Intermediate certification for MHC grade 10
Block: Artistic culture of the Ancient World.
1. The first art form in history primitive society was:
a) architecture b) painting c) dance
2. The first to paint on walls using paints were:
a) Neanderthals b) Cro-Magnons c) this is not known to science
3. What was least common in early rock paintings:
a) image of animals b) image of people and plants
c) both people and animals were depicted equally rarely
4. Which of the proposed architectural structures does not belong to the Seven Wonders of the World:
a) Tower of Babel b) Hanging Gardens of Babylon
c) Alexandria lighthouse d) statue of Zeus at Olympia
5. The Sphinx is a stone structure in the form of:
a) a lion with the head of a man b) a man with the head of a jackal c) a cat with the head of a man
6. What was the name of the great book of wisdom of the ancient Hebrew people?
a) New Testament b) Bible c) Gospel
7. The statues of girls decorating the acropolis were called :
a) columns b) bark c) sculptures
8. Choose the correct statement:
a) The creator of the Odyssey was Homer b) Homer created the Odyssey, and the Iliad was Hesiod
c) Homer wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey
9. Ancient literature is called:
A) Literary works Ancient Greece
b) Literary works of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome c) Literature of Ancient Rome
10.What is the name of the most famous ancient Greek temple?
a) Acropolis b) Parthenon c) Ilion
11. The creator of Buddhism, Prince Guatama, received the popular name Buddha, which means:
a) Fair b) Wise c) Enlightened
Block: Art of the European Middle Ages
12. The Middle Ages cover the time period:
a) from the 5th century BC. e. until the 5th century AD e. b) from the 5th century AD. e. until the 15th century AD e c) from the 10th century AD. e. until the 17th century AD
13. The most famous temple in Constantinople (now Istanbul):
a) the temple of St. Sophia b) the temple of St. Olga c) the temple of St. Helena
14. Trouvères, troubadours, vagantes, goliards are:
a) medieval warriors b) medieval traveling singers c) highwaymen
15. The 9 circles of hell are described in _______________________ Dante
16. In the 13th century, a book appeared about the life and customs of the peoples of Asia, for a long time served as a guide for compiling geographical maps, written:
a) Thomas Aquinas; b) Venetian merchant Marco Polo; c) Roger Bacon
17. The style of architecture that developed in Europe in the 12th-15th centuries was called:
a) Romanesque b) Gothic c) Empire
18. In the middle of the 14th century, a new culture was born in Italy - the culture of _______________, which would then spread throughout Western Europe, giving the beginning and name to an entire era that would last until the mid-16th century.
Block: Art Ancient Rus'
19. The main influence on the art of Ancient Rus' was:
a) the art of Western Europe b) the art of the Ancient East c) the art of Byzantium
20. Which of the following statements is true:
a) “The Tale of Bygone Years” was written in 862;
b) "The Tale..." was written in the 12th century, based on several, more ancient sources
c) “The Tale of Bygone Years” is nothing more than a beautiful poetic invention of the monk Nestor
21. “The Tale of Igor’s Host” was written:
a) in the 10th century b) in the 12th century c) in the 18th century
22. The most significant form of art in Ancient Rus' was:
a) temple architecture b) literature c) music
23. St. Basil's Cathedral was built in honor of the victory
a) over the Swedes b) over the Germans c) over the Tatars
24. The icon of the “Vladimir Mother of God” was written:
a) Andrei Rublev b) an unknown Greek painter at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries
c) Theophan the Greek
25. The Moscow Kremlin was built with the help of:
a) Italians b) French c) Germans
26. This type of artistic depiction of people was most poorly developed in Rus', one of the reasons was the negative attitude of the church, which saw the similarity between these images and pagan idols. And only in the 18th century this type of art will begin to actively develop. And we are talking about...:
a) portraiture b) sculpture c) illustrations in books
Block: Art of the European Renaissance
27. The Renaissance in Europe covers:
a) XI-XV centuries b) XIV-XVI centuries c) XVI-XVII centuries
28. The revival in Europe was most clearly manifested:
a) in France b) in the Netherlands c) in Italy
a) Botticelli b) Raphael c) Leonardo da Vinci
(1 point)
30. The paintings “Birth of Venus” and “Spring” were created by:
a) Raphael b) Sandro Botticelli c) Leonardo da Vinci
31. Sculpted the sculpture of David:
a) Donatello b) Brunelleschi c) Michelangelo
32. The cultural centers of the early Renaissance in the 15th century were:
a) Florence and Milan b) Venice and Naples c) Rome d) All of them were cultural centers Renaissance
33. The great scientific discovery of the Renaissance was made by:
a) N. Copernicus: heliocentric system of the world b) I. Newton: the law of universal gravitation
c) D. Bruno: the idea of a plurality of worlds
34. Does not apply to the Renaissance:
a) Francesco Petrarch b) Dante Alighieri c) Johannes Gutenberg
35. A new type of building - palacio, which appeared during the Renaissance is:
a) city palace b) country villa c) merchant mansion
36. Establish a correspondence between the names of Renaissance artists and the titles of their works:
a) Raphael; b) Leonardo da Vinci; c) Michelangelo Buanorotti;
1) Last Supper; 2) statue of David; 3) Sistine Madonna;
Keys
1c 12b 19c 27b
2b 13a 20b 28c
3b 14b 21b 29c
4a 15 Divine 22a 30b
5a comedy 23v 31v
6b 16b 24b 32g
7b 17b 25a 33a
8c 18 Renaissance 26b 34b
9b 35a
10b 36 a-3 b-1 c-2
11v
18 or less points - “2”
19-27 points - “3”
28-36 points - “4”
37-38 points - “5”
The role of art in primitive society
Introduction
Modern anthropology does not provide reliable answers to questions about the time and reasons for the transition from Homo habilis to Homo sapiens. It is obvious that man has passed through his biological and social development long haul. At the same time, the era of primitiveness -the longest period in human history.
Primitive art, that is, the art of the era of the primitive communal system, developed over a very long time, and in some parts of the world - in Australia and Oceania, in many areas of Africa and America - it existed until modern times. In Europe and Asia, its origins date back to the Ice Age, when much of Europe was covered in ice and tundra lay in what is now southern France and Spain. Initially, thanks to primitive art, various skills and knowledge were preserved and transmitted, and people communicated with it.
What exactly served as the impetus for the depiction of certain objects by primitive man is unknown. Either it was the war paint of the bodies, or the imprint of the feet of a person or animal, or it was the shadow of an animal or person that he accidentally saw. The answer to this question has never been found. Ancient people could have come up with the idea of depicting what they saw in many ways.
The purpose of this essay is to determine the role of art in primitive society.
Based on the goal, you can set tasks:
.Studying the history of art development
.Determination of the characteristics of primitive art
.Analysis of its role in primitive society.
1. The Birth of Art
The history of art in the history of mankind presents a complex picture of the development of various national schools, movements, styles, interpenetrations of forms and traditions that know no time or geographical boundaries.
