appendix 3 Art A brief history 36,000 BC 5,500 BC: PREHISTORY PAINTING SCULPTURE Prehistoric men painted caves with figures representing animals, handprints and humans coloured with black and red ochre pigments. Examples of cave paintings are spread all over the world; in Europe the most visited are in France (Lascaux) and Spain (Altamira). Primitive men carved images reproducing female bodies, icons of fertility and for the survival of the tribe. They used flint tools to carve fragments of limestone. The same type of little statues carved in marble and with more gentle and abstract forms were produced by the population of the Cyclades, inhabitants of the group of islands in the Aegean sea, about 5,000 years ago. ARCHITECTURE The Neolithic architecture reached Europe from Southwest Asia between 7,000 BC and 5,500 BC. The Neolithic men were great builders, they used dry mud bricks to build houses and villages, stones were used to build megalithic temples and tombs. Numerous tombs have survived in Ireland (Newgrange). 3,000 BC 5th century AD: CLASSICAL ART PAINTING 324 SCULPTURE ARCHITECTURE The ancient civilizations of Egyptians, Egyptians developed a peculiar bas relief Greeks and Romans developed their style: human faces are shown in profile but own style. the rest of the body is seen from the front; bas relieves decorated temples and palaces Egyptians painted walls and with war and religious scenes to celebrate columns of temples and buildings pharaohs and gods. They were skilful and illustrated linen and papyrus sculptors able to produce colossal works like manuscripts; favourite subjects were the Sphinx (2,500 BC) and impressive statues the afterlife and the celebrations of of sitting and standing gods and pharaohs as gods and pharaohs. on the front of Abu Simbel temple (1,250 BC). The Egyptian architects (3,050 BC to 900 BC) planned sacred spaces with enormous palaces and temples dedicated to Gods outside cities and villages. They wanted to show respect to the supernatural and the afterlife, religion was the first interest of the members of the community, priests represented the top social class after kings. Architects learnt highly technical skills in building enormous structures like obelisks and pyramids. Very little has survived from Roman and Greek painting, they both used to paint frescoes (painting on walls); examples of the ability of Greek painters can be found on the pottery while the most complete Roman frescoes are found in the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The basic feature of the classical Greek Art (5th 4th century BC) is the heroic realism: sculptors worked in the representation of perfect human bodies in movement or repose. Men and Gods were reproduced with forms and traits of exceptional beauty and perfection in dramatic and noble moments, the material used was white marble. Very few bronze statues have survived and some of them are found in Roman marble copies. The mid-5th century represented a peak of Greek sculpture: sculptors were engaged to decorate public buildings like the Parthenon, statues had to represent stories about Gods and Men. Greek architecture. Religious and civic life were both important for the members of the Greek community. The most important form of the religious architecture was the temple that had a rectangular plan surrounded by colonnades and was built to house the statue of a God. For the civil life open spaces surrounded by public buildings (agorà) were built and they were places where people could carry out political debate. The Romans (1st 6th century AD) developed the theme of narrative sculpture that had to tell stories of victorious wars and battles and of heroic deeds by emperors and generals. They also used to carve portraits and statues depicting people s traits as real as possible and in triumphal and heroic postures. Sculpture had to represent real people: according to Roman sculptors the Greek idealized forms were too far from real life. The Romans (850 BC to 476 AD) adapted the Greek architecture to their pragmatic and materialistic way of life. The forum, the Roman agorà, became a beautiful public square decorated with statues and buildings. New complex constructions were built thanks to new achievements and developments in engineering like the arch (originally an Etruscan invention), the vault and the dome. The invention of concrete facilitated the building of public structures like aqueducts, baths and amphitheatres.