Hang tight while we fetch the video data and transcripts. This only takes a moment.
Connecting to YouTube player…
Fetching transcript data…
We’ll display the transcript, summary, and all view options as soon as everything loads.
Next steps
Loading transcript tools…
202 Non-West | M. T. Ridlen | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: 202 Non-West
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
Video Summary
Summary
Core Theme
This content provides an overview of ancient and non-Western art, exploring diverse cultural expressions across different periods and regions. It emphasizes understanding art through its form, function, and context, highlighting how these elements reveal cultural values, beliefs, and societal structures.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
welcome to a extra-credit video about
ancient and non-western art these are
all the various chapters in our history
that we haven't had a chance to look at
because our class is so short and our
time is so limited so we're gonna talk a
little bit about why we left these all
these works of art all these different
places and periods off of our brief
survey so the thing you have to
understand is that all of these things
share a similar way in which we're going
to talk about them and not perfectly but
in non-western art and ancient art we're
talking about these cultural contacts in
a way that in the Western survey that we
did do that it makes the most sense to
look at the various process of art and
the processes of our that were are less
important to the rest of the world the
types of paintings and architecture and
sculpture and printmaking all of which
you have examples in front of you are
different in sporadic and so to cover
these vast things we're gonna sort of
get away from that discussion of how
these things were made and more about
the culture that produced them and what
they meant to that so you're gonna hear
this mantra a little bit Oh throughout
this which is form function and context
and it's my way of reminding myself that
there are the way things look which is
the form of an object the function how
that culture used that object and the
context the reasons and ideals that
surround that object and make it what it
is to that culture on the Left we have
an object from Egypt
this is a sculpture that would have been
placed in a tomb on the right we have an
gaw which are African priests depicted
and so both of these figures are priests
but they're vastly different depictions
and so a little of what we're gonna do
is a cross-cultural examination between
like what the way Egypt presents their
priestly figures versus the way after
the Congo people of Africa present that
they are priestly figures and so the
fact that these two cultures are
interested in the divine we're sort of
noting right there's this similarity of
cultural contact of a sort of human
nature that we start talking about
cultural things that they have in common
so we're gonna talk lots about the ways
in which cultures present divine
information right these are priests
figures also we're going to talk about
the politics of power and then lastly
we're also going to talk a little bit
about tombs and the dead so those three
areas are gonna be a lot of what we look
at and then and we're going to talk
about sculptures painting and
architecture and we're gonna sort of
create transitions as we sort of get
around the world to look at such a
variety of works of art I'll try and
draw connections between things so we're
gonna start at the beginning though and
the prehistoric era so on this map you
can see a map of the world and that
there are a variety of places being
shown to us these are all the earliest
prehistoric images works of art that
we have found so there's lots of regions
that are prehistoric and what
prehistoric really means is pre writing
so we don't have an idea of what these
early civilizations truly meant and
attempted to create but they created art
nonetheless and so it is our job to look
at the form function and context to draw
out some of the possible meanings for
these prehistoric objects so I'm just
gonna look at a couple of them here so
in this prehistoric object we have the
whole fils figure so this is a scar
Aidid lots of these incisions on an
otherwise naked female figure this
object would have been worn around a
neck most objects of this period through
three thirty five thousand thirty seven
thousand years ago are if they depict
the human being they're these very
closed figures right there one stone
that sort of has been carved away with
over time to create the legs and breasts
and the other details of anatomy and
they're almost all very small you can
see that this is two and a half inches
tall right very small most objects are
related to the fact that these are
created by nomadic hunter-gatherers
right if these objects are precious and
if they're important to them they want
to carry them with them because that's
where their culture goes right the
there's lots of speculation about what
these types of figures mean and what the
emphasis on these large female figure
looks means to their culture what if it
means something about the plentiful
fullness of food or fertility the thing
about prehistoric works of art is that
we don't know so we're just going to
leave it at the sort of remarkable
ability to make human beings for all
recorded history right or recorded human
life right prehistory right so these are
some of the most famous ancient works of
art this is we're gonna look at ancient
painting it was long believed that they
were about the spirits of the animals
that are depicted you can see that these
animals are very naturalistically
depicted but there are over and over
again they're not full objects and so
these long cave paintings are these sort
of long buried cave paintings we are not
totally sure what's happening here a lot
of speculation has gone into trying to
understand these cave paintings and
their possible uses they weren't
habitats that's sort of the big thing we
do know about them is that there's no
evidence that anyone lived around these
paintings and so there's lots of
speculation about a religious site
something like that where someone
wouldn't live but where someone would
and the thing we should say about
animals is that in all of prehistoric
art those depictions of people and
whatever the depiction of people is is
that they're really rare and that
animals absolutely dominate the
depictions that the prehistoric artists
are mostly interested in the animal
world whether that's a relationship to
food or work or fascination
or strength you know whatever the thing
is whatever the reasons are is that
these prehistoric objects are really
interested in animals rather than people
people are the exception and there but
there are fascinating depiction so this
is one of the definitely most
fascinating so this is Horseshoe Canyon
these are Pictou glyphs that means that
