Venus of Willendorf that they may be emblems of security and success, fertility icons, representations of a Great Goddess or Mother Goddess or various local goddesses. The female figures, as part of Upper Palaeolithic portable art, appear to have no practical use in the context of subsistence. They are mostly discovered in settlement contexts, both in open-air sites and caves; burial contexts are much more rare.

Chauvet Cave paintings The Chauvet Cave is a cave in southern France that contains the earliest known cave paintings, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life. Discovered in 1994, it is considered one of the most significant prehistoric art sites. Hundreds of animal paintings have been catalogued, depicting at least 13 different species, including those which have rarely or never been found in other ice age paintings. Rather than depicting only the familiar animals of the hunt that predominate in Paleolithic cave art, i.e. horses, cattle, reindeer, etc., the walls of the Chauvet Cave are covered with predatory animals: lions, panthers, bears, owls, rhinos and hyenas. Typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures. T his combination of subjects has led experts in pre-historic art and cultures to believe that there was likely a ritual, shamanic, or magical aspect to these paintings. There is also paintings of magic mushrooms which suggests that it must have been a shamanic culture.

Altamira Cave paintings Its special relevance comes from the fact it was the first cave in which prehistoric cave paintings were discovered, leading to a controversy during the late 19th century because many people did not believe prehistoric man had the intellectual capacity to produce any kind of artistic expression.

Deer Hunt Çatal Höyük, Turkey Artists employ a composite view of the human body, but show it as regular in appearance and in a variety of poses and settings. Humans are shown dominating animals. The paintings are done on a prepared wall surface. It shows the hunters relative sizes compared to their prey.

Female head (possibly Inanna) from Uruk (modern Warka) Iraq ca. 3,200-3,000 B.C.E. Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. It is a fragment of a white marble statue which is an extraordinary achievement at an early date. It is a treasure in the Iraq Museum and it disappeared in the Iraq 2003. It has drilled holes to attach to a body and a groove on the head to attach a gold wig. There was stoned that filled in the eyebrows and eyes.

Statuettes of worhippers from Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar) Iraq ca. 2,700 B.C.E. Another group of Sumerian votive statuettes comes from the Temple of Ishtar at Mari.Of particular interest is the figure of Urnanshe depicted beardless but with straight hair to his waist, suggesting he was a eunuch. Statuettes show standing men and women of varying size with large eyes and tiny hands clasped in a gesture of prayer or holding a small beaker. Another statuette shows the seated figure of the court singer Urnanshe in prayer. Even then, worship was so common and revered that artists took time to carve them into stone ʹ this will be seen again and again throughout art in history after this

Bull-headed lyre from Tomb 789, Royal Cemetery Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar) Depending on various definitions, they could be classed as lyres rather than harps. The most famous is the bull- headed harp, held in Baghdad. The second Iraqi War led to the destruction of the bull-head lyre [1], and attempts are being made to play a replica of it as part of a touring orchestra. From the earliest times, the bull was lunar in Mesopotamia (its horns representing the crescent moon). The lyre is so famous that the lyre is pictured in other art.

Ram in a thicketfrom Tomb 789, Royal Cemetery Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar) Iraq ca. 2,600 B.C.E. In one story in the book of Genesis the patriarch Abraham finds a ram stuck in a thicket and sacrifices it rather than his own son. Whether the legend told in the Old Testament is related somehow to that of the Mesopotamian symbol is anybody's guess.

Cylinder seal from the tomb of Pu-abi Royal Cemetery Ur modern Tell Muqayyar) Iraq This cylinder seal was discovered in the 'Queen's Grave' in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. It is engraved with a banquet scene. It has been suggested that this indicates that the owner was female, while a man's seal would have been engraved with a combat scene. Indeed, the cuneiform inscription on this seal reads 'Pu-abi nin'. The Sumerian word 'nin' can be translated as either 'lady' or 'queen'. It is possible that Pu-abi (previously read as Shub-ad) may have been a high priestess in the service of the moon god, Nanna, patron of Ur. The seal is made from lapis lazuli, which would have come from Afghanistan. This not only shows the extensive trade routes that existed at this time, but also how important Pu-abi was, owning an object made of such an exotic material.

