THE NEAR EAST
Ancient Mediterranean
(3500 - 330 BCE)
CONTENT: What do you see?
FORM: The details (what you see more exactly). How the artist delivers the content.
CONTEXT: Everything NOT observable.
FUNCTION: The intended purpose of the work.

KEY PERIODS

Sumerian Art: 3500-2332 BCE
Akkadian Art: 2332-2150 BCE
Neo-Sumerian Art: 2150-1600 BCE
Babylonian Art: 2150-1600 BCE
Assyrian Art: 1600-612 BCE
Neo-Babylonian Art: 604- 559 BCE
Persian Art: 525-330 BCE
 Height of Persia ends with destruction of Persepolis by Alexander the Great

APAH 250 Images

12. White Temple and ziggurat
14. Statues of votive figures (Sumerian)
16. The Standard of Ur
19. Code of Hammurabi
25. Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II
30. Audience Hall of Darius and Xerxes          - apadana     
      - apadana stairway​

Additional Image
Victory Stele of Naram sin
​Ishtar Gate

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

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

CONTEXT

​Artistic traditions focused on representing royal figures and divinities and on the function of funerary and palatial complexes. Works of art illustrate the active exchange of ideas and artistic styles among the Mediterranean cultures and influences on the classical world. The art of the ancient Near East (present day Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan , Cyprus) is associated with the city-states and cultures of Sumerian, Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persia. Artistic innovations (development of writing, the human figure) and conventions (canons) provides a foundation for subsequent artistic traditions within the region and beyond. There was constant political change in the region because of the geography and they were slow to construct unified communities because of the openness to the outside world.
​
Religion plays a significant role in the art and architecture of the ancient Near East. Cosmology guided representation of deities and kings who, themselves, assumed divine attributes. Artists created fully developed formal sculptures of human figures and artistic conventions representing the human form - a combination of profile and three-quarter view. Important figures are set apart using a hierarchical scale or a division of composition into horizontal sections or registers which provide early examples of historical narratives. Architectural representations include monumental ziggurats and monumental settings for worship of many deities, that proclaimed the power and authority of rulers. Architecture was restricted by available materials. There were no stone quarries or forests so the use of mud/sun baked bricks was the technology.

​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