they're instead of like painting with
texture or with a that they're actually
knocking away the surface of the stone
to create these different things so
they're not using a pigment as opposed
to the caves we were just looking at and
these have been exposed to the Sun for
all of this time and so the what we
usually see is that there is a that the
we think these are people wrapped in
symbolic garments with a lot of detail
given to us about these symbolic
garments right so we're talking about
context people a clue thing and we think
that special people have special
clothing based only on these drawings
right so we if we time-travel back maybe
we would deflect find out that these are
outsiders right but we generally
associate that people with nice clothing
with symbolic clothing are important to
a society similarly these pictographs
from Northwest Australia show us animals
and people and sort of and maybe plants
and things and there's a lot of symbolic
stylized images that go into this image
so we're getting closer to what we'll
call the historic era but we're not
quite there yet
but you can see the ways in which art is
showing up throughout
is this the earliest periods of human
history the couple thing last things
we're going to talk about with
prehistory is that this is pottery from
ancient China the consu province you can
see by the time that human beings have
developed this language of pottery right
that one we're creating pottery we're
also creating these designs right that
these are not purely functional that the
designs might be purely decorative but
they also might be symbolic because we
know the pottery itself is going to be
especially like especially functional
right pottery is amazing for the things
it can carry right and then lastly we'll
talk about architecture a little bit in
our prehistoric era so we're gonna talk
a lot a lip just briefly about types of
architecture and the earliest type is
what we call dry masonry in this Great
Zimbabwe there is a 30 foot wall and we
don't know its function we know it
windows haven't been added to it right
and so dry masonry is just rocks piled
on top of each other there can be cut
masonry and there can be cobbled masonry
cobbled is when the rocks are just as
they were formed or and the Great
Zimbabwe case that they are cut right
that they have been put in place to
stack together but when you add things
like windows which these walls don't
have you weaken the walls and so in one
of these earliest examples of dry
masonry that you don't you have no
windows you've just only have these
stacks of stones
right so now we arrived in early history
and we're gonna just talk about a few
few examples from the early history so
this is the Sagar ziggurat of ur Numa
from the city of Sumer or outside the
city of Sumer and her so this is an
ancient Mesopotamia so the area that we
now call Iraq and ziggurats were erected
as sacred and mountains that linked
heaven and earth this is a giant temple
complex except all of those walls and
things were built out of what they call
mud brick so fired brick right but it's
a very low fire with a very simple clay
and that they just build up off of this
very otherwise flat landscape so because
Mesopotamia has very little stone worth
coring to build things you use brick and
wood instead so these bricks formed a
series of platforms and a solid base
again you see very few windows there are
small windows and then on top of the
ziggurat is the temple itself alright
and so the temple is set high up because
it's closer to the gods who reside in
the heaven right so when we're thinking
of form we can talk about the materials
we can talk about the function the
function as a place to worship and our
context to the belief that the gods are
in the sky and that thus you build
upward to get closer to them right that
form and form our context informs the
way things look this is a another
example from Sumer this is called the
work of ace and it has a depiction of
people bringing the
our vest to the goddess and I'm gonna
use her Babylonian name Ishtar and she
is the goddess of war and fertility and
she is basically the patron goddess of
this city state so this worship of her
is probably depicting a real event that
happened right a large festival where
everyone brought her things but the
vessel itself is then depicting that
thing but also used as a part of that
ritual right so it's sort of those two
things go hand in hand because this was
found in its archeology amongst that
temple right so um the big thing about
Sumerian and Near Eastern so what we're
gonna talk about with here in Sumer and
then Egypt in a little bit is that our
human body is the focus of the work
right but it's in this very idealized
form and they use what's called
hierarchic scale so we know who the
goddess is we know her depiction because
she is in that top register the tallest
register and she is the largest figure
we know she's the most important because
she has the hierarchy in her favor so
whenever you see a depiction in the
ancient Near East or again we'll see it
in Egypt the largest figure is not
physically larger in real life it's just
there depicted as larger because they
are because their hierarchy in society
is larger and of course a goddess is
going to be the top of any hierarchy as
opposed to the those areas of the
ancient Near East
this is the Harappan culture and this is
a nude figure from the Indus Valley
which is around the border between
Pakistan and India and the Harappan
culture is going to feed into
a lot of the original traditions of
India and so it is interesting to note
that even in this moment where we
actually have very little text that we
can read there is text there's just not
very money too much text we can read
from the Harappan culture we still have
objects that are so naturalistic right
we associate a lot of the Harappan
imagery with Vedic culture which are the
sacred books of hindu you can see that
this guy has sort of a paunch we sort of
associate that with wealth but we also
associate him with maybe in a sort of
yogic pose um you can see that there
were sort of joints of the arms and
things could move the indian culture is
going to have an emphasis on naturalism
and sensuality that isn't going to
develop in the Near East and the West
for a long time and so it's interesting
to note that the different cultural
contexts are going to produce different
types of art and that again we're going
to see develop right so we're going to
jump back to the ancient Near East and
we're going to look at ancient Egypt
perhaps one of the best-known cultures
in today just the something that
continues to fascinate us about ancient
Egypt and so I want to bring in this
statue because this is a super important
statue to the guy who had it erected
right but you can see that the interest
in naturalism that was in the Harappan
culture is nowhere to be seen
right instead the emphasis in this
sculpture is on simplified idealized
