ART HISTORY - BYZANTINE ART

Art historians usually say that, in Italy, Byzantine mosaics were done after Emperor Justinian. They tried to reunite the Byzantine empire’s two halves during his reign from 527-565. Before that, mosaics still were in the ancient Roman, classical style. So it wasn’t until the 6th century that the Byzantine style really was codified. It was characterized by a severe, ethereal style that was much different from the naturalism of ancient Roman art.

ART HISTORY - ROMAN ART

Roman art is a very broad topic, spanning almost 1,000 years and three continents, from Europe into Africa and Asia. The first Roman art can be dated back to 509 B.C.E., with the legendary founding of the Roman Republic, and lasted until 330 C.E. (or much longer, if you include Byzantine art). Roman art also encompasses a broad spectrum of media including marble, painting, mosaic, gems, silver and bronze work, and terracottas, just to name a few. The city of Rome was a melting pot, and the Romans had no qualms about adapting artistic influences from the other Mediterranean cultures that surrounded and preceded them. For this reason it is common to see Greek, Etruscan and Egyptian influences throughout Roman art. This is not to say that all of Roman art is derivative, though, and one of the challenges for specialists is to define what is “Roman” about Roman art.

Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman copy after an original by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos from c. 450-440 B.C.E., marble, 6'6" (Archaeological Museum, Naples), photo: Steven Zucker (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

ART HISTORY - CHINESE ART

VASE WITH NINE PEACHES

CHARACTERISTICS :

Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong mark and period (1736–95)

Culture: China

Medium: Porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware)
Dimensions: H. 20 in. (50.8 cm); Diam. 16 in. (40.6 cm); Diam. of rim 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm); Diam. of foot 7 in. (17.8 cm)

Classification: Ceramics

The delicate pink in the painting illustrates the development of new colors in the early part of the eighteenth century. Opaque white derived from a lead arsenite, and pale pink tinted with bits of gold were added to the palette and combined with existing colors to create a range of hues.

ART HISTORY - PREHISTORIC ART

SCULPTURE IN PREHISTORIC ART

Prehistoric art is dominated by parietal art, such as cave painting and cave petroglyphs. Sculpture, being a form of portable or mobiliary art and thus more prone to destruction or loss, is less common, though no less significant in revealing the intellectual and artistic progress of the culture or artist involved. After all, plastic art is invariably more challenging and complex than two-dimensional arts such as drawing or painting. Not surprisingly, therefore, as Stone Age tools improved in quality - from primitive all-purpose implements to highly specialized instruments with differing shapes, blades and weights - so did Stone Age art. Not surprisingly, therefore, the arrival of anatomically modern man, who replaced Neanderthal Man during the period (c.50-20,000 BCE), had a major impact on both tool culture and sculpture in the Upper Paleolithic era, notably during the Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian periods.

Below is one major work of Prehistoric Sculpture :

Woman or 'Venus' of Willendorf

c. 28 000 - 21 000 BCE, lime stone

The meanings and the characteristics of this sculpture :

• Reproductive organ emphasized : huge breasts, belly, buttocks, navel
• Hair in clumps arranged in rows, or maybe it is a woven hat
• Deemphasized arms, face, legs, no feet
• She was never meant to stand up
• Face may have been painted
• Traces of paint on the body
• Venus is a name given to the object after its discovery as a way of comparing it to the ancient goddess of beauty
• Its true purpose is unknown