- [S] marketing: - 2022-01-17 reached out to [[Classical Wisdom]] about referencing them for [the women's work section](https://twitter.com/EleanorKonik/status/1483103004760985606) & also the beware of dog mosaic section (pending in the drip campaign). - [Stones that were incised with artistic designs around 15,000 years ago have patterns of heat damage which suggests they were carved close to the flickering light of a fire, a new study has found](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220420151543.htm) was used as an eclectic addendum on 2022-09-15. > We tend to think of art as a critical component of humanity, and especially of civilization. But artistic styles are rarely a component of fantasy stories. When they do make it into a fantasy world, it tends to feel like a direct "port" of a particular period of art history, for example the patron-based portraiture of L. E. Modesitt's _Imager_ series. I wanted to think about fantasy art a little differently, so I went digging... ## Quick Facts - Minoan and Mycenean art from around 2,000 BCE was more realistic and technically sophisticated than later Greek art, which tended to be very abstract in the Archaic period. %% [[naturalist art vs abstract art is a historical cycle]] %% - Egyptian wall paintings generally have a very Cubist style, although Akhenaten temporarily introduced a more realistic art style before his legacy was destroyed following his death. %% [[naturalist art vs abstract art is a historical cycle]] %% - In 5000 BCE Africa, the main visual art of the Niger-Congo civilization was wooden sculptures, whereas the Afrasan and Khosian cultures focused on rock painting and engraving. %% [[The Civilizations of Africa by Christopher Ehret#ch03p102 Major Civilizations of Africa Typical Features of Culture ca 5000 BCE]] %% - [The ancient Egyptians didn't have a word for 'art.'](https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-egyptian-statues-broken-noses) They considered sculptures and statues to be religious _tools_. - Sulawesi, the 11th-largest island in the world, is home to some of [the oldest art ever found by archaeologists](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/itsy-bitsy-indonesian-rocks-are-rewriting-the-history-of-ancient-art). The [cave art found there is older than Lascaux (France) and Altamira (Spain)](https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/786760790/44-000-year-old-indonesian-cave-painting-is-rewriting-the-history-of-art), and it's also the site of the oldest bas-relief artwork found outside of Europe. ## Dog Depictions Mosaics do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of decorating the floors of Ancient Roman villas, such as those found in Pompeii. The [most famous shows a battle between Alexander III of Macedon and Darius III of Persia](https://classicalwisdom.com/culture/mosaics/the-pompeii-mosaics-a-rare-look-into-roman-life/), but other mosaics are a bit more mundane. My favorite depicts an aggressive dog wearing a collar and chain, teeth bared. It's purpose was probably to declare "beware of dog" to visitors. ## Commercial Pots I used to be confused about why [artistic, painted pottery was so often by archaeologists to learn about ancient peoples](https://twitter.com/Moudhy/status/1452745946807390219), until I realized it's less likely to degrade than a lot of other materials, and [painted amphorae are functionally the equivalent of tractor trailer trucks with advertisements and art decorating them](https://member.worldhistory.org/Amphora/), or the logos painted on wine bottles. Commercial art tells us a lot about _commerce_. %% [[why ceramics are valuable for archaeologists]] %% ## Clay Cats Art is not limited to places with social hierarchies and complex economies. 27,000 years ago, prehistoric people in Central Europe were creating art. In addition to decorated shells, they made decorative ceramics. One ceramic lion's head was styled by [pressing reindeer hair and textiles against the clay to create a sense of texture](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31085915). ## Women's Work Understanding art in history is in some ways a classification problem. [The line between "fine craftsmanship" and "beautiful art" is blurry and in many ways political](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/apr/14/women-take-the-floor-museum-of-fine-arts-boston-exhibition). This has implications for the status of things like "women in art." In Ancient Greece, most of the [known female painters](https://classicalwisdom.com/culture/painting/female-artists-of-ancient-greece-kora-anaxandra-irene-and-timarete/) were themselves the daughters of artists. %% [[female Greek artists usually had artist fathers]] %%