Art History – Ancient Art

Every Art major has to take three semesters of Art History as part of their curriculum. They consist of Ancient Art (prehistoric-early Medieval), Medieval Art (Medieval-16th century), and Modern Art (16th century-contemporary). Of the three, Ancient Art was and still is my absolute favorite. It’s no surprise really. One of the things I wanted to be growing up was an archaeologist. Ancient civilizations have always fascinated me. This little foray into art history won’t be a lesson, but rather a little insight as to how I feel about each one. I know that I may get a little carried away with this one, so I’ll just apologize now.

Ancient art history covers prehistoric to the post-classical era. Depending on the continent, that generally falls between 200-600 and 1200-1500. These included major civilizations such as China, India, Western Roman, and Persia. Basically, the period ends in the very early Middle Ages (where my interest starts to wane). College courses generally focus on prehistoric, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Mycenaean, Greece, Rome, India, and Persia. They will also delve briefly into Japan, China, and Mexico. My class was generous enough to include the Moai of Easter Island and Stonehenge.

Moai of Easter Island

Stonehenge

Why do these ancient civilizations and their art (which includes architecture) fascinate me so? Well, the prehistoric time frame usually means before civilizations had a written form of communication or record keeping. That in itself is interesting enough and who doesn’t love a good cave painting or petroglyph?

Lascaux cave painting

Sleeping Antelope, Tin Taghirt petroglyph

But where my interest really starts to peak is with Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Those three captured my imagination and held my fascination since I first became aware of them…we won’t mention how many years ago.

Egypt…known for its alien-looking hieroglyphs and paintings hidden within tombs with strange half-man, half-animal type deities. There was in fact, a vast pantheon of gods and goddesses. Not to mention, this was a culture where if you were Pharaoh, you were considered a god with aspects similar to those of Horus or Nekhbet. Possibly one of the most well-known images is of the funerary mask of the boy king, Tutankhamun.

Funerary mask of Tutankhamun

And you can’t discuss ancient Egypt’s art without speaking about the larger than life monuments, like the Sphinx, the imposing sculptures at the entrance of the Great Temple of Ramses II, or the Great Pyramids of Giza. Paintings and small sculpture is one thing. But these enormous monuments? According to many, the Bible states that the pyramids were built on the backs of Hebrew slaves (although the Bible never actually mentions pyramids). Over time, that has come under some scrutiny. Apparently, with modern science, tools, and means of dating, there is question as to whether or not the Hebrews (or Israelites) were even in Egypt at the time that the pyramids were being built. Now, I don’t want to get into a debate about whether they did or didn’t. The fact remains that someone built these structures. But how? 

Sphinx

Ramses II Temple entrance

The Great Pyramids of Giza

The stones of the Great Pyramid weigh from 2.5 tons up to 50 tons. Each sloping side is a perfect 52 degrees. Without modern machinery, how did they do this in the 10-20 years it took for construction? Even with modern machinery, it would have been an incredible task. I also seem to remember some studies where modern machinery was used to attempt to duplicate the moving of blocks with similar weight. Those studies were less than successful. The same was also attempted in recreating Stonehenge type structures and modern machinery was not successful. The sides of the pyramids were also perfectly smooth and polished before time took its toll. It’s absolutely mind-boggling to think of smoothing a structure that massive without technology.

Moving on to Greece, which over the years has climbed to the top of my list of favorites, we are met with another vast pantheon of gods…Olympus. The gods were evident in nearly all of their art and architecture, as it was for the Egyptians. It is amazing to me to see the evolution of craftsmanship in Greek sculpture, from the very early periods (Geometric and Archaic) to the Classical and Hellenistic periods. The black figure Archaic paintings on pottery always told a story…a great battle with a war hero, a clash between gods and man, or a fight to the death between man and one of the strange creatures of myth.

Amphorae depicting the Goddess Athena and Herakles

While the paintings were fantastic, it is Greek sculpture alone that can hold me enraptured, staring at it for days on end. In the beginning, Greek sculpture was very reminiscent of Egyptian sculpture…stiff, rigid, robotic, expressionless. It was almost as if they were created using a template. Moving forward into the early Classical period, sculptures began to appear more lifelike. Faces start to become more human…softer and less mask-like. Bodies seem more realistic, with muscles tensed in some areas of the body and relaxed in others. This period is thought to be the first to depict humans in a position known as contrapasto (basically, with one’s weight resting primarily on one leg). 

