Egyptian artistic canon. Architecture and sculpture

Artistic canon:

A canon is a set of rules developed in the process of artistic practice and established traditions. The rendering of a figure on a plane combines frontal and profile elements: head and legs in profile, shoulders in frontal view, torso in three-quarter view.

Egyptian painters did not strive to capture what they saw from one point of view; they had a different task: to depict a person in his substantial state. The Egyptians did not engage in drawing from life. The coloring was also restrained and not variegated - combinations of yellow and brown with blue and green predominated.

All the drawings of the Egyptian masters were linear and flat, they had no volume, perspective, or chiaroscuro.

Linear drawings were painted in color, without introducing additional tones or color shadows. The figures were outlined with a sharp outline: male figures in black, female figures in red.

The size of a person's figure was determined by his social status. The figure of a pharaoh or a noble person was depicted several times larger than those close to him, and especially slaves.

Architecture:

EgyptEgyptians, regardless of their social status, built their houses from fragile materials - reeds, wood, clay or raw bricks and never used stone.

Steles and mastabas

Architectural structures made of stone were intended only for the dead and for the worship of gods. The oldest surviving human burials indicate that the Egyptians stockpiled food for the afterlife. The tombs of the 1st and 2nd dynasties, regardless of whether they belonged to kings or ordinary members of the community, were built from raw brick and wood, although some of their elements were already made of stone. For example, from the tombs of the pharaohs of the 1st dynasty in the Helwan necropolis, stone slabs (steles) are known, which were embedded face down into the ceiling of the chamber above the burial. These steles were carved with a primitive convex image of the deceased, his name and titles, basic foodstuffs, vessels with drinks and hieroglyphic signatures for them. This custom was clearly connected with the idea that this entire set would be preserved even after the food placed in the grave had decayed and the body of the owner of the tomb had turned to dust. Immortalization in an imperishable stone was considered as a magical means of ensuring the eternal existence of the deceased and the means of subsistence he needed. Soon stone steles began to be placed in the walls of tombs; they acquired larger sizes and more varied shapes, gradually turning into<ложные двери>in the western wall of the tomb. It was believed that the deceased, depicted above the lintel, would leave the burial chamber through this door to taste the dishes that his relatives would regularly bring to the tomb, and therefore their names were written on the panel of the false door and their figures were depicted.

During the 3rd and 4th dynasties, stone pyramids were built for the pharaohs. Around them there were rows of mastaba tombs, which the rulers gave to their highest dignitaries and associates. Mastabas had numerous rooms; during the V Dynasty there were up to a hundred of them. They were richly decorated with reliefs reproducing the lifetime deeds of the owner of the tomb, including the performance of official duties, as well as forms of manifestation of the royal favor.

Pyramids and temples

The very first pyramids in ancient Egypt were built in the form of steps. The only known step pyramid in Egypt that has survived to this day is the Pyramid of Djoser. It consists of six steps and its height is about 62 meters. The descent from the entrance leads to the burial chamber. Underground galleries surround the pyramid on all sides except the south.

Just as the mastaba had a false door facing east, the cult chapel in the royal pyramids was also located in the eastern part. By the era of the IV Dynasty, it had turned into a temple of complex layout with a courtyard decorated with columns, a vast hall, along the perimeter of which there were statues of the pharaoh, religious premises and the main sanctuary facing the pyramid. This temple at the pyramid was connected by a long covered passage running in an easterly direction right up to the border of the desert and cultivated fields, covered with water during the annual floods of the Nile. Here, at the very edge of the water, there was a lower one,<долинный>temple with religious premises. Food and everything necessary for the funeral cult of the pharaoh was delivered here by boat during high water. They were carried along a covered passage to the temple at the pyramid and offered to the pharaoh, whose spirit (ka) could leave the sarcophagus to eat the prepared dishes.

The Valley Temple of Khafre - a simple, unadorned but massive structure of huge rectangular granite blocks - still stands next to the great sphinx with the face of the pharaoh himself.