Lamassu (winged human headed bull) from the citadel of Sargon II, Dar Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad) Iraq ca. 720-705 B.C.E. ʹ[has writing on it!] Human-headed winged bull-gods or Lamassu were placed in doorways of Assyrian king's thronerooms as symbols of power and protection. This Lamassu has five legs, so that if viewed from either front or side it will always have the correct number. In the reign of Sennacherib, Lamassu with four legs replaced their predecessors with five legs. Ashurnasirpal's palace is described in the so-called Standard Inscription that ran across the surface of most of the reliefs: "I built thereon [a palace with] halls of cedar, cypress, juniper, boxwood, teak, terebinth, and tamarisk[?] as my royal dwelling and for the enduring leisure life of my lordship." The inscription continues: "Beasts of the mountains and the seas, which I had fashioned out of white limestone and alabaster, I had set up in its gates. I made it [the palace] fittingly imposing."

Assyrian archers pursuing enemies from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (modern Nimrud) Assyrian palaces were adnored with extensive series of narrative reliefs exalting the king and recounting his great deeds.this This one depicts Assyrian Rchers driving the enemy into the euprhrates river

Ishtar Gate (restored) Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar,( Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex.[1] In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the planet Venus".[2]) the Gate was constructed of blue glazed tiles with alternating rows of bas- sirrush (dragons) and aurochs. Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world until, in the 6th century AD, it was replaced with the Lighthouse of . The aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of domestic cattle, was a type of huge wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627. Aurochs appear in prehistoric cave paintings, Julius Caesar's The Gallic War and as the national symbol of many European countries, states and cities such as Alba-Iulia, Kaunas, Romania, Moldavia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Uri. Domestication of the aurochs began in the southern Caucasus and northern Mesopotamia from about the 6th millennium BC, while genetic evidence suggests that aurochs were independently domesticated in northern Africa and in India.[15] Domesticated cattle and aurochs are so different in size that they have been regarded as separate species.[13]

Menkaure and Khamerenebty from Gizeh, Egypt The artist chose to use slate carved straight off of a massive block. The reason is that his goal was to create a sculpture that would endure the test of time since the ka (the soul) returned to the statue after its body was decomposed. The statue is of a married couple, Menkaure and Khamerenebty. Menkaure's pose is canonical, that is, rigidly frontal with his arms hanging straight down tightly and close to his well-built body. His fists are clenched and his thumbs are forward. His leg is extended to the front, but there are no signs of contraposto; there is no shift in the angle of his hips. His wife is standing in a similar fashion, but her hands gently rest upon the body of her husband. The statue exhibits with satisfying clarity the Egyptian adherence to a system or "canon" of proportions and, in its strictly frontal viewpoint, the rigid poses of the figures, an unwavering conformity to rules and established conventions which are interpreted both as manifesting the nature of the 's authority over his subjects and by extension as embodying the highly regulated, hierarchical structure of Ancient Egyptian society.

1. DISCOVERY The statue of the Pharaoh Menkaure (Mycerinus) and his Queen in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, carved out of slate and dating to 2548-2530 BCE, is an example of Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty royal sculpture. The statue, which stands about 4 feet 8 inches high, was found in a hole dug earlier by treasure-hunters below the floor of a room in the Valley Temple of the pyramid of Menkaure at Giza during excavations undertaken by the Harvard University and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston expedition under the direction of the archaeologist George Reisner in 1908-10. On January 18, 1910, digging revealed the heads of the statue; the following day the pair was completely unearthed [see George Reisner, 1931 in the BIBLIOGRAPHY].

Statue of Menkaure and His Queen unearthed on January 18, 1910 Image Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In art history books, the pair have come to represent a prime example of Old Kingdom royal tomb sculpture. The statue exhibits with satisfying clarity the Egyptian adherence to a system or "canon" of proportions and, in its strictly frontal viewpoint, the rigid poses of the figures, an unwavering conformity to rules and established conventions which are interpreted both as manifesting the nature of the pharaoh's authority over his subjects and by extension as embodying the highly regulated, hierarchical structure of Ancient Egyptian society.

