Contributors
JOHN ONIANS
Director of the World Art Research Programme at the
University of East Anglia. He has published widely on
topics ranging from the origins of art to twentiethcentury
Chinese painting. A recent research interest is
the biological basis of artistic activity.
Naman Ahuja
Research Fellow at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He
specializes in the art of India, with particular interest in
ancient sculpture and early medieval painting.
Daud Ali
Lecturer in early Indian History at the School of Oriental
and African Studies, London. His recent research has
been on medieval Indian polity and the growth and
spread of courtly culture.
Anne d’Alleva
Associate Professor of Art History and Women’s Studies
at the University of Connecticut. Her publications
include Art of the Pacific Islands (1998) and Look! An
Introduction to Art History and Its Methods (2003).
Paul Bahn
Writer, editor and translator of books on archaeology.
His main research interest is prehistoric art, especially
rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic art.
Norman Bancroft-Hunt
Lecturer in design and visual theory at the Kent Institute
of Art and Design and at Croydon Art College. He has
published 15 books on the arts of the Americas,
including the award-winning People of the Totem (1979).
Tim Barringer
Associate Professor of History of Art at Yale University.
He has written widely on British art and is the author of
Reading the Pre-Raphaelites (1999) and Men at Work: Art and
Labour in Victorian Britain (2004).
Jane Beckett
Professor of Contemporary British Art at New York
University, London. She has published extensively on
modernism in Europe and Britain as well as on
contemporary art.
John Bennet
Professor of Aegean Archaeology in the University of
Sheffield. He has published on the archaeology of the
Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, and on Linear B
writing.
Elisabeth de Bièvre
Reasearcher in Netherlandish art. She has taught at the
University of East Anglia and elsewhere, and published
in journals in Britain and the Netherlands. She is
preparing The Urban Sub-Conscious. Ecology and Art in the
Netherlands, 1200-1700 for publication.
Sheila Blair
Joint Norma Jean Calderwood Professor of Islamic and
Asian Art at Boston College and co-author with Jonathan
Bloom of The Art and Architecture of Islam: 1250-1800 (1994),
Islamic Arts (1997), and Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and
Power (2000). She is the author of ten books and
hundreds of articles on Islamic art and architecture.
Jeffrey Blomster
Researcher in ancient New World art. He has conducted
excavations throughout North and Central America,
focusing on the emergence of complex societies and
interregional interaction. He has taught at both
Muhlenberg College and Brandeis University.
Jonathan Bloom
Joint Norma Jean Calderwood Professor of Islamic and
Asian Art at Boston College and co-author with Sheila S.
Blair of The Art and Architecture of Islam: 1250-1800 (1994),
Islamic Arts (1997), and Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and
Power (2000). He is also the author of Paper Before Print
(2001) and Minaret: Symbol of Islam (1989).
John Boardman
Emeritus Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology at
Oxford University. He is the author of several handbooks
and monographs on Greek sculpture, vase-painting and
gems, and has specialized in studies of the interaction
of Greek art with the arts of other ancient peoples.
Anna Brodow
Editor of the the review Artes in Uppsala, Sweden. She
contributes to Svenska Dagbladet and is writing a doctoral
thesis on contemporary Swedish artists working with
project grants from Konstnärsnämnden 1976–2000.
Miranda Bruce-Mitford
Author of The Illustrated Guide to Signs and Symbols (1996).
She has been tutor and lecturer on the Sotheby’s and
Christie’s Asian arts courses at the School of Oriental
and African Studies, London, and accompanied tours
to Southeast Asia as guest lecturer. She has lectured at
the British Museum and written widely on Southeast
Asian Art.
Anita Callaway
Kluge fellow at the Library of Congress, Washington.
Author of Visual Ephemera (2000) and past editor of the
Australian Journal of Art (1996–99), she was a Getty fellow
in 2000 and a Centre for Cross-Cultural Research fellow
at the Australian National University until 2003.
Bruce Coats
Professor of Art History and the Humanities at Scripps
College. He teaches courses in East Asian art history for
the Claremont Colleges in California. He writes and
lectures about East Asian architecture and garden
history and about Japanese prints and paintings.
Herbert Cole
Professor Emeritus of art history at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. He is the author, co-author, or
editor of eight books on African art and many articles. In
2001 he received the Leadership Award from the Arts
Council of the African Studies Association.
Paul Collins
Research Associate in the Department of Ancient Near
Eastern Art of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York. He has also worked on Ancient Near East projects
for the British Museum.
Laura Malosetti Costa
Associate Professor of Art History at the University of
Buenos Aires. Her books include Los primeros modernos:
Arte y sociedad en Buenos Aires a fines del siglo XIX (2003).
Jocelyne Dudding
Doctoral candidate researching ‘Photographs as Cultural
Property: New Zealand Images within British Museums’.
She is based at the Photograph Collections Department
of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
Elspeth Dusinberre
Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of
Colorado at Boulder. She has worked on archaeological
sites in the eastern Mediterranean and is interested in
cultural interactions in Anatolia. In 2001 she received
the University of Colorado Chancellor’s Faculty
Recognition Award for her contribution to teaching.
Murray Eiland
Researcher in archaeological science at the J. W. Goethe
University in Frankfurt. He has been a Fulbright lecturer
at the University of Damascus and writes for several
magazines on the evolution of technology and longdistance
trade in the ancient Near East.
Stephen Eskilson
Professor of the history of art at Eastern Illinois
University. He is a co-author of Frames of Reference: Art,
History, and the World (2004).
Alexandra Gajewsky
Researcher of French and German medieval architecture.
She studied at Münster University in Germany and at the
Courtauld Institute in London. She has taught at the
Courtauld Institute, at Birkbeck College and at the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Michael Godby
Professor of History of Art at the University of Cape
Town. He has lectured and published on Early
Renaissance Italian art, eighteenth-century English art,
nineteenth-century South African art, contemporary and
nineteenth-century South African art and the history of
photography in South Africa.
Martin Henig
Visiting Lecturer in Roman Art, University of Oxford. He
has published a number of books on gems, including a
catalogue of the gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge (1994), and on Roman Britain. He is editor of
The Journal of the British Archaeological Association.
Alison Hilton
Wright Family Distinguished Professor of Art History and
Chair of the Department of Art, Music and Theater,
Georgetown University. Her publications cover many
aspects of Russian and Soviet art.
Mary Hollingsworth
Author of books on Renaissance patronage, now working
on the extensive surviving papers of Cardinal Ippolito
d’Este. Her first book on Ippolito, The Cardinal’s Hat, was
published in 2004.
Peter Kalb
Assistant Professor of Art History at Ursinus College.
Revising author of H. H. Arnason’s History of Modern Art
5th edn (2004), he is also author of High Drama: The New
York Cityscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe and Margaret Bourke-White
(2003,) and has contributed to Art in America.
Simon Kaner
Assistant Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the
Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Norwich. He
publishes and teaches on many different aspects of East
Asian archaeology.
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann
Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at
Princeton University. His books include The School of
Prague: Painting at the Court of Rudolf II (Chicago and
The
ART
Atlas
Edited by
John Onians
PART I
Art, Hunting and Gathering
40,000-5000 BC
John Onians 14
THE WORLD
Early Ice Age Art 40,000-20,000 BC
Paul Bahn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Later Ice Age Art 20,000-10,000 BC
Paul Bahn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Postglacial Art 10,000-5000 BC
Paul Bahn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
PART II
Art, Agriculture and Urbanization
5000-500 BC
John Onians 22
THE WORLD
The World 10,000-3000 BC
Chris Scarre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
THE AMERICAS
The Americas 5000-500 BC
Frank Meddens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
EUROPE
Europe 7000-2500 BC
Chris Scarre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Europe 2500-500 BC
Chris Scarre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Aegean 2000-1000 BC
John Bennet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Mediterranean 1000-500 BC
John Boardman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
AFRICA
Africa 5000-500 BC
Peter Shinnie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The Nile Valley 3000-500 BC
Christina Riggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
West Asia 3000-2000 BC
Paul Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
West Asia 2000-500 BC
Paul Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Central and South Asia 5000-500 BC
Ruth Young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
East Asia and China 5000-500 BC
Wang Tao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Japan and Korea 5000-500 BC
Simon Kaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Pacific and Indonesia 5000-500 BC
Robert Welsch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
PART III
Art, War and Empire
500 BC-AD 600
John Onians 52
THE AMERICAS
North and Central America 500 BC-AD 600
Jeffrey Blomster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
South America 500 BC-AD 600
Frank Meddens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
EUROPE
Europe 500 BC-AD 300
Timothy Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Aegean 500-300 BC
John Onians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The Eastern Mediterranean 500-100 BC
Martin Henig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The Western Mediterranean 500-100 BC
Martin Henig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The Mediterranean 100 BC-AD 100
Martin Henig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Mediterranean AD 100-300
Martin Henig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Europe AD 300-600
Martin Henig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
AFRICA
Africa 500 BC-AD 600
Peter Shinnie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
The Nile Valley 500 BC-AD 300
Christina Riggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
North Africa AD 300-600
Ruth Leader-Newby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
West Asia 500-300 BC
Elspeth Dusinberre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
West Asia 300 BC-AD 600
Murray Eiland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Central Asia 500 BC-AD 600
Burzine Waghmar and Ruth Young. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
South Asia 500 BC-AD 600
Naman Ahuja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
China 500 BC-AD 600
Wang Tao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Japan and Korea 500 BC-AD 600
Simon Kaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Southeast Asia 500 BC-AD 600
Robert Welsch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The Pacific 500 BC-AD 600
Robert Welsch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS 5
INTRODUCTION 10
London, 1985), The Mastery of Nature (Princeton, 1993),
Court, Cloister, and City (Chicago and London, 1995), and
Toward a Geography of Art (Chicago and London, 2004).
Susan Koslow
Professor Emerita, Brooklyn College, The City University
of New York. She has written and lectured extensively on
the art of the Netherlands. Her publications include
essays on Hugo van der Goes, Dutch perspective boxes,
Frans Hals, Rubens, and a monograph on the Flemish
still-life and animal painter Frans Snyders.
Ruth Leader-Newby
Researcher in the interaction between art and literary
culture. She has taught at King’s College, London, and
the University of Warwick.
Mark Lindholm
Doctoral candidate in the Department of Art and
Archaeology at Princeton University. He researches
German Lutheran art in the century following Martin
Luther’s death.
Frank Meddens
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a director of
Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd. He has carried out
extensive fieldwork in Peru and the United Kingdom, and
has published widely on Andean and British
archaeology.
Jonathan Meuli
Freelance artist and art historian based in Glasgow. He
is the author of Shadow House: Interpretations of Northwest
Coast Art (2001).
Min Mao
Journalist, photographer, illustrator and doctoral
candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies,
London. She is a visiting scholar at the Institut français
d'Études sur l'Asie centrale, Tashkent.
John Moffitt
Professor Emeritus of Art History at New Mexico State
University, where he also taught painting and drawing.
His publications include numerous books and over 165
articles in scholarly journals.
Myroslava Mudrak
Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art
at Ohio State University. She teaches modern art
between the two world wars, with a concentration on
early twentieth-century abstraction, and specializes in
the art of Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia.
Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius
Formerly Curator of the National Museum in Warsaw,
she teaches at the Faculty of Continuing Education,
Birkbeck College, University of London. She edited
Borders in Art: Revisiting ‘Kunstgeographie’ (2000), and the
National Museum in Warsaw guide (2001).
Stefan Muthesius
Research Fellow in the history of art, architecture and
design at the University of East Anglia. His books
include Das englische Vorbild (1974), The English Terraced
House (1982), Art, Architecture and Design in Poland: An
Introduction (1994) and The Postwar University. Utopianist
Campus and College (2000).
Lawrence Nees
Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware. He
is the author of From Justinian to Charlemagne, European Art
565–787 (1985), The Gundohinus Gospels (1987), A Tainted
Mantle: Hercules and the Classical Tradition at the Carolingian
Court (1991), and Early Medieval Art (2001). He is editor of
Approaches to Early-Medieval Art (1998).
Kristoffer Neville
Researcher in the arts of the Netherlands, Germany
and Scandinavia in the seventeenth century. He is
particularly interested in the life and career of the
German architect Nicodemus Tessin the elder.
Mike O’Mahony
Lecturer at the University of Bristol in Russian and
Soviet art with broad interests in nineteenth- and
twentieth-century art in Europe and the United States.
Claire O’Mahony
Director of Programmes for History of Art Continuing
Education at the University of Bristol. She specializes in
nineteenth- and twentieth-century design and art history
in Europe and America.
Morna O’Neill
Doctoral candidate working on Walter Crane at Yale
University. She has published on nineteenth-century
British photography and was curator of ‘Company
Culture’ at the Yale Center for British Art.
Rodney Palmer
World Art Librarian at the University of East Anglia. He
teaches the history of Italian and World art at the
University of Leicester and is co-editor of The Rise of the
Image: Essays on the History of the Illustrated Art Book (2003).
Carole Paul
Author of Making a Prince’s Museum: Drawings for the LateEighteenth-Century
Redecoration of the Villa Borghese (2000)
and the co-editor of ‘Viewing Antiquity: The Grand Tour,
Antiquarianism, and Collecting’ (Ricerche di Storia dell’arte
72, 2000).
Martin Powers
Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and
Cultures at the University of Michigan. His Art and Political
Expression in Early China (1991) received the Levenson
Prize for best book in pre-twentieth-century Chinese
Studies.
Jennifer Purtle
Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at
the University of Chicago. Her research interests are in
Chinese visual and material culture from the Six
Dynasties to the present.
Christina Riggs
Curator of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum,
University of Manchester, and a specialist in the funerary
art of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.
Chris Scarre
Deputy Director of the McDonald Institute for
Archaeological Research in the University of Cambridge,
and editor of The Cambridge Archaeological Journal. He
specializes in the prehistory of western Europe, with an
interest also in the Mediterranean and the Classical
World of Greece and Rome.
Peter Shinnie
Professor Emeritus in Archaeology, University of Calgary.
After service with the Royal Air Force in World War II, he
taught and researched at the universities of Khartoum
and Ghana.
Marcella Sirhandi
Associate Professor of Art History at Oklahoma State
University, with a research focus on nineteenth- and
twentieth-century South Asian art. Her publications
include Contemporary Painting in Pakistan (1992).
Michael Sullivan
Fellow Emeritus of St Catherine’s College, Oxford. He
has been Lecturer in Art History, University of Singapore,
Lecturer in Asian Art, School of Oriental and African
Studies, London, and Christensen Professor of Chinese
Art, Stanford University.
Timothy Taylor
Lecturer in the Department of Archaeological Sciences,
University of Bradford. He is a specialist on the later
prehistory of Eurasia.
David Thomson
Author of Renaissance Paris: Architecture and Growth,
1475–1600 (1984) and many articles. He has lectured at
the University of East Anglia and is working on the
catalogue for an exhibition on Jean Androuet du
Cerceau.
Thomas Tolley
Senior Lecturer in the History of Art in the University of
Edinburgh. His publications include Painting the Cannon’s
Roar: Music, the Visual Arts and the Rise of an Attentive Public in
the Age of Haydn (2001).
Stephen Vernoit
Author of Occidentalism: Islamic Art in the 19th Century (1997)
and Discovering Islamic Art: Scholars, Collectors and Collections,
1850-1950 (2000). He has taught at Al-Akhawayn
University in Morocco and at the University of Durham.
Burzine Waghmar
Doctoral candidate in Iranian and Central Asian studies
at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Wang Tao
Lecturer in Chinese archaeology at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, London. He specializes in
Chinese paleography and Bronze Age cultures.
Robert Welsch
Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College
and Adjunct Curator of Anthropology at the Field
Museum, Chicago. He has conducted field research in
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and published widely
on the anthropology of the Pacific.
Isobel Whitelegg
Art historian and curator based at the Department of Art
History and Theory, University of Essex. Her research
specialism is modern and contemporary art from Brazil.
Benjamin Withers
Associate Professor of art history at Indiana University
South Bend. He specializes in early medieval English
manuscripts. His articles have appeared in The Art
Bulletin, Anglo-Saxon England and The Old English Newsletter.
He is co-editor of Naked Before God: Uncovering the Body in
Anglo-Saxon England (2003).
Ruth Young
Lecturer in South Asian archaeology and Distance
Learning Tutor at the University of Leicester. She has
done field work in Pakistan, Nepal and Iran, primarily
exploring relationships between urban and rural sites.
Barbara Zeitler
Independent scholar based in London. She has taught at
the University of California in Los Angeles. Her main
research interests are in reactions to Byzantine art
beyond the Byzantine empire.