faces and then writing alright so in
ancient Egypt a sculpture isn't a
complete sculpture without writing
without some indicate
about what's happening because writing
is part of sacred practice and every
sculpture in ancient Egypt especially
that we're going to look at is built for
the funerary and religious context and
so the writing arc is done by the
priests and that scribe priestly class
is then how you know the sculpture is
functioning in its religious context
right um turning to Egypt's tombs and
funerary works of art here are the sort
of most important sort of that Egypt
what most people know from ancient Egypt
are the Pyramids of Giza
so Giza is on is outside of modern day
Cairo in the very far distance you can
see that modern city over it off to that
side so an ancient Egypt the west side
of the Nile is the land of the dad it
corresponds to the Setting Sun and the
east is where people live and so Cairo
developed from the ancient cities of
Thebes and other capitals and so but
Giza has sort of stayed a little bit
more remote Cairo is a bustling modern
city so it is sort of encroaching on
this land but for all of its ancient
history Giza stood out because you
didn't build living people's places on
the west side of the Nile the idea of
the context around these pyramids is
that they form a necropolis they form a
city of the Dead and when the pyramids
were first formed you can see that there
are there are six in our view the three
small ones in the foreground and then
three larger ones so when the first
pyramid was built by
she posed or khufu and he decided he was
building a complex not just for himself
but for all of his descendants so the
whole plateau was swept and made clean
so that when he died his pyramid be
interned in his pyramid but also his son
and his grandson and in his mind all of
the people after him would have a chance
to be and turned here these three
pyramids are the three that have
survived from this these large pyramids
and so after shippo's there is Catherine
so these names as opposed to the way the
second one is what also named kafra he
is we are given the Greek names in these
slides as opposed to their Egyptian
names and Inman Cara is the one closest
to us so the closest large pyramid is Makara
Makara
and it is the smallest of the large
pyramids but he created a number of
small pyramids for his daughters and
wives and so all of those the three
little pyramids in front and closely
adjacent to him are his three are for
his for his wives and in further into
the complex there are image pyramids for
his a small pyramid like this for his daughter
daughter
and so it's each Pharaoh M ruler of
Egypt thought of that where we're taught
that they were divine and in that
divinity the pyramid is there to help
them always be in relation to Egypt
right in to maintain Egypt for eternity
and so that is what that is why they
built these large monuments to
themselves is because in the cosmology
of ancient Egypt
had to maintain the universe even after
and so if we look at a couple more
images here so this is monkara and he is
now depicted as a young athlete he died
when he was much older the sculpture was
probably completed much earlier than
that and again he's surrounded by women
in this case probably both depictions of
his wives but also with divine
attributes you can see the antlers and
horns and in this depiction he is
striding forward as clearly he is the
most prominent and because of that
hierarchy right that hierarchy of scale
which tells us who the most important
figure is Egyptian funerary sculpture is
often depicted this way where the back
is not fully carved away these stones
are very heavy and and they are on it
would be hard to make them stable if
they were set into position
in a temple or in a funerary complex freestanding
freestanding
so instead the whole stone is set there
so that they're in a niche and they're
striding forward they're always facing
those that would be looking at them from
that niche and of course those
hieroglyphs are they're telling us that
this is a completed work of art that
this is a that the priests have sort of
opened these to the soul and part of the
use of the statues in ancient Egypt
so our last ancient Egyptian image is of
tomb painting so the ever famous
Egyptian point of view so in Egyptian
art and two-dimensional painting you can
see in this image how well they can
depict things so really importantly when
we're looking at paintings and sculpture
of other cultures that we don't judge
them based on if we think it is a good
job or not because it often reflects
their goals you can see in this work of
art that how naturalistically they can
depict birds and cats and fish right
these are remarkably accurate but when
they depict people the goal isn't
accuracy and so it's not accurate the
goal is to be clear and not clear to
just people but clear to the divine
beings and spirits who are going to see
these funerary work so people are only
gonna see them every once in a while
when people visit these tombs but the
spirits and the soul of the intern has
to understand them for all time and so
when the Egyptians like the
Mesopotamians before them they depict
the body in what's called a composite
profile which means that each part of
the body is shown to us as it is best
understood so the legs are shown in
profile because the profile of the foot
is the easiest to understand the
shoulders are shown square at us because
they're the easiest to understand when
that's the case and then the face is
seen in profile because that distinction
distinct nose and lips give us a
hairline right those are all the
distinctive things of our profile but
the eye of course is looking at us
straight on because the eye is hard to
see from the profile so then it is
did to be looking at us and so in this
way they have not tried to depict a
naturalistic person they've tried to
depict and ideal wise person right again
ney bomb is shown to us in and idealized
pose right he's a young athletic figure
right and so he is striding forward he
is hunting they call it fouling right
he's hunting birds and he has a trusty
cat who he is hunting with and behind
him is his richly adorned wife and
underneath him is his daughter right and
so again it isn't about that his
daughter was very young when he died um
it's just that she is not as important
as he is right it's his tomb so he's
very important and then she's when his
wife is very important and then their
daughter is very important
notice affection isn't the key but they
linked daughter to father via just a
simple gesture right and so in Egyptian
art we have this great depiction of of
the this fowling right and we have the
hieroglyphs that tell us what's
happening but it's really also about the
afterlife that when we look at this we
think of that this figure just like the
Pharaohs who are gonna live forever his
soul is going to be enacting and keeping
Egypt safe forever in his necropolis
right he's not a pharaoh he's just an
