Chauvet Cave Paintings 

What is the physical context for the earliest cave paintings in Europe?

Answer these questions: 

­What is the physical context for the earliest cave paintings in Europe?  Where were they  found?  What are their key visual characteristics?

 Discovered in December 1994 

 Southern France 

 Radiocarbon dated to 30,000–28,000 BCE 

 At least 13 different species of animals depicted 

 A relatively small cave – 800 feet deep (some of the other caves that include cave  painting are over a mile deep) 

 Paintings found deep in cave in all directions (overlapping)… near the floor and up to 20 feet on uneven walls 

 Not grounded in visual clarity (not meant to be clear scenes) 

 Not drawn with a ground line 

 Paintings vibrant and full of life / animals have incredible vitality to them  Shading used to create depth 

 Observed from nature and realistic drawings of animals themselves  Artists have an interest in Realism 

What kinds of art objects survive from ancient Sumeria?

 Use red and black colors 

­What are some of the functions/explanations for the cave paintings that have been  proposed by scholars (i.e., what are the different explanations for WHY they were made)? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different hypotheses?

 Hypotheses proposed by scholars: 

o Decoration 

 Not likely as it was done deep in a cave where humans would not  have lived / the paintings are also overlapping and all over the place If you want to learn more check out a market in which profit opportunities are eliminated almost instantaneously is
Don't forget about the age old question of four levels of protein folding

o Hunting Magic or Practice 

o Shamanism  

 There is a world of spirits 

 The cave acted as an access point between the human/spirit worlds  Shaman = access point 

 Caves are where the contact takes place 

o Initiation Rites 

 When new Shaman initiated or when someone turned adult age  

maybe they were taken to these caves 

What are the five­basic art­historical methodologies?

 Meaning of works found in making and not viewing because maybe  that is how someone was initiated by painting an animal 

o Counting/Recording/Notation 

o Depiction of cosmic cycles 

o Narrative/Storytelling (about animals? humans? “gods”?) 

o Animals as clan totems; they illustrate conflict between human groups

Define these terms: Don't forget about the age old question of business 302

Ground line – stable place where the animals would stand

Twisted perspective/composite view – a combination of multiple viewpoints within a single  image ie. Show some parts from the side, and others as if you are facing front 

Perceptual versus conceptual – Perceptual is perceiving the way something looks and  depicting it from only that angle, while conceptual is you know what the animal looks like  from other angles and you include it in your depiction (composite view) If you want to learn more check out sc 221

Identify these works: 

­Cave Paintings from Chauvet, 30,000­28,000 BCE

We also discuss several other topics like ttu coa

Sumerian Art: The Archaeological Sites at Ur and Uruk Answer these questions: 

What kinds of art objects survive from ancient Sumeria?  

 Cuneiforms developed by Sumerians 

 Temples – sacred and civic functions 

 Ziggurats – Sumerians believed mountains to be the land of the gods, so they created a sacred mountain 

 Cult statues – statue of deity the town is dedicated to / where the spirit rests  White Temple at Uruk – stone used for temple and on the face of the platform, not a lot of windows, would be very dark, hybrid religious government  building, access was very restricted  

 Head of Inanna, Uruk 

o Earliest naturalistic depiction of a human face 

o Cult statue 

o Composite sculpture – made out of a stone head, placed on a wooden  core, put in actual garments on statue, wig and crown 

o Proportionate and naturalistic in some ways  If you want to learn more check out If an investor had been consistently pulling assets from a mutual fund as it fell in value, how will their money‐weighted rate of return differ from the mutual fund's return?

o Located in temple 

 Ziggurat, Ur – long staircases / series of levels / access more privileged as  you went up  

What are the basic elements of the Sumerian visual style, as represented in the  Standard of Ur? What does this object tell us about Sumerian social structures?  Really grounded in visual clarity, dividing the pictorial field, the zone of  decoration, into what we call registers 

 Like a comic book – clarifies the imagery … legible 

 Two sides: a war side and peace side 

 One side shows a battle and the other a large banquet / celebration after the  battle 

 War side shows hierarchy of scale 

 Had ground lines and blue background that applies some level of depth /  some overlapping 

 Used stone inlay (pieces cute to fit) not a true mosaic 

 Indicative of extreme social stratification… social inequality  

 Incredible clarity of the representation  

What were Sumerian burial practices like?  

