[ home · entrance · contact · what's new · about me · *fine art* · digital art · cd cover · darkroom · photography · sculptures ]
[ back to main page art history ]  [ back to main page fine art ]

wildbrush's art.to.day - you entered my world of art history -

Comparative Advancing Art History     
 of Pigments and Mediums     
in European and Asian Cultures     

PIGMENTS, PAINTING, SCULPTURE IN B.C. HISTORY:
- MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS

MESOPOTAMIA

7000 B.C., MESOPOTAMIA. Camps were forming in the Fertile Crescent, 600 miles East of the Mediterranean, by 4000 B.C. they were large villages and by 3000 B.C. these non-Semitic Sumerian's had city kingdoms, in Babylonia, the area was called Mesopotamia. Their art was on glazed tiles and bas-relief sculptures. Tapestries took the place of paintings.

3000 B.C., MESOPOTAMIA. Mesopotamia has fully developed palaces and mansions, a grain and wool trade, and had developed the first form of writing called, cuneiform. With a single wedge shaped stick they made an entire alphabet and counting system on clay, that's the basis for all Western written alphabets today. The Sumerian's had 200 words for different kinds of sheep. Their art was also based on clay, as stone was as rare as wood. These non-Semitic Sumerians and Semitic Akkadians, were warring people, with the balance of power shifting back and forth in Sumer.
The sculpture was heading to realism in 2400 B.C., it never made it and went downhill after that.

2300 B.C., MESOPOTAMIA. Sumer is conquered by the Arab Semites who start Babylon in 1800 B.C., north of Sumer.

800 B.C., MESOPOTAMIA. Bas-relief looks Egyptian with stiff poses and frontal eyes on the profile.

705 B.C., MESOPOTAMIA. The Palace of Sargon, at Khorsabad, was honeycombed with arches and drains, glazed tiles protected unfired clay brick walls. The temple tower was oriented like the pyramids, it was seven stories high with a ramp around the outside, leading to the top. Each level was a different color tile with white at the bottom, than black, scarlet, blue, orange, silver and gold at the top. From the top one could see for twenty miles in each direction, no trees, no hills.
This Sumerian, Assyrian, Palace was fortified and raised sixty feet off the ground, 1140' x 1050'. That's a lot of brick to make and set, and a lot of slaves to do the work. There were no wood beams to be had, so the ceilings were domed brick, the cavities filled in, and a flat roof on top. Great rugs and tapestries covered the walls and floors. Sculpture followed an Oriental and Egyptian line, monsters of stone guarded the entrances. People were stiff as in later Egyptian work. Bas-relief wall sculptures covered the interior walls of important rooms.
Persia ultimately conquered Mesopotamia in 590 B.C.

[ back to main page art history ]  [ back to main page fine art ]