A notable feature of this temple is a complex drainage system of copper pipes with a length of more than 320 m. It was laid under the floor of the temple and brought out, and it was not rainwater from the roof that flowed through it (although there was a special device for this as well), but waste from ritually unclean religious ceremonies that were required to be removed from the sacred space.

The magnificent achievements of the temple builders of the Old Kingdom era can only be judged from individual fragments of buildings. The architects of that time demonstrated an amazing level of mastery of technical techniques for processing the hardest types of stone. Meanwhile, the royal architects of subsequent times preferred to build from softer material and from smaller blocks.

Thebes

The next period of flourishing of Egyptian architecture was the reign of the XII dynasty, whose religious capital was located in Thebes. The buildings of that era have not been preserved in their original form, with the exception of the temple complex on the eastern bank of the Nile at Karnak. This is primarily a white limestone chapel dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Sesostris I. Some details of this complex were discovered in the masonry of the third pylon, erected by Amenhotep III during the 18th dynasty. This pharaoh, using the said chapel as a quarry, unwittingly preserved for posterity an architectural pearl, its value far surpassing any of the grandiose buildings he erected in his quest for sovereign greatness.

Since the pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty began to carve out secret tombs for themselves in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes, they had to separate their mortuary temples (corresponding to the temples at the pyramids of the Old Kingdom era) and the tombs themselves. At this time, a new style emerged in architecture, and all mortuary churches followed the same type. They consist of a pylon - an impressive entrance structure in the form of two towers with a portal connecting them, leading to a partially open courtyard with a colonnade on the north and south sides. The entrance through the second pylon gave access to the next courtyard with a colonnade - a kind of hall for festivities in honor of the gods, followed by several hypostyle halls. Around them along the perimeter there were cult premises, treasuries, shops for selling sacred objects used in rituals, halls for preparing sacrifices and prayer rooms in which images of gods were placed. Literally every square meter of the temple walls, inside and out, was covered with painted reliefs glorifying the wars and other deeds of the pharaohs, everyday temple rituals and major religious holidays. Hieroglyphic inscriptions tell of the exploits of kings and their offerings to the gods. The funeral cult to which such temples were dedicated was intended to serve the pharaoh located in a remote rock tomb.

A series of royal mortuary temples stretched from north to south along the edge of the desert west of Thebes. Each of them was dedicated to the cult of one of the rulers buried in the Valley of the Kings. Behind the temples are the tombs of nobles carved into limestone.

In Karnak, over the course of about 2000 years, a complex of structures was created for the main state temple, dedicated to the king of the gods Amun-Ra. Currently, it consists of rows of columns, ruins of pylons, overturned stone blocks; monumental obelisks (monolithic stone pillars) with numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions. Some of the painted reliefs are very well preserved, others have lost their original appearance, and others have turned to dust. Each pharaoh sought to build a pylon, colonnade, portal, hall, obelisk, or leave a hieroglyphic inscription with his name and title in honor of the great god of the Egyptian power, but first of all to immortalize himself. During the reign of Ramesses II, the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 columns was completed.

The complex of temples at Karnak, more than 1 km long, is connected by an avenue of sphinxes to the temple at Luxor with its fantastic colonnade - the creation of Amenhotep III - and with a giant pylon built by Ramesses II in memory of the wars he waged in Asia.

Much higher along the Nile, in Abu Simbel, Ramses II built a temple of incredible size. This original structure is carved into the rock, and its courtyard and religious premises are built of sandstone. Outside there are four colossal statues of a seated Ramesses II, carved from rock monoliths.

Ancient Egypt sculpture:

The sculpture of Ancient Egypt is one of the most original and strictly canonically developed areas of art of Ancient Egypt. Sculpture was created and developed to represent the ancient Egyptian gods, pharaohs, kings and queens in physical form. There were also many images of ka in the graves of ordinary Egyptians, mostly made of wood, some of which have survived. Statues of gods and pharaohs were placed on public display, usually in open spaces and outside temples. The Great Sphinx in Giza was never replicated in life-size anywhere else, but alleys made from smaller copies of the Sphinx and other animals became an indispensable attribute of many temple complexes. The most sacred image of God was located in the temple, in the altar, usually in a boat or barque, usually made of precious metals, although not a single such image has survived. A huge number of carved figurines have been preserved - from figures of gods to toys and dishes. Such figurines were made not only from wood, but also from alabaster, a more expensive material. Wooden images of slaves, animals and property were placed in tombs to accompany the dead in the afterlife.