 Surrounding the royal burials were burials of servants or soldiers all lined up  in rows 

 All holding goblets 

 All skulls had blunt force trauma 

 All dressed in elaborate clothing 

 Large chariot 

 Very lavish (probs to keep providing the luxurious lifestyle in the afterlife /  brought as gifts to gods)

What kinds of “grave goods” were found at Royal Cemeteries at Ur?  Jewelry, figurines, daggers 

Define these terms: 

Cuneiform – initially developed for record keeping, used clay, begun around 3400  BCE 

Ziggurat – large man-made mountain / basically a large mound, functions to lift up a temple off the ground, made from mud bricks 

composite sculpture – a work of sculpture made out of a lot of different materials votive offering – gifts and objects for the cult statue  

pictorial register – like a comic book 

hierarchy of scale - the most important people are the largest 

Identify these works: 

The Head of Inanna, Uruk, 3200-3000 BCE, marble 

The “Standard of Ur,” Ur, Iraq, 2600-2400 BCE, stone, shell, lapus lazuli

Akkad and Babylon: The Stele of Naram­Sin and the Code of Hammurabi Answer these questions: 

What is the significance of the Stele of Naram­sin? Why is its historical specificity  important? What kinds of visual strategies does it use to communicate with viewers?  Over 6 feet tall 

 First example we see in the ancient near east of a king really presenting himself  as divine 

 One of the first works of art to commemorate a specific historical event that we  know about… related to a particular historical event and not just a random scene  Artwork plays a role in recording this battle and the outcome for posterity and  history to know about 

 Naram commemorated this work of art to relate to his military power but also his  personal power 

 First time a Mesopotamian ruler was referred to as a god, rather than just as a  representative of the gods 

 Naram wears a headdress with two bowl horns on it (had only been used to show divine figures since up till this) 

 Gods are associated with mountains and you can see that Naram is far by the  highest up the mountain 

 His body projecting towards the images of the sun, which are again in reference  to sun gods and illustrates he is at the same level 

 Physically shows a powerful body to show his power and he is huge… shows the power of his people and empire and military 

What are the five­basic art­historical methodologies?  

How can these be used to study an object like the Stele of Naram­sin?  Formal 

o Really treats the visual aspects of the work (size, materials, treatment of  human figure, gesture/pose, figure/background relationship, colors, scale,  organization of scene, composition) 

 Iconographic 

o Idea of an image as a text 

o Image as something that communicates the concrete meaning 

o Symbolism 

o Story/narrative 

o Using texts to “read” an image 

 Social­historical 

o What can an object tell us about history? 

o History of the period 

o Social role of king 

 Anthropological

o How was the object USED? 

o function 

 Feminist/gender 

o Creating/reflecting/reinforcing ideas about male/female roles 

o Portrayal of bodies 

What is significant about the image at the top of the Stele of Hammurabi. What can we  tell from the law code written underneath about Babylonian culture?  Hammurabi created a code of law, which has been incredible influential on later  societies and their own legal systems 

 Law of code preserved in this stone 

 Bottom part is written in tiny little scripts (282 laws) 

 On top is an image of Hammurabi receiving these laws from the sun god,  Shamash 

 Shamash is holding out a sector, a symbol of authority and passing that symbol  to the king 

 Shows his rule is divinely sanctioned and inspired  

 A lot of the language is really echoed in Christianity and Jewish holy texts  We can tell from the law code that different law and punishments for free people  and enslaved people 

What connects these two artworks, in terms of how rulers are creating and addressing  history?  

 Meant to perpetuate the memory of these rulers  

Define these terms: 

Hollow­cast sculpture – usually from clay or wax model then pouring the copper into a  mold around this model  

Iconoclasm – intentional breaking of images 

Stele – large stone slab 

Identify these works: 

Victory Stele of Naram­Sin, Akkadian (Iran), 2254­2218 BCE (pink sandstone)

Stele of Hammurabi, Babylonian (Iraq), ca. 1780 BCE  (basalt)

The Assyrian Palace: Lamassu and the Lion Hunt Reliefs 

Answer these questions: 

What kind of self­image was the Assyrian king projecting through the lion­hunt reliefs?  What is visually significant about the images? 