The origins and roots of our culture are in primitive times. Primitiveness - childhood of humanity. Most of human history dates back to the primitive period.
It is obvious that man has traveled a long and very winding path in his biological and social development. In times and eras inaccessible to our definition, people settled on the globe. It took place within vast areas, was endlessly scattered, but at the same time had an all-encompassing, unified character.
The radical difference between man and animals is that the surrounding objective world is the object of his thinking and religion.
The formation of groups and communities, awareness of its semantic meaning is another descriptive quality of a person, only when greater cohesion begins to arise between primitive people, instead of horse and deer hunters, settled and organized humanity appears.
The emergence of art is a natural consequence of the development of labor activity and technology of Paleolithic hunters, inseparable from the formation of the clan organization, the modern physiological type of man. The volume of his brain increased, many new associations appeared, and the need for new forms of communication increased.
Art is one of the elements of culture, interpreted in modern cultural studies as the degree of improvement of artistic technologies, the result of human activity and the degree of personal development.
Art is such a bright and significant phenomenon of human activity that its origin is the result of so many reasons - both objective and subjective. Important in his development as social environment, and the genius of a certain lone creator.
There are many theories explaining how art arose. For quite a long time, a religious theory of the origin of art existed, still maintaining a dominant position in a number of countries. There are also supporters of the theory of the origin of art from a sense of mystical fear.
The theory of play has a centuries-old tradition, according to which art is a type of game. Game theory was first put forward by F. Schiller (1864-1937). The excess of physical and spiritual strength inherent in humans manifests itself in play - aimless activity. Enjoyment of the game is also facilitated by the biologically inherent desire for beauty in humans. This position was substantiated by G. Spencer (1820-1903). J. Huizinga (1872-1945) pointed out that culture as a whole arises in the form of play. Thus, both those types of activities that were aimed at satisfying the needs of life, such as hunting, and art appeared.
According to erotic theory, art arises as a means of attracting individuals of the opposite sex.
Z. Freud pointed out that the source of art is in the unconscious. Creative process allows a person to escape from reality into a fantasy world and thus satisfy the sexual and aggressive desires inherited from ancient ancestors, which had to be hidden in a civilized society.
There is a theory of imitation; Democritus even said that imitation of birdsong gave birth to music. And Aristotle substantiated the reason for imitation.
The idealistic version of the imitative concept is called the “empathy theory,” according to which a person imitates the manifestation of himself in natural objects.
To understand how art was born, it is necessary to find out the real, specific conditions that gave rise to artistic creativity, since art did not always exist, but appeared in a certain era.
Reconstruction of the spiritual culture of primitive society is possible based on the study archaeological finds- skillfully processed stones, bone products, ceramics, rock paintings, etc., as well as ethnographic materials indicating the development of religion, mythology, morality, musical and artistic creativity of backward peoples. G.V. Plekhanov (1856-1918) wrote that in primitive society “art is a direct image of the production process.”For example, dancing represents an image production processes. That's why “the practically useful preceded the aesthetically pleasing”. This judgment is an extreme expression of the materialist understanding of history.
F. Engels showed great caution in such reconstructions. In his work “The Role of Labor in the Process of Transformation of Ape into Man,” he highlights the fact that in the course of evolution, in humans, along with the development of the hand, articulate speech appears, more advanced sense organs appear, and human aesthetic feelings are developed. Thus, art and work developed simultaneously.
An important question is the purpose and purpose of primitive art. There is also no single answer here. In Soviet historiography, the prevailing opinion was that art, like knowledge, is one of the forms of knowledge of the real world. The most ancient stages of history are characterized by the indivisibility (syncretism) of human consciousness, in which moral, religious, aesthetic elements are intertwined, as well as the rudiments scientific knowledge, which are developed and used in the process of practical activity.
Another approach was that art was independent of social life and industrial practice. These views underlie the ideas of “pure art”, “art for art’s sake”, i.e. idealistic views. It is concluded that the roots of art lie not in the material sphere, but in the minds of people or are given to people “from above.”
Archaeological research shows that before touching art, man went a long way in his development.
art paleolithic primitive society
2. Periodization of primitive history
The oldest period of human history (prehistory) - from the appearance of the first people to the emergence of the first states - was called primitive communal system,or primitive society.At this time, there was a change not only in the physical type of a person, but also in tools, housing, forms of organization of groups, family, worldview, etc. Taking these components into account, scientists have put forward a number of systems for the periodization of primitive history.
The most developed is archaeological periodization, which is based on a comparison of human-made tools, their materials, forms of dwellings, burials, etc. According to this principle, the history of human civilization is divided into centuries - stone, bronzeAnd iron.In the Stone Age, which is usually identified with the primitive communal system, three eras are distinguished: paleolithic(Greek - ancient stone) - up to 12 thousand years ago, Mesolithic(middle stone) - up to 9 thousand years ago, Neolithic(new stone) - up to 6 thousand years ago. Epochs are divided into periods - early (lower), middle and late (upper), as well as into cultures characterized by a uniform complex of artifacts. The culture is named according to the place of its modern location (“Chelles” - near the city of Chelles in Northern France, “Kostenki” - from the name of a village in Ukraine) or according to other characteristics, for example: “culture of battle axes”, “culture of log burials”, etc. .
The creator of Lower Paleolithic cultures was a man of the Pithecanthropus or Sinanthropus type, the Middle Paleolithic was a Neanderthal, and the Upper Paleolithic was a Cro-Magnon. This definition is based on archaeological research in Western Europe and cannot be fully generalized to other regions. In the territory former USSR About 70 sites of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic and about 300 sites of the Upper Paleolithic were studied - from the Prut River in the west to Chukotka in the east.
During the Paleolithic period, people initially made rough hand axes from flint, which were standardized tools. Then the production of specialized tools begins - these are knives, piercings, scrapers, composite tools, such as a stone axe. The Mesolithic is dominated by microliths - tools made of thin stone plates, which were inserted into a bone or wooden frame. It was then that the bow and arrows were invented. The Neolithic is characterized by the production of polished tools from soft stones - jade, slate, slate. Master the technique of sawing and drilling holes in stone.
The Stone Age is being replaced short period Chalcolithic, i.e. the existence of cultures with copper-stone tools.
The Bronze Age (Latin - Chalcolithic; Greek - Chalcolithic) began in Europe from the 3rd millennium BC. At this time, in many regions of the planet, the first states emerged and civilizations developed - Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mediterranean (Early Minoan, Early Helladic), Mexican and Peruvian in America. On the Lower Don, settlements of this time have been studied in Kobyakovo, Gnilovskaya, Safyanovo, and on the shores of the Manych lakes.
The first iron products appeared on the territory of Russia in the 10th-7th centuries. BC. - among the tribes that lived in the North Caucasus, the Volga region, Siberia and other regions. Let us note that frequent and massive migrations of various peoples from the east, passing through the territory of Central Russia and the Don steppes, destroyed the settlements of the sedentary population, destroyed entire cultures that could, under favorable conditions, develop into civilizations and states.
