Grade 9 Arts

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Sculpture

From the Early Age

6. Gothic Sculptures

5. Romanesque Sculptures

4. Byzantine Sculptures

3. Sculptures from the Classical Period

2. Sculptures from the Egyptian Era

1. Pre-Historic Sculptures

Topics

Materials used in sculptures vary according to region and locality. Archeologists believed that their sculpture is a result of natural erosion and not of human artistry. Frequently carving may have mythological or religious significance.

Venus of Willendorf 28,000 B.C.E. – 25,000 B.C.E Image from Treasures of the World, 1961 CCP Library

Pre-Historic Sculptures

It is carved from limestone with excessively heavy breast and abdomen used as a charm to ensurefertility.

Info

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.

Venus of Brassempouy Museed’ArchéologieNationale at Saint-Germain-enlaye 25,000 years old

5. All individual components were all brought to the plane of representation and laid out like writing

4. Empty space were filled with figures or hieroglyphics

Characteristics of the sculptures:

3. Most of the time the gods were shown larger than humans, the kings larger than their followers, the dead larger than the living.

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.

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.

Sculptures from the Egyptian Era

An example of portraits presented in rigid postures, and were simple and powerful with very little show of private emotion.

The Pharoah Menkaure and his Queen, stone4th Dynasty, 2548 - 2530 B.C.E.

Queen Nefertiti, painted limestone 18th Dynasty, 1375-1357 BC

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 .

Sculptures from the Egyptian Era

Myron; The Discobulus, 450 BC

Shows an attitude of maximum tension, full of compressed energy, and about to explode an action.

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.

Sculptures from the Classical Period

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.

Greek Sculptures

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 boxliked 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

The Portonacio Sarcophagus between 180-190 BCE

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 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.

Byzantine Sculptures

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

Sarcopagus, from cervetiri, c. 520 BCE, Museo Nazionale de Villa Giulia, Rome

-an early example of Byzantine Ivory work.

The Barberini Diptych

Resurrection of the Virgin, end of the 12th century Cathedral Amiens

Gothic sculptureshave 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.

Gothic Sculptures

Last Judgement, tymapnum (an architectural element with in the arch or pediment) of the west portal, Cathedral of SaintLazare, Autun Burgundy France, c. 1120-35 by Gislebertus

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.

Architecture from the Early Age

1. Menhir: a huge stone standing vertically on the ground, usually standing in the middle of the field or arranged in rows.

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. Megalithic monuments have always ignited man’s imagination. It provided plenty of legends and superstition.During this era, stones and rocks were associated with divinity

Three main types of megalith stones:

Pre-Historic Architecture

Stonehenge: best preserved megalithic site in Europe, a group of stones arranged in concentric circles, with a large external circle oftriliths (Greek word meaning three stones), two internal circles built in a similar manner and altarshape 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

Cromlech: a Brythonic word where “crom” meansbent or curved and “llech” which means slab orflagstones. Literary it is a circle of standing stones

Dolmens: the word dolmen originated from the expression taolmaen, which means “stone table”.These structures are in a form of table consisting of two hugestanding stones supporting a horizontal giant stone. It is believed that it served as grave or as an altar.

Pre-Historic Architecture

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; and the smallest is attributed to Menkaura (Mycerinus).

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 (palmleaves, buds, flower of lotus, and papyrus plants).

Egyptian Architecture

Characteristics of Egyptian Architecture:

This architectural style was developed during the pre-dynastic period 4,000BC.

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 style or orders:

Mastaba

It is a type of Egyptian tomb in the form of a flatroofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides. It was made of mud-bricks orstone.

Hagia Sophia. Istanbul, 537 BC

The Colosseum, AD 70-82, Rome

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.

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.

Roman 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.

Gothic Architecture

The groin-vaulted crypt of Worcester Cathedral

Romanesqeu 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.

Romanesque Architecture