 Meant to project the power of the king and put you in awe of him and his exploits  Using artwork to express political, physical, and military power 

 Often along long hallways of the palace or in like the interior courtyards  Stretch along the whole interior surfaces of the palace 

 Arranged in rows 

 Three­tiered system 

 Ground lines 

 Exist in a much more concrete kind of space 

 Overlapping of lions and figures 

 Low relief – when the figures do not physically project very far from the surface  Great sense of depth created in these images 

 Showed lion hunting 

 Highly ritualized hunts where the king and his bodyguards and soldiers would  enter an enclosure where lions were then released and killed 

 Let the king strike the fatal blow 

 Creates dramatic scenes where king is able to express his physical power and  bravery over these powerful animals (king of the animals) 

 They place the lion and king as equals (same size, face each other, patterned  hair) 

Identify these works: 

Reliefs depicting Lion Hunting, Nineveh (Iraq), Assyrian, 645­640 BCE

Ancient Egypt: The Pyramids at Giza 

Answer these questions: 

How did the form of the pyramid develop? What were its antecedents? 

 Mastabas served as the building blocks of the pyramids 

 Pyramids are basically a bunch of mastabas stacked on each other 

 Step Pyramid – looks somewhat like a ziggurate / building kind of a man­made  mountain… purpose: monuments / more like a sculpture than architecture o Part of much larger architectural districts called a necropolis 

What was the meaning or symbolism of the pyramid’s form? 

 Thought of as a physical embodiment of the form of the sun’s ray 

 Like a ladder for the pharaohs spirit to ascend as it goes up to the sky (as a star)  Like a copy of the ben­ben stone  

Describe the pyramid complexes at Saqqara and Giza: what kinds of buildings were found on the site? What were their different functions? 

 Function of the space of the pyramid is to serve as a funerary monument  Cemeteries 

 whole builders’ village 

 series of temples – each of the pyramids had two temples associated with it (one called  the funerary temple right against the pyramid that was then linked by a causeway or like a raised stone road down to its valley temple near the river) 

 valley temple 

o large stone building with a central court 

o main function was to hold the cult statue 

o heavy stone blocks made this building very elite 

o have a series of cult statues all identical 

o elites and priests and other visitors can come here to make offerings to the cult  statues 

Describe some of the construction methods of the pyramids – what are some of the theories  about how they were built? 

 Thought to be built by slaves but actually paid 

 Worked in shifts / ate well / hospitals and kitchens etc 

 Blocks recorded pretty close by 

 Quarry on site for the basic limestone blocks 

 Stones placed on rollers? 

 Slide into wheels and rolled? 

 Placed on sleds and dragged across roads that had been covered with sand and wetted  down pulled by huge chains of people? 

 Built by scaffolding that would use cranks? 

 Huge earthen ramps built either off the side of it or in a zigzag?

 Internal ramp theory? 

How is the body depicted in the ”canonical” style of Egyptian sculptures, like the statue of  Khafre? What is the meaning behind this kind of depiction? How are its materials significant?  What elements of the statue are naturalistic and what elements are idealized or formulaic?  Made of diorite stone 

 Hard to carve but nearly indestructible  

 Made to last 

 Pose of statue is also designed for longevity 

 No protruding part (everything close to the body) 

 Called the cubic form 

 Religious and practical reasons 

 Also creates incredible image of power and authority 

 On back of statue is an image of the god Horace (hawk) protecting the king  On the chair you have intertwined images of Papyrus flower and Lotus flower that  symbolizes the rulers of Egypt are rulers of this united state

 King wears headdress ad beard and celt (traditional symbols of the king)  “canonical style” – envisioning the body as still, symmetrical, formal, and not in  movement 

Define these terms: 

Mastaba – the idea of a low stone building over a shaft grave (dig along shaft downward into the  ground and then create a little room at the bottom for the sarcophagus or the burial) / solid stone  structure used as a grave marker 

Pharaoh ­ king 

Ka – spirit / life force that continues after the body is dead  

Necropolis – city of the dead 

 Large courtyard for ceremonies 

 Buildings on the side 

 Huge wall with many entrances meant for the spirits 

 City built for enjoyment of dead king 

ben­ben – mini pyramid shape / very sacred / covered in gold / idea comes from land rising out  of sea / it is the primeval mound that rose out of the water at creation – it was either created BY  the god Amun as his earthly residence or WAS him 

archaeoastronomy – studying the ways in which archaeological sites and city planning and  buildings are related to patterns and the stars  

casing stone – outer layer of stone on pyramid / finer limestone brought across from the river diorite – very hard stone 

upper and lower Egypt – upper (lotus) / lower (Papyrus)  

Identify these works: 

Pyramid Complex at Giza, ca. 2551­2472 BCE

Statue of Khafre, Giza, Egypt,  ca. 2500 BCE­

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut 

Answer these questions: 

Who was Hatshepsut? How did she come to power? What role did art and  architecture play in her consolidation of power? How did she have herself  depicted in sculptures? 