Statue of Menkaure and His Queen Image Source: Art images for College Teaching (AICT)

The forms of the sculpture - the measured grid of strong verticals and counterbalancing horizontals, the stiff, artificial postures, the overall idealized anatomical shapes of the bodies combined with naturalistic details - are read not simply as indicative of Egyptian taste, but as representative of the fundamental character of Egyptian culture.

His stance appears assertive, indicative of his power. He is represented as a mature yet vigorous man, perhaps in his thirties, with slender hips, broad shoulders, and well-developed arms. His body has been made to appear lifelike and, except, as is common to all Egyptian statues, in such areas as the knees, which are over-emphasized, and the edge of the shin- bone, which is too sharp, is anatomically correct. Overall, he appears to represent the ideal of manly beauty in Old Kingdom Egypt.

Menkaure's face also appears to have been idealized, though its features, which are not particularly refined or aristocratic looking, have been particularized to the degree that it strikes us as being a portrait. Projecting from his chin is a short transversely striped, squared-off, wedge-shaped ceremonial beard. On his head he wears a nemes, or headdress, the sides of which are pulled back behind his rather large ears, with the lappets falling to either side of his chest. The beard and the headdress are the primary symbols of his pharaonic status. Besides the headdress, the only other article of clothing he wears is a shendjyt kilt which is folded across the front, with one end falling down beneath, and held in place with a belt round his waist.

Next to Menkaure stands his queen, usually identified as Khamerernebty II (but see Menkaure's "Queen"). She stands in a more naturalistic way than Menkaure with her right arm reaching around his waist and her left one bent at the elbow and holding his left arm. She wears a long, very thin, close-fitting linen garment which coves her body almost down to her ankles and clings to her body without folds or creases. The effect would appear to be not a case of excessive static cling, or an example of the "wet-drapery" style encountered later in Ancient Greece, but intended to reveal, and describe, the forms of the queen's body.

Her breasts are outlined and the nipples indicated, as is her navel and the slight bulge of her tummy. The material also clings in an unnatural way around her pubic area describing a broad triangular shape with the two lower converging sides following the slightly curving lines of her groin, and the slightly convex but sharply drawn horizontal indicating, not a panty line (no such thing at this early date) but presumably the upper edge of her pubic hair.

The way in which the sculptor has carefully delineated the queen's pubic area is also found on statues of women of higher rank, such as the goddess Hathor, as well as on statues of women of lower rank, such as the wife of Ptah-khenui in the statue in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Seated Scribe from , Egypt We know nothing about the person portrayed: neither his name, nor title, nor even the exact period during which he lived. Nevertheless, this statue never fails to impress visitors discovering it for the first time. The 's scribe, known as the "Seated Scribe", is indeed sitting cross-legged, his right leg crossed in front of his left. The white kilt, stretched over his knees, serves as a support. He is holding a partially rolled papyrus scroll in his left hand. His right hand must have held a brush, now missing. The most striking aspect of this sculpture is the face, particularly the elaborately inlaid eyes: they consist of a piece of red-veined white magnesite, in which a piece of slightly truncated rock crystal was placed. The front part of the crystal was carefully polished. The back side was covered with a layer of organic material, creating the color of the iris and also probably serving as an adhesive. The entire eye was then held in the socket by two large copper clips welded on the back. A line of black paint defines the eyebrows. The hands, fingers, and fingernails are sculpted with a remarkable delicacy. His chest is broad and the nipples are marked by two wooden dowels. The statue was cleaned in 1998, although the process merely reduced the wax overpainting. This restoration brought out the well-conserved ancient polychromy. The scribe is portrayed at work, which is unusual in Egyptian statuary. Although no king was ever portrayed in this pose, it seems that it was originally used for members of the royal family, such as the king's sons or grandsons, as was the case for the sons of Didufri (4th Dynasty), who were represented in this position.