Another system of periodization, based on a comprehensive description of material and spiritual cultures, was proposed in the 70s of the 19th century. L. Morgan. In this case, the scientist was based on a comparison of ancient cultures with modern cultures American Indians. According to this system, primitive society is divided into three periods: savagery, barbarism and civilization. The period of savagery is the time of the early tribal system, it ends with the invention of the bow and arrow. During the period of barbarism, ceramic products appeared, agriculture and animal husbandry appeared. The civilization is characterized by the emergence of bronze metallurgy, writing and states.
In the 40s XX century Soviet scientists P.P. Efimenko, M.O. Kosven, A.I. Pershits et al. proposed systems for the periodization of primitive society, the criteria of which were the evolution of forms of ownership, the degree of division of labor, family relationships etc. In general terms, such periodization can be represented as follows:
· the era of the tribal system;
· the era of the decomposition of the communal-tribal system (the emergence of cattle breeding, plow farming and metal processing, the emergence of elements of exploitation and private property).
3. Periodization of the art of primitive society
Now science is changing its opinion about the age of the earth and the time frame, but we will consider primitive art according to the generally accepted names of the periods:
1.Stone Age
1.1.Ancient Stone Age - Paleolithic... up to 10 thousand. years BC
2.Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic. 10-6 thousand years BC
3.New Stone Age - Neolithic. From 6 to 2 thousand years BC
2.Bronze Age. 2 thousand BC
3.Age of Iron. 1 thousand BC
Primitive art arose around the 35th millennium BC, in the late Paleolithic , when a modern type of person appears. By consolidating the results of labor experience in art, a person deepened and expanded his ideas about reality and enriched his spiritual world. The emergence of art took a huge step forward in cognitive activity people and contributed to the strengthening of the primitive community. The immediate cause of the emergence of art was the real needs of everyday life.
Until recently, there were two opposing views among scientists on the history of primitive art. Some scientists considered naturalistic painting to be the most ancient, others considered schematic signs and figures. However, experts now argue that both forms appeared at approximately the same time. For example, among the most ancient images of the Paleolithic era on the walls of caves are the handprints of an ancient person and wavy lines pressed into the clay by the same fingers.
When creating cave paintings, primitive man used natural dyes and metal oxides, which he either used in pure form, or mixed with water or animal fat. Cave images were made in black, red, brown and yellow mineral paints, less often - in the form of bas-reliefs, often based on the similarity of the natural convexities of the stone with the figure of an animal. He applied these paints to the stone with his hand or with brushes made of tubular bones with tufts of wild animal hairs at the end, and sometimes he blew colored powder through the tubular bone onto the damp wall of the cave. They not only outlined the outline with paint, but painted over the entire image. To make rock carvings using the deep cut method, the artist had to use rough cutting tools. To a large extent, the basis of Paleolithic art was the reflection of nature in living things, the spiritualization of natural phenomena, endowing them with human qualities. The bulk of the monuments of Paleolithic art are associated with the primitive cult of fertility and hunting rituals. In the Late Paleolithic, the beginnings of architecture took shape.
Rock paintings are varied in the manner of execution. Archaeologists have never discovered landscape paintings in the Old Stone Age. Most often they painted animals because they were feared and worshiped; trees and plants were only admired. Since images of animals had a magical purpose, the process of creating them was a kind of ritual, so such drawings are mostly hidden deep in the depths of the cave, in underground passages several hundred meters long, and the height of the vault often does not exceed half a meter. In such places, the artist had to work lying on his back in the light of bowls with burning animal fat. However, more often the rock paintings are located in accessible places, at a height of 1.5-2 meters. They are found both on cave ceilings and on vertical walls.
Features of Paleolithic art
The first works of primitive fine art appeared in the mature stage of the Aurignacian era (approximately 33-18th millennium BC). Since that time, female figurines made of stone and bone with exaggerated body shapes and schematized heads - the so-called Venuses, apparently associated with the cult of the ancestral mother - have become widespread across vast areas from Siberia to Western Europe. Similar “Venuses” were found in Lespug (France), Savignano (Italy), Willendorf (Austria), Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic), the village of Kostenki near Voronezh (RSFSR) and in many other places. At the same time, generalized expressive images of animals appear (figurines made of stone, bone and clay: engraved figures or heads on bone, stone, horn), recreating character traits mammoth, elephant, horse, deer, etc. The first wall cave images (relief, engraved and painted) date back to the Aurignacian era, most often reproducing the head or the front part of the body of an animal with roughly generalized lines.
Figure 1. Picture of bison. Altimira cave ceiling painting. Upper Paleolithic
Figure 2. Image of deer. Relief from Lorte. Upper Paleolithic
Figure 3. Grazing reindeer. A picturesque image in the Font de Gaume cave (France, Dordogne department). Upper Paleolithic, Magdalenian time
Rock paintings, including cave paintings (Fig. 1, 2 and 3) of the Paleolithic era, flourished in the Solutrean and Magdalenian times (20-11th millennium BC) - mainly in the south of France (paintings in the Montignac caves , Nio, Lascaux, “Three Brothers”, etc.) and the north-west of Spain (paintings of the Altamira cave near Santander, etc.), but are also found in Italy (in the vicinity of Rome, in the Otranto region and in Palermo), as well as in Urals (the so-called Kapova cave on the Belaya River in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). The main motifs of the images, often covering vast areas, are full of life and movements of individual figures of large animals that were objects of hunting. Less common are schematic images of people and creatures that combine the characteristics of humans and animals, conventional signs, partially deciphered as reproductions of dwellings or hunting traps. The technique of cave painting improves over time. Precise, light contours of the line begin to play a subordinate role; boldly and accurately placed generalized color spots, applied with ocher, red, brown, black and yellow mineral paints, come to the fore. The subtle and soft gradation of tones, the overlay of one paint on another sometimes creates the impression of volume, a feeling of the texture of the skin of an animal. For all its vital expressiveness and realistic generality, Paleolithic art remains intuitive and spontaneous. It consists of individual specific images, there is no background, there is no composition in the modern sense of the word.
In the Late Paleolithic, architecture developed. Paleolithic dwellings apparently were low, dome-shaped buildings (round or rectangular in plan) buried about a third into the ground, sometimes with long tunnel-like entrances. As building material sometimes the bones of large animals were used. Numerous Paleolithic sites have been discovered in many regions of Europe and Asia, including on the territory of the USSR (in Ukraine and Belarus, in the Caucasus and Don, in Siberia, etc.).
