Art of the Aboriginal Nearly Eastward

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First matter commencement ….

The BBC'sHow Art Made the World (aired on PBS in America)is a thought-provoking five-part series, of which office 3 – "The Art of Persuasion" – is peculiarly useful for the offset of an fine art history survey form.

You can use it in a number of ways depending on the size of your class and the length of time/frequency per week yous run into. You might wish to show the first ten minutes at the end of the lesson and have students watch at home on Netflix, or to have a "motion-picture show screening" in class (bringing popcorn tin help make things feel festive) and lookout man with guided questions.

In this episode, Dr. Nigel Spivey uses the 2004 election campaign of George Bush to explore the fashion in which art and architecture have been used to propagandize powerful figures since time immemorial. Spivey's four case studies hit iv keys areas in the early part of the art history survey – Stonehenge (Prehistory), Darius the Nifty and Persepolis (Ancient Near East), Alexander the Great (Aboriginal Hellenic republic), and Augustus (Ancient Rome) in only under 56 minutes. Students begin the grade prepared to see ancient art as continued to the contemporary world around them, and to discuss how images can be used politically, economically, and socially – not only as objects of display in a museum or Powerpoint. The mess of electioneering today has neat precedent in ancient cultures – they produced propaganda too.

Ask your students reply to the film past either discussing in pocket-sized groups, or through a short in-grade writing exercise. You might ask questions like:

  • Which major sites and historical figures does the narrator focus on during the movie? Go along track by taking annotation of names, places, countries, and major dates so we can discuss after watching.
  • In what ways do ancient rulers or cultures use visual art? Practice you lot observe any recurring themes, methods, or ideas?
  • Which historical figure covered in the film do you think used art virtually effectively in pursuit of power?

Images and Readings ….

PPT Images

Groundwork reading might include your survey textbook, and (much amend) this comprehensive educator guide from the Met Museum. The Met's guide cuts to the hunt and highlights fundamental images with short, explanatory texts on each i. Pages 126-129 offer excellent classroom word topics: How did the building blocks of society develop? How does trade affect cultural development? How is art affected by politics? What can images "do"?

Other resources include Smarthistory'southward excellent Ancient Near East section. In that location are at-domicile readings for students in the AHTR online syllabus.

Content suggestions ….

Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer Probably from southern Iraq, Late Prehistoric period, 3100-3000 BCE

Early on writing tablet recording the allocation of beer
Probably from southern Iraq, Tardily Prehistoric period, 3100-3000 BCE

Our library favorite (and managing director of the British Museum) Neil MacGregor'sA History of the World in 100 Objects covers Ancient Near Eastern cuneiform tablets, which is a swell place to brainstorm investigating this function of the survey. Some of the earliest cuneiform writing was created in society to keep track of beer, of all things. (Detect the text for free online on the BM website, or students can listen for gratis as well.*) But the Sumerians as well produced neat literature. TheBallsy of Gilgamesh predates Homer'southIlliadandOdysseyby some ane,500 years. With the advent of visual art in Prehistory, and at present writing, nosotros're looking at the arrival of the thought of civilization – the ability by homo sapiens to enact artistic or abstruse thought. The Met educator guide outlines a group of objects from their collection perfect for investigating the visual culture of the Ancient Near Due east.

In an hr and 15 minutes, this  content surface area can be investigated through many ancient objects,including

  • Cuneiform tablets
  • Ziggurats
  • Vases, cylinder seals, and votive figure
  • Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
  • The Code of Hammurabi
  • Assyrian palace reliefs
  • The Ishtar Gate and throne room wall
  • Reliefs at Persepolis, including Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute

Yous may accept already discussed different interpretations of "civilization" – equally learned behavior, not genetic or biological, including languages, customs, beliefs, technology that is shared by a group. Culture is irrevocably intertwined with the idea of civilization, of settlement and the formation of rules and regulations, and the growth of urban centers.  And, equally Neil MacGregor says, "Writing is essential for the creation of what we think of as human civilization." This is why the tablets are such a not bad identify to begin the word!

This "Urban Revolution" begins first in the "fertile crescent" of Mesopotamia (today = Iraq) and Egypt c. 3,500-3000 BC. Information technology forms the symbolic purlieus between pre-history and history and during it mankind invented "civilization" – the development of permanent systems of social regulation; the first of infighting for control of these regulated resource; social bonds, social welfare; law; send; irrigation; agronomics; food surplus; and settlement.

Agriculture was the basis for wealth.  Religion played a central role in government and daily life.  Leaders strongly identified themselves with the gods. Many societies rose and fell during the period we designate as the Ancient Near East.  Stability was fleeting and this most of the objects pertained to organized religion and rule. The earliest of these communities were the Sumerians.  The Sumerians are credited with many firsts:  the wheel, the plow, casting objects in copper and statuary and cuneiform writing.

The city-land was another of the great Sumerian "inventions." Activities that had in one case been individually initiated became institutionalized and the state took responsibility for the safety and welfare of its inhabitants. Huge mud-brick temples like theZiggurat at Ur (2100 – 2050 BCE, present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq)towered over the flat plains. (These historic edifices became the backdrop for contemporary images photographed, filmed, and transmitted to the W during the Iraq State of war.) Objects such equally the Warka (or Uruk) Vase andcylinder seals (c. 2600 BCE) were found in the vicinity of such temples during twentieth century archaeological excavations. (The Warka Vase was one of the thousands of artifacts which were looted from the National Museum of Iraq during the 2003 Invasion of Republic of iraq and was later returned during an amnesty.)Votive figureswere also of import artifacts of this period, and advise patronage of the arts.