PART IV
Art, Religion and the Ruler
600-1500
John Onians 94
THE AMERICAS
North America 600-1500
Norman Bancroft-Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Central America 600-1500
Jeffrey Blomster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
South America 600-1500
Frank Meddens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
EUROPE
Europe 600-800
Lawrence Nees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Europe 800-1000
Lawrence Nees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia 600-1500
Barbara Zeitler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Northern Europe 1000-1200
Alexandra Gajewsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Southern Europe 1000-1200
Alexandra Gajewsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Northern Europe 1200-1300
Benjamin Withers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Southern Europe 1200-1300
Benjamin Withers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Northern Europe 1300-1500
Thomas Tolley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Southern Europe 1300-1500
Thomas Tolley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Italy 1300-1400
Mary Hollingsworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Italy 1400-1500
Mary Hollingsworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
AFRICA
North Africa 600-1500
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Sub-Saharan Africa 600-1500
Herbert Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
West Asia and Egypt 600-1000
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
West Asia 1000-1500
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Central Asia 600-1500
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
South Asia 600-1500
Daud Ali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
China 600-1300
Martin Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
China and Tibet 1300-1500
Jennifer Purtle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Japan and Korea 600-1500
Bruce Coats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Southeast Asia 600-1500
Robert Welsch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
The Pacific 600-1500
Robert Welsch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
PART V
Art, Exploitation and Display
1500-1800
John Onians 146
THE AMERICAS
North America 1500-1800
Norman Bancroft-Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Central America 1500-1800
Norman Bancroft-Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
South America 1500-1800
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
EUROPE
Europe 1500-1600
Mark Lindholm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Scandinavia and the Baltic 1500-1800
Kristoffer Neville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Poland and Lithuania 1500-1800
Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Russia 1500-1800
Alison Hilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Britain 1500-1666
Tim Barringer and Morna O’Neill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Britain 1666-1800
Tim Barringer and Morna O’Neill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
The North Netherlands 1500-1800
Elisabeth de Bièvre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
The South Netherlands 1500-1800
Susan Koslow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Germany and Switzerland 1500-1650
Kristoffer Neville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Germany and Switzerland 1650-1800
Kristoffer Neville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
France 1500-1650
David Thomson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
France 1650-1800
David Thomson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Spain and Portugal 1500-1800
John Moffitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Italy 1500-1600
Mary Hollingsworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Italy 1600-1800
Carole Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Southeast Europe 1500-1800
Stefan Muthesius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Europe 1600-1800
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
AFRICA
North Africa 1500-1800
Stephen Vernoit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Sub-Saharan Africa 1500-1800
Herbert Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
Asia 1500-1800
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
West Asia 1500-1800
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Central Asia 1500-1800
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
South Asia 1500-1800
Daud Ali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
China and Tibet 1500-1650
Jennifer Purtle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
China and Tibet 1650-1800
Jennifer Purtle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Japan and Korea 1500-1800
Bruce Coats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Southeast Asia 1500-1800
Miranda Bruce-Mitford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
The Pacific 1500-1800
Anne d’Alleva. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
PART VI
Art, Industry and Science
1800-1900
John Onians 210
THE AMERICAS
North America 1800-1860
Peter Kalb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
North America 1860-1900
Jonathan Meuli and Peter Kalb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Central America and the Caribbean 1800-1900
Norman Bancroft-Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
South America 1800-1900
Laura Malosetti Costa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
EUROPE
Europe 1800-1900
Claire O’Mahony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Scandinavia and the Baltic 1800-1900
Kristoffer Neville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Russia 1800-1900
Alison Hilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Britain 1800-1900
Tim Barringer and Morna O’Neill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
The Netherlands and Belgium 1800-1900
Jane Beckett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Germany and Switzerland 1800-1900
Stefan Muthesius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
France 1800-1900
Claire O’Mahony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Spain and Portugal 1800-1900
John Moffitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Italy 1800-1900
Claire O’Mahony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Austria-Hungary and Southeast Europe 1800-1900
Stefan Muthesius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
AFRICA
North Africa 1800-1900
Stephen Vernoit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Sub-Saharan Africa 1800-1900
Herbert Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
West Asia 1800-1900
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Central Asia 1800-1900
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
South Asia 1800-1900
Marcella Sirhandi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
China and Tibet 1800-1900
Jennifer Purtle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Japan and Korea 1800-1900
Bruce Coats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Southeast Asia 1800-1900
Miranda Bruce-Mitford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
The Pacific 1800-1900
Jocelyne Dudding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Australia and New Zealand 1800-1900
Anita Callaway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
PART VII
Art, Ideas and Technology
1900-2000
John Onians 260
THE AMERICAS
North America 1900-1950
Peter Kalb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
North America 1950-2000
Peter Kalb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Central America and the Caribbean 1900-2000
Norman Bancroft-Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
South America 1900-2000
Isobel Whitelegg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
EUROPE
Europe 1900-2000
Mike O’Mahony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Scandinavia and the Baltic States 1900-2000
Anna Brodow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Russia 1900-2000
Alison Hilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Britain and Ireland 1900-2000
Tim Barringer and Morna O’Neill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
The Netherlands and Belgium 1900-2000
Jane Beckett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Germany, Switzerland, Austria 1900-2000
Mike O’Mahony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Eastern Europe 1900-2000
Myroslava Mudrak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
France 1900-2000
Stephen Eskilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Spain and Portugal 1900-2000
John Moffitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Italy 1900-2000
Mike O’Mahony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
AFRICA
North Africa 1900-2000
Stephen Vernoit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
East and Central Africa 1900-2000
Herbert Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
West Africa 1900-2000
Herbert Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Southern Africa 1900-2000
Michael Godby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
Asia 1900-2000
Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
West Asia 1900-2000
Stephen Vernoit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Central Asia 1900-2000
Min Mao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
South Asia 1900-2000
Marcella Sirhandi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
China 1900-2000
Michael Sullivan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Japan and Korea 1900-2000
Bruce Coats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Southeast Asia 1900-2000
Miranda Bruce-Mitford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
The Pacific 1900-2000
Robert Welsch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Australia and New Zealand 1900-2000
Anita Callaway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
THE WORLD
Art Institutions Worldwide 2000
Rodney Palmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
BIBLIOGRAPHY 318
PICTURE CREDITS AND LOCATIONS/NOTE ON SPELLINGS AND PLACE NAMES 322-3
INDEX 324
INTRODUCTION
11
Pacific, took place from west to east. Continents are taken as
the principal units because such large land masses have clear
boundaries, and also because continuities in their environmental
conditions mean that, in general, there is more movement within
than between them. The body of water of the Pacific is treated as a
large unit on similar grounds. There was a case for treating Europe
and Asia together as the single continent of Eurasia, but the
vertical division formed by the Urals and the Caucasus always
formed a significant barrier to communication, and it was in any
case appropriate to treat Africa between the two, since its junction
with the northern land mass at Sinai puts it into connection with
both. Within each land mass a sequence from north to south was
adopted because the northern hemisphere has more continuity of
land surface (and so of communication) than the southern. With
the exception of the first movements of humans out of Africa
before the Atlas starts, the majority of the ‘vertical’ movements of
populations, including the expansion of populations of Asian
origin through the Americas, the Bantu expansion into Southern
Africa and the expansion of Malay-speaking populations into
Indonesia, like the earlier movements of populations from
Southeast Asia into Oceania, were in a north-south direction.
The Atlas thus covers the globe from North America to South
America, from Europe to Africa, and from Asia to the Pacific.
The temporal framework of the Atlas is also natural, in the sense
that it is structured around divisions marked by the movements
of the two most visible heavenly bodies: the months by the moon,
and the day, the seasons and the year by the sun. The largest of
these divisions, the year, thus forms the basic unit for the division
of time. It was less easy to find a natural basis for defining the
larger divisions into periods, but, as the Atlas begins with the
appearance of art-related activities among humans, it seemed
appropriate that further divisions should be defined by the
appearance, or rise to predominance, of other human behaviours.
Accordingly, new sections begin either with the introduction of a
new way of life, such as agriculture or industry, or with the rise to
new importance of an existing behaviour, such as war, religion,
exploitation or technology. There is no suggestion that new ways of
life have a higher status, or that the sequence represents
inexorable ‘progress’. When urban merchants, like the Medici,
became princes, they tended to take up hunting, and when native
Americans gained access to horses and guns with the arrival of
European traders, they also largely abandoned tilling the fields to
shoot buffalo. Nor were these new ways of life adopted by
everybody. The hunting and gathering San of South Africa chose to
resist agriculture, while the Inuit were prevented from taking it up
by the Arctic climate. New forms of human behaviour are used to
mark new periods only because they had so great an impact on a
significant portion of the world’s population that, for them at least,
they changed the nature of the environment in which art
was made and used. The sequence only represents a development
in the sense that there is also a development in the behaviours of
the first inhabitants of Australia. Although they have remained
hunters and gatherers, they have, by invention and exchange,
been adding layers to their food-gathering, storytelling, dancing
and painting traditions ever since they arrived. Because humans
have such good memories and are so good at imitation, lifestyles
once adopted tend to remain available to later generations even as
they experience modification. As each new behaviour emerges, it
joins those that already exist, potentially providing successive
generations with more and more options.
Based on these principles, time was divided into seven periods.
These become progressively shorter. This was mainly because
the generally continuous increase in the speed and volume of
contacts between populations inevitably accelerated the rapidity of
change. Yet another factor was the parallel improvement in access
to resources, which meant that with the passage of time more and
more art was made – and indeed preserved – and
so more and more needed to be shown. It was in partial
acknowledgement of this trend that the latest period, 1900–2000,
although of the same length as the previous 1800–1900, has been
given more pages. As these dates indicate, the calendar followed is
one that was originally European. This was done only because it is
now the most widely used. It does not imply any pre-eminence and
it is easy to recalibrate the dates to fit any other system. The
underlying desire to minimize the influence of cultural criteria led
to the calendar being divided into round numbers, so creating
something like an objective grid. The departure from strict
regularity involved in placing a division not in AD 500 but in 600
acknowledges that, in terms of a majority of the religions whose
new importance seemed to call for a division around that time, the
later date was more significant. Falling close to the founding both
of Islam and the Tang Dynasty, AD 600 was more significant for
more people.
Once both spatial and temporal divisions had been arrived at, it
was necessary to decide which should determine the Atlas’ overall
structure. Time was chosen because there was a greater likelihood
that something that happened in a particular year would soon have
global implications than that something that happened in a
particular place would affect things that happened in the same
place thousands of years later. This means that instead of going
through a sequence of continents, beginning with a chronological
series of spreads on the Americas and ending with a series on the
Pacific, we move through a succession of periods, beginning with a
series of spreads covering 50,000–5000 BC. The use of the Atlas thus
involves turning the globe from the Americas to the Pacific seven
times, beginning with the earliest period and ending with the
century 1900–2000. The reader who wishes to give precedence to
spatial divisions and follow changes in a particular continent or
region can easily do so by choosing to review the seven sets of
period spreads for the relevant area as a group.
It is into this natural framework of space and time that humans
are inserted as natural beings. Most books about art in the
European tradition assume that it should be treated as part of
culture, something that distinguishes humans absolutely from
animals, and even from another type of human: those who live in
cities and use writing as opposed to those who do neither. In this
they take their cue from those among the ancient Greeks and the
ancient Jews who held that the human being is in a special
category as a superior god-created and god-like being. This
notion lies behind many of the prejudices embedded in European
art history. It has prevented the study of art as a worldwide
phenomenon and has long inhibited the study of the nature and
origins of human artistic behaviour. In order to open up enquiry
into these and other topics this Atlas takes a quite different point
of view, acknowledging that we are animals and seeing the
production of culture as part of our nature. This view, although at
odds with the European tradition, is compatible with the
perceptions of most peoples throughout history, who, whether
Indians or Inuit, whether living in Nigeria or New Guinea, have
always recognized human kinship with other creatures. It is also
in accord with modern science, which recognizes that we share
most of our genetic material with other living things. Instead of
taking art for granted as a divine gift, this view requires us to
explain both the origins of art and its complex and varied history
in terms of our distinctive make-up. If we started to make art
between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago, and have gone on making
and using it up to the present, it is because our biological nature
has led us to do so. Our species, Homo sapiens sapiens, or ‘moderntype’
man, which had emerged from Africa at least 100,000 years
ago, was able to complete its spread into Europe and Asia,
apparently replacing all its predecessors by 30,000 years ago
because it possessed resources that greatly enhanced its success,
however challenging the environment in which it found itself.
These resources were carried in a brain containing new and more
10
T
his Atlas gives a new overview of one of the oldest, most
widespread and most important of human activities. Art is,
with the exception of tool-making, the human activity with
the longest and also the fullest record. People have been making
and looking at patterns, and carving and painting images and other
visually interesting artefacts for more than 30,000 years, and doing
so on every inhabited continent. Music has a long history, too, as
is shown by the survival of hollow, perforated bones from a
similarly early date, but it was not until the first musical notation
appeared 2000 years ago that we have any idea of what was played.
It was not until 500 years ago that any substantial body of written
transcriptions was produced. Transcription of speech in the form of
writing was more widespread, but writing has only existed for 5000
years and was only practised in a limited number of places.
It is above all to visual art that we must turn if we want to know
about storytelling, religion or any other forms of thought, either
before writing was invented, or in areas where it remained
unknown. Even for communities in which writing was widespread,
art adds a crucial new dimension to our understanding. Art is also
of supreme significance in its own right. Through the ages,
individuals and communities have invested enormous energies
into creating art. In the past, when art was relatively rare, it was the
object of the most intense and profound attention, and today,
although the growing numbers of objects of visual interest has
reduced the amount of attention each is liable to get, visual
expression and communication are central to life, and art of all
kinds is highly valued. This is why the study of the history of
material visual expression mapped in this volume is so revealing
and engaging. In this book, people living anywhere in the world
can follow the story of the art of their own region, to the extent
that it is known. They can also learn the story of their neighbours’
art and, indeed, everybody else’s. There has probably never been
an art book of such potential interest to so many people.
This breadth of coverage of art through time and space was not
easy to achieve. A whole new approach to the subject had to be
developed. When art is viewed as a worldwide phenomenon it
includes many fields, the knowledge of each controlled by a
different group of specialists. There is simply too much disparity in
the ways each group deals with its subject for it to be easy to bring
them together. Archaeologists are the experts in the earliest art,
anthropologists in the art of modern pre-literate peoples, and art
historians in the art of literate peoples. Some scholars study a
particular medium, such as textiles or film; others, like
Egyptologists or Sinologists, study a particular region. Even more
restricted is the expertise of the few members of each of the tens of
thousands of, often remote, art-using communities worldwide who
are the guardians of purely local traditions. Each group works with
such different assumptions that to present them together as such
in a single volume would draw as much attention to their
limitations as to their achievements. This is why the Atlas of World
Art sets out to offer a new framework, one in which each specialist
can present his or her knowledge, but in a way that relates to those
of the others. This has required all the contributors to rethink their
fields, and it should enable readers to go through a similar
process. The new framework used here for the presentation of
knowledge about art also offers a new context for its
understanding. With its combination of great breadth and constant
clarity of focus, the Atlas allows exceptional insights both into what
unites all art and into what makes it so varied.
INTRODUCTION
Since it is this diversity of assumptions that makes it so difficult to
develop an integrated understanding of art as a worldwide
phenomenon, this new framework sets out to avoid categories that
depend on assumptions that are cultural: that is, preconceptions
that reflect the values of this or that community or group. Instead,
the categories used are founded as far as possible in nature. It may
be argued that to use the term ‘nature’ is still to base oneself in
culture, because nature as a concept can be claimed to go back to
Greek intellectual traditions, but it is not in that abstract sense
that it is used here. The nature referred to here is one familiar to
people of all cultures. It is nature as a set of resources and
constraints, principally those embodied in the nature of the earth,
of time and of man.
THE EARTH, TIME AND MAN
Here, we are concerned with the nature of the earth as it is
experienced by humans, whether as hunters or gatherers, farmers
or miners, traders or industrialists, wherever and whenever they
live, and however they viewed it culturally. Everyone who has
sailed the waters known by Europeans as the Pacific, whether they
were the humans who first discovered the place we call Easter
Island or their successors, such as James Cook, has needed to
exploit the same winds and currents, however differently they saw
them. In the deserts of Central Asia Marco Polo and Ghenghis
Khan were subject to the same constraints. Indeed, the ‘nature’
referred to here is not just that which supports and constrains
humans. It provides the context for the lives of all other animals, it
conditions the existence of all plants and determines the relations
of all inanimate matter. It is in this sense that this Atlas takes as its
initial foundation the nature of the earth, of its waters and its
atmosphere, of the life forms that grow on, under and above the
earth, and the inorganic material of which it is made. The first
immigrants to Australia and their successors tens of thousands
years later may have given the rocks, timbers, fibres and pigments
they found there different names and told each other different
stories of their origins, but they could all exploit only their
inherent properties. If the later immigrants could not find
materials they needed in their new home, they imported them.