Statues, as a rule, retain the original shape of the block of stone or piece of wood from which it was carved. In traditional statues of seated scribes, similarities to the shape of a pyramid (cubic statue) are also often found.

The statues were almost always painted, but this coloring, in our opinion, was quite conventional and rather resembled tinting. The similarity is also emphasized by the architectonic structure of the statues themselves, which formed an indivisible organic whole with the architectural structures to which they belonged.

Old Kingdom sculptures usually retain the basic shapes of the block of stone from which they were carved. In many cases, the sculptor even emphasized this genesis by leaving the figure close to the stone massif, which in this case served as a background.

There was a very strict canon for the creation of ancient Egyptian sculpture:

An indispensable condition was the depiction of the entire figure, either standing with the left leg extended forward - a pose of movement in eternity, either sitting on a cube-shaped throne, or in a “scribe” pose with legs crossed on the ground.

the color of the man's body had to be darker than the color of the woman's body;

the hands of a seated person should lie on his knees or on his chest, with a whip and scepter;

The seated statue depicted a man sitting on a cubic throne, legs tightly closed (knees and feet), back straight;

The faces were depicted without emotion: the lips are tightly compressed, the chin is pushed forward, the eyes are looking at the horizon; it is impossible to “meet your gaze” with such a statue;

Samples and types of sculpture: image of the pharaoh:

Conventionally, there are two typologies for depicting characters of divine rank: sitting or standing. The hands rest on the hips or are crossed on the chest, without any gaps between the arms and the torso. The pharaohs had powerful bodies and impassive faces, which, however, retained portrait features. On the head was a Klaft (the headscarf of the Egyptian pharaohs, usually striped and with long ends hanging down to the shoulders). The uraeus is an accessory to the royal attire of the pharaohs, which was a vertical, sometimes highly stylized image of the cobra goddess Wadjet, the patroness of Lower Egypt, attached to the forehead.

Crowns were the ceremonial headdresses. The following types of crowns were known: 1) the white crown of Upper Egypt, shaped like a pin or a bottle;

2) the red crown of Lower Egypt, which was a truncated inverted cone with a flat bottom and a high raised rear part;

3) a double crown, combining the first two and symbolizing the unity of the country;

There were certain rules for depicting Egyptian gods:

Thus, the god Horus should be depicted with the head of a falcon, the god of the dead Anubis - with the head of a jackal.

Reliefs of ancient Egypt:

When making reliefs and wall paintings, the traditional technique of planar arrangement of the figure was used:

Legs and face were depicted in profile

Eye in front

Shoulders and lower body are in a three-quarter turn.

The sculptors tried to show the character from different angles in this way, combining the most advantageous vantage points.

The reliefs of the Old Kingdom unfolded one above the other; each presented a narrative sequence in such a way that it could be read.

Reflection of religion in sculpture:

Egyptian sculpture, like architecture, was constantly associated with religion.

All the statues have straight heads, almost identical arms and legs, and the same attributes. The bodies of the male figures are painted brick-brown, the female figures yellow, all have black hair and white clothes.

Being the embodiment of Ka (in the religion of the ancient Egyptians - the human spirit, a being of a higher order, personified life force, considered divine), the sculpture expressed ideological and artistic canons.

The eyes of the statue were inlaid with crystal, wood, and semi-precious stones, a wig made of horse or human hair was put on the head, and earrings were inserted into the ears. In this form, Ka was in the burial chamber, guarding the sarcophagus with the mummy.

Reliefs and paintings in the tombs of the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom (Egypt):

Each burial initially recorded the name of the deceased.

Mentioning the name logically required that the lifetime titles and merits of the deceased also be listed. From this grew a detailed pictorial and/or written account of his life. compositional forms, “signs” were gradually selected and canonized, becoming “sacred”.

