Introduction to Humanities

Paleolithic is Greek for Old Stone Age. Paleo means old, and Litho means stone. It was the prehistoric era that marks the development of stone and other tools by Homo Habilis.

NEANDERTHAL - 200,000-28,000 BCE

Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus. They lived in Europe and western and central Asia.

The Neanderthal cranial capacity was slightly larger than modern humans. Neanderthals stood about five and a half feet tall, were stockier, and stronger than modern humans. Neanderthals were almost exclusively carnivorous.

The Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, farming, and the domestication of animals. It began around 9,500 BCE in the Middle East. The increase of available food made civilization possible.

Identify –.

Venus Figure. One of the oldest known sculptures.

Lascaux – a cave discovered in France by four boys playing hooky.

8,000 BCE – New Stone Age (Neolithic). They domesticated animals.

Prehistoric - before written history.

BCE – Before the common era.

Civilization requires five things:

1 - a city , 2 - written language, 3 - trade, 4 - government, and 5 - religion.

The Sumerians, or Sumer, were the first civilization (6,000 BCE).
Sumer was located in Southern Iraq (Mesopotamia). It flourished from 6,000 to 1,000 BCE. The Sumerians developed writing around 3,500 BCE, so this is really when they meet all the criteria of being a civilization.

They also invented: the potter's wheel, the vehicular wheel, and mill wheel. They created the first government, and laws, and they laid the foundations for the fields of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.

Sumerian math was based on 60. We owe our system of time to them (60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour).

The wheel appears in Sumerian culture around 3,000 BCE.

The Gilgamesh Epic is the oldest story.

3,150 BCE - EGYPT became a civilization (p 209).
Egypt is in Eastern North Africa
Their writing is called hieroglyphics
They built the first known ships.
Pharaoh Akhenaton’s wife was Nefertiti, and his son was Tutankhamun.

1,200 - 400 BCE the Olmecs of the Gulf of Mexico became a civilization.
They also built Pyramids.

1,400 BCE - China’s first dynasty was the Shang.

800 BCE – The Greek Archaic Period

776 BCE – First Olympic Games were held in Greece

CHAPTER 10 –PRE-MODERN WORLD: (228)

Classical Period: 500 - 323 BCE

Kritios was an ancient Athenian sculptor. He is the father of the classical period of art. The Kritian Boy, names after Kritios, was the first realistic sculpture that incorporated the contrapposto stance – the weight is shifted to one leg. (P228)

Myron was a student of Kritios. The discus thrower is an example of his work. His poses are more dynamic.

Polyclitus creates rules of art (that were lost). He abandoned realistic sculpture, and created the first idealized human form – with an improved contrapposto stance. For Polyclitus art expresses ideal beauty, reason, symmetry, harmony, and perfection. This is what shapes the classical period.

Greek Theatre – There is nothing on the test because we already covered it. (P231) Skip

Beowulf – Oldest old English poem.

P248

The Gothic pointed arch (not round arch) distributes an directs weight to the ground most efficiently, so there is less need to support the sides with buttresses.

476- 1,400 CE: The middle ages or medieval period began with the fall of Rome, and ended with the Renaissance.

CHAPTER 11 – EMERGING MODERN WORLD (P272)

THE RENAISSANCE ERA 1400 - 1700 CE

The renaissance began in Rome Italy and spread through Europe from 1400 – 1700 CE. It came after the middle ages.

The word Renaissance means rebirth.

The Greeks inspired the renaissance.

The renaissance replaced revelation and faith with science, education, reason, and humanism.

A polymath is someone who excels in many different intellectual fields. Know the different polymaths we discussed in class.

The architect Brunelleschi developed linear perspective.

Andreas Vesalius was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, and wrote the first book in anatomy called On the Structure of the Human Body.

The three greatest painters of the Renaissance were: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael.

Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.

Copernicus formulated the heliocentric cosmology. The Earth rotates daily on its axis, and it revolves yearly around the Sun.

Galileo – The father of modern science. He formulated the laws of falling bodies, improved the telescope, observed craters on the Moon, observed moons revolving around Jupiter.

Leibniz – invented calculus at the same time as Newton, and created the binary logic used in computers.