Once they had brought them to Australia, these could then be
used by the first inhabitants’ descendants, as acrylic paint has
been used with such success. Humans, like all life forms, are
limited to the resources that they are able either to find locally or
to bring in from somewhere else. In the sense that these different
resources establish possibilities and set limits on them, they
determine lifestyles. They also determine the nature of all activities
requiring material expression, including art-making.
In order to keep us aware of these limitations, this Atlas adopts a
spatial framework that relates the local and global availability of
resources by mapping art onto the earth’s spherical surface.
Readers should try to keep that continuity of surface in their
minds as they look at the sequence of separate two-page spreads
into which that surface has been broken. The division into spreads
was required by the use of the book format, and this also
necessitated further decisions. The book had to begin somewhere
on the surface of the planet, and, since the deep sub-oceanic
trench along the eastern edge of the Pacific has, for the last 30,000
years, been the single greatest barrier to human movement and
exchange, that was taken as the most important dividing line.
Coverage moves eastwards from that division because the early
occupation of the Americas, like the much later occupation of the
INTRODUCTION
13
Chinese technology of printing, that were the chief instruments of
another remarkable diffusion: that of Italian artistic traditions to
Western and Northern Europe in the period from the sixteenth to
eighteenth centuries, as monarchs, princes and merchants
competed in displaying their knowledge of how to revive the
admired, lost inheritance of Ancient Greece and Rome. The
instruments of official censorship and authorization of
publications played an important part in this process, as they did
more recently in the case of the propagation of new political and
artistic traditions in the wake of the militant expansion of Russian
Communism after 1917, which for a time saw Socialist Realist
painting and monumental sculpture become orthodoxy from Cuba
to China. Equally aggressive, though less militant and more
warmly welcomed by individual consumers, has been the impact of
the commercial expansionism of the United States, which has used
the latest technologies to distribute throughout the world such
standardized products as cars and packaged food, films and
television programmes, as well as political rhetoric, which have
sometimes re-emerged in the artistic expressions of other people.
This story of the impact of military, religious, ideological and
commercial forces might suggest there was always a one-way
influence of the dominator on the dominated, but the reverse
was often the case. The Romans conquered the Greeks, but were
themselves conquered culturally and, above all, artistically. The
same thing happened when the Mongols conquered the Chinese in
the thirteenth century. Similarly, at the time when Britain was at its
most expansionist commercially, it put on the Great Exhibition of
1851, which, besides displaying British and European products,
also brought to London works from Asia, Africa and the Americas
that were critically to influence the formal vocabulary of much of
the ‘modern’ art of the twentieth century. Since then, exhibitions of
the art of remote and unfamiliar peoples have become more and
more a feature of the life of the wealthier countries, from North
America to Japan, and each has tended to have an impact on its
visitors. At the same time, artists have left such countries
to seek inspiration in exotic locations, while diasporas from Asia,
Africa, the Americas and the Pacific have brought artists from such
locations to the great metropolitan centres. By doing so, each
has unwittingly ensured that their neural networks are
transformed, whether by new natural surroundings or artefacts,
or by the traditional or modern media of their new homes, with
consequences for their output. This reminds us that, whatever the
overall patterns of art-related behaviours we observe, they
can only be explained if we understand the particular personal
experiences of each of the individuals involved, whether as
producers or consumers.
THE ATLAS AS CONSTRAINT AND RESOURCE
Like any environment, the Atlas offers both a set of resources and
a set of constraints. Some constraints are inherent to the project.
The most obvious are those that depend on its format, the
limitation on the number of maps and on the amount of
information that can be inserted into them. Much more important,
though, is the fundamental limitation on our knowledge. This
applies particularly to the art of the past, where little survives
because most was made in impermanent materials. But it also
applies to particular areas of the globe. In most of the tropics, for
example, where the climate was hostile to the art that was made in
a wealth of organic materials, we know virtually nothing of what
was produced until the last hundred years or so. In other areas of
the tropics, and elsewhere in the world, where there was a lack of
organic materials, either because, as in the Andean altiplano, the
climate did not allow them, or because, as in areas around the
Mediterranean, humans destroyed them through farming and
other activities, and where durable materials such as stone,
metals and baked clay were used, the picture is much fuller. In
some spreads there is simply much less knowledge that can be
mapped than in others.
In spite of this inherent unevenness, every effort has been made
to achieve consistency of treatment, while still allowing a variety
of approaches to be adopted by the contributors. Each spread
visually presents a similar set of information on such subjects as:
topography, both of landscape and of cities; raw materials, both
local and imported, and their processing; art, its production, use,
display and displacement; artists and their movements; social
institutions; and the boundaries of linguistic and religious groups,
ethnic communities, and states. It also provides a verbal essay on
their interrelations. The selection of information and of images, as
well as the character of the commentary, reflect the interests
of the almost seventy authors, who are themselves of many
different cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, social, sexual and
disciplinary backgrounds. Each spread is a highly personal essay,
but taken together they present a vast body of comparable
material and comparable ideas. It is possible to go through the
Atlas, assessing the degrees of influence of the different factors
noted in many different contexts. The reader can also compare the
merits of different explanations and the theoretical assumptions
on which they are based. Many of the leading authorities on
different areas of art have never before presented their arguments
in such a compressed and accessible form. The compression
inherent in the volume’s configuration brings losses, but also
important compensations.
The atlas format adopted here for the presentation of knowledge
of human artistic activity may be thought by some to be a vestige
of an imperialist project. It is better understood as a first template
for one that is egalitarian. No group or culture is favoured. All
have equal access to each other’s art. Nor is there a primary
viewpoint. Instead, the view offered is literally one of a person
circling the planet and viewing it from above during the 30–40,000
years that humans have been making art. It is a view helpful to
anyone interested in a particular set of activities that are typical of
this remarkable animal, those that relate to the visually
interesting modification of planet earth’s material resources. The
Atlas lifts its readers out of the positions they normally occupy on
the globe. It separates them from the conventional assumptions
in which their lives are founded, and provides them with new
perspectives. It allows them to descend into other places at other
times, to experience strange environments, unusual practices and
unfamiliar forms of art.
Those who take advantage of all the opportunities the Atlas offers
will acquire an unprecedented understanding of art as a worldwide
human behaviour. They will also acquire a much-needed awareness
of our ignorance about it. The Atlas thus challenges
its readers, whichever continent or island they come from, to
reduce the gaps in their knowledge, whether by new and deeper
studies of particular places and times, or by fresh reflections on
the broader issues raised. If, wherever they live, they respond to
that challenge, or if they simply revel in the pleasures of using a
new and visually satisfying intellectual tool, the considerable
efforts of the publisher, managing editor, editors, cartographers,
contributors and others involved in its production will not have
been in vain.
JOHN ONIANS
INTRODUCTION
12
complex networks, which reinforced important abilities possessed
by earlier ancestors. These included a number of tendencies:
the ability to look at and mimic each other’s movements and
expressions; the use of the visual imagination to search for
potential food and tool materials; the tendency to pick up, explore,
manipulate and modify such materials, and to understand the
importance of such actions when performed by others and, as a
result, to imitate them. It was the convergence of all these
genetically transmitted inclinations favouring success in the
competition with other creatures that led to the emergence of the
making and use of art and determined many of the properties that it
has retained to this day. These include its inherent fascination. One
of the reasons for art’s abiding power is that the neural networks
with which we experience it were originally developed not to
provide us with aesthetic pleasure but to ensure our very survival.
FROM NATURE TO CULTURE
The adaptations just referred to, especially the inclinations to
look at, to pick up, to manipulate and to modify materials and
to respond to the visual experience of materials so modified, are
inborn and therefore universal. However, the ways they manifest
themselves are transformed through time and space in response to
changes in the natural and social environment. This happens
because of another distinctive property of our nervous system, its
‘plasticity’. Humans are exceptional in that their brains are only
fifty percent formed at birth. The fifty percent that develops later is
formed both through passive exposure to the environment and
through the active intervention of others. It is the combination of
these inputs that largely accounts for the differences between
humans, including the differences in the ways in which art is both
made and used.
The dependence of such differences in art on differences of
passive exposure is particularly clear. Looking at anything with
particular attention causes the development of neural networks
that will help us deal with it better in future, and this results in
the formation of visual preferences that will unconsciously
influence us should we start to make or look at art. Thus, the
knowledge of what precisely people anywhere and at any time
were looking at intently will reveal a great deal about their
preferences. This knowledge is particularly relevant when we are
trying to understand the formation of an artistic tradition, where
little or none exists, since in these circumstances we can be
certain that the neural networks that shape people’s preferences
will be formed less by looking at man-made objects than at
important features of their natural environment which can easily
be reconstructed. Thus, when the first tradition, that of the
European Ice Age, was established around 30,000 BC, the
psychologically most important objects to which people were
exposed were large herbivorous and predatory animals, and these
are precisely the objects which they tended to see in the surfaces
around them and became inclined to represent. In the same way,
an important feature in the visual experience of those who made
the first monumental art, that of Egypt, around 3000 BC, were
regular fields and rows of plants, which is why paintings and
reliefs are arranged in rectangles and why buildings are full of
plant-like columns. The environment of the Nile Valley is soft
compared to the bare rocky mountains of Greece, and when the
Greeks started their own artistic traditions around 600 BC, they
replaced the soft lotus-bud capitals of Egyptian architecture with
the angular forms we know as Doric and Ionic. Also, since their
well-being depended on the physical strength of men rather than
the productivity of agriculture, it was life-size and lifelike naked
human figures that they saw in, and extracted from, the limestone
and marble with which they were surrounded. In the Yellow River
Valley of China, where another great tradition was developing at
the same time, wealth depended instead upon the irrigation of
fields with water that circulated from clouds to rain and back in
the form of mist. It was thus visual exposure to such phenomena
that helped to shape everything they made, from billowing clothes
to sculpted dragons, and which inspired their most typical
painting technique involving the irrigation of flat rectangles of silk
and paper with black ink. For the peoples inhabiting tropical
areas, where survival depended less on the exploitation of a
primary resource, such as stone or water, and where a wild and
bountiful nature was predominant in people’s visual experience,
the art traditions that developed were quite different. In this rich
natural environment it was powerful animals of all sizes – from
lions to spiders – and rampant plant life, that most attracted
visual attention, an attention that was often confused as both
plants and animals sought to camouflage themselves and protect
themselves by adopting each other’s attributes. For people
brought up in such environments, the masquerade, which allowed
humans to participate in a similar mimicry, alternately (and
sometimes simultaneously) adopting the appearance of grasses
and trees, buffalo and leopards, was an equally natural field of
visual expression. In Africa, where large mammals were
overwhelmingly powerful, they figured the most prominently. On
the islands of the Pacific, where there were no such predominant
forces, birds and fish were far more important, and it was their
forms that islanders tended to see as they worked the wood of the
boats and weapons that were their chief artefacts. In the frozen
North, on the other hand, large mammals, such as bear, seals and
whales, were again predominant in visual experience. In the
absence of flora, these beasts, which were both the principal prey
and principal enemy, blended in and out of an environment in
which snow, water, ice, mist and wind were in constant flux. In
both ivory and bone, materials which came from the animals and
were used to make the tools with which they were caught, the
Inuit saw the forms of these creatures, and especially their eyes,
teeth, paws and so on, which were also the stuff of their stories as
well as their shamanic belief systems.
If the main influence on the founding of a tradition is likely to be
the environment to which people are passively exposed, the main
factors that interrupt it and cause it to change are active forces,
whether developing within, or coming from outside, society.
Inside a society, a group, such as a secret association or otherwise
privileged collective, or an individual, such as a chief, priest, king
or wealthy citizen, may sense that a particular form or material can
be exploited to influence fellow members of the community. Often
such a sense may be awakened by the chance experience of what
is already done in another society, but the most powerful external
influences are those which come, whether welcomed or not, with
military conquest, religious conversion or commercial domination.
Such upheavals frequently bring an artistic tradition developed in
one area into another, replacing or blending with the one that
exists there. Alexander’s conquest brought Greek traditions of
stone sculpture and architecture deep into Asia, as far as India,
and when those traditions became transformed by Indian devotees
of Buddha, Shiva and Vishnu, they were then taken further east by
traders and monks, often invited by rulers, penetrating China and
Japan, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
An even more miscellaneous set of influences brought Egyptian,
Mesopotamian, Syrian, Greek and Roman traditions together in
the Middle East, from where Muslim missionaries could take this
mixed tradition, strong in ceramics and wood- and metal-working,
both west to North Africa and Spain and east to Persia, India and
beyond. Even more dramatic, because more violent and intolerant,
was the impact of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the
Americas. This absorbed residual local traditions in such media as
wood and stone, gold and silver, and textiles into a wave of
church-, monastery- and palace-building that represented the
dominance of a Christian European monarchy over the preexisting
peoples and institutions. Religious literature played an
important role in establishing this dominance, and it was books of
a more technical nature, on subjects such as how to use the
Classical orders or compose paintings, replicated through the new
amount of surviving evidence from different areas is highly variable,
with most being found in a belt between Russia and northern Spain.
This may be due to losses elsewhere, and it is certainly true that the
combination of an extremely severe climate and the ready
availability of limestone caves in Western Europe encouraged work
in more permanent materials in better-protected sites. There are,
however, other reasons why such predispositions might have been
more intensely activated in the same area. Those who lived in this
unusually hostile and unstable environment, close to the edge of the
advancing and receding ice sheet, where plant food was relatively
rare and the hunting of large animals was both more necessary and
more dangerous, would have been more than usually dependent on
visual and manual skills. Within this region of greater stress, artistic
activity seems to have been often strongest in localities where either
survival was most difficult, as at Sungir near Moscow, or where,
because of accidents of landscape, food supplies in the form of
migrating animals were periodically particularly rich, as at Dolní
Ve˘stonice in the Danube Valley or in the Dordogne.
LATER, BETWEEN 10,000 AND 5000 BC, as the climate warmed there was
some continuation of earlier traditions of artistic activity, but new
types also appear and these are increasingly differentiated
regionally, reflecting in part an increasing variety of lifestyles as
technologies became more complex and adapted to varying
ecologies. In Japan, for example, where there were neither large
mammals nor predators, the use of fibres to make baskets, nets and
lines enabled hunter-gatherers to exploit the smaller-scale food
resources of land, water and air so effectively that populations could
become increasingly sedentary, developing the first great ceramic
culture. The form and decoration of these pots so frequently
referred to fibres that they became known as Jomon, from the
Japanese for ‘string’. In Europe, too, the resources of water could be
intensely exploited, as at Lepenski Vir on the Danube, where many of
the fishing community’s houses feature stones in which a natural
resemblance to a fish has been enhanced by carving. Elsewhere
in Europe, it was the skilled individual hunter with bow and arrow
who became more important as woodland expanded north behind
the receding ice, and the new dominance of man over nature led
to male figures acquiring a prominence they had not had before,
as in the rock paintings of Spain. Other art became more
schematic, whether it was on the Azilian pebbles from southern
France, or the paddles from Denmark, as artefacts generally
became more important to people than the foods they helped
them to gather or kill.
THE GREATEST EXPLOITATION OF TECHNOLOGY and transformation of art,
however, was associated with the new understanding of how food
production could be expanded through the herding of livestock and
the sowing and reaping of grains in West Asia after 7000 BC. Çatal
Hüyük in Turkey, the early town whose existence was made possible
by this development, is made up of houses whose stone walls are
decorated with paintings of animals and landscapes and sculptures
of ox heads and leopard. These all testify to a new dominance of man
over nature, and this is even clearer in the Jordan valley, where
plaster statues celebrate the human body, and clay-covered skulls
document a consciousness of the individual.
CAVE PAINTINGS in the ‘great hall’ at Lascaux in France, c.15,000 BC.
A
RT IS FOUNDED IN HUMAN NATURE. Many animals are hunters and
gatherers, some are also sociable, and a few, like the
chimpanzees, our close relatives, are also tool-users. It is in
our special combination of these abilities that art has its origins. Our
hominid ancestors had been picking up and shaping stones for use
as tools for at least three million years, when, about 500,000 years
ago, a more human predecessor, Homo habilis, began collecting
objects of more purely visual interest: coloured minerals, such as
ochre, and fossil remains, such as animal teeth. The emergence of
these behaviours is connected with this creature’s distinctive brain
structure linking hand and eye, and enabling it to be successful both
at socialization and at gathering and hunting. Inborn visual interests
in such features as the redness associated with fruit and other foods,
as well as the associated inclinations to reach out for objects having
those properties, were becoming so strong that they could be
activated by the sight of even inorganic materials.
THESE TENDENCIES WERE EVEN STRONGER in the new species of lightboned,
large-brained primate, Homo sapiens sapiens, that probably
developed in Africa before spreading throughout the world by 35,000
BC. In the brain of Homo sapiens sapiens, modern-type man, the links
between the visual and motor systems were even stronger, and
during the period to 10,000 BC the manipulation, marking and
shaping of natural material resulted not only in an expanded use of
personal ornaments and random finger drawings, but in the making
of painted, engraved and carved representations. These included
animals, both edible and predatory, human hands, and a few human
figures, especially of women. Some were made on the walls of caves
and rock shelters, others on loose blocks, or out of clay or ivory.