administrator we call sort of loosely
call them elites right they have various
functions of as scribes or or priests
but this depiction in a tomb reminds us that
that
context of it being a tomb informs how
we understand this work of art so we're
gonna jump across the world back to
India and look at Hindu art so the
principle gods of Hindu are Brahma
Vishnu and Shiva and Hindu temples have
two main parts and so they have the
purification porch so all of these
outlets here are where people would
might enter and when they enter there
the whole goal is to be purified before
entering the sacred chambers and this in
the sacred chambers there is an image of
the God that is considered sacred and
sacrifices are brought their fruits or
donations things like that right and
then the tall tower is over that most
sacred image that what's called the the
womb chamber that the heart of the the
temple and so on the where we'll talk a
little bit about the mousse sacred
images in a second but what's
interesting about this particular temple
is that that remember that I mentioned
that an Indian art were really
interested in the human body so all of
it is decorated with these erotic human
filled scenes and this is all an
allegory for the ultimate spiritual
unity done through a metaphor of people
all right
so every figure in this scene is sort of
sensuously standing right hips are
jutting out but the bodies are bending
all of that is this interest in
like a sensual eyes diversion of human
experienced all to get at this allegory
of this spiritual unity that the temple
offers in other places in Asia there
Hinduism spread and this is what's
called Angkor Wat and so here it faces
due west and Hindu gods appear alongside
portraits of real rulers there was
originally a moat around this and the
whole idea here is is that this is not a
just a Hindu temple this is an imperial
seat where the ruler thought himself
descended from Vishnu one of those three
great gods and so here you have just
terraces and terraces and sculptural
programs centering us not on just the
the spiritual renewal but actually also
the political life and how those two
things are intertwined something we'll
see over and over again is that the
spiritual world and the political world
and the ideas of power are often
intertwined and this is our great
example of that at Angkor Wat in
Cambodia so the this is one of those
sacred images this happens to be of
Shiva so not of the temple we looked at
and Sheba encompasses creation
preservation dissolution and recreation
and so Shiva is shown as the lord of the
dance with an orb of the Sun around it
he tramples the monster of ignorance
depicted as a sort of squirming child
and that he symbolizes the Sun right
which is about creation and how things grow
grow
but in that dance it also is the
purifying fire of destruction so the
indicate movement to us right this is a
dancing figure and think of them as a
number of portraits that got put
together right so it's not that they
believed Shiva would manifest with four
arms but rather were seeing motion
happen over and over again all of a
period of the dance and since he is a
God that represents both creation one
step of the dance the other part of the
dances and destruction and so we have
this idea of the cyclical nature of of
those ideas so the other thing that's so
interesting there the central thing is
the impassive face the idea that inside
the dance of creation and destruction
there is nothing to fear shiva it is
part of shiva
Shiva's Divine Plan right and so here in
the this Hindu art this bronze figure
right so instead of these giant these
stone carvings we've been looking at we
have a much smaller sacred image filled
with the iconography of Hindu beliefs so
we're gonna look we're gonna turn to
Buddhism and I'll start with an image of
the standing buddha from the gupta
period so the gupta period is often
considered the high point of Buddhism in
India Buddhism spreads to China and
Japan and all over the Asian continent
but in India Buddhism is picked up by
one emperor named Ashoka and it's really
in the Gupta period that that an empire
really embraces Buddhism and all of the
sculptural program that can come with that
that
and so here you can see some of that
sensuality from the Hindu period right
we can see the body underneath the cloth
right there so interested in bodies as
our main version of expression but
Buddha in particular is more impassive
that is his goal is nirvana and
meditation and so he instead has the
symbols of what was once an earthly life
he has these long elongated earlobes but
now he's also has a halo that reminds
him of his reminds us of his divinity in
Buddhism the most important early
monuments are called stupas they're
these great domes where the ashes of the
Buddha were separated into a number of
sacred sites and are entombed in these
stupas and so this great suit what
Sanjay is sort of the biggest and most
well-known of these and you can see that
there are these large gates that mark
off the sort of sacred precinct of the
dome from the mundane world and if we
look a little closer at the sculptural
it's actually the image the story of the
Buddha's life and you can see all the
each of the little figure is hard to see
from the ground but that this sacred
practice of carving this divine story
and rather we are given our the number
of symbols the elephants and lions and
peacocks that are all symbols of the
stories that we can understand on the
other side of the stupas gate is the yak
XI which are earth spirits and she is
along a grove of trees and so she
represents that the pollen
of that those sensuality that we saw in
Hindu works of art are culturally
embedded in a way that in Buddhist art
we see something similar right but she
is our earth goddess associated with our
with fertility but also in this case
enlightenment she's under the tree by
which the Buddha first arrived
enlightenment she represents that Earth
Spirit to do that so we're gonna look at stupas
stupas
through their progression so the early
indian stupa you can see it resembles
that stupa of Sanchi you can see there's
a small umbrella at the top in later
indian stupas by the second century ce e
that that umbrella has really been
emphasized this verticality is so
important these become landmarks by
which people gather when these go to
China the stupa becomes the pagoda and
you can see that verticality and those
ridges are now so important to the
profile and they sort of famous Chinese
pagodas and then in Japan you can see
that there's now an emphasis on these
horizontal lines that sort of reach out
into the sky and then that verticality
still so important now by the Japanese
pagoda in the seventh century and so as
Buddhism spreads to different cultures
the same type of object the same
memorial to the Buddha where you enter
into a sacred precinct and walk around
and contemplate and see the stories of
the Buddha as Buddhism goes to a
