Full Description
Why is something a masterpiece? Art History 101 . . . Without the Exams is about revisiting famous works of art that we may have studied in an art history class or seen in a textbook. Each discussion delves into one great masterpiece and asks the questions that help us understand how it has shaped history. What is the piece about? How did the original owner look at this piece? Where was it originally placed? Why is it in this museum now? How did it get famous? From the sixth-century mosaics of Ravenna and the painted bulls of Altamira, Spain, dated 12,500 BCE, to an incense burner from twelfth-century Seljuk Iran, frescoes from a Late Byzantine funerary chapel, and masterworks by Botticelli, Caravaggio, Monet, and Sargent, this book shows readers how to look closely. It welcomes us to the joy of art history—but without the papers, notes, and exams.
Contents
Introduction;
1. Prehistoric Art (13,000 BCE) - Altamira
2. Assyrian Art (883-859 BCE) - Assurnasirpal II Killing the Lions
3. Greek Art (c. 515 BCE) - The Euphronios Krater
4. Greek Art (Second century BCE) - Nike of Samothrace
5. Roman Art (Last decade of first century BCE) - Villa at Boscotrecase
6. Early Byzantine Art (c. 547) - San Vitale, Ravenna
7. Romanesque Art (1123) - Sant Climent de Taüll
8. Islamic Art (1181-82) - Incense Burner of Amir Saif al-Dunya wa'l-Din ibn
Muhammad al-Mawardi
9. Gothic Art (1239-1248) - Sainte-Chapelle
10. Late Byzantine Art (1316-1321) - The Chora Church
11. Northern Renaissance Art (1434-1436) - Jan van Eyck, The Annunciation
12. Italian Renaissance Art (1483-1485) - Botticelli, The Birth of Venus
13. Netherlandish Art (1565) - Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters
14. Italian Baroque Art (1599-1600) - Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew
15. Dutch Baroque Art (1642) - Rembrandt, The Night Watch
16. Spanish Baroque Art (1655-60) - Velázquez, Las Hilanderas
17. Romantic Art (1818-1819) - Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa
18. Impressionism (1872) - Monet, Impression Sunrise
19. American Art (1882) - Sargent, El Jaleo
20. Modern Art (1907) - Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
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