Many image types were repeated, suggesting that what began as the
chance consequences of spontaneous interactions between
individuals and their environment became increasingly satisfying,
first to their makers, and then to others. Art began to acquire the
social function that was to give it such importance in the future.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE PREDISPOSITIONS involved is demonstrated by
the widespread appearance of this activity from Europe to Africa,
from India to South America, and from Siberia to Australia. Yet the
ART, HUNTING AND GATHERING
40,000-5000 BC
17
EARLY ICE AGE ART 40,000–20,000 BC
Le Placard
Pair-non-Pair
Grotte des Bernous
Cellier Belcayre
Laussel
Venta de la Perra
La Ferrassie
La Croze à Gontran
Grotte
Chauvet
Grotte
Cosquer
Abri Pataud Cougnac
Pech-Merle
Blanchard (Sergeac)
Labattut
Brassempouy
Isturitz
Gargas
Castanet
Chanlat
Lespugue
Rhône
Loire
Garonne
Vienne
Ardèche
Charente
Tarn
Lot
Dordog
ne
Ariège
MEDITER
R
A
N
EAN
SE
A
B A Y O F
B I S C A Y
P
Y
R
E N E E S
F R A N C E
S P A I N
Arcy-sur-Cure
N
100 miles0
0 150 kms
West European
Palaeolithic Art
parietal art find site
portable art find site
2
music and song leave no trace. So the surviving
examples of Early Ice Age art are merely the tip of
the iceberg, a tantalizing glimpse of a wealth of
varied artistic activity which probably stretches
back in time to the very first fossil humans.
One particularly important find of recent
years is the small ‘Venus’ of Galgenberg
(Austria, between Dolní Ve˘stonice and
Willendorf), carved in green serpentine, and
dated by charcoal around it to c.31,000–32,000
years ago. Its lively pose, so different from
those of later, more symmetrical and static
female figurines, is quite remarkable.
SUBJECT-MATTER
Where the Early Ice Age art of Eurasia is
concerned – and for the moment this is the
greater part of the corpus that is reliably dated to
this period – one noteworthy aspect that was
already evident in the small but sophisticated
ivory carvings from several sites in southwest
Germany (Vogelherd, and nearby Geissenklösterle
and Hohlenstein-Stadel, all more than 30,000
years old), and in the later terracotta figurines
from Central Europe is the marked emphasis
on depictions of what might be called large,
powerful or dangerous animals. This has really
come to the fore through the discovery of the
Chauvet Cave. The horse, bison and deer that
would dominate in later Ice Age art were
already present, but the art of Chauvet is
dominated by rhinoceros, mammoths and big
cats. When combined with the site's striking
bear figures, these four categories account for
about two-thirds of the cave’s animal figures.
In the Gravettian period (c.25,000–20,000
years ago) in Western Europe this situation
appears to alter radically towards the heavy
emphasis on herbivores that is so well-known in
later caves, though it persists somewhat longer
in Central Europe, as seen in the portable art of
Dolní Ve˘stonice and Russia’s Kostienki Culture.
A CHARCOAL DRAWING of an animal-human from the
Apollo 11 cave in Namibia. The rock slabs date
from about 25,000 years ago and are the earliest
dated rock paintings in Africa. This one shows
what appears to be a feline creature with a heavy
head, deep chest and thin tapering legs. The
drawing seems to have been retouched at some
stage, with the possible alteration of the hind legs
to resemble those of a human.
2 LARGE NUMBERS OF EARLY ICE AGE SITES have been
found in the southwest of France and down to the
Pyrenees. Many of the caves discovered contain
several chambers with painted walls, such as the
hand stencils in the cave of Gargas, or the panel of
spotted horses at Pech-Merle. The oldest rock
paintings found so far in the region are those at
Chauvet, if the radiocarbon dates are correct
(many features of this cave’s art suggest a later
date). Of the portable art sites, several have
yielded female ‘Venus’ figurines, such as that
carved in mammoth ivory from Lespugue and the
bas-relief carving of the ‘Venus with a horn’ from
Laussel. More elaborate is a carved head of a
figurine found at Brassempouy.
AT L A N T I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
A R C T I C O C E A N
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
BLACK
SEA
CASPIAN
SEA
Mandu Mandu Creek
rock shelter with
shell-bead necklace
Apollo 11 Cave
painted
plaquettes
Border Cave
engraved pieces of
wood and bone
Nswatugi Cave
Zimbabwe palette
Patne
engraved
ostrich
eggshell
Aq Kupruq
carved stone head
Mal‘ta
Mezin
Dolní VestoniceˇDolní Vestonice
Pavlov
Willendorf
Galgenberg
Vogelherd
Hohlenstein-Stadel
Le Trou Magrite
Geissenklösterle Sungir
Kostienki Tolbaga
bone figurine
Brno
ˇPredmostí
Avdeevo
Blombos Cave
incised
rocks
Pedra Furada
rock shelter;
fallen fragments
of painted wall
Arnhem Land
shelters with
abundant ochre
Tanzania
shelters with ochre
pencils and palettes
Sandy Creek 2 /
Walkunder Arch
rock shelter
with paintings
Olary/Wharton Hill
Koonalda Cave
finger markings on
ceilings and walls
Carpenter‘s Gap
rock shelter with fallen
fragments of painted wall
N O R T H
A M E R I C A
S O U T H
A M E R I C A
MESOAMERICA
B E R I N G I A
NEW
GUINEA
JAVA
BOR
NEO
SUMATRA
PHILIPPINES
mammoth
ibex
horsereindeer
red deer
bison
giant sloth
kangaroo
eland antelope
cape
buffalo
JAPAN
GREENLAND
C H I N A
AUSTRALIA
A F R I C A
A S I A
S I B E R I A
E U R O P E
N
0
0
2400 miles
3600 kms
IT HAS BECOME clear in recent years that ‘art’,
however it is defined, did not begin with the
Upper Palaeolithic or Early Ice Age period
(c.40,000 years ago) or with modern humans.
Indeed, even the earliest fossil hominids –
Australopithecines of two or three million years
ago – seem to have had some kind of aesthetic
sense. However, it is from the period after about
40,000 BC that a substantial range of examples
of art is known. Contrary to popular belief, this
later art – Ice Age art – was not confined to
Eurasia; instead, in the last few decades it has
become clear that art, both parietal (in caves and
rock-shelters, and on rocks) and portable, occurs
in this period in every continent. The portable art
is relatively easy to date, from its stratigraphic
position and associated datable materials. The
parietal art, on the other hand, can only be
reliably dated where it was covered by occupation
layers, or where its figures contain organic
material such as charcoal (as at the Chauvet
Cave, where some animal figures have produced
age estimates of more than 30,000 years).
TECHNIQUES AND MEDIA
Very early dates – of 30,000 and even 42,000
years ago – have been obtained from organic
material trapped in the natural varnish covering
rock carvings in Australia, which would make
the petroglyphs beneath the varnish the oldest
dated examples of rock art in the world. However,
this dating method remains controversial and of
uncertain validity. At present, it is Eurasia which
has the greatest number of known sites with art
that is more or less reliably dated to this period.
The range of techniques and media present at
this time is already impressive – in parietal art,
there is fingermarking, engraving, and bas-relief
sculpture; outline drawing and shaded painting;
in portable art, adornments of perforated shells,
teeth, bones or stones; engraving on bone,
stone, antler, eggshell and ivory; painting on
stones, as at Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia, dating
to c.25,000 years ago; three-dimensional
carving of stone, antler and ivory; and even the
production of thousands of fired clay figurines,
notably in Central Europe, and dating back to
c.22,400 BC. Tests on these figurines from sites
in the Czech Republic indicate that they were
fired at temperatures from 500° to 800°C, and
the shape of their fractures implies that they
were broken by thermal shock – in other words,
they were placed, while still wet, in the hottest
part of the fire or ‘oven’, and thus deliberately
caused to explode. Rather than carefully made
art objects, therefore, their lack of finish and
the manner of their breakage suggest that they
may have been used in some special ritual.
ART, HUNTING AND GATHERING
EARLY ICE AGE ART 40,000-20,000 BC
16
ONE OF THE PAINTED PANELS discovered in the Chauvet
Cave in southern France in 1994, possibly dating to
more than 30,000 years ago: though this is a
matter of great controversy. It shows a number of
rhinoceros, while others depict similarly large,
dangerous animals – bears, big cats, mammoths.
1 THE LOWER SEA LEVELS in the Early Ice Age created
land bridges that allowed colonization of Australia
and the Americas. There were two alternative
routes into Australia, though both required the
crossing of large expanses of sea.
The Pedra Furada rock shelter in Brazil contains
fragments of painted rock which may be the
earliest evidence of art in the Americas. However,
the bulk of the currently known finds of this
period are in Eurasia, some sites containing large
numbers of art objects. At Dolní Ve˘ stonice in
Moravia, for example, hundreds of small
terracotta figurines have been found,
mostly of animals, which seem to have
been fragmented by thermal shock, and
hence deliberately caused to explode in a
fire, presumably for some ritual purpose.
MATERIALS
The materials used for artworks in this period
were all readily to hand, whether inorganic (the
various kinds of flint or hardstones) or organic
(animals provided an inexhaustible supply of
useful, workable materials). Mammoth ivory was
a very difficult material to work, but the artisans
of the period in Eurasia produced an astonishing
array of objects from it, and clearly mastered this
medium like the others. Other animals, in
different parts of the world, provided bones,
teeth, and sometimes antlers or horns. But one
should never forget that the archaeological
record comprises only those materials which
have survived the millennia – untold quantities
of art must have existed on rocks in the open
air, or in materials that have disintegrated to
nothing (wood, bark, fibres, feathers, hides).
Body-painting and elaborate hairstyles probably
extend far back into pre-history, together with
tattooing or piercings; and of course, dance,
1 Palaeolithic Art
coastline at height of last
Ice Age, c. 20,000 years ago
greatest extent of ice cover
tundra
steppe
forest
tropical forest
desert
main routes of colonization
using land bridges
parietal art find site
portable art find site
dominant animal,
source of food and materials
LATER ICE AGE ART 20,000–10,000 BC
19
localized in space and time, and are generally
assumed to be ‘ethnic markers’ of some kind.
Some decorated caves also served as
dwellings; others were never lived in and only
visited rarely or even once for the art’s
production. Some cave art – and all of that in
shelters and the open-air – seems meant for
public consumption, whereas a great deal of it is
extremely private, hidden away in dark depths,
crawl-ways or inaccessible niches. In many cases
it seems to have been the arduous journey to
reach the place where the art was produced
which was important. In such cases, it is likely
that the art had a religious motivation.
INTERPRETING ICE AGE ART
Attempts to interpret Ice Age art tend to reflect
their times. It was once thought to be the
mindless doodlings of idle hunters (‘art for art’s
sake’). Then ethnographic reports from Australia
and elsewhere at the turn of the century led to
theories of sympathetic magic (hunting magic,
fertility magic). Dominant in the first half of the
last century, these proved unsatisfactory since
there are no hunting or sexual scenes in the
art, and in most sites the artists were not
drawing the same species as they were hunting.
This approach was superseded in the 1950s
and 1960s by French structuralism, which saw
cave art as ‘mythograms’ incorporating a binary
system that was essentially sexual symbolism.
The Space Age brought an emphasis on
interpretations involving archaeoastronomy and
20˚
40˚
Rhône
Gar
onne
Ebro
Tagus
Guadalquivir
Saône
Loire
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
BAY
O F
B I S C AY
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
P Y R E N
E E S
Fontanet
Tête-du-Lion
Grotte Cosquer
Le Placard
Réseau Guy Martin
Las Chimeneas
Las Monedas
Lascaux
Cougnac
Fuente del Salín
Covaciella
Niaux La Vache
La Colombière
Enlène
Parpalló
Labastide
La Garma
Ekain
Altamira
Isturitz
Tito Bustillo
El Castillo
La Marche
Angles-sur-l’Anglin
Le Mas d’AzilLe Tuc d’Audoubert
Le Portel
Inset 1
Inset 3Inset 2
Inset 4
N
0
0
150 miles
225 kms
Later Ice Age Art,
20,000-10,000 BC
finds of parietal art
finds of portable art
parietal / portable art
1
2
34
2
2 CAVES, ROCK SHELTERS AND OPEN-AIR ROCKS – around
300 sites are currently known in Eurasia which have
parietal art of this period, most of them in France
and Spain. Even more are known with portable art
of the same antiquity. This map features only the
best-known and best-dated – there are too many
sites with art objects to be included, while
relatively few of the parietal sites are attributed to
the late Ice Age with complete certainty. Most of
them are dated primarily by style, though their
chronological attribution is highly probable,
through various factors such as comparison with
well-dated portable art.
ENGRAVING ON BONE from
the floor of the cave of
La Garma, northern
Spain, dating to more
than 12,000 BC, and
depicting a young ibex
or deer looking back
over its shoulder. It
bears a marked
resemblance to threedimensional
versions of
the same motif, carved
in antler on spearthrowers
from the
French Pyrenees in the
same period.
BISON PAINTED IN THE CAVE OF LASCAUX (Dordogne,
France), which is generally (but not securely)
ascribed to about 15,000 BC. Note how perspective
is shown by the simple but effective method of not
attaching the legs of the far side to the body.
notation; the Computer Age saw each cave as a
giant floppy disk with retrievable information
recorded on its walls; while the New Age
brought a return to simplistic notions of a
universal ‘shamanism’, and of images recording
trance experiences. There may be truth in all of
the above, but it is safe to say that no single
explanation will ever suffice for a phenomenon
which spans at least 30 millennia over a vast
area, and which encompasses such a huge
range of media, techniques and imagery.
Church Hole Cave
cave engravings
Mississippi
M
iss
ouri
Amazon
Y
angtze
Ye
llow
River
Danube
Nile
Volg
a
Congo
Niger
Darling
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
ARABIAN
SEA
BAY
OF
BENGAL
CARIBBEAN SEA
C
H
INASEA
SO
UTH
HIMALAYAS
URALMTS
RO
CKY
MTS
A
NDES
A F R I C A
NORTH AMERICA
SOUTH
AMERICA
AUSTRALIA
A S I A
E U R O P E
Pedra Furada, Perna
early rock paintings
Spring Creek
decorated tooth Balawinne Cave
hand stencils
Koonalda Cave
finger markings
Gum Tree Valley
petroglyphs
Devil’s Lair
beads
Kimberley
rock paintings?
Snowy River Cave
finger markings
Early Man Shelter
petroglyphs
Longgu Cave
engraved antler
Zhoukoudian
jewellery
Kapova Cave
cave paintings
Avdeevo
portable art
Mezhirich'
portable art
Urkan e-Rub
engraved pebble
Mezin
portable art
Gönnersdorf
portable art
Ignatiev Cave
cave paintings
Afalou Bou Rhummel
terracotta figurines
Matupi Cave
incised bored stone
Tamar Hat
incised ceramic fragment
Maininskaya
terracotta figurine
Kamikuroiwa
engraved pebbles
Jomon
pottery
Gasja and Khummi
early pottery
early petroglyphs
N
0
0
1000 miles
1500 kms
1 Later Ice Age Art, 20,000-10,000 BC
18
IT IS IN THE LATTER PART of the last Ice Age
that the great majority of what is called
Palaeolithic art occurs; and as in the preceding
millennia, examples are to be found on every
continent, though it is Eurasia, and especially
southwest Europe, which has the most
numerous and best-known sites at present.
Outside Eurasia, most examples of art that
is attributable to this period are portable
objects of different kinds, such as terracotta
figurines in Algeria and Siberia, or engraved
pebbles in Israel and Japan. Some rock art,
however, in the New World and Australia is also
assigned to the late Ice Age. Petroglyphs in
different parts of the United States have been
dated through the still experimental and
controversial method of dating organic material
trapped in the natural varnish covering them.
AUSTRALIA AND BRAZIL
Some rock paintings in shelters in Brazil are
clearly from this period. At Pedra Furada, for
example, fragments of painted wall fell off over
time and became stratified in datable occupation
deposits. Even more definite are the petroglyphs
at Early Man Shelter in Queensland, Australia,
which were actually masked by occupation
deposits dated to 13,200 years ago, making it
certain that the petroglyphs were even older.
Other Australian sites are less securely dated
– for example, a wasp nest masking a painted
human figure at a rock-shelter in Kimberley
produced a luminescence date of 15,500 BC,
suggesting that the painting must be at least as
old as this, whereas radiocarbon analysis of
organic materials in paint from two similar figures
has yielded results of only 1900 BC or less.
SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE
In southwest Europe, the past 20 years have seen
the discovery of twelve sites – in Spain, Portugal
and France – of pecked and engraved figures on
rocks in the open air, identical in style to figures
known in Ice Age caves and portable art. In
consequence, it is now clear that the rock art of
the period forms a continuum from the open-air
to the dark depths of caves. Every kind of rock
surface was being painted, engraved or sculpted.
Engravings could be made with any kind of
sharp-edged stone. Where paint is concerned, it
is clear that it was sometimes applied with
fingers, and often spat or sprayed from the
mouth or by means of an aerograph. In other
cases, the artists appear to have used actual
crayons of pigment, or applied paint to walls with
pads or brushes. No such implements have yet
been found in Eurasia, but experiments suggest
that a brush of chewed plant fibres or an animalhair
brush (badger hair seems particularly
good) would have produced the best results.
There are clear regional differences in
techniques and content, even within the
relatively small area of France and Spain. For
example, work in clay – from finger-markings in
cave floors to bas-reliefs and full threedimensional
statues – has been found only in
deep caves in the French Pyrenees, while basrelief
sculpture (which, like much portable art,
seems to have been originally painted) only
occurs in cave entrances or rock-shelters in the
Dordogne and Charente areas.
The content of the art is generally divided
into three major categories: animals, humans
and non-figurative or abstract (the ‘signs’). The
vast majority of animal figures seem to be adults
drawn in profile; there are very few recognizable
‘scenes’, no ground-lines, no landscapes, no
vegetation (other than a handful of plant-like
forms, primarily in portable art). The same limited
range of animals is always depicted so that this
is not a prehistoric bestiary simply depicting the
outside world. These animals were meant to
convey information or (probably highly
complex) messages to the people of the time.
Humans are extremely rare (other than the
famous female figurines), but the artists were
clearly capable of depicting them when they
wished; their virtual absence from cave art thus
suggests that human figures were either taboo,
unnecessary or irrelevant to whatever motivations
lay behind the art’s production. Simple ‘signs’ –
dots, lines – are fairly ubiquitous, as one might
expect, whereas complex signs tend to be very
LATER ICE AGE ART 20,000-10,000 BC
1 ICE AGE ART has
been studied for
more than a century,
but only in the last
few decades have
sparse finds begun
to be made outside
Europe. Still few in number, and so varied in type and
content as to defy any unifying link, they are merely the
first of many. The map will fill rapidly as more research is
carried out and new discoveries are made.
ART, HUNTING AND GATHERING
POSTGLACIAL ART 10,000–5000 BC
21
carved boulders, with human-like faces but
fish-like mouths, and abstract decoration which
might represent scales. These boulders, 20–60
cm (8–24 ins) in height, are among the earliest
known examples of ‘monumental’ threedimensional
sculpture in the world.
The best-known portable art of the early
postglacial is that of the ‘Azilian’ culture
(c.8000 BC), especially its small, flat pebbles
bearing dots and lines of red paint. These have
been found at sites in France, Spain and Italy,
but of the almost 2200 known, more than 1600
are from Le Mas d’Azil in the French Pyrenees.
Debate still rages over their possible functions
– with gaming pieces, proto-writing and
notations among those suggested. The Azilian
also produced pebbles bearing a series of
engraved lines, and these are likewise known
over quite a large part of western Europe.
Other than these, the best-known and bestdated
portable art objects from this period in
Europe are to be found in the north: for
example, the carvings of animals in amber,
stone and bone from Scandinavia, particularly
the Maglemose culture of Denmark (c.7500–
5700 BC), such as the amber bear from Resen
Mose with its geometrical decoration. A whole
range of objects has been found at sites in
northwest and western Russia. They include
stone and bone carvings of elk heads and ducks
from Zamostje; a carved wooden elk head
projection on a ski from Vis I; a profusion of
geometric decoration on bone objects from the
Veretye culture, east of Lake Onega; and items
in wood and birch-bark from waterlogged sites
like the Shigirsky bog in the Urals. One
spectacular wooden anthropomorphous idol
from Shigirsky, dated to about 6600 BC, was no
less than 5.3 metres (17 ft) tall.
It is therefore in this postglacial or
‘mesolithic’ period that we are afforded our
first glimpse of the kinds of materials which
have normally not survived. It can hardly be
doubted that a vast array of art in perishable
materials has irretrievably decomposed and
disappeared, not only from this postglacial
period but also from the Ice Age itself. At the
same time we see the growing importance of
new media such as plaster and the advent of
more widespread use of ceramics.
THE ROCK-SHELTER OF LES ORCHIDES in the Forest of
Fontainebleau, near Paris, France, is one of
numerous shelters here which contain enigmatic
incised grid-like designs on their floors, walls and
ceilings. Archaeological investigation in their
vicinity points to a probable mesolithic date, but
their significance remains a complete mystery.
20
ONE OF THE GREAT unanswered questions
of prehistory is: why did Ice Age art come
to an end? And part of the answer is that it did
not. Since most figures in Ice Age cave art
remain undated except by style, we have no
means of knowing whether it did indeed end
abruptly, or carried on for some time after the
end of the Ice Age – itself a gradual and uneven
phenomenon depending on latitude, climate
and so forth.
PROBLEMATIC DATING
In recent years some specialists have dared to
wonder if some of the art in the caves might
not extend into the early postglacial period,
beyond the end of what we call the Ice Age –
and recent direct dating of some black figures
in the Spanish cave of Ojo Gaureña has
produced results of 9470 to 8950 BC – quite late
for Ice Age cave art. And likewise we know that
the Ice Age portable art of southwest Europe
continued for a while at sites such as Pont
d’Ambon and the Abri Morin.
In fact, our knowledge of the art of the
millennia following the end of the Ice Age is
largely confined to such portable objects,
precisely because so little parietal art has yet
been reliably dated. A few rock art sites in the
New World, Australia and elsewhere are known
to belong to this period. Elsewhere, dating is
still a matter of faith or conjecture. Some
rock art sites in India are attributed to the
mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period. So are
the numerous and enigmatic engraved grids in
shelters in the Forest of Fontainebleau (near
Paris). Spanish Levantine art (so-called
because it is mostly found in the eastern part
of the country) consists mainly of rock
paintings of small, lively human and animal
figures in rock shelters. It has traditionally been
ascribed to this period because it often shows
hunting scenes with deer or boar – staples
during the mesolithic in this part of the world.
It also neatly filled a gap between the cave art
of the Ice Age and the ceramics of the first
farmers. There was never any evidence for the
Levantine art being mesolithic, though, and
recent work has shown that some if not all of it
can be ascribed to the neolithic period (New
Stone Age) or even later.
PORTABLE ART IN THE MESOLITHIC
One of the most interesting recent finds from
the early postglacial was made at the Syrian
site of Jerf el-Ahmar, where a number of stones
of about 8000 BC bear a series of pictograms –
combinations of lines, arrows and animal
outlines – seen by some researchers as an
intermediate stage in an evolution from Ice Age
art to true writing, which arose about 5000
years later in the form of Sumerian cuneiform.
Even more spectacular developments are the
plastered skulls and statuettes from Israel and
Jordan, dating to about 7000 BC, when clay
figurines were becoming widespread in the
eastern Mediterranean.
The remarkable site of Lepenski Vir, in
Serbia, was a fishing village on the Danube
dating from c.6000 BC, and many of its houses
were found to contain enigmatic limestone
POSTGLACIAL ART 10,000-5000 BC
PAINTED WOODEN PADDLE from a submerged settlement
at Tybrind Vig, in Lille Baelt, Denmark. Its decoration
was produced by filling incised designs with brown
pigment. Ten such paddles, all heart-shaped and of
ash wood, were found at this waterlogged site with
exceptional preservation. Only two were decorated.
HAND STENCILS IN THE CUEVA DE LAS MANOS (southwest
Argentina). Huge clusters and superimpositions of
stencils, sometimes hundreds of them, in a wide
variety of colours can be found in rock shelters in
Patagonia. At this site, archaeological excavation
suggests that they date back to c.7300 BC. Some
specialists do not regard such stencils as ‘art’, since
they are mere impressions, but it is clear from
colourful groupings such as this that they were
intended to have a striking aesthetic impact.
M
ississippi
M
is
souri
Amazon
Y
angtze
Yel
lowRi
ver
Danube
Nile
Volga
Indus
G
anges
Congo
Niger
Darling
I N D I A N
O C E A N
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
SOU
T
H
CHINASEA
HIMALAYAS
URALMTS
ROCKY
MTS
A
NDES
A F R I C A
NORTH
AMERICA
SOUTH
AMERICA
AUSTRALIA
A S I A
E U R O P E
Jomon
pottery
Tybrind Vig
wooden paddles
Aucilla River
portable art
Gault Site
engraved stones
Toquepala Cave
rock paintings
Monte Alegre
rock paintings
Piauí
numerous
shelters
El Wad
Natufian figurines
Jericho
plastered portrait skulls,
plaster statues
Sha’ar Hagolan Yarmukian clay figurines
Jerf el-Ahmar pictograph tablets
Jiahu
bone flutes
Wargata Mina
hand stencils
Sturts Meadows
petroglyphs
Magnificent Gallery
paintings
Kakadu
paintings
Çatal Hüyük wall paintings in houses, clay figurines
Zamostje/Vis I
portable carvings
Kunda Culture
portable carvings
Maglemose Culture
portable art
Lepenski Vir
limestone sculptures
Le Mas d’Azil
Azilian Culture,
decorated pebbles
Fontainebleau
rock engravings?
Ojo Guareña
cave paintings
rock paintings?
Karelia/Lake Onega
Veretye Culture/Oleneostrovski Cemetery,
portable carvings, decorated implements
Shigirsky
portable carvings
Berelekh
portable engraving
stone and clay figurines
’Ain Ghazal
plaster statues
Whalebone
figurines,
6000 BC
Inca Cueva
rock paintings
Los Toldos/El Ceibo
rock paintings
Cueva de las Manos
rock paintings
petroglyphs
N
0
0
1000 miles
1500 kms
1 Postglacial Art, 10,000-5000 BC
1 AFTER THE ICE AGE, art around the
world becomes even more varied,
with a tremendous variety of forms
and motifs encountered around the
globe. The lack of firm dating greatly
hampers the development of a unifying
theory, but one clear phenomenon is the
appearance of art in well-preserved organic
materials from waterlogged sites in northern
Eurasia, as well as the rapidly growing importance
of work in other materials such as plaster and fired clay.
ART, HUNTING AND GATHERING
that could then be transformed into objects, ornaments and
representations of people, animals and plants. These objects filled
the houses and tombs of rulers and the shrines of deities. Stones,
such as granite and alabaster, were extracted from quarries and
carved; metals, such as gold, silver and copper, were mined, melted
and moulded; clay was dug and baked into bricks and pots; trees
were cut down and timbers sawn and polished; pigments were
extracted from plants and minerals and used to dye fibres and to
colour surfaces. All these resources and techniques were used to
create pleasure and confidence in the owner or fear or amazement in
others. In different areas, different materials received more attention,
depending on variations in availability and aesthetic preferences. In
Egypt craftsmen worked in granite and a glass-like substance called
faience; in China jade and bronze were used; and in coastal South
America the focus was on cotton textiles and painted ceramics.
IN REGIONS WHERE THE COMBINATION OF SOIL AND CLIMATE limited the
productivity of agriculture, as in the valleys of Europe, the plateaux
of Asia, the hills of Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacfic,
communities were on a smaller scale, but were often distinguished
by remarkable artefact traditions. In coastal Europe, for example, a
shortage of trees, combined with other pressures, brought the
erection of massive but simple stone monuments such as the
temples of Malta and Britain’s Stonehenge.
AGRICULTURE CREATED A NEED FOR LAND, and one of the features of
this period is the beginning of the phenomenon of small groups
expanding into vast territories, their original homogeneity betrayed
by linguistic similarities, as well as belief systems and material
traditions. The Bantu who expanded out of West Africa into the
rest of Sub-Saharan Africa made little use of permanent materials,
leaving us largely ignorant of their art. The same is not true of the
peoples who migrated into the western Pacific from Southeast Asia.
These founders of Polynesian culture brought with them a refined
and elaborate pottery, known as Lapita, only to abandon it after their
arrival. On their way they passed, and probably mixed with, the
people who had arrived much earlier in neighbouring New Guinea
and Australia, whose rock art, although often difficult to date,
suggests a continuation of earlier traditions.
THE FIRST POLYNESIANS WERE A CLOSE-KNIT GROUP of courageous and
competitive sailors, and so were the Phoenicians and Greeks who
expanded to dominate most of the Mediterranean between 1000
and 500 BC, but it is the differences between these rival Semitic and
Indo-European peoples that is most remarkable. The Phoenicians
founded rich and important cities, such as Carthage, which have left
little permanent material trace besides their cemeteries (or tophets).
The Greeks, by contrast, especially the Athenians, began developing
a culture that was unprecedentedly rich in artefacts made of durable
materials. The militarization that followed from their need to defend
the resources of their narrow, rocky valleys led the Greeks to value
the properties of minerals. In mythology they represented
themselves as made of stone and metal, and they used the
same substances to portray themselves in art. The Greeks had
turned themselves into artefacts particularly adapted for war.
The success of their culture was to lead others to do the same.
PAINTED LIMESTONE RELIEF from the Tomb of Ti in Saqqara, Egypt, c.2450 BC.
T
HE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE added a new and larger
dimension to humanity’s involvement with art. Agriculture was
in some sense itself an artistic activity. The selection of plants
and animals for breeding involved the expression of aesthetic
preferences; the process of preparing fields for planting involved
the shaping of the land; and the process of tending the sown plants
often required a coordination of visual and manual activity that
paralleled that of the artist.
THE RELATION BETWEEN AGRICULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE was
particularly close. In those areas where conditions favourable to
intense food production allowed the growth of bigger and bigger and
more and more permanent settlements, agriculture led directly to
urbanization. Between 3000 BC and 1000 BC cities built in fertile river
valleys, such as Ur in Mesopotamia, Memphis in Egypt, Harappa in
India, and Anyang in China, set new standards in scale, substance
and organization, and a similar process of urbanization was
beginning in Meso- and South America. Agriculture indirectly
affected both people’s thinking and their visual preferences. Growth
now became a vital metaphor in many areas of experience, and
those who enjoyed the wealth that farming generated constructed
ever larger palaces and tombs for themselves and temples for the
deities that were their protectors. Agriculture also involved
planning, and this, too, became an increasingly central activity and
metaphor, as both town and country were increasingly carefully
managed. Irrigation and road-building intensified, and both in and
around cities the straight line and the right angle became more and
more prominent. First in Egypt, and then elsewhere, design
principles were transferred from the horizontal layout of fields and
houses to the vertical surfaces of walls, so inaugurating the great
tradition of painted and sculpted decoration in rectangular panels.
At the same time architectural ornaments acquired the properties
desired in agricultural products, as the cornices and colonnades of
Egyptian and Mesopotamian buildings were made to look like rows
of leaves and sown plants.
AGRICULTURAL SURPLUSES COULD BE EXCHANGED for other goods,
often from foreign countries, sometimes in the form of raw materials
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
5000-500 BC
By 2500 BC farming had spread
throughout most of the Old World
as it was shortly to do in the New.
The growing populations of the urban
heartlands were sending feelers deep into
their mountainous hinterlands, seeking
sources of raw materials and spreading ideas
as they did so. On the steppes of Eurasia, the
horse was domesticated and used to pull
wagons and chariots, though not yet for riding.
The transformation since the end of the last Ice
Age was profound and far-reaching. Human
societies dominated most of the land and
POLITICAL propaganda
is one of the
recurrent themes
of art from early
state societies.
This mace head
shows one of the
first kings of
Egypt
ceremonially
cutting an
irrigation ditch,
which waters a
small stylized
patch of four
long, rectangular
fields. The king
wears the crown
of Upper
(southern) Egypt,
and before his face
is carved a small
scorpion that is
believed to represent
his name or title. The
king is shown as father
or benefactor of the
people, bringing water to
the land, though in fact it
was the annual Nile flood
and the trapping of receding
floodwater in irrigation
basins that provided the basis
of ancient Egyptian agriculture.
THE WORLD 10,000–3000 BC
25
2 THE EARLIEST CITIES of the
Old World were
concentrated in four
limited regions, each
centred on a major river or
riverine system. These
provided the fertile soils
and the water needed to
grow regular harvests of
wheat, barley, millet and
rice. The populations of the
first cities were small by
modern standards –
numbering usually only a
few thousand people – but
they possessed a wide
range of craft skills and
administrative functions,
including ritual specialists,
bureaucrats and traders.
These together created
both new needs and new
potential, giving rise to
political and religious art
and architecture.
intensive, with the development of ploughing
in Eurasia and North Africa allowing still larger
areas of land to be brought into cultivation. In
drier areas towards or beyond the limit of the
rain-fed zone, cooperative effort created
systems of canals to bring river-water to the
fields. On steeply sloping hillsides, terraced
fields were laid out to bring yet more land into
cultivation to feed the growing populations.