Goats Treading Seed and Cattle Fording a Canal Saqqara, Egypt - Mastaba of Ti The artist represented goats treading in seeds and cattle fording a canal. On the lower right you can see a youth carring a calf on his back, and the calf is scared and turned his head to look at its mother, who returns its gaze. This shows that Egyptian artists were close observers of daily life. It is symbolic, as the fording of the nile was a metaphor for the deease3d passage from life to the hereafter.

Statuette of an offering bearer from tomb of Meketre, Thebes, Egypt This tall, slender woman, like the model of a riverboat, was discovered in a hidden chamber in the tomb of Meketre. Of the thirteen models and figures received by the Museum in the division of finds from the tomb, this offering bearer is the finest work of art. When they were uncovered in 1920, the models of Meketre were the most detailed, best preserved, and most diverse set of wooden funerary models ever found. A statue similar to this one, but carrying bread and beer in her basket, is in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

The two statuettes of women bearing offerings were much larger than other figures in the serdab of Mekutra. This one represents a woman bringing the basket of meat, a duck, and bread. The elaborate dress and stes of jewelry worn by the woman indicate higher or more special status than that of the simply attired working women in the others. The woman personifies an estate that would have provided food offerings for Meketre's spirit in perpetuity. She holds a live duck by its wings in one hand and balances a basket of foodͶprimarily cuts of meatͶwith her other. Her dress is decorated with the feather pattern often associated with goddesses, and this may refer to Isis and Nephthis, who protected the spirit of the deceased in the afterlife. Because the act of offering has great significance and involves motion, female offering bearers are often shown in the striding pose usually reserved for male figures in Egyptian art. A statue similar to this one, but carrying bread and beer in her basket, is in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. When they were uncovered in 1920, the models of Meketre were the most detailed, best preserved, and most diverse set of wooden funerary models ever found. The same can be said of them today Probably, the two most prominent types of models are offering bearers and boats. Offering bearers are some of the tallest figures, as well as dating from some of Egypt's earliest periods. They tend to be female, though male offering bearers are also encountered. The females usually carry food items, while the male variety tend to carry religious items. Early offering bearers are simple pottery figures, but later, they were often made with considerable artistic skill, rivalling the statues of the tomb owner himself. This is probably indicative of the importance that the Egyptians placed on this particular variety of models, believing their afterlife was dependent on these symbolic workers. Interestingly, because the action of offering is important, offering women may stride - a pose usually reserved for men. The companion figure in Cairo is dressed in a garment made of bead netting.

Hippopotamus from Thebes, Egypt 1991-1783 B.C.E.

This benevolent-looking hippopotamus slips into the marshes, taking on their colour and half-engulfed in water plants. Bright-blue Egyptian faience figures of hippopotami such as this were placed in the tombs of high-ranking civil servants toward the end of the Middle Kingdom. A symbol

This bright-blue Egyptian faience hippopotamus, depicted ambling along, seems to slip into the water amids the water plants that form its decoration. Its excellent condition and large size make this an outstanding example of its kind: some fifty faience hippopotami, varying in size from 9 to 23 centimeters in length, are now scattered around the world. The calm, benign appearance of the hippopotamus has gained it such popularity that this blue figurine now conjures up the world of and the Nile in our collective imagination. A fresh appraisal

The story of this hippopotamus, which has been famous and popular for many years, has now been traced. In the late nineteenth century the egyptologists of the Cairo Museum, wanting duplicates of the finest works in their collection to be put on display in France, sold the hippopotamus to the Louvre. Yet this figurine has a unique feature: the four legs are connected by a strip of faience and rest on a plinth, making it the only one of its kind. Following archive research and a technical study the plinth was removed, as it did not belong to the original work and gave it the appearance of a modern ornament. We also know from its archeological context that it dates from the Seventeenth Dynasty, in the late Second Intermediate Period. An object for the afterlife

