hOW CAN WORKS OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE COMMUNICATE THE POWER OF A PATRON?

hOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND AN ARCHITECTURE BY
​INTERPRETING ITS PLAN?
​

"Who, my friend, can ascend to the heavens?
(Only) the gods can dwell forever with Shamash.
As for human beings, their days are numbered,
and whatever they keep trying to achieve is but wind!
Now you are afraid of death--
what has become of your bold strength?" - Epic of Gilgamesh

​Student Resources

Key Ideas
Key Periods
Characteristics: Sculpture and Architecture
Fertile Crescent Map
Powerpoint
Artwork List
Vocabulary List
Flashcard Images
* CRASH COURSE: MESOPOTAMIA
​* CRASH COURSE: EPIC OF GILGAMESH
* YOUTUBE: STANDARD OF UR
* YOUTUBE: PERSEPOLIS: THE 
PERSEPOLIS (Excavation video)
CODE OF HAMMURABI (Louvre)

Smart History: Near East

Key Ideas

• Mud bricks are the main building block from soil deposits left by the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers
• Conventions of hierarchy 
• Early images often depict royalty and deities
• Figures and animals are depicted in profile or in twisted perspective
• New gods or guardian figures (Composite creatures)
• Assyrian lion reliefs are some of the first narratives in art history
• Invention of cuneiform- first wedge-shaped writing
• Nudity is a sign of debasement (lowering the status or quality)
• Constant political change and ruling groups\
• The cosmos play a roll in in architecture and rituals

Key Periods

Sumerian Art: 300-2000 BCE
Akkadian Art: 2300-2150 BCE
Neo-Sumerian Art: 2150-2000 BCE
Babylonian Art: 2000-1750 BCE
Assyrian Art: 1200-612 BCE
      Battle of Ninevah, 612 BCE (modern day Iraq) Babylon won thus resurrecting their former glory!
Neo-Babylonian Art: 612- 539 BCE
      Persian King, Cyrus, overthrows Babylon
Persian Art: 539-330 BCE
       Height of Persia ends at the razing of Persepolis by Alexander the Great

The Fertile Crescent

Characteristics of Sculpture

• S: Size of sculpture increases- shows permanence of cities
• S: Large scale reliefs within palaces
• S: Stelai commemorating  the achievements of rulers
• AK:  Deification of rulers
• B: Stele of Hammurabi- new set of laws
• AS: Rulers are portrayed as stoic
• AS: Cuneiform takes a leap

Characteristics of Architecture

• S: Architecture was created for religious purposes
  
• B: World Wonder: Hanging Gardens
• H: Used stone blocks rather than baked mudbricks
• P: Persepolis

Artwork List

Flashcard Images

1. White Temple and its ziggurat, Uruk
2. Sumerian Votive Offerings
3. The Standard of Ur
4. Code of Hammurabi
5. Lamassu
6. The Audience/Throne Hall (apandana) at the Citadel at Persepolis
Additions
7. Stele of Naram sin
8. Ishtar Gate


Vocabulary
1. registers/friezes
2. lapiz lazuli
3. hierarchy of scale
4. votive offering
5. bent axis
6. cella
7. stele
8. apadana
9. column
10. capital
11. shaft
12. base
13. volutes
14. hypostyle hall