Mesolithic art
The culture of the Mesolithic (the transitional period from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic; from about the 10th-8th millennium BC) reflects significant environmental changes (the end of the Ice Age) that influenced many aspects of the life of primitive man: the spread of open-air sites, intensive development fishing and hunting, the creation of new tools, the invention of the bow, the beginning of the domestication of animals, the transition to more active productive activities. Mesolithic rock art (discovered mainly in Eastern Spain) differs sharply from Paleolithic ones. An important place in them is occupied by the image of a person in action, multi-figure compositions: scenes of battles, hunting, etc. Several stylistic groups of images are distinguished. The first, which in particular includes drawings from Addora (Sicily), is distinguished by relative realism. Proportional and moderately detailed figures of people and animals are depicted in interaction. Groups of figures form clearly legible scenes. Then the images are stylized, becoming more and more conventional, with animal figures to a lesser extent than human ones. Subsequently, the tendency towards generalization intensifies. The Mesolithic artist frees the human figure from details that interfere with the transmission of movement, action, complex angles, and crowd scenes. By the end of the Mesolithic period, conventional figurative images gradually gave way to various signs and symbols. In rock art (in Granada, in the Sierra Morena region of Spain) there are various conventional forms that are similar in nature to the signs found on pebbles. Geometrization and schematism, which initially appeared in the southern regions of Western Europe, gradually spread to the north, all the way to Scandinavia.
Neolithic- New Stone Age
The Mesolithic was followed by the Neolithic - the New Stone Age or the Age of Polished Stone. During the Neolithic era, the production process, and therefore spiritual life, became somewhat more complicated.
If in the eras preceding the Neolithic, art developed approximately in the same way, now it acquired its own local characteristics in each region, by which one can distinguish the Neolithic of Egypt from the Neolithic of Mesopotamia, the Neolithic of Europe from the Neolithic of Siberia, etc.
The transition of primitive man from hunting to agriculture and cattle breeding (in those places where there were the best resources for this) favorable conditions) caused significant changes in primitive art. In the Neolithic era (from about the 8th-5th millennium BC) and the Bronze period (about the 3rd-2nd millennium - the beginning of the 1st millennium BC) images appeared that convey more complex and abstract concepts , there was a desire to create paintings real life. Many types of decorative and applied arts were formed (ceramics, metalworking, weaving; the art of ornament associated with them became widespread). Initially, certain types of ornament had a magical, cult meaning, but as they developed they acquired a purely artistic expressiveness. At the same time, Neolithic images have largely lost the bright realistic spontaneity of Paleolithic art and acquired conventional, stylized forms. During the Neolithic era, the unevenness of social and cultural development of different regions of Asia, Africa, and Europe intensified. The most mature forms of culture, associated with the intensive development of agriculture and cattle breeding, developed in Asia Minor and Western Asia, as well as in northeast Africa. Subsequently, the first class societies and slave states arose here (see Assyria, Babylonia, Ancient Egypt). Here already in the 3rd millennium BC. The main types of art emerged - architecture, sculpture, painting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that the emergence of art in primitive society made a huge step forward in human cognitive activity and contributed to the strengthening of the primitive community. In the spiritual culture of primitive man, art began to play the same role as a sharply sharpened stone in labor activity. The immediate cause of the emergence of art was the real needs of everyday life. By consolidating the results of labor experience in art, a person deepened and expanded his ideas about reality and enriched his spiritual world.
The emergence of primitive art, a new type of activity not directly aimed at satisfying pressing material needs, is associated with the development of human spiritual needs. However, these new needs only over time become aesthetic needs, feelings where the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base, etc. are already distinguished.
Works of fine art are the most striking manifestation of primitive artistic culture.
Art arises only when a person has free time, i.e. when the main problem is solved - the problem of survival - and another, qualitatively different problem is solved - life. However, primitive art, which is quite natural, reflects nothing more than the collective consciousness and, to an even greater extent, the collective unconscious of the era - it is of the same type, impersonal, syncretistic, mythological, figurative. In Europe - from Russia to France, on a territory stretching several tens of thousands of kilometers from west to east - a huge number of similar monuments of primitive art have been found, in which not only the plot, but also the stylistic unity of interpretation of some images is revealed.
Bibliography
1.History and cultural studies. Ed. second, revised and additional: Tutorial for university students / N.V. Shishova, T.V. Akulich, M.I. Boyko et al.; Ed. N.V. Shishova. - M.: Logos, 2000. - 456 p.:
2.Culturology. Main categories. Kravchenko A.I. 4th ed. - M Academic Project, Trixta, 2003 - 496 p.
3.Sidorenko V.I. History of styles in art and costume / Series “Secondary vocational education”. - Rostov n/d: Phoenix, 2004 - 480 p.
4.Sokolova M.V. World culture and art: textbook. aid for students higher textbook establishments/ M.V. Sokolova. - 3rd ed., rev. - M.: Publishing center "Academy", 2007. - 368 p.
5.Stolyarov D.Yu., Kortunov V.V. Culturology: A Textbook for Students distance learning all specialties. - M.: GAU im. S. Ordzhonikidze, 1998. - 102 p.
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Lecture No. 2. PRIMITIVE ART.
Primitive(or, otherwise, primitive) art geographically covers all continents except Antarctica, and in time - the entire era of human existence, preserved among some peoples living in remote corners of the planet to this day. The conversion of primitive people to a new type of activity for them - art - is one of the greatest events in the history of mankind. Primitive art reflected man’s first ideas about the world around him, thanks to it, knowledge and skills were preserved and passed on, people communicated with each other. In the spiritual culture of the primitive world, art began to play the same universal role that a pointed stone played in labor activity.
What gave a person the idea to depict certain objects? Who knows whether body painting was the first step towards creating images, or whether a person guessed the familiar silhouette of an animal in a random outline of a stone and, by cutting it, gave it a greater resemblance? Or maybe the shadow of an animal or person served as the basis for the drawing, and the print of a hand or foot precedes the sculpture? There is no definite answer to these questions. Ancient people could come up with the idea of depicting objects not in one, but in many ways.
Until recently, scientists adhered to two opposing views on the history of primitive art. Some experts considered cave naturalistic painting and sculpture to be the most ancient, while others considered schematic signs and geometric figures. Now most researchers express the opinion that both forms appeared at approximately the same time. For example, among the most ancient images on the walls of caves of the Paleolithic era are imprints of a person’s hand, and random interweaving of wavy lines pressed into damp clay by the fingers of the same hand.
Conventionally, the culture of primitive society for several periods:
Paleolithic
lower - up to 150 thousand BC. e.
average – 150 – 40 thousand BC e.
late (upper) – 40 – 10 thousand BC e. (Aurignac-Solutrean - 40 - 20 thousand BC;
Madeleine - 20 - 10 thousand BC).
PALEOLITHIC ART
The first works of primitive art were created about thirty thousand years ago, at the end of the era paleolithic, or ancient Stone Age.
The most ancient sculptural images today are the so-called “Paleolithic Venuses” - primitive female figurines. They are still very far from real resemblance to the human body. They all have some common features: enlarged hips, stomach and breasts, absence of feet. Primitive sculptors were not even interested in facial features. Their task was not to reproduce a specific nature, but to create a certain generalized image of a woman-mother, a symbol of fertility and keeper of the hearth. Male images in the Paleolithic era are very rare. In addition to women, animals were depicted: horses, goats, reindeer, etc. Almost all Paleolithic sculpture is made of stone or bone.
