Students' Production - Various forms of art

This text is a reading work in which the students learned to look up for easy vocabulary to understand the context of a text.

Arts History Study - 1000 B.C.–1 A.D. (145)

May 13, '09 12:07 PM by Essencial for everyone

Arts History Study

1000 B.C.–1 A.D. (145)

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/te_index.asp?s=all&t=1000_bc-1_ad&d=all&x=29&y=12


Seated Buddha Akshobhya (?), the Imperturbable Buddha of the East, 9th–10th century

Tibet
Gilt copper 

H. 22 13/16 in. (57.8 cm)

The fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were a time of worldwide intellectual ferment. It was an age of great thinkers, such as Socrates and Plato, Confucius and Laozi. InIndia, it was the age of the Buddha, after whose death a religion developed that eventually spread far beyond its homeland.

The position of the hands of the statue makes it difficult to identify.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/06/ssh/ho_1995.106.htm


Jug with an oversized spout, mid-6th century b.c.
Lydian; Excavated at Sardis
Terracotta 

H. with handle 6 7/16 in. (16.4 cm), H. without handle 5 1/8 in. (13 cm)

The inspiration for the shape of the vessel comes from Phrygia, a region to the east of Lydia. By the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., Greek colonies and settlements stretched all the way from western Asia Minor to southern Italy, Sicily, North Africa, and even to the coasts of southern France and Spain.

Disk Brooch with Cameo and Cabochons, cameo 100–300, brooch ca. 600
Roman (cameo), Langobardic (mount)
Gold sheet; settings of onyx, cameo, glass (red and green cabochons); wire

Diam. 2 7/16 x 1/4 in. (6.2 x 0.7 cm)

The Hellenistic Greeks were the first to excel at carving small hardstones with figures in relief, often in the images of deities or other talismanic signifiers. The practice seems to have been rooted in the ancient Mesopotamian stones that were carved for use as identifying seals.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/came/hd_came.htm


Vessel terminating in the forepart of a lion, 
Achaemenid, 5th century b.c.
Iran
Gold

H. 6.7 in. (17 cm)
Fletcher Fund, 1954 (54.3.3)

Horn-shaped vessels ending in an animal's head have a long history in the Near East as well as in Greece and Italy. 

The inclusion of the plume suggests that this lion is winged and has some supernatural significance.

Neck-amphora (jar), ca. 500 b.c.; Attic, black-figure
Attributed to the Diosphos Painter
Greek
Terracotta

Fletcher Fund, 1956 (56.171.25)

> Thanatos (Death) and Hypnos (Sleep) with the body of Sarpedon 

Eos (Dawn) with the body of her son, Memnon<

The scenes on this jar show two great

heroes of the Trojan War being lifted from the battlefield after their deaths. Sarpedon, a son of the god Zeus, will be carried to Lycia, his homeland in southern Asia Minor, and Memnon, to his kingdom in Ethiopia.






Grave stele with a family group, ca.

360 b.c.
Greek, Attic

Pentelic marble 

H. 67 3/8 in. (171.1 cm)

The name of the deceased would have been inscribed on the framing niche that originally surrounded this relief, but is now missing. Without this inscription it is unclear if the man and his family members mourn a dead daughter that faces them, or if the veiled woman who stands behind the seated man is actually mourning her dead father. Despite the scene's ambiguity and solemn sadness, it remains one of the most moving funerary rel

iefs from the Classical period.

Standing woman holding a shield: From Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, (which was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D)

ca. 40–30 b.c.; Late Republican
Roman
Wall painting

Fresco: 70 x 40 1/4 in. (177.8 x 102.2 cm)

This small male figure on the shield has been described as a reflected image, the figure should be understood as an apparition, which, in antiquity, was viewed as prophetic. The man may refer to a Hellenistic royal heir, and the woman bearing the shield may represent a priestess or prophetess. 

Victory of Samothrace, ca. 190 B.C.

Greek
Marble
Musée du Louvre, Paris

This sculptural characteristic—evidenced in figures from the classical and Hellenistic periods—has emerged in fashion as a signifier of classicizing intent. From the nineteenth century to the present, designers have utilized a variety of techniques and materials to replicate its effects in cloth

Pair of Earflare Frontals, 3rd–6th century
Guatemala; Maya
Jadeite

H. 2 in. (5.1 cm)

Depictions of elite members of society dressed in costumes covered with jade ornament, which was both costly and precious, frequently occur in Maya art. This pair of jade earflare frontals, each bearing a motif of flower petals or leaves, are of a type pictured on both men and women.

Water and plant life were entities of great significance to the Maya as an agricultural people.



Mesoamerica and Central America, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.

Egyptian Amulets

Sobek as a crocodile, early Ptolemaic Period (ca. 304–247 b.c.)
Egyptian
Faience 
Sobek, probably the divinity depicted in this amulet, was a benevolent water deity.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/egam/hd_egam.htm
An amulet is a small object that a person wears, carries, or offers to a deity because he or she believes that it will magically bestow a particular power or form of protection.