The hippopotamus was buried in a tomb with funerary furniture comprising a coffin, statues of the deceased, a large number of vases, and a few toiletry items. It therefore served a function in the inner chamber of the tomb. The painted motifs varied from one hippopotamus to another, with water plants sometimes being combined with butterflies and birds, but the decoration of the hindquarters almost always consisted of a lotus flower in full bloom. Depicted half- submerged, the hippopotamus evokes the primordial waters of chaos, the Nun. According to an Egyptian creation myth, on the first morning after the birth of the world, the sun emerged from a lotus flower: "Every being is born from the Nun." The function of this hippopotamus statuette, placed near the mummy, was therefore to prefigure rebirth in the afterlife through the power of imitation.

Temple of Ramses II These rock-cut temples are located in the ancient Wawat (or the legendary Ybsambul) in Nubia, near the borders of Sudan, about 300 kilometers from Aswan. Earlier temples in Nubia had been located within forts, but here the confidence of Ramses II, whose reign may have lasted as many as 67 years, is illustrated; these temples, probably once brightly colored, were cut into the natural rock and lapped by the Nile. After eleven centuries of oblivion, these temples were rediscovered in 1813 when Johann Ludwig Burckhardt saw by accident the upper parts of the colossal figures. In 1817 Giovanni Battista Belzoni found the entrance, partially freed from the sand. In the following years these temples were often partially covered by shifting sands. Today visitors see the reconstructed temples now relocated on higher ground (60 meters directly above their earlier position) after the heroic international rescue efforts to save these treasures from Lake Nasser. The facade of the Great Temple of Ramses is about 38 meters long and 31 meters high. The temple is dedicated to the most important gods of the New Kingdom, Ptah (the creator god of Memphis), Amun-Re (the great god of Thebes) and Re-Harakhte (sun god of Heliopolis), as well as to the Pharaoh Ramses II himself. The four colossi, statues of Ramses II (c. 1290-1224 BCE), are more than 20 meters high and about 4 meters from ear to ear. The young, handsome face is finely carved. He wears a double crown on his head and a heavy nemes flares out on both sides of his face. The line of the smiling lips is more than a meter long. Smaller sculptures between the legs and at the base of the colossi represent members of the royal family: "Princess Nebt-taui, Princess Bant-anat and an unidentified princess on the southernmost colossus; Queen Tu'e, the King's mother, Queen Nefertari, his wife, and his son prince Amen-hir-khopshef to the left of the doorway; and beside the statues to the right (north), Queen Nefertari, twice represented, and Prince Ramses" (Kamil 124).

Nefertiti from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt

Nefertiti was the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (later Akhenaten), and mother-in-law of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Her name roughly translates to "the beautiful one is come". She also shares her name with a type of elongated gold bead that she was often portrayed as wearing, known as "nefer" beads. Famed throughout the ancient world for her outstanding beauty, Nefertiti remains the one of the most well known Queen of Egypt. Though Akhenaten had several wives, Queen Nefertiti was his chief wife.

She was made famous by her painted limestone bust (above), now in Berlin's Egyptian Museum, shown to the right. The bust, seen from two different angles, is indeed, the most famous depiction of Queen Nefertiti. Found in the workshop of the famed sculptor Thutmose, the bust is believed to be a sculptor's model. The technique which begins with a carved piece of limestone, requires the stone core to be first plastered and then richly painted. Flesh tones on the face give the bust life.

Her full lips are enhanced by a bold red. Although the crystal inlay is missing from her left eye, both eyelids and brows are outlined in black. Her graceful elongated neck balances the tall, flat-top crown which adorns her sleek head. The vibrant colors of the her necklace and crown contrast the yellow-brown of her smooth skin. While everything is sculpted to perfection, the one flaw of the piece is a broken left ear. Because this remarkable sculpture is still in existence, it is no wonder why Nefertiti remains 'The Most Beautiful Woman in the World´

Death Mask of Tutankhamen he death mask of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun is made of gold inlaid with colored glass and semiprecious stone. The mask comes from the innermost mummy case in the pharaoh's tomb, and stands 54 cm (21 in) high and weighs around 11kg.