different culture that idea that
religious ritual is still there
now it's changed forms the forms are now
culturally specific
despite the a similar religious meaning
one great example of that is the
borobodur and the this is in java
indonesia and which was ruled by various
chinese emperors and has a lot of
cultural influence via trade with china
as well and so here there's cultural
influence from india so there's buddhism
and hinduism here and so it's an
elaborate version of the stupa that
isn't like any of those examples i just
showed you but is its own thing there's
more than ten miles of relief sculptures
around these corridors you can see that
as the pilgrim walks around the stupa
that they are seen all these stories so
all of these stories that were once are
relegated to the gates of the great
stupa are now everywhere to be seen in
the borobudur so as we speak of the
divine we're gonna look at something
completely different so these are
Mesoamerican temples so this is the
Pyramid of the Sun from the Olmec
culture which is near Mexico City today
and tota calm not to be confused with
Tenochtitlan this is the Pyramid of the
Sun this is among the world's greatest
pyramids right this is unlike the
Egyptian pyramids which were used for a
funerary purpose to an intern bodies for
the Pharaohs the semi-divine Pharaohs
these are more like ziggurats these are
giant temple bases with huge staircases
reaching to the sky and the Olmecs are
one of the oldest civilizations of
Mesoamerica so we'll talk a little bit
about the Aztecs you follow them
in Mexico but the Maya also follow them
and so we talked about Mesoamerica
because all of these cultures share some
of this cultural heritage which is what
we're going to look at here so and the
pyramid of the Sun is aligned to face
sunset on August 12th the first day of
the Mayan calendar so the Olmecs built
it but then the Mayans continued right
the Mayans are the sort of ancestor
culture but all of these Mesoamerican
cultures are similar the Temple of the
feathered serve Serpent is opposite the
pyramid of the Sun this if the pyramid
of the Sun goes to the Sun God and the
god of sort of giving this sort of
harvest this is the feathered serpent is
the storm god god of sort of war and
preservation and so you can see in the
intimate details those feathered
serpents and great abstract sculptures
right that these are not perfectly
depicting real-life things but imagined
things symbols of divine so the Olmec
culture gives way to the Aztec culture
and I love this image of the skull altar
or they're also called skull racks from
Mei or temple this is the the major
temple ceremonial complex of the Aztecs
so the Aztecs take this Olmec and Mayan
cultures that were about them and made
them centered on the Empire they were
building and every time they won a
battle they would commit human sacrifice
of those that those that were captured
and so the this idea of that Sun God and
storm God the Aztecs take that and their
two temples are at the center of their
complex and so in this illustration we
have the two temples in the center you
can see the skull rack down below them
in the figure near the eye shape the eye
shape is the ball court and so this is
our depiction of this Aztec ceremonial
center right around the 16th century so
right before the Aztecs hat or right
after the Aztecs have had contact with
Europeans we sort of have more of these
paintings from the Aztecs especially so
the key thing to this skull there is is
that there are over 400 skulls here
right and we have we can date some of
them we can sort of guess at how old
they were when they died usually between
the ages of 24 and 40 right a number of
both men and women but also a number of
skulls that are not actual skulls right
a number of schools that are plaster the
part of the sacrifice here is not that
these had to be people but that they had
to be at least symbolic sacrifices as
well right this is all about
demonstrating the power of the Aztec
empire and that is centered on this
religious complex right these are
warriors depicted on either side of the
temple with its blood around it right
and this is a modern reconstruction from
1994 a lot of these temples have been
lost to
modernization in Mexico and colonialization
colonialization
and so this reconstruction you can
really see how large and stone and just
how everything sort of look may have
looked all together right and this that
imposing this of that do dual temple of
and storm is really magnificent to prove
sort of the Aztec ferocity here and then
so we're going to look at just this much
smaller artistic Enterprise by the Aztec
it sort of sums up a lot of the Styles
things here right the storm God and war
God are depicted as that feathered
servant and that this is a that the
ruler of the Aztec is a vessel of the
feathered sir serpent Quetzalcoatl and
that this is used for sacrificial
offerings so the important thing about Y
as to Aztecs thought they were going to
prosper forever as those sacrifices but
I love this particular depiction because
it has some of that Menace that an
intimidation that the Aztecs were
promoted on the Aztecs were
empire-building and they that is what
their art often tells us speaking of
empire building we're going to shift
back to tombs this is the tomb of Qin
Shi Huangdi and and he is the first
Empire emperor of China the name China
comes from his name chin and his tomb
was actually unexcavated it's this giant
earthen mound man-made earthen mound but
he has in the plans we understand for it
depictions of the universe we sort of
cast in gold these are all we assume
again we have not ever opened up this
tomb the Chinese have not allowed
archaeologists to do any more than sort
of sonogram in it and it seems that
everything is coated in like lead and
Mercury so it's gonna be a fascinating
day when we do it get a chance to look
inside what he is most well known for
our his terracotta warriors these great
depictions of people right he thought he
would rule forever and so he had
warriors to depict guarding his
afterlife and so each of these
terracotta is terracotta means like made
of clay high fired clay medium fired
clay I guess and so each one was made
and jointed together so you can see in
these details some of the individuality
that goes into each one of these and all
the different types of positions that
they were so infantrymen this is an
archer in armor and each one of these
pieces was sort of mass-produced so the
Qin Dynasty at its height is just
unbelievably efficient Imperial machine
and so when he died he assumed he was
going to rule forever and so he wanted
to be depicted he wanted an army to be
with him forever and that that is who
our terracotta warriors are it's so
impressive of a feat though that we
actually didn't know that they existed
for a long time in the West when we talk
about naturalism we actually look at
ancient Greece as our exemplars so
instead of thinking in terms of