Over time, the very fact of depicting something made the depicted

an object of the sacred world, an object magically immortalized. The ancient kingdom was characterized by “belief in the unconditional reality of artistic images.”

20. monuments of Egypt:

Temple of Hatshepsut - a temple built in honor of the death of Queen Hatshepsut. Located in the West Bank of Luxor, this magnificent temple was built by the architect Senenmut, in honor of the only woman who ruled Egypt as a pharaoh. The temple, with its magnificent walls, beautiful terraces, elegant columns and hieroglyphic carvings, also tells the story of Hatshepsut's journey to what is believed to be modern-day Somalia. From this journey she brought back such treasures as ebony, ivory, gold and myrtle trees.

In Luxor, in the “city of the dead,” a well-preserved temple of Queen Hatshepsut stands near a steep cliff. For many years, the queen awakened the imagination of novelists and asked Egyptologists more and more new riddles. After the death of her father, Thutmose I, she married her half-brother Thutmose II. When he died at a fairly early age, his only heir was the young Thutmose III, the son of one of the pharaoh's younger wives. Hatshepsut ruled the state on his behalf and remained on the throne for 22 years.
To this day, the death of Hatshepsut remains a mystery. Her mummy has not been identified. The version that she was killed by her son-in-law and nephew Thutmose III has also not been confirmed. But, undoubtedly, the first thing he did after becoming a ruler was to hasten to remove the image of Hatshepsut from all monuments and temples and replace it with his own.
Senenmut, the architect and, some believe, lover of Hatshepsut, built a mortuary temple at the foot of a 300-meter cliff. The temple complex is located on three terraces. On the middle wall frescoes report the queen's famous journey to the sacred country of Punt (probably present-day Somalia). This depicts the greeting of the queen, represented in a male form, to the corpulent king of Punta, as well as the exchange of goods and their transportation. In the Birth Hall, the divine origin of Hatshepsut is immortalized. A ramp leads to the upper halls. Unfortunately, Coptic monks - in some periods the temple served as a Christian monastery - destroyed most of the wall paintings.

Question 21. The culture of ancient China and its features .

Chinese writing

The states and cultures that previously existed on the territory of modern China have been known for more than six thousand years. Chinese civilization is considered one of the oldest and longest lasting known to man. The Chinese writing system is one of the oldest forms of writing still in use today.

Chinese inventions

The inventions of the ancient Chinese gave many benefits to the world. As it turned out, paper became the greatest invention of mankind. It is believed that paper appeared in China at a time when Europeans were just beginning to develop their own paper production. Moreover, the Chinese are also credited with the invention of the compass, typewriter and gunpowder.

The culture of ancient China had a profound influence on neighboring countries. Japan, Vietnam and Korea, in particular, have borrowed many elements of ancient Chinese culture. The most obvious influence was the Chinese script, which was adopted by these countries to varying degrees.

Homo erectus formed the basis of China's first ancient civilization (lat. Homo erectus ) , which is currently called Sinanthropus (lat. Sinanthropus pekinensis - “Beijing man”). Archaeological finds in the Zhoukoudian Cave showed that this civilization flourished for more than three hundred thousand years. Sinanthropus ("Peking man") was well acquainted with fire and knew how to make some useful tools.

There was a wide variety of cultures among the different regions of China. However, China's vast territory remained unified until the Chinese Civil War, which divided the country into the People's Republic of China and autonomous Hong Kong and Macau.

The world's oldest civilization, Chinese, occupies a huge part of East Asia. The culture of ancient China is fraught with many interesting and mysterious aspects. Modern China leads the world economy and also has great purchasing power in the modern market.