THE FIRST CITIES
The introduction of irrigation canals in the
sixth millennium BC allowed the fertile plains of
southern Mesopotamia to be farmed for the
first time. Within 2000 years the productive
potential of these hot, dry plains had led to the
establishment of the world’s first cities. In
Egypt and the Indus valley, annual river flood
regimes gave rise to similar urban
developments around 3000 BC, later to be
joined by China during the second millennium
BC. The states and city-states of these densely
peopled lowlands demanded a new scale of
social organization and new types of religious
and political ideology that were represented in
art. Kings and gods required statues, palaces
and temples to proclaim their power and
emphasize their status. The tombs of rulers
took on a new impressiveness in the pyramids
of Egypt. The rich offerings placed in elite
graves at Ur in Mesopotamia or Anyang in
China revealed high levels of craftsmanship
and sophisticated symbolism, and were made
of costly imported materials.
Representation flourished in other ways
too. Writing was invented, originating out of
pictographic systems, and used not only for
economic control but for ritual texts and
literature. The image of the physical world took
on new form also in maps and plans, showing
the division of landed property, designs for
buildings, or the shape of the cosmos. Cities
became microcosms of the divine order, with
temples and palaces rising in their midst, and
rulers assuming the attributes of god-kings.
were rapidly clearing the remaining forests.
They were also creating artworks which still
today speak to us of elite power, craft skill,
and religious beliefs.
Nippur
Kish
Shuruppak
Umma
Susa
Lagash
Ur
Uruk
Eridu
Ashur
Tell Asmar
Rupar
Alamgirpur
Kalibangan
Harappa
Mehrgarh
Rana Ghundai
Mohenjo-
Daro
Nindowari
Balakot
Allahdino
Desalpur Rangpur
Lothal
Surkotada
Chanhu-Daro
Amri
Kot Diji Xingtai
Luoyang
Erlitou
Zhengzhou
Huixian
Anyang
Gaocheng
Liujiahe
Heliopolis
Memphis
El-Amarna
Abydus
Thebes
Hieraconpolis
Maidum
Giza
Saqqara
El-Lisht
Elephantine
Tell Brak
Habuba
Ebla
Mari
Sippar
Babylon
Nile
N
ig
er
Danube
Volga
Don
Yenisey
C
ongo
Ganges
M
ekong
Yangtze
Amu
r
Indus
Yellow R.
Euphrates
Tigris
PA C I F I C O C E A N
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
N
0
0
2000 miles
3000 kms
2 Early Urbanism, 3500-1500 BC
areas of early urban development
first cities
Egypt: unified state with
hieroglyphic script c.3200 BC;
construction of pyramids for royal
burials from c.2650 BC; agriculture
dependent on water and silt from
annual Nile floods
Indus or Harappan: grid plan cities founded
c.3000 BC; pictographic script still undeciphered;
standardized system of weights and measures
but political organization unclear; seaborne
trade with southern Mesopotamia
China: Shang state develops in
Yellow River valley c.1600 BC;
elaborate Anyang tombs with
bronzes and lacquerwork
c.1300 BC; pictographic
script (ancestor of modern
Chinese) used for divination
and short inscriptions c.1200 BC
Mesopotamia: cities founded from c.3400 BC, protected by city walls by
2800 BC; pictographic script c.3400 BC develops into cuneiform script on
clay tablets by c.2900 BC; mud-brick temples on raised platforms give
rise to ziggurats c.2500 BC; networks of irrigation canals to water
the fields from Rivers Tigris and Euphrates
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
24
AS THE WORLD WARMED UP after the last
Ice Age, the glaciers retreated and deserts
shrank. The water that had been locked up in
the ice sheets was released into the sea to
evaporate, condense into clouds and fall as
rain. Extensive forests developed in temperate
and tropical regions, spreading from late
glacial pockets to cover much of the earth’s
land surface. Forest vegetation supported
expanding herbivore populations and the
carnivores that in turn fed on them. But
arguably the main beneficiaries of the more
hospitable climate were the human groups.
These grew in size and progressively colonized
new areas in both northern and southern
latitudes, eventually covering virtually the
whole of the world including the inhospitable
arctic wastes and the driest deserts.
HUNTER-GATHERERS
The population of the world 10,000 years ago
consisted almost entirely of hunter-gatherers,
who lived by hunting and collecting wild plant
foods. They also fished in rivers, lakes and sea,
and many of the choicest locations for early
human settlement were along wetland coastal
margins. In some areas, such as Denmark or
northern Australia, their seasonal coastal
encampments were marked by mounds of
shells, the debris from the exploitation of
marine molluscs.
Despite their growing numbers, these early
postglacial peoples have not left such striking
imagery as the cave paintings of their
Palaeolithic predecessors. Rock art is known
from many regions, however, including, for
example, Australia, and the central Sahara,
which was moister than at present. Many
Saharan rock paintings depict parti-coloured
figures of domestic cattle, grouped in herds.
Already before the end of the last Ice Age,
hunter-gatherers in the Levant had begun to
exploit the wild large-seeded grasses which
were the ancestors of domestic wheat and
barley. Around 12,000 years ago this
exploitation shifted in character to include the
sowing and harvesting of plants that had been
removed from their natural habitat and were
being intentionally propagated by human
intervention. Agriculture had begun. The
immediate stimulus in the Levantine case may
have been a temporary shift towards colder
drier conditions as the Ice Age approached its
end. Whatever the specific cause in the Levant,
however, the adoption of cultivated plants,
sometimes accompanied by domestic animals,
was a development that was to be played out
in several regions of the world, in the millennia
which followed, in diverse human and
environmental circumstances: in China, in
tropical Africa, in Central and South America,
in the southern USA. It altered the human
outlook on the world, the relationship of
people to the natural world. This changed
understanding may be what was represented by
the vivid wall paintings and clay sculptures of
Çatal Hüyük in Turkey, perhaps the world’s
earliest town.
THE WORLD 10,000-3000 BC
Nil
e
N
ige
r
Amazon
Mississippi
Ganges
Amu
r
Mekong
Yangtze
Yellow R.
Indus
Tigris
Danube
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
I N D I A N
O C E A N
ARABIAN
SEA
ROCKYMTS
AND
ES
HIMALAYAS
N.AMERICA
EUROPE
AFRICA
ASIA
CHINA JAPAN
R U S S I A
INDIA
ARABIA
AUSTRALIA
S.AMERICA
c.3500 BC
c.4500 BC
c.4500 BC
c.1000 BC
c.8000 BC
c.2000 BC
c.2600 BC
c.2600 BC
c.300 BC
c.3000 BC
c.5500 BC
c.6500 BC
c.2500 BC
c.2800 BC
c.2500 BC
pre-3000 BC
c.3500 BC
c.3500 BC
N
0
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3000 kms
1 The Origins of Agriculture
areas where agriculture first emerged
adoption of the plough, with date
limit of plough agriculture
1 THE DOMESTICATION of
plants and animals occurred
independently in several
regions of the world,
becoming the dominant
mode of human subsistence
and leading to a significant
growth in population
levels. New techniques
were developed to increase
the amount of food that
could be produced. In the
Old World, one of the most
significant innovations was
the plough, drawn by a pair
of oxen. The New World
lacked suitable domestic
animals capable of
providing the necessary
traction, and cultivation
there remained dependent
on human muscle power
and the hoe.
THE IMPACT OF FARMING
The immediate consequence of agriculture was
the development of larger and more
permanent settlements – cultivation and
herding allowed many more people to be
supported from a given plot of land and
removed the need for regular or seasonal
mobility. Larger settlements in turn led to
more complex social arrangements, involving
personal displays of status and works of
communal labour. By the fifth millennium BC,
ground stone and carved or perforated shell
had been joined by objects of copper and gold
in graves as markers of individual identity and
importance. Agriculture became more
CARVED ALABASTER TROUGH of the late fourth
millennium BC from southern Mesopotamia,
possibly from the city of Uruk. In the centre stands
a reed hut or byre. This type of structure was
traditional in the southern marshlands of Iraq up
to recent times. Sheep and rams converge from
left and right, to be greeted by their offspring.
Reed bundles terminating in open loops project
from the roof; they are the symbols of Inanna,
goddess of fertility. The precise meaning of the
scene is unclear, but the reed hut with goddess
symbols may represent her temple, and the sheep
and goats her sacred herd.
THE AMERICAS 5000–500 BC
27
40˚50˚60˚70˚80˚90˚100˚110˚120˚130˚140˚150˚160˚170˚
70˚
60˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
10˚
20˚
30˚
40˚
50˚
Ga
Cu
Cu Cu
Denbigh
Saglek Bay
Cape Ray
Oconto
Serpent Mound
Adena
Poverty Point
Altamirano
La Venta
Tres Zapotes
Tlaxcala
Tehuacán Valley
Oaxaca Valley
San Lorenzo
Izapa
La Pitía
Puerto Hormiga
Monagrillo
Valdivia
Osceola
Tikoralak
Port aux Choix
Grave Creek
Caverna da
Pedra PintadaINSET
MINA CERAMIC
TRADITION
TUTISHCAINYO
TRADITION
Taperinha
culture
KOTOSH-MITO TRADITION
Asana
Qaluyo
Taperinha
Barra ceramic
complex
Poverty
Point
culture
Basketmaker
culture
Grand Gulch
Lovelock Cave
Marsh Pass
NORTHWEST
MICROBLADE
TRADITION
ARCTIC SMALL
TOOL TRADITION
Old Copper culture
Ocós Ceramic
complex
Early pottery culture
WOODLAND
TRADITION
PALAEO-ESKIMO/
MARITIME ARCHAIC
TRADITION
CHINCHORRO
TRADITION
COTTON
PRE-CERAMIC
TRADITION L. Titicaca
Great
Lakes
L. Poopó
Loa
M
ackenzie
Mississippi
Ohio
RioGr
ande
Pecos
Colorado
St L
awrence
Missouri
Amazon
Tocantins
Marañón
Ucayali
Japurá
Orinoco
Maro
ni
Putumayo
M
ade
ira
Magdalena
Paragu
ay
SãoFranci
sco
Paraná
Desaguadero
Salado
Deseado
Tehuantepec Isthmus
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
A R C T I C
O C E A N
H U D S O N
BAY
CARIBBEAN SEA
B E R I N G
S E A
L A B R A D O R
S E A
GULF OF
MEXICO
R
O
C
K
Y
M
O
U
N
TAINS
APPALA
CH
IAN
M
TS
ANDE
S
BAZILIAN
HIGH
LA
N
DS
ATACAMADESERT
GUIANA
HIGHLANDS
N O R T H
A M E R I C A
S O U T H
A M E R I C A
N
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600 kms
1 The Americas, 5000-500 BC
tradition/culture
Olmec heartland
principal site
resources:
gold
copper
obsidian
galena
soapstone
manioc
maize
cotton
sunflowers/other
native crops
peppers
gourds
camelids
caribou
buffalo
fish
sea mammals
Cu
Ga
Marcavalle
Huaca
Prieta
Sechín
El Aspero
Piedra Parada
Río Seco
Garagay
Caral
Chanapata
Paracas
Waywaka
Kotosh
Tutiscainyo
El Paraíso
KOTOSH-MITO
TRADITION
1 NORTH AND MESOAMERICA between 5000 and
500 BC witnessed changes which involved the
development of agriculture and the first steps
towards the establishment of complex society.
These developments were concentrated in
southern North America and Mexico. Between
5000 and 500 BC in South America agriculture
and herding developed in the Andes, while
pottery-making was invented in the area of the
east-central Amazon. At the same time
irrigated agriculture developed in the Peruvian
coastal desert river valleys, and large
architectural complexes began to appear.
SOUTH AMERICA
The earliest pottery-producing tradition in
South America comes from Caverna da Pedra
Pintada, dated to c.5530 BC. This is closely
related to the Taperinha culture of the lower
Amazon dated to c.5030 BC. The pottery
comprises small vessels, gourdlike or openbowl
in shape, very occasionally with incised
or impressed dot designs. The people
depended on fishing, shellfish gathering and
kitchen gardening. From about 2000 BC fully
sedentary agricultural settlements can be
found in the Amazon basin. An example is
the Tutishcainyo tradition in Peru, with its
distinctive incised decorative pottery, which
dates to c.3000–1800 BC.
Some of the earliest ceramics for
northwestern South America are found at
Valdivia (c.3200–1500 BC) in Ecuador. This
early pottery comprises low-fired incised
and rocker-stamped wares with geometric
designs.
At the Pre-Ceramic coastal village site of
Huaca Prieta (2500–1800 BC), in the Chicama
valley, pyro-decorated gourds and textiles
with bird and serpent designs have been
found. By the end of the Pre-Ceramic period
the coastal sites in Peru started to include
features such a temple mounds, plazas and
U-shaped and pyramidal constructions.
Irrigation was in use, and there is evidence of
social differentation. Ceramics appear on the
coast of Peru by c.1800 BC and are of
considerable quality and artistic merit.
Platform mounds and rectangular and
sunken circular courts are all found at the
site of Piedra Parada in the lower Supe
Valley. But the largest monumental
architecture is associated with the Aspero
tradition, one of the first Peruvian cultural
complexes to show evidence of social
differentiation. Mounds served as stages for
public ritualized display, for instance at El
Paraiso and Río Seco.
The Kotosh-Mito tradition, distinguished
by its small, single-room temples, was located
in the Huánuco region of the northern
highlands of Peru and was established c.2500
BC. The temple (Templo de los Manos Cruzados, or
temple of the crossed hands) at Kotosh is
associated with a twin-mound construction
with chambers on the summit.
Sechín in the Casma Valley dates to
c.1290 BC. It has a perimeter wall with carved
monoliths with designs of dismembered
bodies and warriors. It is antecedent to the
later Chavín tradition. In the Moquegua area
at Asana (c.5000 BC), small circular structures
are known. From c.3000 BC these were
constructed around a temple building.
The Chinchorro culture of c.5000 BC
practised mummification of their dead,
reflecting a form of ancestor worship. The
embalming process included the removal of
cerebral and visceral matter, skeletal bracing,
padding, exterior clay and paint enhancement
and addition of hair and wigs.
In Andahuaylas at Waywaka, the earliest
evidence of gold-working comprises a goldworking
kit with a burial, dating to c.1440 BC.
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
26
construction of funerary mounds. The Adena
culture has large burial mounds, one of the
biggest being the Grave Creek. Elaborately
carved stone pipes and tablets are known from
the burial sites.
In the arid Southwest the Basketmaker
culture developed in c.1200 BC, with sites such
as Grand Gulch and Marsh Pass. Later
Basketmaker culture villages were substantial,
with up to 50 pit houses.
MESOAMERICA
Archaic cultures from Mesoamerica are known
from the Tehuacán and Oaxaca valleys of
Mexico. In the early Preclassic period
(2000–1000 BC) it is possible to see transition
from hunter-gathering to settled farming in
Mexico and Central America. Ancestor worship,
a hierarchical structure of society, forms of
kingship, sedentary settlement and agriculture
all first appeared during this period.
The early Preclassic period saw the rise of
Olmec culture on the Tehuantepec Isthmus
along the Gulf Coast. The Olmec believed that
a human woman had relations with a jaguar,
the resulting offspring being a form of werejaguar.
Images of beings with baby-like faces
with fanged mouths and cleft foreheads occur
frequently in three-dimensional Olmec art
carved in jadeite, serpentine and basalt. Werejaguars
appear to have represented a rain god.
The most famous examples are the basalt
monumental heads, stelae and altars found at
La Venta, Tres Zapotes and San Lorenzo.
ASHIFT TO A MORE SEDENTARY,
agriculturally based society, frequently
associated with increasingly complex social
structures, took place in parts of the Americas
during this period.
NORTH AMERICA
The formation of larger and more complex
social groups was probably the result of
environmental changes between 4000 and
2000 BC, which led to the emergence of more
varied ecosystems and wider availability of
resources. Settlements were concentrated in
transitional zones, where several different
environments came together. Rock art was
widely distributed, indicating that it was an
ancient custom in the Americas.
Around 4000 BC the construction of small
burial mounds began along the Mississippi
River. By 3500 BC copper was being used by
the ‘Old Copper’ culture around the Great
Lakes. The burial sites of Osceola and
Oconto have yielded many cold- and hothammered
artefacts.
The first pottery in North America
appeared c.2500 BC in the southeast, in South
Carolina, along the lower Savannah River valley
in Georgia and in coastal Florida. Evidence for
the use of basketry and featherwork dates back
to c.3000 BC, and is known from Lovelock Cave
in western Nevada.
