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NATIVE AMERICAN ART It is widely believed that native people migrated across what is now the Bering Strait about 10,000 years ago. Because of plentiful wild game, many groups continued to hunt and and were generally nomadic. Consequently, works by native peoples of the Americas often reflects the availability of necessary materials and its portability. North American native peoples created images that derived from mythical stories and spiritual experiences. In the Pacific Northwest, images are derived from stories that define the people's cosmology. For instance, the story of Raven, a figure who shows up often in native American folklore, recounts how this trickster eventually delivers fire to Man. Among the Stoney peoples of central Canada, works of art are derived from visions that occur in a dream. It is widely believed that through these dreams one sees a work and is given the ability to make it rather than learning through some conscious knowledge process. Mississipppian Culture dominated the central US. The Cahokia mounds near St. Louis and the local Angel Mounds are remnants of a civilization believed to be connected to a larger culture centered in Mexico. The native peoples of this region built large complexes and earthen mounds. Their artwork consisted of pottery, pipes, and other small artifacts A significant non-nomadic civilization arose in Mexico around the same time as ancient Rome. The Aztec culture exerted broad influence on both Americas. The city of Teotihuacan was, in its time, the largest city in the world. here we find exceptional examples of architecture. The Pyramids of the Sun and Moon are large structures reminiscent of Pyramids in Egypt and ziggurats of Mesopotamia. They do not appear to be burial places, but elevated places of worship. The city of Teotihuacan is built around these structures that are situated 35 miles northeast of Mexico City. One other architectural site of note is the city of Macchu Picchu an Incan city built in the Andes mountains of Peru. |
ISLAM
ISLAMIC ART arabesques: abstract designs
Mosques; from Masjid (place of worship)
The Great Mosque, Cordoba Taj Mahal |
INDIA Hindu Religion and Art
Sculpture Religious architecture generally uses multiple walled sactuaries which house others until an inner core is reached. it is a metaphor for a mother's womb. Painting tends to be flat and decorative, often portraying Krishna, the reincarnation of Vishnu. |
Buddhist Religion and Art -Buddhism was started by Siddhartha Gautama in the 5th C. BC. -He advocated following a "middle path" between excess and denial and believed that all suffering is the result of our personal desires. The way that he advocated was one of making the desires of the world less until one rose to a spiritual level called nirvana.
Architecture Sculpture |
Travelers Amid Streams and Mountains |
CHINESE ART The philosophical differences and similarities of China to the Western World of the same time are reflected in their art. For example, in Renaissance Italy the Classical idea of the development and importance of the "entire" person led to artwork that was based on the individual. The focus was on a single person with landscape or architecture as background. Chinese philosophers, in contrast, felt that Man was only a small part of a larger universe unto which he was subject. The figure in art, consequently, was sublimated to a minor role in paintings which featured the landscape as subject. If man was introduced into such a composition, he was depicted as small and insignificant compared to his surroundings. Chan Painting Yin and Yang literati painting-the literati were a group intellectual elites (much like artists in Renaissance Italy) who expressed their philosophical ideas through painting and calligraphy. Poets greatly influenced these artists of China.
"First we see the hills in the painting, then we see the painting in the hills," Li Li-Weng (one often receives a heightened awareness of nature through art)
Sculpture
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