Sculpture in Egypt appeared in connection with religious requirements and developed depending on them. Cult requirements determined the appearance of this or that type of statues, their iconography and installation location. The basic rules for sculpture finally took shape during the Early Kingdom: symmetry and frontality in the construction of figures, clarity and calmness of poses best corresponded to the cult purpose of the statues. These features of the appearance of the statues were also determined by their location near the wall or in a niche. There were several types of canonical images of the pharaoh: walking - with his leg extended forward; calmly sitting on the throne - his hands lie on his knees; the deceased - in the guise of the god Osiris with his arms crossed on his chest, holding symbols of power - a rod and a whip. The attributes of the pharaoh were the klaft - a striped scarf with ends hanging down to the shoulders; nemes - headband; crowns - white, in the shape of a pin (symbol of Upper Egypt), and cylindrical red, with a high rounded protrusion at the back (symbol of Lower Egypt). Sometimes one crown was placed on top of another. A uraeus was attached to the bandage in the middle of the forehead - the image of a sacred cobra, the guardian of royal power on earth and heaven. The non-ceremonial headdress, khepresh, looked like a blue helmet. In the appearance of the ruler, portrait resemblance had to be combined with solemn monumentality and grandeur.

A little later, the “scribe pose” appears - a person sitting on crossed legs. At the same time, the complete stability of the figure, the generality of its artistic design and plastic accuracy in conveying the plot were achieved by enclosing the figures of the seated scribes in an imaginary triangular outline. Family groups also appear early. A number of rules were mandatory for all sculpture: straight positioning of the head, some attributes of power or profession, certain coloring: male figures were painted brick-red, female figures yellow; the hair on their upright heads was always black, and their clothes were white. The eyes were often inlaid with bronze and stones.

Placed in funeral temples and tombs, the statues personified the dead and were the receptacle of their souls, and therefore were distinguished by their portrait resemblance to them. Each sculpture was carved from a rectangular block of stone according to pre-drawn markings and then carefully finished in detail. The bodies of the statues were made exaggeratedly powerful and developed, giving the statue a solemn elation. In some cases, faces, on the contrary, were supposed to convey the individual traits of the deceased. Hence the early appearance of sculptural portraits in Egypt.

The main object of creativity of sculptors during the period of the Old Kingdom was an earthly ruler or nobleman, less often a commoner. The image of the deity was not central; usually the gods were depicted rather schematically, often with the heads of birds or animals. The sculptor's mastery of portraiture was probably facilitated by one of the means by which they tried to save the corpse from decay: sometimes it was covered with plaster. At the same time, the face looked like a plaster mask. However, since the eyes had to be open to depict the face of a living person, such a mask required additional processing. Apparently, this technique of removing a mask and casting it was used by sculptors when working on portraits. These statues depicted various aspects of the mortuary cult. Wooden statues were discovered in a number of tombs, which may have been associated with one of the moments of the funeral ritual, when the statue was raised and lowered several times.

In addition to statues of the dead, figurines of workers were also placed in the tomb, who, it was believed, were supposed to ensure the afterlife of the deceased. This leads to other requirements for sculptors - to depict people engaged in a wide variety of work. In full accordance with the general requirement of Egyptian art, a characteristic moment is chosen for each lesson, which becomes canonical for this type. The statues of the kings were clearly associated with the festival of Hebsed, as the pharaohs are depicted in the characteristic attire they wore during this festival. In contrast to the statues of gods, kings and nobles, the figurines of prisoners and servants are distinguished by a variety of positions, and often by a better interpretation. This is quite understandable, since here the sculptor was not bound by the requirements of the canon and was faced with completely different tasks. The very need to depict a person tied up or carrying some object forced the masters to look for new positions for the figures, and the requirement to reflect ethnic characteristics attracted attention to their selection and careful transfer. The same should be said about figurines of children, where the task was to show the characteristic features of a child’s body. The general rules, for example, frontality and accepted coloring, remain the same here. Statues played a large role in the architectural design of temples: they bordered the roads leading to the temple, stood near pylons, in courtyards and interior spaces. Statues that had a large architectural and decorative meaning differed from purely cult statues. They were made in large sizes and were interpreted in a general way, without much detail.

In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the Theban school occupied a leading position in the plastic arts. If at first it follows the principles of schematization and idealization, then the realistic direction intensifies in it: the royal statue, glorifying the power of the pharaoh, must at the same time consolidate his specific appearance in the minds of the people. To this end, sculptors use new techniques - the contrast between the stillness of the pose and the lively expressiveness of a carefully crafted face. In wooden folk sculpture, genre scenes are popular: a plowman with bulls, a boat with oarsmen, they are distinguished by spontaneity and truthfulness. Royal statues were placed in temples dedicated to the gods. Consequently, these statues were no longer hidden in the halls of mortuary temples, visited by an extremely limited group of people. Now they were monuments glorifying the living rulers of the country. The new purpose of the statues also determined their new forms. A monument glorifying a certain ruler required more attention to the individual image.