The Northwest Microblade Tradition
(c.4500 BC–AD 1000) is present in Alaska and
Canada. The Arctic Small Tool tradition,
established between 4000 and 1000 BC, is
typified by small, finely pressure-flaked tools.
Palaeo-Eskimo culture arose between 2000 and
1000 BC. It was based on the hunting of sea
mammals and caribou. In the winter months,
semi-sunken houses were used. In the summer
a transition was made to tent-like structures.
By 1500 BC large earthworks were being
constructed, such as the Poverty Point site
along the banks of the Mississippi River in
Louisiana. The site of Poverty Point measures
c.40 hectares (104 acres). Six parallel, halfcircular
mounds arranged around a plaza
formed the core of the site. A mixed agricultural
and hunter-gathering economy was practised,
with crops such as sunflower, sumpweed,
goosefoot and gourd. Wide-ranging exchange
networks existed, demonstrated by finds at the
site of copper tools from the Great Lakes region,
lead ore (galena) from Missouri and soapstone
(steatite) from Alabama and Georgia.
The Woodland tradition developed
throughout much of eastern North America
between 1000 BC and AD 700, and was
characterized by cord- and fabric-marked
ceramics, incipient agriculture and the
THE AMERICAS 5000-500 BC
THE SERPENT MOUND IN OHIO This ritual site may
relate to astronomical features in Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor, the Big and Little Dipper, and was
probably made by the Adena Mound Builder
culture some time in the first millennium BC
(although recent excavators have suggested a
more recent date). The Adena people left their
burial mounds in the vicinity of the Serpent Mound
structure. No artefacts or burials have been found
in its construction fill.
THE TEMPLE OF SECHÍN IN THE CASMA VALLEY PERU,
belongs to the late Pre-Ceramic period/Initial
period. The stone carvings on the outer perimeter
wall depict warriors and trophy heads, with the
victors and defeated being depicted wearing
different clothes. The carvings have been dated to
c.1290 BC. The temple is part of a large ceremonial
complex comprising four sites: Sechín Alto,
Taukachi-Konkán, Sechín Bajo and Cerro Sechín
(illustrated here). The central structure of Cerro
Sechín comprises a multi-roomed adobe structure
with painted murals.
0˚10˚
40˚
50˚
Dublin
Paris
Brest
A Coruña
Oporto
Lisbon
Huelva
Málaga
Badajoz
St Nazaire
Lorient
Cork
Galway
Belfast
Escariz
Juncais
Tanque
Carapito
Cortiçô
Fontão
Antelas
Cunha Baixa
Sobreda
Pedralta
Fojinho Forles
Chão
Redondo Lubagueira
Vale de
Fachas
Viseu
Mississippi
Épone Les Ronces
Aveny
Les Houyottes
Guiry
Boury
Saran
St Piat
Vignes Jaunes
Razet
Dampont
La Pierre Turquaise
Paris
Chartres
Reims
See Inset 1
See Inset 2
See Inset 3
Inset 3
Inset 1
Brest Dinan
St Nazaire
Dissignac
Lorient
Locmariaquer
Vannes
Petit-Mont
Kermarquer
Inset 2
St Denec
Rungléo
Mougau-Bihar
Kermorvan
Kerguntuil St-Samson
Carnanmore
Moneydig
Donaghanie
Kiltierney
Aughnagwgan
Loughcrew
Tara
Tournant
Baltinglass
Sess Kilgreen
Carnavanaghan
King's Mtn
Boyne
Ardmulchan
Fourknocks
Clear Island
Knockmany
Santa Cruz
Dombate
Pedra Coberta
Espiñaredo
Alpériz
Corao
Baiñas
Lijó
Castañeira
Barrosa
Nora Velha Soto
Monte Frio
Marzo
Zambujeiro
Vale de Rodrigo Bulhôa
Granja de
Toninuelo
Almendras
Vega de
Guadancil
Codesas
Sallas
Zedes
Aboboreira
Vilarinho
Lamoso
Padrão
Alijó
Pola de Allande
Thames
Ouse
Tyne
Seine
Seine
Loire
Garon
ne
Forth
Severn
S
hannon
Duero
Ebro
Rhône
Tagus
Guadalquivir
NORTH
SEA
BAY O F
B I S C AY
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
M
E
D
I
T
E
R
R
A
N
E
A
N
S
E
A
PENNINES
P Y R E N E E S
GRAMPIAN
MTS
ANGLESEY
BRITTANY
CHANNEL IS.
CORSICA
SARDINIA
BALEARIC IS.
ORKNEY IS.
I B E R I A
F R A N C E
BRITAIN
A
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EUROPE 7000–2500 BC
29
THE ENTRANCE STONE
at Newgrange, a
chambered tomb in the
Boyne Valley of eastern
Ireland, provides one of
the finest examples of
what has come to be
called ‘megalithic art’.
The distribution of
similar motifs, from
Orkney to Iberia,
illustrates the links
(no doubt by sea)
which connected these
otherwise diverse areas
of Atlantic Europe in
the fifth and fourth
millennia BC.
2 MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS were built in several areas
of Atlantic Europe during the fifth millennium BC.
They range from chambered tombs, of stone or
timber construction covered by a mound, to simple
upright stones (menhirs) and elaborate stone
settings and circles. Engraved motifs are found
both on standing stones and chambered tombs,
and were also carved on exposed rock surfaces.
MOST OF THE EARLY FIGURINES of Neolithic southeastern
Europe were moulded from clay which was then
fired in a kiln. This technology was also used for
making ceramics, which was also adopted by these
communities at this period. Ceramics and figurines
alike were decorated with painted and engraved
designs, some of which may mimic patterns that
were used in the textiles or clothing of the period.
Loss of the less durable remains has, however,
deprived us of probably the bulk of the art
produced by these early European communities.
and sometimes massive stones (hence
‘megalithic’), which were arranged in rows or
circles, or as elements in a chambered tomb.
Among the most famous of these chambered
tombs are those of Brittany and Ireland, which
are decorated with carved motifs. The Irish
tombs such as Knowth and Newgrange in the
Boyne Valley have elaborate spirals, zigzags
and lozenges; those of Brittany include an early
group showing animals and axes, and an
enigmatic series of carved anthropomorphic
images which are sometimes interpreted as
evidence of a ‘mother goddess’ cult. Painted
motifs occur in the megalithic tombs of
western Iberia – spirals and zigzags similar to
those of ‘megalithic’ art are also found on rock
surfaces where they marked out places of
special significance in the landscape.
The abstract art of Neolithic western
Europe has been related to images of trance
and hallucination, which may have been
features of the rituals practised at this period.
The identification of a mother goddess cult in
some of the other motifs (which do include
pairs of carved breasts on the walls of
megalithic tombs) is, however, very difficult to
evaluate. The same is true of claims for a
mother goddess cult and a matriarchal society
in southeast Europe at this early period – it has
been postulated that this ideology of peace
was subsequently ended by the rise to
dominance of male power. There is evidence
enough of violence and warfare in European
society from earliest times, however, and the
figurines themselves (not all of them female in
any case) may have represented living individuals
or ancestors as easily as divinities. Nevertheless,
they do, along with megalithic art, constitute
the two most widespread and longest-lasting
artistic traditions of Neolithic Europe.
2 Megalithic Art in Western Europe
site with Megalithic art
20˚ 30˚
40˚
50˚
Belgrade Bucharest
Kiev
Sofia
Athens
Budapest
Prague
Vienna
Hódmezovásárely
Parta
Malca
Dudesti
Salcuta Colomfiresti
Habasesti Rusestii-Noi
Hluboké Masuvky
Vulcanesti
Frumusica¸
Izvoare
Traian
¸ ¸¸˘
˘
˘
Larga-Jijia
Krynichka
Tomashevka
Vladimirovka
Tripolye
Kolomijshchina
Zhukovtsi St Buda
Koshilovce Bilce-Zlote
Hamangia
Let¸Petresti
Vadastra˘
Potporanj
Dudesti¸
Vidra
Boian
Ruse
Khotnitsa
Hârsova¸
Cernavoda
Gumelnita¸
Cascioarele˘
˘
Sultana
Bolintin-Vale
Giulesti¸
¸
¸
¸
¸
Tangâru
Hotarele
˘
Zengovárkony
Sarvas˘
˝
Gomolava
Obrez
Carsija
Selevac
Medvednjak
Vinca
Gornja Tuzla
Lepenski Vir
Padina
TecicGrivac
Divostin Gradac
Plocnik
Gladnice
Predionica
Valac
Zelenikovo
Porodin
Elateia
Lerna
Nea Nikomideia
Tsangli
Achilleio
Tsani
Argissa
Otzaki
Pyrasos
Corinth
Nea Makri
Amorgos
Knossos
Kato Ierapetra
Chaironeia
Sesklo
Soufli
Rudnik Pavlovac
Kakanj
Lengyel
Nosa
Röske-Lúdvár
Kopáncs
Kökénydomb
TuzkövesSzegvár
Perieni
Langenzersdorf
Vösendorf
Srelice˘˚
Branc˘
˝
Aszód Füzesabony
Tiszapolgár
Kotacpart
Gorza
Donja Branjevina
Bordjos
Starcevo˘
˘
˘
˘
Cuina Turcului
Banjica
Obre
FafosDanilo
Smilcic˘
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Borsod
Bodrogkeresztúr
Ariusd¸
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Târpesti
Cucuteni
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Shipintsy
Zhvanets Luka Vrublevetskaya
Pianu de Jos
Turdas
Tartaria˘˘
˘
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Nitra
˘
Dikilitash
Sitagroi
Banjata
Rastu
SaveSupska
Drenovac
Crno-Bara
Paradimi
Vrsnik˘
Leskovica
Anza
Kojadermen
Kazanluk
Veselinovo
Lovets
Plovdiv
Yasatepe
Karanovo
Azmak
Cernica
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˝
Danube
Morava
Varda
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Maritsa
D
rava
Sava
Tisza
Vistula
Olt
Prut
Si
ret
Dniester
Dnieper
B L A C K
S E A
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
I O N I A N
S E A
A E G E A N
S E A
A
D
R
I
A
T
I C
S
E A
BALKAN MTS
TRANSYLVANIAN
ALPS
CARPATHIAN
M
TS
PINDUS
M
TS
DINARIC
ALPS
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A
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CRETE
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200 kms
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
28
AROUND 9000 YEARS AGO the first
communities in Europe to cultivate
cereals and raise domestic animals appeared
in Thessaly and Thrace, dependent on crops
and livestock species that they had adopted
from their neighbours in Anatolia. Over the
succeeding millennia, the new way of life
spread steadily across Europe, reaching the
Rhineland before 5000 BC and becoming
established in Britain and Scandinavia a
millennium later.
MESOLITHIC HUNTERS
Hunter-gatherers were restricted in numbers by
the availability of wild resources, and in many
parts of Europe population levels may have been
very low. The scattered distribution of the
resources on which they relied also meant that
most hunter-gatherer communities had mobile
lifestyles, moving between a number of seasonal
or temporary settlements and camps during the
annual cycle. The exceptions were along coasts
and rivers in the Danube Gorges, for example, or
in Scandinavia, where rich and varied resources
made permanent settlements possible.
The Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Europe
were the direct descendants of those of the last
Ice Age, but as the ice sheets retreated and
temperatures improved, they were able to
recolonize northern latitudes and take advantage
of the spread of temperate woodlands and
grasslands with their plant and animal food
resources. It is therefore at first sight perplexing
that Mesolithic art is so rare when compared with
the famous corpus of cave paintings and portable
art produced during the European Upper
Palaeolithic. It is likely that the Mesolithic
communities of Europe were just as culturally
sophisticated as any hunter-gatherers of the
world, but that much of this sophistication was
expressed in forms – such as song, dance, oral
tradition, clothing or carving – which have not
survived. In northern Europe waterlogged
settlements in Scandinavia provide an insight
into what may have been lost – a decorated
wooden paddle, for example, was excavated at
Tybrind Vig (see p.20). The cemetery of Olenii
Ostrov in northern Russia has yielded wooden
figurines and batons carved with antler heads.
Perishable materials such as wood only rarely
survive, however, and hunter-gatherer art in the
form of rock engravings is limited to marginal
areas such as the Alps and the sub-Arctic.
ART OF THE NEOLITHIC
The spread of domestic plants and animals that
marked the transition to the Neolithic age of
pottery and farming may have been associated
with some movement of population, but it is
likely that in many areas of Europe the earlier
EUROPE 7000-2500 BC
1 THE EARLIEST FARMING
communities of southeast
Europe had much in common
with their neighbours in
western Asia. Their
settlements of up to 50 or
more rectangular mud-brick
houses grew to form tells,
and some of the houses
themselves were decorated
with painted designs and
modelled clay mouldings.
A certain unity of background
is provided by the fired clay
figurines which again can be
paralleled in Anatolia, but are
not common at this period in
Europe north of the Danube.
In conventional terminology,
these first farming
communities of south-east
Europe mark the transition
from the foregoing
Mesolithic period of hunters
and gatherers, who relied on
wild resources, to the
Neolithic period with pottery
and farming. Europe was by
no means a unity at this
period, and was indeed
marked as much by
differences as by similarities.
These differences show
themselves in the way that
the new domesticates spread
and were adopted, and the
changes in settlement and
material culture that
accompanied them.
hunter-gatherers were not displaced by
newcomers but actually chose to adopt the new
way of life. The transition was both economic
and conceptual. An important new distinction
had been introduced between the wild and
domestic. Human societies began to alter and
control their living environment in unprecedented
ways. This included the clearance of forest (at
first on only a small scale) to grow cereals, and
the creation of more permanent settlements. In
the southeast these took the form of villages of
mud-brick houses, built and rebuilt in the same
place to form settlement mounds or ‘tells’.
Associated with these were figurines, mostly
made with the new technology of ceramics. The
fact that a large proportion of these figurines are
female, and relatively few are clearly male, has led
many to interpret them as evidence of a fertility
cult, related perhaps to the new concern with
the fertility of crops. Some have gone even
further, and argued that these figurines
represent a cult of female divinities at a time
when southeast European societies were
predominantly matriarchal in character.
Further west, the impact of the new way of
life had a different character, with settlements
remaining small and scattered. Above all, a
changed view of landscape was revealed
through the construction of monuments.
These included structures incorporating large
Early Farming Settlements
in Southeast Europe
early farming settlements
1
EUROPE 2500-500BC
31
tin from limited and distant sources set up a
series of networks across Europe, along which
other prized materials such as Baltic amber
also circulated. The result was a certain
‘international’ character to the metalwork
traditions of the European Bronze Age, where
similar forms are found across wide areas.
THE NEW METALLURGY
Polished stone axes were finely crafted objects,
demanding many hours of intensive shaping
and polishing to produce the prized endproduct.
The transformation of the original raw
material that they represented, however, was
significantly less dramatic than the process of
metallurgy, especially where that involved the
smelting of metal from the ores and its
subsequent casting to produce the desired
forms. This demanded new and rather
mysterious knowledge, and an entirely new
range of technological skills. Large-scale
mining for copper was undertaken in some
places, such as Great Orme in north Wales and
the Mitterberg in the Austrian Alps, where
complex systems of shafts and galleries date
back to the second millennium BC. The
presence of bronze-working tools in a number
of third-millennium elite graves in northwest
Europe suggests that the possession not only
of metal objects but of metallurgical skills
themselves may have conferred special status.
It is probably a mistake, however, to
characterize this entire period by the use of
bronze, since metals were only one of a broad
range of indicators reflecting new
developments in social and economic life
during the second millennium BC. The
development of metallurgy was not itself an
accidental discovery, and it had been known
since the sixth millennium BC in parts of
southern Europe and the Near East. Its rapid
spread during the late third millennium was as
much to do with social change as technological
need, a fact which is brought home by the
contexts in which metal objects are found and
the character of the objects themselves:
daggers, axes, spearheads and ornaments, the
latter fashioned in gold as well as bronze. It
was only after 1300 BC that bronze was
available in sufficient quantity to make a more
general impact on European economy. Much
more significant were the changes in individual
status marked by the appearance of richly
furnished graves in several regions of western
and central Europe around 2000 BC, then by the
widespread adoption of cremation in urnfields
six or seven centuries later.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL HIERARCHIES
Fortified or defended settlements indicate a
rise in inter-group hostility promoted perhaps
by growing ethnic awareness and by a general
rise in population density. In western and
northern Europe, the appearance of field
systems towards the end of the second
millennium is another sign of social change,
with rights to land now more clearly defined
and demarcated. The trend towards the
development of more complex societies finds
its most extreme expression in the Aegean
region, where the first European states emerge
in Mycenean Greece and Minoan Crete, with
palaces, scripts and a warrior aristocracy
subsequently immortalized in the works of
Homer. The existence of similar warrior elites is
suggested by the appearance of bronze shields,
helmets and breastplates across many parts of
Europe in the late second millennium BC,
coupled with heavier and more effective bronze
swords.