 Hatshepsut is married to her half-brother, Thutmose II, who was  pharaoh from 1492-1479 

 She then rules for Thutmose III, her stepson and nephew, from 1478- 1458 

 At her death, Thutmose III becomes Pharaoh and rules from 1458-1425  She is a Pharaoh

 Appears more female in early artwork and later on appears with more  masculine attributes according to the times  

 Early image of her shows her dressed as woman, with a female body,  but with a King’s attributes and titles

Describe Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple. What is the significance of its site,  and how was it related to other buildings in the area through ritual practices? What was the temple actually used for? How was it decorated? What aspects of Hatshepsut’s life and rulership were emphasized in the imagery? 

 Chose its site because it was associated with a very prominent  goddess in the Egyptian Parthenon, the goddess Hathor, and as a  female pharaoh, it is good to link yourself with a site that is associated  with a goddess 

 Architecture is mostly outside of the temple 

o Series of large exterior courtyards 

o Very few interior spaces (some colonnades) 

o True interior is cut back into the clif 

 Temple would have been painted and planted with fountains  A place for a spirit but pharaoh not actually buried here  2 sacred spaces are dedicated to gods and in the very back a  

sanctuary for the god Amun (emphasizing her own lineage and her  own divinity) 

 She performed a ritual every year inaugurating the cult statue of the  god Amun, removing the statue from the Temple of Karnak and placing  it in Hatshepsut’s temple for several weeks (aka the beautiful festival  of the valley) 

 Building set up for everyday worship, honoring Hatshepsut and other  gods and goddesses 

 Decorated with extensive painting and sculptures 

 Hundreds of sculptures set up along the columns… used for displaying  her power

 Reliefs of Hatshepsut’s divine birth and lineage 

o Laying claim to divine ancestry 

o Her father became possessed with Amun’s body and  

impregnated her mother 

o Helps show her right to rule 

 Reliefs of her armies 

o Showing her military power 

 Reliefs of Hatshepsut’s famous expedition to Punt 

o Emphasis on punt expedition is supposed to suggest she is a  good ruler and brings new things and undertakes missions o Efective leader 

Define these terms: 

Mortuary temple - were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the  vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to  commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh under whom they were constructed,  as well as for use by the king's cult after death 

Ankh – symbol for key of life 

barque/bark – sailing vessel  

iconoclasm - is the social belief in the importance of the destruction of icons  and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political  reasons 

Identify these works: 

Mortuary Temple and Statue of Hatshepsut, New Kingdom, Egypt, ca. 1473- 1458 BCE

Akhenaten and the Amarna Period 

Answer these questions:  

Describe the religious changes that the pharaoh Akhenaten instituted during  his reign. What were some of the reasons behind these changes?  Before 

o Pharaoh Amenhotep IV 

o Main Power Base: Thebes 

o Sun God Amun (Amun-Re) and other gods 

o Polytheism 

 After 

o Pharaoh Akhenaten 

o Main Power Base: Akhenaten (now Amarna) 

o Sun God Aten (Ra/Re) and no other gods 

o Monotheism 

 Shuts down all temples dedicated to amun-re and dismisses the priests and declares a new system of monotheism 

 Number of sanctuaries of gods were closed causing major social  upheaval 

 Proclaims himself son of this new god 

o Using divine lineage to promote personal power 

 Reasons? 

o Priests were becoming very powerful, so could have been a  political move 

o Maybe he actually just believed it too 

Describe the strange style of the art produced in the Amarna Period under  Akhenaten and his immediate followers, particularly the changes in the  depiction of the human figure. What makes this style so different from the  “canonical style” of earlier Egyptian pharaohs? What are some of the  possible reasons for these strange ways of depicting the human figure? In  what ways is the Amarna Period style both more and less realistic than the  canonical style? 