In the history of cave painting of the Paleolithic era, experts distinguish several periods. In ancient times (from about the 30th millennium BC), primitive artists filled the surface inside the outline of the drawing with black or red paint.
Later (from about the 18th to 15th millennia BC), primitive craftsmen began to pay more attention to details: they depicted wool with oblique parallel strokes, learned to use additional colors (various shades of yellow and red paint) to paint spots on the skins of bulls, horses and bison. The contour line also changed: it became brighter and darker, marking the light and shadow parts of the figure, folds of skin and thick hair (for example, the manes of horses, the massive scruff of bison), thus conveying volume. In some cases, ancient artists emphasized contours or the most expressive details with a carved line.
In the XII millennium BC. e. cave art reached its peak. The painting of that time conveyed volume, perspective, color and proportions of figures, and movement. At the same time, huge picturesque “canvases” were created that covered the arches of deep caves.
In 1868, in Spain, in the province of Santander, the Altamira cave was discovered, the entrance to which had previously been covered with a landslide. Almost ten years later, the Spanish archaeologist Marcelpo Sautuola, who was excavating in this cave, discovered primitive images on its walls and ceiling. Altamira became the first of many dozens of similar caves found later in France and Spain: La Mute, La Madeleine, Trois Freres, Font de Gaume, etc. Now, thanks to targeted searches, about a hundred caves with images of primitive times are known in France alone.
An outstanding discovery was made completely by accident in September 1940. The Lascaux cave in France, which became even more famous than Altamira, was discovered by four boys who, while playing, climbed into a hole that opened under the roots of a tree that had fallen after a storm. Painting of the Lascaux cave - images of bulls, wild horses, reindeer, bison, rams, bears and other animals - the most perfect piece of art from those that were created by man in the Paleolithic era. The most impressive are the images of horses, for example small, dark, stunted steppe horses that resemble ponies. Also interesting is the clear three-dimensional figure of a cow located above them, preparing to jump over a fence or pit-trap. This cave has now been turned into a well-equipped museum.
Subsequently, the cave images lost their vividness and volume; stylization (generalization and schematization of objects) intensified. In the last period, realistic images are completely absent. Paleolithic painting seemed to return to where it began: random interweaving of lines, rows of dots, and unclear schematic signs appeared on the walls of caves.
MESOLITHIC ART
In the era Mesolithic, or average stone age(XII-VIII millennia BC), the climatic conditions on the planet changed. Some animals that were hunted have disappeared; they were replaced by others. Fishing began to develop. People created new types of tools, weapons (bows and arrows), and tamed the dog. All these changes certainly had an impact on the consciousness of primitive man, which was reflected in art.
This is evidenced, for example, by rock paintings in the coastal mountainous regions of Eastern Spain, between the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. Previously, the focus of the ancient artist’s attention was on the animals he hunted, now on human figures depicted in rapid movement. If the Paleolithic cave paintings represented separate, unrelated figures, then in the Mesolithic rock paintings, multi-figure compositions and scenes began to predominate, which vividly reproduce various episodes from the life of hunters of that time. In addition to various shades of red paint, black and occasionally white were used, and egg white, blood and, possibly, honey served as a persistent binder.
A central place in rock art was occupied by hunting sequences, in which hunters and animals are connected by an energetically unfolding action. The hunters follow the trail or pursue the prey, 11 and as they run, they send a hail of arrows at it, inflicting the final fatal blow! strike or run away from an angry, wounded animal. At the same time, images of dramatic episodes of military clashes between tribes appeared. In some cases, apparently, we are even talking about execution: in the foreground there is a figure of a lying man pierced by arrows, in the second there is a close row of shooters raising their bows. Images of women are rare: they are usually static and lifeless. Large paintings were replaced by small ones. But the detail of the compositions and the number of characters are amazing: sometimes there are hundreds of images of humans and animals. Human figures are very conventional; they are rather symbols that serve to depict crowd scenes. The primitive artist freed the figures from everything, from his point of view, that was secondary, which would interfere with the transmission and perception of complex poses, action, the very essence of what is happening. For him, Man is, first of all, embodied movement.
NEOLITHIC ART.
Melting glaciers in Neolithic, or new stone age(5000-3000 BC), set in motion peoples who began to populate new spaces. The intertribal struggle for possession of the most favorable hunting grounds and for the seizure of new lands intensified. In the Neolithic era, man was threatened by the worst of dangers - another man! New settlements arose on islands in river bends, on small hills, etc. in places protected from sudden attack. Cave painting in the Neolithic era became more and more schematic and conventional: the images only slightly resembled a person or animal. This phenomenon is typical for different regions of the globe. Such, for example, are rock paintings of deer, bears, whales and seals found in Norway, reaching eight meters in length.
In addition to schematism, they are distinguished by careless execution. Along with stylized drawings of people and animals, there are various geometric shapes (circles, rectangles, rhombuses and spirals, etc.), images of weapons (axes and daggers) and vehicles (boats and ships). Reproduction of wildlife fades into the background. Primitive art played an important role in the history and culture of ancient humanity. Having learned to create images (sculptural, graphic, painting), man acquired some power over time. Man's imagination is embodied in a new
form of being - the artistic development of which can be traced through the history of art.
Types of megalithic structures
Menhirs - vertically placed processed or untreated stones. They reached a height of 20.5 m and weighed 300 tons.
In Brittany (France), entire fields of menhirs have been preserved. Menhirs were placed in Spain, Armenia, the Caucasus, and Siberia. There are several versions of the purpose of menhirs:
a) they were dedicated to memorable events, battles;
b) served as monuments over the grave or were dedicated to pa
wrinkle famous people;
c) were a place of worship or ceremony.
Menhirs had the most various shapes, depending on human habitats: these are deer stones, stones in the shape of a vishapa fish, etc.
Dolmens - composition of 2 or more supporting stones covered with a slab - prototype rack-and-bulb structural system. They are common in the same places as menhirs, the purpose is the same. They are found mainly in the mountains, in the North Caucasus. Sometimes dolmens were used as tombs, some as temporary dwellings. There are dolmens that are round and multifaceted in plan. Early dolmens are small - up to 1.5 m in height, made of 2-3 vertical stones covered with one slab, later ones are larger. Sometimes they had an entrance.
Cromlechs- stone slabs or pillars located in a circle. They were mainly a place of religious worship. Perhaps they were a prototype of a theater or circus. There is a version that cromlechs were used as astronomical observatories. They usually have a plan close to an oval or round shape and consist of individual menhirs, sometimes in combination with dolmens. Some of them have a compositional center.
The most complex and largest cromlech is Stonehndge in England (Fig. 1). It has geometricity, good stone processing and a pronounced compositional center in the form of an altar - an altar. Stonehenge consists of 2813 stones up to 15 m high and weighing up to 40 tons.
