ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN PART 2
3500 BCE - 300 CE

Cultural Influences

• The art of the ancient Near East (present-day Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus, from 3500 to 330 bce) is associated with successive city-states and cultural powers—Sumerian, Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian and Babylonian, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian. Religion plays a significant role in the art and architecture of the ancient Near East, with cosmology guiding representation of deities and kings who themselves assume divine attributes.

• Egyptian art incorporates mythological and religious symbolism, often centered on the cult of the sun. Representations of humans make clear distinctions between the deified pharaoh and people in lower classes, using representational and stylistic cues such as hierarchical proportion and idealization versus naturalism. Approaches to portraiture depend on a figure’s rank in society. The artistic canon of dynastic Egypt, with strict conventions of representation, use of materials, and treatment of forms, was followed for many centuries with only short-lived periods of experimentation and deviation. Innovations in art and architecture tended to occur within the basic and established scheme.

• Art considered Ancient Greek includes works from the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, as defined according to artistic style, not by political units such as governments or dynasties. Etruscan art is typically considered as a single cultural unit even though Etruria was composed of separate city-states. Roman art includes works from the republican, early imperial, late imperial, and late antique periods, as defined using governmental structures and dynasties rather than stylistic characteristics.

Materials & Techniques

• Artists created fully developed, formal types, including sculptures of human figures interacting with gods and stylistic conventions representing the human form with a combined profile and three-quarter view. In these combinations, important figures are set apart using a hierarchical scale or by dividing the compositions into horizontal sections or registers, which provide significant early examples of historical narratives. 

• The Egyptian architectural construction of the clerestory is particularly important for the history of architecture. Development of monumental stone architecture culminated with the pyramids and with innovative designs for rock-cut tombs and pylon (massive sloped gateway) temples, each demonstrating the importance of the pharaoh—a god-king with absolute power, descended directly from the sun god.

• Art from the Etruscan and Roman periods is typified by stylistic and iconographical eclecticism and portraiture. Roman architecture is also characterized by borrowing from its immediate predecessors (Greek and Etruscan) and by technical innovation.

Theories, Interpretations, & Cultural Interactions

• Ancient Greek, Etruscan, and Roman artists and architects were influenced by earlier Mediterranean cultures. Etruscan and Roman artists and architects accumulated and creatively adapted Greek objects and forms to create buildings and artworks that appealed to their tastes for eclecticism and historicism. Many Hellenistic works are in fact Roman in origin, which favors presenting these traditions at the same time.

• Artistic traditions of the ancient Near East and dynastic Egypt focused on representing royal figures and divinities, as well as on the function of funerary and palatial complexes within their cultural contexts.

• The art of Ancient Greece and Rome is grounded in civic ideals and polytheism. Etruscan and ancient Roman art express republican and imperial values, power, and preference for conspicuous display. Etruscan and Roman architecture are characterized by investment in public structures.

• Ancient Greek and Roman art provides the foundation for the later development of European and Mediterranean artistic traditions. From the 18th century onward, European and American observers admired ancient Greek and Roman ethical and governmental systems, which contributed to prioritizing art and architecture that could be associated with political elites and cultural capitals (e.g., Rome). More recently, art historians have examined art produced by contemporary subjects or “provincial” populations.