Kouroi of Argos

Kritios Boy

And finally in the Hellenistic period, sculptures seem so perfect, so lifelike. It’s almost as if they were living just moments before and then frozen in time.

Laocoön and His Sons

And then there is the architecture. I’ll skip over the smaller temples and head straight for the pièce de résistance…the Parthenon! The Temple of Athena, patron goddess of Athens, otherwise known as the Parthenon sits atop the Acropolis. And even though it is in ruins, it isn’t hard to imagine her in full glory at the height of Classical Greece. Athens was the main hub for learning, the arts, and philosophy. It is often referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization and the birthplace of democracy. Undoubtedly, Athens was highly influential, not just to the Greeks but also to neighboring lands and eventually around the world. The towering columns and majestic capitals are the very symbol of the classical world. You only have to look around wherever you happen to be and most likely you’ll see buildings with columns reminiscent of Greek architecture…banks, federal buildings, universities…the French Parliament, the US Supreme Court. The reason is simple. It conveys civility, wealth, power, and culture. But, the Parthenon! Oh, the Parthenon… (I’ll try to make it brief!)

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece

It took 8-9 years for construction and was completed in 432 BCE. What we see now is a mere shadow of its former glory. Its frieze and pediments were adorned with relief sculptures depicting mythological battles of victory, justice over injustice, order over chaos. After countless wars and looting, the sculptures are long gone. The few that remain are in museums, many of them not in Greece. The most famous, the Elgin marbles, are in the British museum and the Louvre. The argument remains that they should be returned to the Parthenon. But let’s not get started on that controversy!

East pediment sculpture – British Museum

Elgin Marbles, frieze sculpture – British Museum

The Parthenon is nothing but mystery. How did the ancients do it without modern machinery, without advanced technology and architectural programs? How did they create this perfect structure in such a short period of time? What is even more baffling is that there are no straight lines in Parthenon. The floor bows upward in the center just slightly over six centimeters in the middle to offset an optical illusion. The columns taper at the top ever so slightly and lean inward ever so slightly. Some say also for optical illusion and others say to give the columns a sense of being dynamic, or alive. It would seem that the over 70,000 pieces of marble block which create this magnificent structure are all the same and can be placed anywhere, interchanging column drums from one to the next. The fact is, no two pieces are alike. The curve up the length of the columns however, is identical. But, it is so slight that the ancients would have had to set their compasses at an impossible one mile radius!

Why all the concern over optical illusion? Why not just make the structure with straight lines and right angles? The Parthenon is almost entirely about optical refinements. You see, the ancient Greeks realized that with a structure that large and with the elements it had (the basic parallel lines of the floor and ceiling combined with the intersecting converging lines created by the rows and rows of columns), that an optical illusion was created in which the floor seemed to sag and the ceiling seemed to bow upward. As such, a perfectly built building would appear to be imperfect visually. But a structure built with slight imperfections would appear to be visually perfect.

Optical illusion – converging lines which intersect two parallel lines make the parallel lines seem to bow outward.

In addition, the seams between the marble blocks are less than 1/20 of a millimeter (thinner than a hair)! To show just how airtight that is, when the Acropolis Restoration Project crew took two drums of a column apart, they discovered just how the ancients lined the drums up so perfectly. They used recessed cedar cogs centered in the top of one drum and fit it into a centered hole in the bottom of the drum above it. The seam between the marble was so tight that the cedar was perfectly preserved and still smelled like cedar…over 2,500 years later!

Parthenon secrets – Method used for perfectly aligning column drums

I came across a video not too long ago by PBS, The Secrets of the Parthenon, that I absolutely loved and totally geeked out on. If you’re interested, you can find it here. I actually liked it so much I purchased it!

PBS Nova Presentation – The Secrets of the Parthenon

And so the list goes on… Rome (which was highly influenced by Greece), Babylon, Mesopotamia, etc., etc. I could go on too, but that is why I like ancient art in a not so very small nutshell. Ancient cultures, ancient secrets, ancient accomplishments. And that they managed these Herculean tasks (no pun intended) in a fraction of the time it would take modern architects and engineers will always leave me in awe.