ART OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
Stages of culture Ancient Egypt:
Predynastic and archaic periods - from the end of 4 thousand BC;
Ancient (early) kingdom – 3000 – 2400. BC;
Middle Kingdom – 2100 – 1700 BC;
New Kingdom - 1584 - 1071 BC;
Late Egypt – 1071 – 332 BC;
Hellenistic period – 332 -30 AD BC;
In 30 BC. Egypt becomes one of the Roman provinces.
Since time immemorial, the ancient Egyptian civilization has attracted the attention of mankind. In the 5th century BC e. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt and left a detailed description of it. For the Greeks, Egypt is a land of wonders, the cradle of wisdom, the homeland of the most ancient gods. The very word “Egypt” (“riddle”, “secret”) is of Greek origin, and the Egyptians called their country Kemet, which means “black land”. In the 3rd century. BC e. Egyptian priest Manetho wrote Greek“History of Egypt,” in which he identified the periods of the Ancient, Middle and New Kingdoms, and also listed thirty-one dynasties of the pharaohs.
Ancient Egypt, like no other ancient civilization, creates the impression of eternity and rare integrity. Geographical position country - a narrow fertile valley of the mighty African Nile River, pressed from the west and east by desert sands - limited the world of the ancient Egyptians. Their civilization existed and developed according to its own laws for thousands of years, rarely being subjected to external invasions that befell other countries and peoples of the Ancient World.
The nature of Egypt - the expanses of sky and earth, the fiery disk of the sun, a huge, slowly flowing river, mountains with flat tops, palm groves, thickets of papyrus and lotus flowers - gave art motifs and forms and served as a source of inspiration.
The existence of Egypt depended on the floods of the Nile, which brought fertile silt to the fields: if they were late, the country was threatened with crop failure and famine. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Egyptians closely monitored the river floods. Their observations formed the basis of the ancient Egyptian calendar. In order for the land to produce high yields, it had to be irrigated, and this influenced the development of the art of construction and the exact sciences. A clear organization of government became possible thanks to the creation of hieroglyphic writing.
All inhabitants of Ancient Egypt submitted to the unlimited power of the pharaoh (Greek,"farao", from Egypt"feather" - " big house") - this is how local rulers were traditionally called. The pharaoh was deified during his lifetime and bore the title “son of the Sun.” Its existence was subject to complex ceremonies, the pomp of which increased as Egypt expanded its possessions. The pharaoh declared war, made peace, received foreign ambassadors, received rich gifts and distributed rewards himself.
Religion played a major role in the spiritual and practical life of ancient Egyptian society. The ancient Egyptians deified the forces of nature, plants, animals, birds and worshiped many gods. Nile was revered as the god Hapi, the giver of moisture and harvest. The Egyptians imagined the universe as a connection between the celestial Nile, where the solar god Ra sails in a boat, and the underground Nile, along which Ra returns, having defeated the forces of evil and darkness in the form of the serpent Apophis. Osiris, the god of fertility, dying and resurrecting nature, was considered the fourth mythical king of Egypt. He happily ruled the country with his sister and wife Isis, the goddess of fertility, water and wind. The god Osiris taught people to cultivate the land, plant gardens, build cities, and bake bread. After Osiris handed over the royal throne to the god Horus, his son, he retired to the kingdom of the dead, becoming a ruler and also a judge in the afterlife.
The most important place in the religion of Ancient Egypt was occupied by the funeral cult. The Egyptians believed that a person’s life continues after physical death, but only if his body remains incorrupt. This is how the custom arose of mummifying the bodies of the dead, that is, subjecting them to special treatment, thanks to which they are preserved for a very long time. According to the ancient Egyptians, a person is endowed with several souls. One of them lived in the statue of the deceased. Such a statue was placed in a tomb - an architectural structure, the size and splendor of the decoration of which depended on the nobility of the deceased. The images that decorated the burials were supposed to provide the soul of the deceased person with the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits that surrounded him during his life.
It was religion that determined the characteristics of ancient Egyptian art: mysterious, intimate, it was addressed not so much to the world of the living as to the kingdom of the dead. The works of art hidden in the tombs were not intended to be viewed. They, as their creators believed, possessed special magical powers and helped the deceased on his journey to the world of eternity. It is no coincidence that the Egyptians themselves used the word “artist” to mean “creator of life.”
Long years the names of the ancient Egyptian masters remained unknown. Meanwhile, architects, sculptors and painters occupied a high position in society. They were proud of the works of their hands, the perfection of knowledge. In the art of Ancient Egypt, many classical architectural forms(pyramid, obelisk, column), new types of sculpture and painting. The Egyptians achieved the highest skill in processing various materials. With the dominant role of architecture, all types of arts formed a magnificent harmonious unity in Ancient Egypt.
ART OF THE ANCIENT KINGDOM
According to legend, the first pharaoh of the 1st dynasty is Less (around the 3rd millennium BC). united Upper and Lower Egypt and founded the city of Memphis on the right bank of the Nile. During the era of the Old Kingdom (XXVIII-XXIII centuries BC)
Memphis became the main religious and artistic center of the country. The Ancient Kingdom - the era of the creation of writing, religious and secular laws, and the basic principles of artistic creativity - can be considered a truly golden age of Egyptian art.
Stages of pyramid development
1. Initially underground part burials were made in the form of a burial chamber with an earthen mound on top. In the era of the first pharaohs, tombs with sloping walls and a flat roof, called mastaba ( stone bench-Arab.)
resembled farmers' huts. Gradually, the underground part expanded, and the above-ground part began to be lined with stone. Several were done cenotaphs - chambers with false burials, rooms were arranged for investing household utensils, jewelry, and a real burial was made. At the entrance, on a low platform, sculpted heads of bulls were placed (an echo of totemistic beliefs).
In interior decoration used wood and stone. In a later period, courtyards - prayer houses - were remembered in front of the mastaba. Mortuary temples with statues of gods and pharaohs are located in the ground part. With the death of totemism, the heads of bulls disappear in front of the entrance.
2. Stepped pyramids appear by building one mastaba on top of another. An example is the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (2650 BC, architect - Imhotep). The pyramid was built on the site of the pyramid of the founder of the III dynasty, Sanah-ta, from small stone blocks. The plan of the pyramid is rectangular (107 x 116 m). Plays a big role decorative design complex. The chapel is crowned with a cornice with uraei. In stone masonry, tombs are imitated wooden structures. In the ornamentation of the friezes and in the capitals of the columns, stylized images of lotus buds, uraeus, and papyrus flowers are used.
The pyramid is devoid of decor; it is simple, laconic, and dynamic. For the first time, half-columns and columns are used, standing next to the wall and not bearing the load. The pyramid has 6 tiers and 1 underground floor. The height of the pyramid is 60 m. Inside some rooms, panels made of green faience tiles have been preserved.
The genius of Imhotep, who was the first builder of stone buildings, an astronomer and a doctor, was that for the first time in the history of ancient Egyptian architecture, he formed an architectural complex on an area of 1500 square meters. Around the main building, Imhotep placed courtyards, including for the ritual running of the pharaoh, prayer houses, mortuary temples, and a corridor-like passage decorated with semi-columns.
