all designed by Imhotep The first artist recorded in history, he was a great minister of King Djoser and a man of organizational or legislative powers, known in the ancient world not only as an architect but also as a wise man, a physicist (nicknamed the father of medicine), a magician (a fortune teller), and a priest And a writer, he was a genius man in the universal sense, and later became an idol or god for the Egyptians. 6  In the Giza area, near New Cairo across the Nile (where the dead were always buried on the side where the sun sets), there are three pyramids of the kings of the Fourth Dynasty, Khufu, Khafra and Menkaure built around 2500 BC, these pyramids were marred by some mystery and Hidden knowledge, and became a symbol of many things such as wisdom and eternity, but became a symbol of Egypt itself, a symbol of entrenchment and magic arts, representing the pyramids of Giza, the embodiment of the architectural revolution that began with Mastaba, did not come out their functional value of what was mentioned above for the Pyramid of Djoser, the kings continued Place the terraces on top of each other to construct their great tombs. (Figure 5) My hometown of the Pyramid of Cheops The three pyramids located in Giza are almost a solid limestone form (excluding its accessories from the burial chambers), in other words, a stone mountain built on the idea of the pyramid of Djoser, the interior spaces in the diagram that illustrate the vertical hometown relatively small as cracks caused by heaviness Stones used (Figure 5) Ancient Egypt was invaded throughout the succession of rulers and families, and fought dozens of war, and the great booty earned by the country from the war is the objective idea adopted by some Egyptians to develop a new capital, a good, which became the great capital with whale places, graves and temples and charming Along the banks of the Nile. Although the most impressive monuments in the Old Kingdom were the pyramids, the most impressive monuments of the modern Kingdom are those of great temples, and one of the most luxurious and funerary royal temples in the monastery is the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (fig. 6), where Princess Hatshepsut The seat of government after the absence of a legitimate male crown, and boasted that it was able to annex the two parts of Egypt again under her command. (Figure 6) Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari - 1450 BC 7  The Temple of Hatshepsut was built in about 1450 BC. Alongside one of the temples of the Middle Kingdom of Montuhotep the First, the temple rises from the foot of the mountain on three terraces mounted on poles connected by sloping roads. Its rhythm of light and shadow is frequent, as well as the symmetrical design, the rocky hill texture above. Ancient Egyptian Sculpture and Painting: As the doctrinal dimension of the ancient Egyptian played a role in the formation of the character of his architecture, so was the artistic production of sculpture, engraving and photography, it was the idea of the ancient Egyptian "Baath and eternity" behind his eagerness to fill the tombs and temples filled with a large amount of paintings and sculptures It would have a role in recognizing the soul on the body of the deceased.If it befits a person to enjoy the other life, erasing the image of the deceased or destroying his statues or removing his biography - in any way - from the walls of the tombs would be an act of aggression against the person of the deceased. The tradition of engraving and photography dates back to the earliest known artistic models, which emerged with the unification of the two parts of Egypt (south and north) and the establishment of the first dynasties in the Old Kingdom, and we mean the "Narmer Slab" or the so- called "Narmer Salat", which dates back to about 3000 BC. It is, on the other hand, the oldest historical document that records the unification of Egypt. On the back of the tablet, King Mina appears wearing the crown of Upper Egypt as he prepares to strike an enemy, in front of him a hawk, a symbol of the god of heaven, Horus (and the god of war as well), the king's guard here, controlling the head of a man from which a part of the land from which papyrus flowers grow Lower Egypt (symbol of the sea face), under the king appears two captives falling or fleeing, while the king is topped by two heads of the goddess Hathor, the close goddess of King Narmer. The other side of the board shows King Narmer wearing the crown of the cobra snake (the crown of the sea face or Lower Egypt), displaying a crowd of beheaded prisoners. With its superior form over all other bodies, it symbolizes the supernatural and superior human power of the king by the power of a bull that crushes the captive city at the bottom of the board (Fig. 7). It is through this panel that we can draw several