The pharaoh is portrayed in a classical manner, with a ceremonial beard, a broad collar formed of twelve concentric rows consisting of inlays of turquoise, lapis lazuli, cornelian and amazonite. The traditional nemes head-dress has yellow stripes of solid gold broken by bands of glass paste, coloured dark blue. On the forehead of the mask are a royal uraeus and a vulture's head, symbols of the two tutelary deities of Lower and Upper Egypt: Wadjet and Nekhbet. Above his perfect golden cheeks, Tutankhamen has blue petals of lapis lazuli in imitation of the kohl make- up he would have worn in life.

Wedjat Eye of Tutankhamen y The Eye of Horus, called the wedjat eye, represented protection and healing. y Gold, the metal that never tarnishes, represented the ³flesh of the god´ and eternity. y Tuquoise associated the deceased with the reborn sun. y Black represented the fertile earth soaked by the flood and evoked resurrection. y Dark blue, the color of the rare stone lapis lazuli, was linked with the night sky and creation.

Last judgment of Hu-Nefer This last painting is called Last judgement of Hu-Nefer from his tomb at Thebes. It is a a nineteenth dynasty piece dating back to about 1290-1280 B.C. It is a painted papyrus scroll approximately 18" high. In it, Hu-Nefer is led into the hall of judgement by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming. Anubis is weighing the dead man's heart against the feather of of the goddess Maat, protectoress of truth and right. If his heart does not meaure up, his heart will be devoured by Ammit, a hybrid monster. This emphasizes the Egyptian belief in the importance of the Afterlife.

Book of the Dead The Book of the Dead was intended to assist the deceased in the afterlife and comprised a collection of hymns, spells, and instructions to allow the deceased to pass through obstacles in the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll and placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased Books were often prefabricated in funerary workshops, with spaces being left for the name of the deceased to be written in later. They are often the work of several different scribes and artists whose work was literally pasted together. The cost of a typical book might be equivalent to half a year's salary of a laborer, so the purchase would be planned well in advance of the person's death.

Cat from Thebes, Egypt Cats in ancient Egypt were revered highly, partly due to their ability to combat vermin such as mice, rats - which threatened key food supplies - and snakes, especially cobras. Cats of royalty were, in some instances, known to be dressed in golden jewelry and were allowed to eat from their owners' plates. In the temple at Per-Bast some cats were found to have been mummified and buried, many next to their owners. Bastet is the name commonly used by scholars today to refer to a feline goddess of Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty. Her name is also spelled Bast, Ubasti and Baset

Geometric Krater from the Dipylon cemetery,

The Geometric Krater is a magnificent piece of Greek Art. In the eight century, vase painting became very popular. The vases show a great show a great variety of style and development over the centuries, beginning with the geometric and very linear style. They then continued through the oriental style which borrowed images from the eastern world, and into the classical era with mythology portrayed with as much classical accuracy as the ancient Greek potters and painters could muster. The majority of the vases were made of a ceramic material which could easily be used for everyday uses, however in this time, the artists would then paint on them in order to decorate them and make them ornate enough to be used for cultural or ceremonial uses such as grave markers. The Geometric Krater is a prime example of the vase painting movement in Greek art. Originally made in approximately 740 B.C in Athens, Greece, the Geometric Krater was used as a grave marker in the Dipylon cemetery and now can be located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The vase stands about three and a half feet high and is in the ͚krater' shape. This shape is classified as having round body, a wide mouth, a heavy stand and a handle on either side, (Pottier). This specific vase was made to serve a purpose besides to decorate the grave site. It was made with holes "cut out of its bottom in order for liquid offerings to be poured to the dead," (Vlamis). The vase itself is golden, embellished with black and red geometric designs. These geometric designs are made up of intense details and intricate designs. The base of the vase is covered in thick black stripes separated by thinner and more decorative golden stripes. On the top half of the vase is where the designs become very intricate and are actually depictions of things. There are two main bands in which scenes are drawn out. Upon looking closely, one will see that the a funeral scene is represented....