In the early period of the New Kingdom, there was a departure from the plastic innovations of the previous era: with maximum idealization, only the most general portrait resemblance was preserved. But, starting from the reign of Thutmose IV, sculptors abandoned the canonical severity of forms in favor of exquisite decorativeness: the previously smooth surface of the statue is now covered with thin flowing lines of clothing and curls of wigs and enlivened by the play of chiaroscuro. The desire to convey movement and volume increases; bodies become softer, facial patterns become more accurate. The tendency towards naturalness and realism is characteristic mainly of statues of private individuals. This tendency reaches its culmination under Akhenaten, when a complete break with the canon occurs; idealization is abandoned even when depicting the king and queen. Sculptors set themselves the task of conveying the inner world of a character, as well as achieving a realistic depiction of the human body. In the plastic art of the era of the XIX-XX dynasties, the realistic direction does not give up its position, which is manifested, first of all, in the royal portrait: there are no more exaggerated muscles, an unnaturally straight pose, a frozen gaze directed into the distance; The pharaoh appears in the image of a strong but ordinary warrior, not in ceremonial, but in everyday attire. The secular image of the king is established - not a god, but a real earthly ruler. The new style was introduced immediately and is clearly polemical in nature. The king did not want to be like the images of the former gods, which were always carried out to the fullest extent of the ancient canons, just like the figures of the kings.

In the initial period of the Late Kingdom, plastic art experienced a decline. In the XI-IX centuries. BC. monumental sculpture gives way to small forms (small bronze figurines). At the end of the 9th - beginning of the 8th centuries. BC. the realistic sculptural portrait is being revived. In the Sais and Persian eras, the realistic trend competes with the revived traditionalist tendency. The images created in the court workshops of Memphis are oriented, like all ancient Egyptian art, towards eternity, therefore everything random, vain, and secondary was expelled from them. In the process of metal processing, sculptures enjoy greater freedom, and the figures are completely isolated, resting on a pedestal and having no other points of support. The arms are separated from the body, and the legs are depicted apart. All this gives the statues greater lightness, giving them a certain gracefulness. Despite idealization, portraits conveyed the unique features of a person. There was more life and movement in the images of ordinary people than in the solemn statues of rulers.

The style of sculpture of the Old Kingdom developed on the basis of the funeral cult with its strict requirement of maintaining portrait resemblance, calm and balanced poses, frontal staging of figures, and majestic solemnity of images.

The statues were installed in special niches built in the burial chambers of the mastaba, that is, in the tombs of the nobility or in the royal mortuary temples near the walls. The statues were not designed to be viewed from different sides: they leaned their backs against the plane of the wall or block that served as their background.

Thus, sculpture was also largely subject to the forms and proportions of architecture - the leading form of ancient Egyptian art. The statues are characterized by symmetry, the strictest balance between the right and left halves of the body. This rule was strictly observed not only when depicting a standing and sitting figure, but also when depicting it in other poses. This was typical for ancient Egyptian sculpture of all times.

The Egyptian artist usually began his work by applying a pre-graphed grid onto a rectangular block of stone (limestone, sandstone, granite, diorite, alabaster, slate), from which he then carved a statue, a drawing of the image that was to be obtained. Then he carved out the figure, processing the details, grinding and polishing the statue. But even in the finished work one can always feel the rectangular edges of the stone block from which it was “liberated” by the artist.

The general composition of Egyptian sculpture thus echoes the laconic planes and volumes of architecture. The calmly, upright figure of a man has his left leg extended forward, his arms are either lowered along the body, or one of them rests on a staff. The female figure usually stands with her legs closed. The right hand is lowered along the body, the left one lies in front of the waist. In paired marital statues, the wife often hugs her husband’s waist with one arm. The seated figures also have a frontal stance, their knees and feet are also close together, or even closed, and one or even both hands rest on their knees.