In 2334 BCE, the loosely linked group of cities known as Sumer (Southern Mesopotamia), came under the domination Sargon of Akkad who came from the North of Mesopotamia. Sargon's grandson, Naram-Sin, called himself "King of the Four Quarters," and theStele of Naram-sin (c. 2250 BCE, 6.5 feet high!) offers an opportunity to discuss how leadership and power is portrayed in visual arts of this period through h ieratic scale. The Votive Statue of Gudea, c. 2090 BCE, may but be 29" loftier, but Gudea ruled the one metropolis land that managed to fend off the Akkadians. Gudea's image is therefore a great comparison with Naram-sin'south. How do the two portrayals of leadership differ?  Are there contemporary connections to exist made with portraits of current political leaders?

The Stele of Hammurabi, c. 1792-1750 BCE, is approximately vii feet tall. King Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) established a centralized authorities nether the Babylonians and ruled southern Mesopotamia in the early second millennium. He is known for his conquests, but also for his police code. This is the first systematic codification of his people'due south rights, duties, penalties for infringements. There are 300 or so entries, some dealing with commercial and property matters, others with domestic problems and physical assault. (Run across this Yale translation which offers great background context as well as the code translated in full.)

After centuries of struggle in Southern Mesopotamia among Sumer, Akkad, and Lagash, the Assyrians ascension to say-so in Northern Mesopotamia, coming to power in 1400 BCE.  Past the ninth century BCE they controlled most of Mesopotamia. Their palaces were decorated with scenes of battles, Assyrian victories, presentations of tribute to the male monarch, gainsay between men and beasts, and religious imagery. Palace reliefs similar that of Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions, c 875 BCE,provide an opportunity for in-form formal assay.

Assurnasirpal%20Lion%20Hunt

Briefly introduce the object:The Assyrian kings expected their greatness to be recorded. They deputed sculptors to create a series of narrative reliefs exalting royal power and piety. These narratives recorded battles just too conquests of wild animals.  This is one of the earliest and most extensive forms of narrative relief constitute before the Roman Empire.

Group discussion might begin with broad questions similar "What exercise we see? What are our very first observations?" before asking students to differentiate betwixt form ("What elements of course tin we discern (line, color, textile, limerick, technique)") and context  ("What elements of context can we discern (narrative, characters involved, does this compare to other works we know in similar or different ways?, historical context)"). Summing upward responses volition suggest that the form and the context of the work are interdependent – the strong central effigy, the use of the bow and the hunt, hieratic scale, and the imperial dominance of the "rex of the beasts," the lion, underlines that visual narrative is an important memorializing attribute of this ruler'due south reign and "speak his power."

The visual history of the ANE is brindled with the ascension and autumn of rulers and city-states, ane reason why such rulers were keen to immortalize themselves in architecture and art. Our last ruler is the 1 who continued the Neo-Babylonian empire, delivering it from the Assyrians in the north. The most renowned of the Babylonian kings was Nebuchadnezzar II (r. c. 605 BC – 562 BC), whose exploits the biblical book of Daniel recounts, he is notorious today for his suppression of the Jews. Like bully rulers across time, Nebuchadnezzar II used architecture equally a style to demonstrate his power, and the jewel in the crown of his building entrada was the Ishtar Gate (c.575 BCE).Today, parts of the Ishtar Gate and the processional manner leading to it are in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. It was defended to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and faced with a rare blueish stone chosen lapis lazuli. (A smaller reproduction of the gate was built in Iraq nether Saddam Hussein equally the entrance to a museum that has not been completed. Impairment to this reproduction has occurred since the Iraq War.)

The male monarch had left instructions in cuneiform scrip on tablets of clay.  He urged his successors to repair his royal edifices, which for identification purposes, had bricks inserted in the walls, with an inscription announcing that they were the piece of work of "Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon from far ocean to far sea."  The new inscribed bricks relay that the New Babylon was "rebuilt in the era of the leader Saddam Hussein." Today, rulers all over the world in many different cultures withal utilise compages to demonstrate their ability equally Hussein did, linking his dominion with an ancient, yard era in Iraq's history.

Although Nebudchadnezzar had boasted that "I had caused a mighty wall to circumscribe Babylon…so that the enemy who would exercise evil would not threaten," Cyrus of Persia captured the city in the sixth century BCE. Babylon was but one of the Persian conquests. Egypt cruel to them in 525 BCE and by 480 BCE the Farsi Empire was the largest the world had yet known extending from the Indus River in southeastern Asia to the Danube in northeastern Europe. The near of import source of Farsi architecture is the palace of Persepolis. It was congenital by Darius I, successors of Cyrus (a figure Dr. Spivey introduces in his documentary). Reliefs on the walls of Persepolis depict processions of royal guards, Persian nobles, dignitaries and representatives from over 23 subject nations bringing the king tributes.  Every one of them wears his national costume.

The Achaemenid line ended with the expiry of Darius III in 330 BCE at the hands of Alexander the Smashing, rex of Macedonia. Alexander conquered Persepolis, and prepare the stage for the next chapter – Aboriginal Greece!

At the end of the class ….

The Met Educator guide (linked above) has some not bad suggestions for writing and give-and-take activities linked to this content area, two of which are beneath. Alternatively, students could complete a brusque writing response to the guided questions for Dr. Nigel Spivey'due south "The Art of Persuasion."

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* The book started life as a 100-part series on BBC Radio 4.  His text is a skillful replacement for the art history survey textbook. It's free and – unlike any art history survey textbook – it's fascinating and compellingly written.