3. The three-stage pyramid in Medum (Fig. 2a) is, in fact, the next stage in the construction of pyramids. It was built on the site of the pyramid of the pharaoh of the III dynasty. Initially, the pyramid had 7 steps, which were gradually, during the construction of rows of masonry, lined, and the spaces between them were filled with fragments of building material and also lined. Now the pyramid has 2 steps and the top is strongly
destroyed part.
4. The pyramid of Snofru in Dashur (Fig. 26) is a pyramid not with straight, but with broken edges, the upper one has a greater slope. Inside it, free-standing pillars were used for the first time, acting as structural supports. There are 2 mortuary churches nearby.
5. Classic pyramids at Giza, 27th century. BC. (Fig. 3).
The famous pyramids at Giza successive rulers
The pharaohs of the IV dynasty Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, whom the Greeks called Cheops, Khafre and Mikkerin, are the next logical link in this chain of buildings. In them the idea of greatness and power found its most complete embodiment. The pyramids are correctly oriented, have cenotaphs, treasuries, many false passages and cameras, all kinds of sound and other “security” effects.
The Cheops pyramid had a height of 146.6 m (now - 137 m) and a base length of 234 m. The architect was Hemiun, the nephew of Cheops. The pyramid is not made of small blocks, echoing the brickwork, but of large limestone blocks, tightly fitted to each other without mortar. Their weight ranges from 2 to 40 tons.
To distribute pressure over the burial chamber, a system of unloading chambers was installed that regulates the shrinkage process, and a vault of double stone blocks hewn obliquely to each other. The granite sarcophagus is placed in a small chamber, which is accessed by a 50 m long gallery. The pyramid has a ventilation system and drainage channels.
For 10 years, a road was laid to deliver the blocks and, according to Herodotus, the construction of the pyramid took 20 years. 100 thousand slaves laid 2.3 million stone blocks held together by gravity. The pyramid was faced with polished limestone slabs, and the top of the pyramid was covered with alabaster slabs. The lower part may have been covered with red granite slabs.
The stone was delivered from quarries on the right bank of the Nile. The blocks were cut using wetted pieces of wood (wedges) and delivered on runners lubricated with fat or silt, as well as on log rollers. Stone was smelted across the Nile on rafts.
The Pyramid of Khafre is the second largest. One of the mortuary temples has been preserved near it. The powerful blocks of its granite architraves support free-standing massive granite rectangular pillars. The walls are made of pink granite, the floor is made of white limestone. The statues of Khafre that line the walls are made of black-green diorite. The height of the pyramid is 132 m. Next to the pyramid is the Great Sphinx (length 60 m) in the form of a lion with a human head in a royal scarf. Smaller sphinxes are installed on both sides of the rectangular entrances to the lower mortuary temple. These are the largest pyramids in Egypt. Each of the pyramids at Giza is surrounded by an architectural ensemble of small pyramids of queens and ma-taba of courtiers.
6. The last stage in the development of pyramid construction was the pyramids of the middle kingdom. They are much lower; very often, instead of a full-fledged stone building, only the stone skeleton of the pyramid was made, between the retaining walls of which a backfill was made from construction waste and broken t\ stone. The top of the pyramid was lined with stone slabs.
PYRAMIDS AND THE GREAT SPHINX
The pyramid of the outstanding military leader and founder of the III dynasty, Pharaoh Djoser (XXVIII century BC) is the first giant architectural monument of Ancient Egypt. It is located in Saqqara, on the southern outskirts of Memphis, and is the center of the funerary ensemble. The sixty-meter-high step pyramid, made of white limestone blocks, was erected by the architect Imhotep, who invented the method of masonry from cut stone. The Egyptians deified the architect and revered him as the son of the god Ptah - the creator of the Universe, the patron of arts and crafts.
The design of the Djoser pyramid, which is usually called the “mother of the Egyptian pyramids,” reflects three basic principles for the construction of such structures - gigantic size, pyramidal shape, and the use of stone as a building material. These features were later developed in the pyramids of the pharaohs of the 4th dynasty.
On the western bank of the Nile (now in Giza, near Cairo) rise the grandiose pyramids of the pharaohs of the IV dynasty: Khufu (the Greeks called him Cheops), Khafre (Gren. Khafre), Menkaure (Greek Mikerin). The pyramids were once lined with smoothly polished white limestone slabs (parts of which were preserved at the top of Khafre's pyramid). The base of the pyramids is square in shape, and the smooth edges form isosceles triangles. The greatest of them, the Pyramid of Cheops, was built in the 27th century. BC e. Its creator is the nephew of Pharaoh Hemiun. The pyramid (about one hundred and forty-seven high by its own gravity. The incredible precision with which the stone blocks were processed and placed one on top of the other is inexplicable even in our time. The gaps between them do not exceed half a millimeter. On the northern side of the Cheops pyramid, an inconspicuous entrance leads to a narrow, and then a more spacious corridor. Having passed along them, you can get into a small, carefully hidden burial chamber in the depths of the pyramid with a granite, long-emptied sarcophagus of the pharaoh. Through the ventilation system, dry desert air entered the chamber, which contributed to the preservation of the pharaoh's mummy.
The ancient Greeks considered the pyramids to be the first of the Seven Wonders of the World. Architectural monuments of subsequent eras, including the largest Christian temple in Europe - St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, dwarf next to the Pyramid of Cheops, the base of which is twice as wide as Red Square in Moscow.
The weight of information, facts, figures, speculation recedes into the background when directly meeting the pyramids. One of Napoleon's companions in his Egyptian campaign of 1798-1799 14. French scientist François Jomard wrote: “... when you approach the base of the great pyramid, you are seized by a deep and strong excitement, a feeling of shock and depression caused by the grandeur and simplicity of the forms, the contrast between man and the colossal creation of his hands; the eye cannot grasp it, the thought can hardly embrace it...”
The pyramids in Giza, as in Saqqara, formed the center of a huge funeral ensemble - with the funeral temples of the pharaoh and small pyramids of the royal relatives and entourage, who were supposed to be next to him even after the death of the ruler.
The architectural ensemble includes the famous reclining Great Sphinx, fifty-seven meters long and twenty meters high - an image of a lion with a human face carved out of the rock in its main part. Already in ancient times, the Sphinx was covered with sand. The young prince, the future pharaoh Thutmose GU (XV century BC), once after a hunt in the desert dozed off in its shadow and heard the voice of a stone giant asking to free him from the weight of the sand. Having become pharaoh, Thutmose IV fulfilled this request and ordered the sphinx to be decorated with a slab with a relief and an inscription telling about this event. The plate still exists today.