plastic values that have been the prevailing traditions in Egyptian art for thousands of years, of which very few periods have been excluded: 8  First: this work marks the beginning of the knowledge of the Earth's line. Second: Differentiating the size of the persons according to their position, where the large size of the king is noted for the personality of the prisoners in front of him on the face of the board and for the character of his servant who is behind him in both sides. (Figure 7) Narmer panel from the back and front - 3000 BC. Third, the symbolic dimension of some forms as shown in the face of the work, we see two fabulous animals wrapped in a reference to the union of the two halves of Egypt, as well as in the lower part of the face of the bull killing a prisoner, where the bull here becomes a symbol of the king's power. Fourth: depicting objects in a certain shape and in fixed proportions, where the face is depicted from the side while the eye looks like photographed from the front, and the shoulders area is depicted from the front, while the center area in a slightly inclined position (three- quarters)), and then the feet appear as photographed from On the soles of the foot shows the big toe in both feet. Fifth: The association of writing with the forms represented, which is confirmed in the case of reference to the characters of importance or status, the name of the king is usually written in hieroglyphics (the sacred language of ancient Egypt). These traditions have continued strictly, especially with regard to the representation of kings, and reveals to us a statue of King Khafra of the patrol stone, dating back to 2500 BC. M, about the keenness of the ancient Egyptian to use materials that have the character of solid and durable in the representation of kings, unlike the use of other materials such as wood and pottery in the representation of the public. 9  The representation of the king on this body is strongly diagnosed with calmness and composure and reflects the eternal power of the Pharaoh and the monarchy in general. Treatments, solutions and recourse to complex or separate parts, the figure here explains the purpose, which is eternity, the body is tied to a pillar at the back, and the arms join the trunk and thighs, the legs are attached and connected to the throne, (Fig. 8). (Figure 8) Statue of Khafre from the Diorite - 2500 BC With regard to the art of photography in the ancient kingdom reveals to us a good and rare example known as "Oozat Meidum" the use of a technique used in the ancient Egyptian, the technique of "tempra", in which the artist resort to let the adhesive layer or plaster dry before filming it. It seems to be a slow and precise work, and encourages an experienced specialist to make an effort to extract the image and express his correct knowledge of his subject, smoothness, standing necks of goose, beaks, softness of bodies, and the characteristic step of the animals are all elements that blend with the high performance and good distinction of the artist to the degree that attracts viewers. (Figure 9). (Fig. 9) Goose frieze "Meidum" - Tempera - 2530 BC. 10  In the modern kingdom, the summation and simplification of the figure became the hallmark of the statues placed in the tomb of the deceased. Smoothly and circularly at the corners, this seems to be another expression of the Egyptian background about the value related to flatness. This polished stone shape has its simple beauty, this is evident in a statue of the architect Sennemut and his wife, Princess Nefro, in Thebes, (fig. 10) (Fig. 10) Statue of Sinmut and Nefro - Thebes - 1450 BC Black stone Moreover, during the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptian created new subjects on the art of photography that fills the walls of the tombs. For example, there is a photograph of the tomb of "Nibamon" in Thebes depicting four women sitting playing while there are two girls performing some dancing movements, for the four women there are two women to the left depicted in the traditional form, but the other two women sitting in a position facing the scenes in an unfamiliar situation Rarely appeared in ancient Egyptian photography , women seem to be spending time in play, one of them playing a flute-like instrument, and the artist makes a careful note of their soles as if they were squatting or crossing the legs, The general feeling of the work reflects a state of relaxation, not only in the freedom from the strict rules of photography but also in the seemingly strange subject on the walls of a cemetery (Fig. 11), this reflects the state of well-being Egypt enjoyed during the New Kingdom. Moreover, some commentators refer to the idea that the soul in other life needs to be entertained just as it needs food and drink. (Fig. 11) Wall paintings from the tomb of "Nipamon" - Thebes - 1450 BC. 11