The invention of oil paint made it possible for Flemish painters to achieve realism. P288

Egg tempera dries immediately, and doesn’t allow for the blending of color.

BAROQUE ART 1600-1750 CE

• Originated in Italy

• The artistic and musical style after the Renaissance

• Ornate, sensual, expressive, realistic, religious, intense colors, and dramatic lighting – chiaroscuro.

• Renaissance art shows the moment before an event.

• Baroque art tends to show the drama of the event.

TWO SCHOOLS

• Catholic – French, Italians, Spanish, and Flemish. (Flemish artists consisted of Northern Europe and neighboring countries.)
France was the most powerful country, and the center of art shifted from Rome to France.

• Protestant – Dutch, and English
Little religious subjects.

BAROQUE ARTISTS

Italian – Caravaggio, Bernini, Artemisia Gentileschi

CARAVAGGIO (1571–1610)
- He’s the first great Baroque painter
- noted for realism, dramatic lighting (chiaroscuro), and emotion.
- He drew with the brush – no sketching was done.
- His followers are called Caravaggisti: Rubens, Bernini, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Rembrandt.
- He was prone to fighting, and fled Rome because he killed a man, and wounded a police officer.
- Although famous, he was forgotten until recently.

Artemisia Gentileschi 1593–1653
Italian Baroque Female Painter.
She was the daughter of the famous painter Orazio Gentileschi.

Spanish - El Greco, Diego Velázquez

Flemish: Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck

Dutch, Rembrandt, Vermeer

CHAPTER 13 -

THE ARTIST IN A MODERN, POSTMODERN,

AND PLURALISTIC WORLD

Know what Expressionism is. This German movement in art was between 1905-1930 that focused on feelings.

Know what Fauvism is. Henri Matisse is best associated with this style?

Know what Cubism is. This style of art was created by Picasso. Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon – 1907 was the first Cubist painting. It merged the space around the objects with the objects.

Know what Futurism and Mechanism is. It has been described as cubism with motion. This movement started in Italy in 1910. It's expresses modern society, motion, energy, and machinery. Boccioni was from this period, He sculpted: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. See page 374 of the new book.

Know what Surrealism is. They were fascination with dreams and the subconscious mind. Salvador Dali (1904-1989 ) and Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) are good examples of this period. Frida Kahlo was also a surrealist?

Know what DADA is. This movement in art started in Switzerland during World War I, is sometimes considered anti-art, anti-war, and anarchistic.

Know what Abstract Expressionism is. This style of art excludes representational subject matter? Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is a great example of this period. He created paintings by dripping paint on canvas.

Know what Pop Art is. This art movement was from the1950s. It used cultural subjects from advertising, comic books, etc. The Ben Day screen of dots is a technique associated with this style? Roy Lichtenstein used this dot method you see in comic books. Another well known artist of this style is Andy Warhol.

The Prairie Style of architecture was created by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Be able to identify the Pompidou Center. It was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

The most influential figure in modern dance was Martha Graham.

Believing your culture is the most important, and measuring other cultures by your own is called Ethnocentrism.

Evaluating a culture by its own values, beliefs, and customs is Cultural Relativism.

Know what Pluralism is. This includes works of artists from other cultures, and focuses on art of those cultures

Postmodernism is movement of art that believes no single theory can completely explain human nature.

PLURALISM:

Know what pluralism is, and that the Harlem Renaissance is an example of pluralism.

Among the Northwest coast Indians, who may perform a song?
The Owner

The Harlem Renaissance:
The foremost painter of the Harlem Renaissance was?
Aaron Douglas

Who was called the "poet laureate of Harlem"?
Langston Hughes

Who was the first Black American artist to draw heavily on African themes and folklore?
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

An identifying characteristics of African music:
Drone notes

The earliest pioneer of African-American dance was:
Asadata Dafora Horton

OTHER

Bach was a baroque musician.

Abstract Art - The subject is recognizable, but it's radically altered.

Ceramics - Clay fired art.

Impasto - Building up thick layers of paint.

Polymath / Renaissance Man - Someone who excels in many fields.

Fresco - Mixing plaster with pigment, and painting with this colored plaster on a wall.