Judging by the descriptions and engravings of European artists, in early XIX centuries, only the head and shoulders of the sphinx were again visible. His face, disfigured by the soldiers of Napoleonic army, lost his nose (the size of which reached the height of an average person). After excavations were carried out again, the mighty lion's body and the clawed paws of the sphinx were revealed. His wide, high-cheekboned face (once painted red), possibly bearing a portrait resemblance to Pharaoh Khafre, is impenetrable and stern, his eyes turned to the east. The Arabs called the Great Sphinx the Father of Terror, but this statue, which has long attracted people, evokes a feeling of calm strength rather than fear.
SCULPTURE IN TEMPLES AND BURIALS.
Sculpture played a huge role in the art of the Old Kingdom. Egyptian statues were executed according to canon (Greek)"norm, "rule") - strict laws, to which fine art was subordinated. They were figures standing with a leg extended forward or sitting on a throne with their hands pressed to their chests or lying on their knees and their legs closed. Placed in funeral temples and tombs, the statues personified the dead and were the receptacle of their souls, and therefore were distinguished by their portrait resemblance to them. Each sculpture was carved from a rectangular block of stone according to pre-drawn markings and then carefully finished in detail.
The images created in the court workshops of Memphis, like all ancient Egyptian art, were acquired for eternity, therefore everything random, vain, and secondary was expelled from them. All the sculptures were united by the artistic canon: calm, symmetry and balance of majestic and frozen poses, monotony of gestures, impassivity of faces. At the same time, they are surprisingly vital. Each portrait from the Old Kingdom era is unique. In portrait images of pharaohs, sculptors embodied the desire for the significant and perfect. There were several types of canonical images of the pharaoh: walking with his leg extended forward; calmly sitting on the throne - his hands lie on his knees; the deceased - in the guise of the god Osiris with his arms crossed on his chest, holding symbols of power - a rod and a whip. The attributes of the pharaoh were also claft - a striped scarf with ends hanging down to the shoulders; dumb - headband: crowns - white, in the shape of a pin (symbol of Upper Egypt), and cylindrical red, with a high rounded protrusion at the back (symbol of Lower Egypt). Sometimes one crown was placed on top of another. Strengthened by a bandage in the middle of the forehead uraeus - image of a sacred cobra, guardian of royal power on earth and sky. Undressy headdress khepresh, looked like a blue helmet. In the appearance of the ruler, portrait resemblance had to be combined with solemn monumentality and grandeur. An example of this is the statue of Pharaoh Khafre (XXVII century BC), guarded by the falcon god Horus (in the mortuary temple in Giz).
The wooden statue of the nobleman Kaaper (mid-3rd millennium BC) - a portly, sedate elderly Egyptian with a staff in his hand - so struck the workers who found it during excavations with its resemblance to their village headman that it retained this name forever. The scribe Kaya (mid-3rd millennium BC) sits as if alive with his legs crossed, holding an open scroll of papyrus on his knees. Outwardly restrained, but internally tense, he seems to hang on every word of his master. In the paired statues of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret (first half of the 3rd millennium BC), seated on thrones, a state of naive purity and trusting participation in the sacrament is conveyed eternal life. According to tradition, the statue of Rahotep is painted reddish-brown, while the statue of Nofret is painted light yellow. The princess is depicted in white tight-fitting clothes and a short black wig, with a multi-colored necklace around her neck. The young woman has a dense figure, her rounded, somewhat heavy face, and expressive eyes captivate with their immediate vitality.
The architect Hemiun (XXVIII century BC), who built the great pyramid of Cheops, sitting on the throne, is an obese man with a swollen body and an imperious, cold, arrogant expression on his face. His appearance is marked by undoubted intellectual originality.
When making reliefs (sculptural images on a plane) and wall paintings, the traditional technique of planar arrangement of the figure was used: its legs and face were depicted in profile, the eye in front, and the shoulders and lower body in a three-quarter spread. The sculptors tried to show the character from different angles in this way, combining the most advantageous vantage points. Several masters took part in the creation of the reliefs. First, the experienced artist outlined the general composition on the wall, which was completed in detail by his assistants. Then the carvers translated the design into relief; at the last stage it was painted with thick, thick paints. In the image, the main role was played by line, not color. One of the reliefs shows the architect Khesira (XXVIII century BC). A slender, muscular figure with wide shoulders and a proud eagle profile speak of his inner strength.
Along with the flat relief, which almost did not protrude above the surface of the steppe, the so-called in-depth relief arose and later became widespread: the embedded image was filled with paint, and a colored silhouette appeared.
The reliefs unfolded one above the other; each was a narrative sequence. The figures were arranged in rows - in similar poses, with the same gestures; against the light background, the brick-red bodies of men and the yellow bodies of women stood out clearly. Rural work, the work of artisans, hunting, fishing, processions of gift bearers, funeral processions, afterlife feasts, boat building, children's games and many other scenes were depicted.
The “owner” of the tomb seems to be watching everything that happens. Pharaoh, nobleman or master
estates were always depicted as larger than their surroundings. In the relief of the tomb of Mereruk (XXVIII century BC), a huge figure of a nobleman is located, according to tradition, near the entrance to the tomb. At his foot sits the graceful Hervatethet, which barely reaches her husband’s knee. Powerful of the world This looks solemn and majestic even in scenes full of danger and excitement, as, for example, in the scene of the hunt for a hippopotamus (Ti’s tomb, 28th century BC).
The world of living beings and objects surrounding a person is conveyed reliably and recognizable: various animals, birds, fish, tools and musical instruments, clothes, jewelry. In the symbolic attributes of the pharaoh and the gods one can guess their real prototypes: in the uraeus (the emblem of power) - an Egyptian cobra standing on its tail, in the scarab (solar talisman) - an African dung beetle. These images are inspired by nature itself.
ART OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
In the last centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. e. a powerful centralized state, weakened by wars and grandiose construction, collapsed. During the era of the Middle Kingdom (XXI-XVIII centuries BC), the political center of the country moved to the city of Thebes. The local sun god Amon, later identified with the ancient god Ra, was revered here.
During this period, the independence of individual regions (nomes) and their rulers (nomarchs) increased, which led to the flourishing of local art schools. Having assumed some of the privileges of the pharaohs and having achieved almost complete independence, the nomarchs built their tombs in their own domains, and not at the foot of the Royal Pyramid. The pyramids themselves became much smaller and more inconspicuous. Constructed of brick with crushed stone and sand between the walls, they quickly collapsed.
The tombs of the nomarchs, carved into the rocks and preserved near the temporary settlement of Bepi-Hasan, gradually turned into treasure troves of works of art. Paintings prevail here over reliefs; this is explained by the fact that soft rocky limestone was not suitable for the execution of the latter.
The most famous works of this time include images of scenes of fishing and hunting in the Nile thickets (the tomb of the nomarch Khnumhotep, late 20th century BC). Fish is caught with a spear, birds are hunted with a boomerang and a net. A wild cat is hiding on a stem of flowering papyrus that has bent under its weight, an elegant flock of bright birds is hiding in the openwork foliage of an acacia tree, among them is a handsome hoopoe, orange, with black and white wings.
Many wooden objects were found in the tombs.