 This period constitutes the greatest departure from the typical  Egyptian style that we have been looking at 

 “canonical style” 

o Used for royalty and divinities 

o Rigid and still 

o Symmetrical 

o Idealized 

o Cubic form 

 New style 

o Proportion of body is totally changed 

o Body is elongated and stretched out full of sinuous curves

o Has a very narrow waist 

o Wide hips and swelling belly 

o Tiny neck 

o None of the heroic muscular chest 

o Usually typical features of a female body 

o Facial features are elongated and exaggerated (expressionistic)   Why did he depart from usual art style? 

o Emphasizing this single god as having both male and female  characteristics and so he might share those as he is the son of  this god (god has become sexless, mother and father) 

o Place great emphasis on their own kind of personal family  lineage and fertility 

o Taking on androgynous quality because he was emphasizing the  androgynous characteristics of the new god 

 Less realistic style in that everything is exaggerated with weird  proportions, however 

 Have emotional realism / liveliness 

o Figures interacting in a realistic way to life 

o Casual  

o Emphasis on family 

o Full of movement 

Define these terms: 

Monotheism – belief in 1 god 

Polytheism – belief in many gods 

sunken relief ­ carving is sunk below the level of the surrounding surface Identify these works: 

Monumental Statue of Akhenaten, Egypt, ca. 1353-1335 BCE

Sunken Relief of Akhenaten and his family, Egypt, ca. 1353-1335 BCE

Archaic Greek Statues: Kouros, Kore, and Kroisos 

Answer these questions: 

Describe the Archaic Greek figural style and its development over time  Period of increasing contact with Egypt 

 Take Egypt’s tradition of large-scale figurative sculpture  Mantiklos Apollo 

o One of the earliest sculptures in Greece made with bronze o Nude 

o Proportions of figure are wild 

 Move onto Kouros 

How does a figure like the Metropolitan Kouros or the Kroisos both rely on and depart from the conventions of Egyptian sculpture? How should we  understand the blend of idealization, abstraction, and naturalism found in  these statues? 

 Kouros 

o Standing, nude, male figure (standard) 

o Erect, proud, still posture 

o Act as embodiments of the virtue of young men (bravery,  strength, pride) 

 Similarities between Egyptian sculpture and Greek 

o Pose of the Kouros figure is exactly the same as the pose of the  Egyptian pharaoh (fists down at sides, a very frontal posture,  very squared shoulders, expressionless face, one foot in front of  the other but not in motion) 

o Conception of standing very still 

o Post of the legs and fists make it extra clear the Greeks were  copying what the Egyptians were doing 

 Differences 

o Figure in Kouros is nude 

o Kouros is not image of a ruler / do not need markers of status  meant to embody every Greek man / classic embodiment  of Greek virtue 

 nudity makes the figure more anonymous  

o Kouros figure is less muscular, slighter, less bulky (meant to  represent younger men) 

o Body is much more liberated from the block of stone 

 Kroisos 

o Still a Kouros statue 

o Same pose as older ones 

o Figure is bulkier and more muscular 

o Older 

o More naturalistic

o Greeks become more focused on creating more realistic people  (idealized still) 

o Older one shows more abstraction 

o Kroisos more heroic body then older Kouros statues 

What was the actual function of statues like the Kroisos?   Meant to be funerary markers 

 Could be votive offerings 

 More often meant to represent young men 

 Set outside temples or cemeteries  

Define these terms: 

Kouros (kouroi) – young man 

Kore (korai) ­ female 

Identify these works: 

Metropolitan Kouros, Archaic Greece, ca. 600 BCE

Kroisos, Archaic Greece, ca. 530 BCE

Classical Greece: The Acropolis in Athens 

Answer these questions: 

How did the Athenians respond to the destruction of their city by the Persians in 480 BCE? In what ways was the Acropolis a “retrospective” or “memorial”  site? 

 Parthenon and temples have a memorial / retrospective function  They memorialize the events that happened at the acropolis at the  hands of the Persians in a number of ways 

 At first the Athenians left the ruins done by Persians on the original  temples as a propagandistic move to remind people of the savagery  Pericles decided that it was important to rebuild it 

 Pericles used pieces of the older destroyed buildings as a kind of  memory marker of what had happened and leave them visible  Include a number of proportions from original buildings, do not rebuild  to exact same size 

 Athena holding Nike (victory over the Persians) 

What are the primary architectural features of a Greek temple? How did its  form reflect its function? What is significant about the existence of these  “orders” in the first place? 

 Classically formed Greek temples 

 Always thought as houses for the gods 

 Were not congregational spaces, but inside was created for a cult  statue 

 Altars set up outside temple 

 Monumental columns and triangular shapes above the columns called  pediments 

o Deep porches and walkways around the building 

 Greeks first to use the column systematically 

 Column has become in European and American culture, the  iconography of power 

 Parthenon was Doric 

o Built according to a mathematical formula 

o X columns on side, 2x+1 column on the long side 

o Created specifically to be a show piece (no mortar used) o Building and platform itself are not entirely straight and not  meant to be 

o Entire platform is very slightly curved 

o Columns swell slightly in the middle 

o Called optical refinements

What are the primary areas of decoration on the Parthenon? What kind of  imagery was represented? How were ideas of “the other” constructed? How did the Athenians use the imagery to assert their superiority? 