terracotta and like China the West often
used either marble or bronze and so
Pollock lightest of Argos is our
earliest classical figure he's
interested in depicting naturalism in a
new way and so Intel event poly cleitus
that the Egyptians were sort of as close
as Tim naturalism as the Mediterranean
world would go but after the classical
sort of a Rena birth with poly cleitus
this idea would stick so every time we say
say [Music]
[Music]
the classical revival in the Renaissance
or the 18th century this is the
classical moment that they're thinking
of it's these very abstract figures but
Polly Klaas was especially interested in
mathematical precision and so that's
what he depicts for us here this is a
mathematically perfect naturalized
person and it's not done off of a
particular person but an abstract ideal
later in Greece there would be an
emphasis on sensuality and drama so here
is Venus she's sort of giving us being
coy and then this is the lack of one
group where you take those principles
and everything and you sort of
exaggerate the muscles for drama right
and so these artistic practices of what
we call Hellenistic Greece the period
after Alexander the Great that
naturalism of classicism has disappeared
to tell stories and myths in a new way
naturalism and especially portraiture is
really the domain of the Romans and so
this is the bust of Emperor Vespasian's
actually calling back to a Republican
ideal of ancient Rome where the older [Music]
[Music]
the age was a symbol that you were wise
and a good leader and Vess Bayesian way
by the time he became Emperor was old
and so he wanted that depicted that it
was his age that qualifies him for to be
emperor of Rome and the Romans preferred
especially in their portraits this sort
of naturalism as opposed to the sort of
idealized versions that we see in ancient
ancient
Griese wit by figures like polly cleitus
in portraiture in nigeria the culture is
called the ephah it's in West Africa and
they developed and naturalism a
naturalistic portrait that's also
idealized right so when I say naturalism
I mean that it looks we can clearly see
the proportions are human like you can
see the the holes around the hairline
where actual hair like a wig would be
placed on it right they're trying to
capture something purely naturalistic in
this portrait of a king but at the same
time it's an idealized version right
this portrait is static to be that
figure forever and so in Nigerian
portraiture as a they are really
interested in this idealized naturalism
for for their kings and this idea
spreads to another area of Nigeria called
called
van in which is where the head on the
Left comes from and on the right there
is a modern-day mask and I bring these
two in because FA a small Kingdom in
West Africa was well-run and for a
number of hundreds of years was sort of
the envy of all of the empires a rat of
the city-states around it so that when
the nin was looking for a ruler the surf
story goes is that they looked for a
second son of FA to come and rule Benin
and with that court of FA as their
influence grew throughout been in and
it's the surrounding
area.that efface sculptural tradition
thrives and we can see in this mask on
the right this carving technique this
bronze casting technique technique
I apologize still thrives in this sort
of naturalism for for leaders the other
thing that has thrived in African
depictions though and when not depicting
rulers they're using abstract symbols to
show governance and so in this case they
sort of zoom in on one of the actual
carved figures you have a number of
people that carved to make a column
alright and so these are wooden columns
that make up the Chiefs house and so the
photograph is a place that's no longer
extent extent but you can see that post
it that each of these figures represent
someone in the community and so there's
a meditation on the idea of support
about where power comes from and you can
see that these figures are not depicted
in the same naturalistic way that the
kings themselves are but instead an
abstract way to get across the idea of
all these people that make up the
community to support their local ruler
the in each of these figures the
emphasis is on the head the sort of
expression of the eyes the angular
features part of the carving technique
of this region the area around Nigeria
in central Africa the emphasis on the
head is very similar here right the
expressive eyes but now we have a
completely different you so
in Nigeria most arts are centered around
kingship and leadership in central
Africa we're back to dealing with ideas
of the divine and so this is what's
called a power figure or a condi and
they are figures that are used to swear
oaths or house medical material the
figure we started off the figure of the priests with the blue feathers is
priests with the blue feathers is actually a condi and so each of these
actually a condi and so each of these metal spikes that has been put into this
metal spikes that has been put into this figure is a oath that has been sworn a
figure is a oath that has been sworn a civil case that has been done it sort of
civil case that has been done it sort of let you it's sort of all people are
let you it's sort of all people are swearing by this spiritual figure and
swearing by this spiritual figure and you can see that it has a vessel in the
you can see that it has a vessel in the center of it that's where the medicinal
center of it that's where the medicinal and spiritual material would be stored
and spiritual material would be stored that would activate this that would
that would activate this that would sanctify this figure and then it's
sanctify this figure and then it's activated by that driving metal into it
activated by that driving metal into it and so the same proportions of bodies
and so the same proportions of bodies between Central Africa and West Africa
between Central Africa and West Africa exist but their uses are completely
exist but their uses are completely different there's a lot of space between
different there's a lot of space between central Africa and the Congo which is
central Africa and the Congo which is where we are here and Nigeria turning
where we are here and Nigeria turning back to some political figures in
back to some political figures in Oceania there's sort of two most famous
Oceania there's sort of two most famous things and so I want to go over them
things and so I want to go over them just briefly because I think that they
just briefly because I think that they are worth seeing so this is a protective
are worth seeing so this is a protective bow figure wood carving that would have
bow figure wood carving that would have been placed at the front of a war canoe
been placed at the front of a war canoe and you can see the thing
and you can see the thing has sort of been emphasized that we have
has sort of been emphasized that we have this figure holding a bird this is sort