The canonical rules required never to convey random movements and poses in sculpture. In the figures of pharaohs and nobles, physical power and strength were especially emphasized. The artists generalized the details, discarding the secondary, creating calm, impassive faces, powerful, majestic and monumental bodies.

The spaces between the arms and body and between the legs of stone statues are almost always not carved. These parts of the remaining stone are conventionally painted in the so-called void colors - black or white.

The bodies of male statues were painted reddish-brown, and those of females were painted with light yellow ocher, conveying the color of tanned skin. Clothes that were woven from flax in Ancient Egypt were covered with white paint. Hair - black. The eyes were inlaid with light and dark stone.

The best works of sculpture from the era of the Old Kingdom, endowed with all of the listed characteristics, were made in the northern part of the country, in the court workshops of the capital, the city of Memphis.

End of work -

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Art of Ancient Egypt

The role of the funeral cult and funeral rites in the formation of the main architectural and visual types of ancient Egyptian art canon in.. the Egyptian people were the first in the world to create monumental stone architecture.. from the very beginning of the formation of class relations, art became a powerful means of influencing the consciousness of the masses..

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CULTURE OF ANCIENT GREECE

Test 1.

The Lion Gate relief is the only example of monumental sculpture from the Aegean culture period. Name the structure where the Lion Gate was installed:

a) palace at Knossos; b) “Royal Villa” in Agia Triada; c) fortress in Tiryns; d) palace-fortress in Mycenae.

The underground premises of the Knossos palace of King Minos were called: 1) Architrave; 2) Minotaur; 3) Hades; 4) Labyrinth

Test 3.

The most famous attraction of the Palace of Knossos: 1) round sculpture; 2) colonnade; 3) fresco painting; 4) floor mosaics.

Test 4.

Ceramics are products made from fired clay. Indicate where this name comes from:

a) from the name of the tool for making pottery; b) from the name of the material from which the products were made; c) from the name of the place where pottery production was carried out; d) on behalf of the master of this craft; e) from the name of one of the pottery products.

Test 5.

Songs in honor of Dionysius were called: 1) theoricon; 2) Dionysius; 3) dithyramb; 4) edging

Test 6.

The wedding song of the ancient Greeks was called: 1) cantata; 2) chorale ; 3) epithalamus; 4) troparion

Test 7.

During the 5th century. BC. an ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis is being created, which includes: a) the Parthenon - the temple of Athena the Virgin; b) Propylaea - the main entrance to the Acropolis; c) temple of Nike Apteros (wingless Victory); d) the Erechtheion temple, dedicated to Athena, Poseidon, and King Erechtheus. Indicate which of these structures were created by the architects Callicrates and Ictinus

Test 8.

The Erechtheion temple had three different porticoes, one of which was the portico of the caryatids. Why did this portico have this name? Find the correct answer among the options given to you:

a) due to the arrangement of the columns of the portico in the form of a square; b) in connection with the sculptural image of standing female figures, which served as support for the beams of the portico; c) in connection with the female figures decorating the pediment of the portico; d) in connection with the sculptors of women standing in front of the entrance to the temple from the portico.

Test 9.

In the 4th century BC. In Halicarnassus, a structure is being created, which is a 24-step pyramid about 50 meters high, topped with four horses - a quadriga. What kind of building is this? Choose the correct answer:

a) altar of Zeus; b) sanctuary of Athena; c) the tomb of King Mausol; d) temple of Poseidon.

Test 10.

In the classical period of the culture of Ancient Greece, such sculptures were created as a) “Doriphoros”, b) “Athena and Marsyas”, c) “Olympian Zeus”, d) “Discus thrower”, e) “Wounded Amazon”, f) “Athena Promachos”, g) “Diadumen”, h) “Athena Parthenos”, i) “Hera”, j) “Athena Lemnia”. Find among the listed works the works of the sculptor Polycletus

Test 11.