 The sculptural decoration conveys a number of political and ideological themes 

o the triumph of the Greek DEMOCRATIC states over the Persian  IMPERIAL ones, and thus the triumph of democracy over tyranny o the pre-eminence of Athens and the Athenian people within  Greece, thanks to Athena 

o the triumph of an enlightened Greek civilization over barbarians  Pediments 

o Show images of gods 

o On east side - scene of Athena 

o On west side – contest between Athena and Poseidon 

 Metopes 

o All show scenes of battles 

o Greeks fighting against outsiders (barbarians) 

o Stands in for the fight against the Persians 

 Frieze 

o Shows an Athenian civic parade/festival 

o Shows the panathanaic procession 

o Happened to honor Athena 

o Shows all types of Athenians (no leaders) 

o Superiority of democratic system 

Define these terms: 

Column – pillar in architecture 

Triglyph and metope – vertically channeled tablets and spaces between  these tablets 

Frieze – a broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration Pediment – triangular upper part of the front of the building Spolia – repurposed building stone for new construction 

Cella – inner chamber, where the cult statue was 

Identify these works: 

Parthenon and Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 5th Cent. BCE

Statue of Athena from the Parthenon by Phidias (lost), 5th Cent. BCE  

Centauromachy, Metope from the Parthenon, 5th Cent. BCE

Classical Greek Sculpture: The Doryphoros of Polykleitos and the Aphrodite of Knidos Answer these questions: 

Discuss the Doryphoros as an embodiment of Greek cultural and aesthetic  ideals. What did the combination of idealization and naturalism allow Greek  sculptors to express? What details about the statue’s form and design are  significant? 

 High classical style 

 Links between the sculptural style and the architectural style: both put  ideas about rationality, proportion, harmony, order, and idealization  Tasteful and restrained 

 Continues the tradition of the gross statues 

 Life size nude male figure standing straight with one foot in front of the other 

 Doryphoros is more muscular and little older 

o Lot more freedom from the block 

o Different stance 

o Originally made of bronze but did not survive 

o Meant to be a showpiece 

o Called it the canon – implied it was meant to embody a candidate of proportions, an ideal way of doing things 

o Meant to communicate arete 

o Fullest combos of naturalism and idealism 

 Naturalism is how the human body actually is and moves  Idealization means creating a perfect version 

o Shift of the weight of the body onto 1 leg 

 Introduces a series of asymmetries 

 Makes the body enliven and full of movement 

 Create an x (chiastic movement)  

 Body is responding to gravity and the earth the way an  actual human does 

o Meant to appear at ease, confident 

o Restraint, ready to fight 

o Ideal of Greek masculinity to be powerful but wise 

o Iconography of heroism  

Describe the differences in the treatment of the male nude and the female  nude in ancient Greek sculpture. 

 Nude – men exist in a world in which there are no clothes, not self conscious 

 Naked – clothes exist, women are self-conscious 

What is the feminist interpretation of the Aphrodite of Knidos? What evidence supports this interpretation and what evidence contradicts it? How do the

primary sources discussed in class demonstrate the way that people in the  Ancient World viewed and engaged with the statue? What is the role of the  viewer?  

 Aphrodite is about to get into the bath when she notices someone  coming in and her hand moves to cover her genitals and she turns her  head towards the sound 

o Become engaged with what is going on with the artwork o We are the intruder 

 Introduce idea of voyeurism – we are seeing something we are not  supposed see 

 Erotic – construct her body as something that is not supposed to be  seen but what people want to see 

 Produced for the male gaze 

 Hand that covers also points 

 Our desire to see is matched by figure’s desire not to be seen  Idealization of female humiliation 

 Viewer as voyeur 

 Reducing women to sexual objects 

Define these terms: 

Contrapposto – means counterpose or counterweight 

Arete ­ excellence 

Pudica pose – modesty gesture (covering genitals and crouching) 

Scopophilia – pleasure derived through looking 

the “male gaze” – depicting women from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that  represents women as sexual objects 

Identify these works: 

Doryphoros by Polykleitos, Roman Copy of Greek Original, ca. 450-440 BCE  (5-41)

Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, Roman Copy of Greek Original, ca. 350 BCE (5-62)