Hero and centaur ca. 750-730 B.C.E.

This shows the mythology of the ancient Greeks. In Greek mythology, the centaurs (from Ancient Greek: ȀȑȞIJĮȣȡȠȚ - Kéntauroi) are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attic and Boeotian vase-paintings, as on the kantharos illustrated below left, they are depicted with the hindquarters of a horse attached to them; in later renderings centaurs are given the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be.

This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, both as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths, or conversely as teachers, like Chiron.

Calf Bearer (Moschophoros) from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece

the Athenians buried these offerings to the Gods in pits at the Acropolis site.

The Calf Bearer details the Archaic style, which sits between the Geometric and Classical periods and is distinguishable by the 'archaic smile, patterned hair and a leaning toward the 'left foot forward' Egyptian pose.

In ancient Greek cult, kriophoros, criophorus (ȀȡȚȠijȩȡȠȢ), the "ram-bearer" is a figure that commemorates the solemn sacrifice of a ram. It becomes an epithet of Hermes: Hermes Kriophoros.

Contents [hide]

y 1 Myth y 2 Kriophoroi and "The Good Shepherd" y 3 Notes y 4 External links o 4.1 Examples: rough chronological order

[edit] Myth

At the Boeotian city of Tanagra, Pausanias relates a local myth that credited the god with saving the city in a time of plague, by carrying a ram on his shoulders as he made the circuit of the city¶s walls: There are sanctuaries of Hermes Kriophoros and of Hermes called Promachos.[1] They account for the former surname by a story that Hermes averted a pestilence from the city by carrying a ram round the walls; to commemorate this Calamis made an image of Hermes carrying a ram upon his shoulders. Whichever of the youths is judged to be the most handsome goes round the walls at the feast of Hermes, carrying a lamb on his shoulders.[2]

The myth may be providing an etiological explanation of a cult practice, carried out to avert miasma, the ritual pollution that had brought disease, a propitiatory act whose ancient origins had become lost but had ossified in this iconic motif. Reflections of Calamis' lost Hermes Kriophoros may be detectable on Roman coinage of the city.

Kroisos from Anavysos, Greece The Kroisos Kouros (Ancient Greek: ʃʉPʌʉʎ) is a marble kouros from Anavyssos in Attica which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroísos. The free-standing sculpture strides forward with the "archaic smile" playing slightly on his face. The sculpture is dated to c. 540-515 BC and stands 1.95 meters high. It is now situated in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (inv. no. 3851). The style is very Egyptian, with the one foot forward , stiff ʹ this will change as time passes. Also not clothed

Achilles and Ajax playing dice from Vulci, Italy

It shows Achilles and Ajax playing a game of dice. We know this because the pot has their names inscribed next to them (we know it was by Exekias because he signed it "Exekias made me"). The focus of the scene is the dice table between them. On the extreme right, Ajax has placed his armour. The shield, with its Gorgon Head design faces the players, who are watching the fall of the dice intently. Only Ajax's helmet looks away. Its focus is on what's happening outside the tent. It reminds us that this is (literally) an interlude. The war goes on. Both Achilles and Ajax are fated to die before the walls of Troy. It has been foretold in the case of Achilles and decided by the gods for Ajax.

The normal treatment of heroes in vase paintings is to show them in action, doing what they do best. Herakles grappling the Nemean Lion, Achilles slaying Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons, that sort of thing. Not Exekias.

He has chosen to depict a moment before the action. A lull in the fighting but still a contest between heroes. the helmet knows what's going to happen. It looks to battle. It looks forward to their deaths. And that gives this work its poignancy. This is a masterpiece of composition.

And the detail. Look at Achilles' dress.