this figure holding a bird this is sort of a spirit guide for the voyagers as
of a spirit guide for the voyagers as they're about to go to war and their
they're about to go to war and their canoe the Maui are from Easter Island
canoe the Maui are from Easter Island very famous monolithic sculptures they
very famous monolithic sculptures they represent ancestors who take on
represent ancestors who take on spiritual power and are set on platforms
spiritual power and are set on platforms and these platforms exist between the
and these platforms exist between the figures of one people and another so one
figures of one people and another so one group and their leader would set up moai
group and their leader would set up moai here and the moai would be facing their
here and the moai would be facing their enemies right so you have a series of
enemies right so you have a series of moai here and each leader would have one
moai here and each leader would have one of these carved and then move them from
of these carved and then move them from there from where they were carved and
there from where they were carved and set them upon this platform to represent
set them upon this platform to represent their ancestors guiding them and their
their ancestors guiding them and their victory in the Americas a sort of a
victory in the Americas a sort of a harsh transition here there are some
harsh transition here there are some very old cultures and I sort of just
very old cultures and I sort of just want to draw your attention to them as
want to draw your attention to them as we wrap up our time here
we wrap up our time here these are the Mississippian culture this
these are the Mississippian culture this is the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio there
is the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio there are some great mounds in Illinois and
are some great mounds in Illinois and then even in Oxford Alabama there was a
then even in Oxford Alabama there was a few mounds that were destroyed during
few mounds that were destroyed during development during the developing of
development during the developing of that suburb and then have been now
that suburb and then have been now reconstructed in a park
reconstructed in a park so this early cultural foundation of
so this early cultural foundation of North America which we haven't seen much
North America which we haven't seen much of up until this point I just want to
of up until this point I just want to emphasize that we have these old
emphasize that we have these old cultural landmarks similar the plains
cultural landmarks similar the plains Native Americans have a strong painting
Native Americans have a strong painting tradition often related to hunting and
tradition often related to hunting and war and so these are them on on a
war and so these are them on on a buffalo scan sort of an old early 19th
buffalo scan sort of an old early 19th century depiction of war and hunting and
century depiction of war and hunting and the sort of abstract symbols in the
the sort of abstract symbols in the center remind us that this is about not
center remind us that this is about not depicting a historical event all right
depicting a historical event all right this is not this is about history but
this is not this is about history but it's also about the spirit that guides
it's also about the spirit that guides those warriors right I think it's
those warriors right I think it's interesting and I want to sort of bring
interesting and I want to sort of bring this into the modern world where a
this into the modern world where a artist and chief named Howlin wolf in
artist and chief named Howlin wolf in the late 19th century his portrait he's
the late 19th century his portrait he's the one depicted in the naturalistic
the one depicted in the naturalistic portrait on the right created a number
portrait on the right created a number of these images about the re-education
of these images about the re-education of Native children in the classroom
of Native children in the classroom using the same style of the traditional
using the same style of the traditional artists right and so that's one of the
artists right and so that's one of the things I want to emphasize about
things I want to emphasize about non-western aren't often we started at
non-western aren't often we started at the beginning of history but now
the beginning of history but now non-western art still exists in the
non-western art still exists in the modern world it just looks a little
modern world it just looks a little different and they're sort of no better
different and they're sort of no better place to see that than when Sudanese
place to see that than when Sudanese artists combine traditional calligraphy
artists combine traditional calligraphy with abstract painting right so this is
with abstract painting right so this is called the mosque it's a depiction of a
called the mosque it's a depiction of a mosque which I'll talk about what a
mosque which I'll talk about what a mosque is in a second but you can see
mosque is in a second but you can see that this looks like abstract modern
that this looks like abstract modern works of art using curved edges and sort
works of art using curved edges and sort of the expression
of the expression there's nothing naturalistic here but
there's nothing naturalistic here but that we have a call back to the
that we have a call back to the tradition of Arabic calligraphy which
tradition of Arabic calligraphy which again we'll talk about in just a second
again we'll talk about in just a second here the Great Mosque and so
here the Great Mosque and so what a mosque is is a worship building
what a mosque is is a worship building for Islam and so Islam and Christianity
for Islam and so Islam and Christianity share this idea that your temple is not
share this idea that your temple is not just a sacred place but a gathering
just a sacred place but a gathering place of people and one part of that
place of people and one part of that abstract art that's so wonderful is that
abstract art that's so wonderful is that it is a depiction of that sort of idea
it is a depiction of that sort of idea so in this depiction or in this picture
so in this depiction or in this picture of a mosque it's one of our oldest you
of a mosque it's one of our oldest you have a large tower called a minaret and
have a large tower called a minaret and a courtyard and then on the other side
a courtyard and then on the other side of that is a hall that houses the myth
of that is a hall that houses the myth Rab and it's not it is considered a holy
Rab and it's not it is considered a holy place but it's points that the
place but it's points that the worshipers towards Mecca the holy part
worshipers towards Mecca the holy part of the holy city of of Islam
of the holy city of of Islam similarly in Christianity one of the
similarly in Christianity one of the oldest churches is called old st.