In the 4th century BC. in Greek sculpture, majesty, clarity and harmony are replaced by dramatic pathos, lyricism and grace. Such magnificent works are created as a) “Maenad”, b) “Resting Satyr”, c) “Apollo Belvedere”, d) “Hermes with the Child Dionysus”, e) “Tombstone of a Youth”, f) “Aphrodite of Knidos”, g) “Apoxiomen”, h) “Apollo killing lizards.”

Indicate which works belong to the sculptor Praxiteles.

Test 12.

The sculptural canon was the first to formulate: 1) Miron; 2) Phidias; 3) Polykleitos; 4) Praxiteles.

Test 13.

The founder of the tragic genre, the “father of tragedy” is considered: 1) Aeschylus; 2) Sophocles; 3) Aristophanes; 4) Euripides

Test 14.

The father of domestic comedy is: 1) Aeschylus; 2) Xenophon; 3) Aristophanes; 4) Thucydides

CULTURE OF ANCIENT ROME

Test 1.

In Etruscan architecture, an essential element of a city house was the atrium, which was: a) dome structure made of wedge-shaped beams; b) main entrance to. house; c) the main room of the house with a hole in the roof and a swimming pool; d) a covered gallery connecting the premises of the house.

Test 2.

Etruscans in the 7th-6th centuries. BC. Sculptural images of the head or figure of the deceased were made on funeral urns and sarcophagi. Which of the following materials was used by the Etruscans to make funeral urns and sarcophagi?

a) marble; b) granite; c) terracotta; d) bronze.

Test 3.

During the period of the Roman Republic, a sculptural image of the togatus type developed, which represented: a) relief images of government officials; b) a sculptural image of noble Romans; c) the image of a Roman dressed in a toga; d) sculptural portraits in the spirit of the Etruscan cult of veneration of ancestors.

What is togatus? Choose the correct answer.

Test 4.

The science of all sciences in Rome was considered (elk): 1) military affairs; 2) philosophy; 3) rhetoric; 4) jurisprudence

Test 5.

In 81, one of the best triumphal arches was erected in Rome, which is a twenty-meter marble structure, decorated with a bronze sculptural group depicting the emperor and the goddess of victory on a chariot drawn by four horses. Indicate in honor of which emperor this arch was erected: a) Vespasian; b) Augusta; c) Titus; d) Tiberius; d) Nero.

Test 6.

Among the squares of imperial Rome, the Forum, built in 109-113, stood out for its grandiose size. An equestrian statue of the emperor was erected in the Forum Square and a thirty-meter column named after him stood. Indicate in honor of which emperor this Forum was created, a column and an equestrian monument were installed on it:

a) August; b) Vespasian; c) Trajan; d) Nero; d) Caligula.

Test 7.

In 211--216. In Rome, Emperor Caracalla erected one of the largest structures. What kind of building was this? Select from the following:

a) Pantheon; b) aqueduct; c) thermal baths; d) basilica.

Test 8.

By order of Emperor Hadrian, in 125, a temple of all gods - the Pantheon - was erected on the Campus Martius, which had an original design, original proportions and interior lighting solutions. The “Eye of the Pantheon” represents a) the entrance to the building, b) an opening in the wall, c) a hole in the dome ceiling; d) a system of dome holes.

Around 170, the famous equestrian statue was created of the Roman emperor - “a philosopher on the throne”, who wrote in his diary: “The time of human life is a moment, its essence is an eternal flow, sensation is vague, the structure of the whole body is perishable, the soul is unstable, fate -. mysterious, fame unreliable.” To which emperor was this equestrian monument erected?

a) Konstantin; b) Flavia; c) Marcus Aurelius; d) Octavian Augustus?

Russian poets have repeatedly turned to the works of the greatest poets of the “golden age” of Roman poetry, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. Thus, A.S. Pushkin in his poems “To Baratynsky” and “Chaadaev” mentions the name of one of these poets, and in the first chapter of “Eugene Onegin” Pushkin writes:

What happened to him from childhood

And labor, and torment, and joy,

What took the whole day

His melancholy laziness, -

There was a science of tender passion,

Which Nazon sang.

What is the full name of the great Roman poet whom A. S. Pushkin mentions in his works?

Publius Ovid Naso