The Greek tragedian Aeschylus wrote a trilogy of plays about Achilles, given the title Achilleis by modern scholars. The tragedies relate the deeds of Achilles during the Trojan War, including his defeat of Hector and eventual death when an arrow shot by and guided by Apollo punctures his heel. Extant fragments of the Achilleis and other Aeschylean fragments have been assembled to produce a workable modern play. The first part of the Achilleis trilogy, The Myrmidons, focused on the relationship between Achilles and chorus, who represent the Achaean army and try to convince Achilles to give up his quarrel with Agamemnon; only a few lines survive today.[17] In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature, colossal frame, the tallest and strongest of all the Achaeans, second only to Achilles in skill-at-arms, and Diomedes to whom he lost a sparring competition as well as the 'bulwark of the Mycenaeans'. He was trained by the centaur Chiron (who had trained his father, Telamon, and Achilles' father Peleus), at the same time as Achilles. Apart from Achilles, Ajax is the most valuable warrior in Agamemnon's army (along with Diomedes), though he is not as cunning as Nestor, Diomedes, Idomeneus, or Odysseus. He commands his army wielding a huge shield made of seven cow-hides with a layer of bronze. Most notably, Ajax is not wounded in any of the battles described in the Iliad, and he is the only principal character on either side who does not receive personal assistance from any of the gods who take part in the battles.

Dying warrior from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece

Myron Diskobolus (Discus Thrower)

Phidas Athena Parthenos (model) Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Caryatids from the South Porch of the Erechtheion

Praxiteles Aphrodite of Knidos

Philoxenes of Eretria Battle of Issus

Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander Aphrodite from Milos ()

Old Market Woman ca. 150-100 B.C.E. ʹ [[statue]]

Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes Laocoön and his sons

Head of a Roman patrician ca. 75-50 B.C.E.

Portrait of a Roman General Tivoli, Italy

Dionysiac mystery frieze Room 5, Pompeii, Italy

Cubiculum (bedroom) from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor Boscoreale, Italy

Gardenscape from the Villa of Livia, Primaporta, Italy

Portrait of Augustus as general from Primaporta, Italy

Ara Pacis Augustae Rome, Italy

Portrait bust of a Flavian woman from Rome, Italy

Portrait of Carcalla ca. 211-217 C.E. ʹ[[compare with the lady before]

Justinian as world conqueror ()

Virgin (Theotokos) and Child enthroned Apse mosaic, Hagia Sophia

Apse Mosaic San Vitale , Italy

Transfiguration of Jesus apse mosaic, Church of the Virgin Monastery of Saint Catherine Mount Sinai, Egypt

Anicia Juliana Between Magnanimity and Prudence folio 6 of the Vienna Dioskorides from Honoratai near (Istanbul) ca. 512 tempera on parchment

Pantocrator dome mosaic in the Church of the Dormition Daphni, Greece

Crucifixion in the Church of the Dormition

Hodegetria, icon (back)

Virgin and Child and Angels (Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière)

Rose Window and lancets north transept of Chartres Cathedral Chartres, France

Saints Martin, Jerome, and Gregory jamb statues, Porch of the Confessors South transept of Chartres Cathedral

Virgin and Child (Virgin of Paris) Notre-Dame

Abraham and the Three Angels folio 7 verso of the Psalter of

Death of the Virgin tympanum of left doorway, south transept Strasbourg Cathedral

Milan Cathedral

Duccio di Buoninsegna Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints from the Maestà altarpiece

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper

Mona Lisa (La Giaconda)

Leonardo da Vinci Embryo in the Womb

Michelangelo Buonarroti David

Michelangelo Buonarroti Bound Slave

Michelangelo Buonarroti Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Michelangelo Buonarroti Drunkenness of Noah, Sistine Chapel Ceiling (pre-restoration

Raphael Marriage of the Virgin

Raphael Baldassare Castiglione

Michelangelo Buonarroti Tomb of Giuliano de͛Medici

Titian Isabella d͛Este

Antonio Allegri da Correggio Assumption of the Virgin

Bronzino Portrait of a Young Man

Sofonisba Anguissola Portrait of the Artist͛s Sisters and Brother

Peter Paul Rubens Elevation of the Cross

Clara Peeters Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit and Pretzels

Rembrandt van Rijn Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp

Rembrandt van Rijn Self-Portrait