oldest churches is called old st. Peter's Basilica it was torn down to
Peter's Basilica it was torn down to create new st. Peter's Basilica in Rome
create new st. Peter's Basilica in Rome but you can see that it has this
but you can see that it has this courtyard long figures the idea on the
courtyard long figures the idea on the far end of the church the entrance that
far end of the church the entrance that you enter near the courtyard is also the
you enter near the courtyard is also the sacred scene it doesn't point any
sacred scene it doesn't point any particular direction but st. Peters is
particular direction but st. Peters is built over the tomb of Saint Peter one
built over the tomb of Saint Peter one of the Apostles so one of the holy
of the Apostles so one of the holy places in that's being surrounded by the
places in that's being surrounded by the church where worshipers are coming in
church where worshipers are coming in the drawing you can see the columns and
the drawing you can see the columns and in the center here that is directly over
in the center here that is directly over where Saint Peter's tomb was where this
where Saint Peter's tomb was where this church was built
so both of these traditions are traditions of the book and I just want
traditions of the book and I just want to show you a little of the calligraphy
to show you a little of the calligraphy that got comes from Islam
that got comes from Islam this intricate patterning of writing
this intricate patterning of writing that is so important to Islam in
that is so important to Islam in particular and that this tradition is
particular and that this tradition is becomes a painting tradition in
becomes a painting tradition in manuscripts just as it does in
manuscripts just as it does in Christianity but and then a painting
Christianity but and then a painting tradition that has become the
tradition that has become the Renaissance and Western art so it's well
Renaissance and Western art so it's well covered but this tradition Islam is both
covered but this tradition Islam is both interacting with the West but also the
interacting with the West but also the Chinese tradition of depicting that also
Chinese tradition of depicting that also is related to its calligraphy and poetry
is related to its calligraphy and poetry traditions but especially interested in
traditions but especially interested in these grand landscapes of ink and so I
these grand landscapes of ink and so I want to talk though this is the last
want to talk though this is the last thing I'm going to talk about is that
thing I'm going to talk about is that you start with this and then in this
you start with this and then in this painting tradition
painting tradition it becomes very expressionistic and in
it becomes very expressionistic and in this particular one cicada and the
this particular one cicada and the banana leaf you have the free execution
banana leaf you have the free execution with political commentary the the hope
with political commentary the the hope for rebirth that the cicada symbolizes
for rebirth that the cicada symbolizes in this me this Ching dynasty and so
in this me this Ching dynasty and so this tradition of these intricate
this tradition of these intricate imaginary landscapes created by what we
imaginary landscapes created by what we call literati becomes subtly a subtle
call literati becomes subtly a subtle tradition in later Chinese painting that
tradition in later Chinese painting that is war both political and
is war both political and expressionistic with the poetry in Japan
expressionistic with the poetry in Japan when this tradition gets picked up it's
when this tradition gets picked up it's associated with Zen Buddhism that the
associated with Zen Buddhism that the Enlightenment
Enlightenment from spontaneous expressionistic like
from spontaneous expressionistic like painting and so we see that these
painting and so we see that these traditions dating all the way back come
traditions dating all the way back come and become something else and that every
and become something else and that every tradition starts somewhere with
tradition starts somewhere with calligraphy or with painting or
calligraphy or with painting or sculpture and and that each of these
sculpture and and that each of these non-western art sort of builds forward
non-western art sort of builds forward from that and that each culture has its
from that and that each culture has its own form the paint style the function
own form the paint style the function the Zen Buddhist or the literati or and
the Zen Buddhist or the literati or and that's embodied in its context so thanks
that's embodied in its context so thanks for listening to this little lecture on
for listening to this little lecture on some non-western works of art
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