Social complexity and the rise of elites was
mirrored in the development of an increasingly
rich iconography, most clearly seen at the
northern and southern extremities of central
Europe: in the rock-art traditions of the Alps
and southern Scandinavia, and in the elaborate
ritual metalwork of Sardinia and the Danish
Bronze Age. These traditions continued into
the first millennium BC, but changes during the
eighth and seventh centuries BC mark a new
stage in European prehistory.
By the sixth century BC, a string of ‘princely’
centres had emerged across central Europe,
from Burgundy to Bohemia, marked by hilltop
enclosures, richly furnished burial mounds and
evidence of contact with the Mediterranean
world in the form of Greek and Etruscan
imports. By this period, the Mediterranean was
fringed by Greek, Etruscan and Carthaginian
cities and colonies, and a history of
interactions between the Mediterranean and
temperate Europe was beginning that was to
culminate in the expansion of the Roman
empire half a millennium later.
13˚12˚11˚10˚9˚54˚
55˚
56˚
57˚
58˚
Bulbjerg
Nyrup
Hove
Høng
Davding
Tellerup
Blistrup
Påarp
Karup
Gullåkra
Mosse
Brudevaelte
Voldtofte
Egebak
Skallerup
Valsømagle
Torupgaarde
Fragtrup
Fårdal
Trindhøj
Gedebjerg
Trundholm
GrevensvaengeFangel Torp
Muldbjerg
LofthøjGuldhøj
K A T T E G A T
N O R T H
S E A
LÜBECK
BAY
B A LT I
C
SEA
ZEALAND
F Y N
L O L L A N D
J U T L A N D
N
0
0
75 miles
100 kms
THE BRONZE SUN CHARIOT, found at Trundholm on
Zealand in 1902, is among the most elaborate and
most clearly symbolic of the products of the Danish
Bronze Age. The object was discovered in a bog,
were it may have been placed as a ritual offering in
around 1650 BC. It represents a bronze disk
mounted on four wheels and pulled by a single
horse. One face of the disk was covered with a
gold sheet, perhaps to represent day, while the
other face may indicate night. The chariot may
illustrate some kind of solar or astronomical myth
or be a miniature depiction of full-sized solar carts
that were used in Danish rituals at this period.
2 THE DANISH BRONZE AGE is
remarkable for the technical
sophistication of its products
and for the fact that
Denmark itself lacked any
natural deposits of bronze
and gold and had to import
the materials from source
regions. One material that
may have been exported in
exchange was amber, a fossil
resin from western Jutland
and the southern margin of
the Baltic Sea which has
special visual and electrical
properties. Artefacts of Baltic
amber have been found as
far afield as the famous Shaft
Graves at Mycenae in
southern Greece.
The Danish Bronze Age,
1800-700 BC
settlement
lures
bronze figurines
swords
other metalwork
2
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
30
THE PERIOD 2500 to 800 BC is
conventionally known as the European
Bronze Age and was marked by the
introduction of weapons and ornaments made
of the new material. Bronze itself is an alloy of
two metals: copper and tin, in proportions of
approximately 90 percent copper and 10
percent tin. This produced a harder and
more useful material than copper alone.
LONG-DISTANCE TRADE
The adoption of bronze led to a new traffic in
raw materials across Europe. Long-distance
transport had been a feature of earlier
millennia, when especially prized varieties of
flint or hard stone had travelled hundreds of
kilometres from their sources. Jadeite from the
western Alps, for example, was used for the
manufacture of prestigious polished stone
axes as far afield as Scotland and southern
Scandinavia. Copper sources were much less
abundant than hard stone, however, and were
concentrated mainly in the Alps and the
Carpathians, and in parts of the Atlantic
seaboard, notably Britain, Ireland and Iberia.
If copper sources were far from widespread,
necessitating trade and exchange, the other
vital ingredient of bronze – tin – was even
rarer. The principal European tin sources
exploited in prehistory were in northern
Bohemia and the Atlantic seaboard: Brittany,
Galicia and south-west Britain. The demand for
EUROPE 2500-500 BC
50˚
40˚
10˚20˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Cu Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
CuCu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Great Orme
Mitterberg
Mycenae
Ebro
Rhône
Loire
S
eine
Rh
ine
Elbe
Drava
Vistula
Danube
Ode
r
Tagus
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
AEGEAN
SEA
B A
LT
IC
SEA
A
D
R
I A
T I C
S E A
M E D I T E R R A
N
E
A
N
S E A
PYRENEES
DINARIC
ALPS
C A R PA
THIANS
A
L
P
S
CORSICA
BRITTANY
B O H E M I A
GALICIA
CRETE
SARDINIA
SICILY
B
A
LEA R I C I S
B R I T I S H
I S L E S
I B E R I A
S C A N D I N A V I A
A F R I C A
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
1 LONG-DISTANCE connections
linking different areas of
Europe became increasingly
clear during the second
millennium BC and are
reflected in similarities in
the forms of bronze
artefacts across the
continent. At the same
time, important local
traditions emerged which
gave certain regions a
special character. These
include rock art traditions,
which in Atlantic Europe
focused mainly on abstract
motifs (cup-marks and
concentric circles). In
southern Scandinavia and
the Alpine region rich
figurative traditions of rock
art emerged, depicting
humans, animals and
artefacts, sometimes in
scenes which may represent
myths or ritual enactments.
THE BEDOLINA ROCK CARVING is one of the most
complex of the many rock art panels found in the
Valcamonica region of northern Italy. The shapes of
the interlinked motifs and the fact that the carving
looks out across a landscape has suggested that it
may be a kind of map. The enclosures (mostly
rectangular) might indicate fields, and the spots
within them may even be individual trees. The lines
linking the ‘fields’ could be trackways or canals, or
simply property boundaries. Against this theory,
however, must be laid the recognition that we do
not know what the scene represents, or if it is
indeed intended to be a portrayal of the landscape.
Rock Art and Raw
Materials, 2000-800 BC
area of mainly abstract
rock art
area of mainly figurative
rock art
major source of copper
major source of tin
major source of amber
amber trade route
Cu
Sn
1
THE AEGEAN 2000–1000 BC
33
other hand, tin, a regular ingredient in bronze
by the second millennium, was absent from the
Aegean and could only be acquired through
long-distance exchange (although a source in
the Taurus Mountains may have been exploited
in the second millennium).
Along such exchange routes monopolized
by the palatial elites also travelled exotic raw
materials – ivory, ostrich eggs, glass, precious
stones, including Baltic amber and lapis lazuli
– transformed by Aegean craftspeople.
Manufactured items travelled as well – highvalue
objects in materials like faience – and,
more abundantly, pottery containers.
Although other archaeologically invisible
craft works were exchanged, it is the
indestructible fineware ceramics – both exchange
items and containers for perfumed oil and wine –
that signal the extent of Minoan and Mycenaean
exchange links throughout the central and
eastern Mediterranean. The Uluburun wreck
contained many of these materials and offers a
vivid insight into eastern Mediterranean
exchange in progress in about 1300 BC.
ARTISTIC PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
‘Art for art’s sake’ is an anachronistic concept in
relation to eastern Mediterranean artistic
production. In the Aegean, monumental art
functioned to support and project elite power
and ideology, while minor works echoed the
STATUETTE OF A MALE YOUTH, one-third life-size,
constructed from multiple pieces of hippopotamus
ivory, with added details in serpentine and gold.
Remarkable for its detailed carving of muscles and
veins and the hairstyle indicating age, it reflects the
Minoan enthusiasm for depicting youthful vigour.
Probably displayed in a shrine, the statuette was
deliberately smashed during a destruction at
Palaikastro, Crete in the mid-fifteenth century BC.
28˚26˚24˚22˚
36˚
38˚
40˚
M M
St St
Pb
Ag
Pb
Ag
Cu
Cu
Iolkos/Volos
Orchomenos
Thebes
Troy
Chania
Kastri
Phylakopi
Vaphio
Gla
Perati
Ayios Stephanos
Kolonna
Pylos
Athens
Tiryns
Kakovatos Argos
Nichoria
Peristeria
Mycenae
Ialysos
Iasus
Miletus
Palaikastro
Pseira
Kato Zakros
Akrotiri
Malia
Amnisos
Phaistos
Kommos
Ayia Triada
Armenoi
Tylissos
Knossos
Archanes
Mt Ida
A
E
G
E
A
N
S
E
A
SEA OF
MARMARA
I O N I A N
S E A
PELOPONNESE
C R E T E
RHODESTHERA
AEGINA
PAROS
SAMOS
NAXOS
KOS
GIALI
KYTHERA
MELOS
KEA
KYTHNOS
SIPHNOS
ITHAKA
LEMNOS
LESBOS
CHIOS
A
N
A
T
O
L I A
EUBOEA
G R E E C E
emery
lapis
lacedaemonius
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
2 The Aegean, 2000-1000 BC
Minoan palace site
Mycenaean palace site
other significant site
Minoan fresco
Mycenaean fresco
source of copper
source of silver/lead
source of stone
source of marble
obsidian
textile production
raw ivory
carved stone vessels
amber jewellery
ostrich egg
cemetery
St
Pb
Ag
Cu
M
2 THE MINOAN PALACES dominated the Aegean
politically in the first half of the second millennium
BC. Their artistic styles were widely emulated. After
the eruption of Thera in the later seventeenth
century BC and the destruction of most Minoan
palaces in the mid-fifteenth century BC, the palaces
of southern mainland Greece became politically
dominant. Around 1200 BC most palatial centres in
the Aegean were destroyed.
and the paintings that often adorned their walls
and floors. Minor works also used indigenous
materials – stone vessels (some of them carved
with relief scenes); jewellery, including seal stones
used in administration, many with figured scenes;
fineware ceramics, a widespread class of material.
Archaeologically invisible, but attested in Linear
B documents of the fourteenth and thirteenth
centuries BC, were highly crafted textiles, while
metals were also used to produce elaborate
objects, such as weapons, vessels and jewellery.
Although there were silver, lead and copper
sources in the Aegean, Cyprus became an
increasingly important copper source in the later
second millennium, its copper transported from
eastern Mediterranean shores as far as Sardinia
in characteristic oxhide-shaped ingots. On the
iconography of monumental works and circulated
among a wider elite group, frequently finding
their way into tombs to accompany the dead,
particularly in the Mycenaean period.
Both Minoan and Mycenaean palaces were
architecturally complex, and their interior walls
and some floors were often decorated with
paintings on plaster, many in true fresco
technique, while palace-sponsored workshops
produced portable art works using both local and
exotic materials. Many of the art works produced
in the Aegean owed their inspiration to exotic
models (chiefly Egyptian and Mesopotamian),
but took on local characteristics and circulated
within the Aegean region. The wider elite
emulated palatial architecture and its
decoration and, ironically, our best examples of
Minoan-style frescoes were not preserved on
Crete, but in Akrotiri on Thera. They include
depictions of humans engaged in ritual, of
landscapes with wildlife, and, probably, of
narrative, notably the famous miniature fresco
from the West House depicting a ‘seascape’.
Despite the association of large-scale art
with the palaces, in the Aegean there is no
explicit iconography of rulers and life-size
sculpture is virtually unknown (other than the
well-known Lion Gate at Mycenae). Nevertheless,
Minoan artists frequently represented the human
figure, not only in frescoes, but also in smallscale
sculpture in ivory, bronze or clay. Such
representations are often associated with
sanctuaries in Minoan Crete. Ceramic production,
by contrast, was not a palatial monopoly,
although the palaces were major consumers of
fineware. Many fineware ceramics imitated
metal vessels in form and decoration, reflecting
the high value of metals and the tendency for
non-palatial artists to imitate palatial styles in
more accessible materials.
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
32
be relevant to this picture of turmoil that Cyprus
became a predominantly Greek-speaking island
by the early first millennium. After 1200 BC, with
some short-lived exceptions like Tiryns and
Perati, a ‘Dark Age’ characterized by the
absence of major artistic production ensues.
MATERIALS AND EXCHANGE
Locally available materials were used in the
Aegean to create monumental architectural
forms such as palaces and other elite structures
THE EASTERN Mediterranean in this
millennium formed a ‘seascape’, rather than a
landscape, with major sites on its islands and
along its coasts, dominated by the inland powers
of Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. In the
Aegean, the emergence of a distinctive culture,
called ‘Minoan’ after the legendary king Minos, on
the island of Crete, is marked by the construction
around 2000 BC of palaces inspired by eastern
Mediterranean prototypes, with a literate
bureaucracy using a script of local adaptation.
AEGEAN PALACE CULTURE
Minoan styles of material culture were prevalent
in the Aegean islands in the first half of the
second millennium as local elites actively
appropriated them, or as the Minoans themselves
colonized them, as they did, for example, on the
island of Kythera. The volcanic eruption of Thera,
while too early to have been directly responsible
for the destruction of the Minoan palaces in
the fifteenth century BC, nevertheless disrupted
Aegean communication routes and must have
had a significant psychological effect.
These disruptions may have facilitated a shift
of political influence in the Aegean from Crete to
southern mainland Greece by about 1400 BC,
where a second palatial culture, called
‘Mycenaean’ after the prominent site of
Mycenae, had emerged. The mid-second
millennium societies on the Greek mainland
appropriated and adapted Minoan styles and,
like their Minoan counterparts, maintained
bureaucratic records, but in a script called
Linear B that recorded the Greek language.
In about 1200 BC political collapse in the
eastern Mediterranean – especially the fall of the
Hittite empire and the contraction of Egyptian
power – ended this widespread palace-based
culture. Symptomatic of this turmoil was the
destruction of sites, both in the Aegean and the
eastern Mediterranean, notably Ugarit. Egyptian
texts refer to an ill-defined group called the
‘peoples of the sea’ who threatened Egypt and
may have included Aegean peoples. It may also
THE AEGEAN 2000-1000 BC
A WALL PAINTING IN FRESCO TECHNIQUE from a house
(Xeste 3) at Akrotiri on Thera is one of a number
preserved by a volcanic eruption in the later
seventeenth century BC. It depicts three female
figures, close to life-size, in an outdoor scene.
Typically naturalistic, the figures’ ages are
distinguished by hairstyle and body form.
25˚ 30˚ 35˚
30˚
35˚
40˚
Cu
Gelidonya
Uluburun
Ugarit
Thebes
Tiryns
Iria
Assiros
Torone
Volos
Toumba tou Skourou
Troy
Pitane
Panaztepe
Tell el-Ajjul
Tell Abu Hawam
Megiddo
Tell Kabri
Sidon
Tarsus
Memphis
Pylos
Mycenae
Kommos
Phaistos
Orchomenos
Kastanas
Miletus
Müskebi
Antalya
Mersa Matruh
Kato Zakros
Knossos
Mallia
Chania
Kastri
Kourion
Enkomi
Citium Byblos
Qatna Mari
Qadesh
Amman
Lachish
Avaris (Tell el Dab’a)
Alalakh
Bogazköy˘
Kültepe
Nile
Jordan
Oronte
s
Halys
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A E G E A N
S E A
SEA OF
MARMARA
DEAD SEA
B L A C K S E A
amber, tin?
ostrich eggs,
ivory,
faience,
semi-precious stone
blue glass ingots,
raw ivory,
ostrich eggs
tin,
lapis lazuli
ivory,
glass,
faience,
semi-precious stone
fineware pottery
S Y R I A N
D E S E R T
PINDUSMTS
TAURUS MTS
PELOPONNESE
A N A T O L I A
EUBOEA
CYPRUSCRETE
KYTHERA
RHODES
CHIOS
MELOS
THERA
NAXOS
E G Y P T
G R E E C E
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
The Eastern Mediterranean,
2000-1000 BC
port
shipwreck
Aegean palace site
Aegean-style fresco
copper source
copper ingot
Mycenaean pictorial pottery
Mycenaean fineware pottery
trade route
imports/exports
tin ingots
1
Cu
1 AEGEAN-STYLE FRESCOES in Egypt, Syria and Israel
and the broad distribution of Mycenaean ceramics
document the involvement of the Aegean in
eastern Mediterranean exchange networks. First
Minoan Crete, then, by the second half of the
second millennium, southern mainland Greece
participated in maritime exchange routes that
ultimately extended from Sardinia to Cyprus,
Syro-Palestine and Egypt. Exotic raw materials
and manufactured objects travelled along them.
THE MEDITERRANEAN 1000–500 BC
35
Iberian arts to a more monumental expression
of native crafts.
Here, too, some Greeks were active, as also
later in the south of France, whence elements
of Greek archaic art were carried up into
Europe, and had their effect, superficially, on
what is generally regarded as early Celtic art. In
their Black Sea colonies the Greeks made
luxury objects in Greek style – but of local
shape – for the Scythians, whose art style was
quite different – that of the eastern nomads. In
Italy the most important people affected by the
newcomers were the Etruscans, a rich and
warlike people who were ready buyers of the
more sophisticated arts coming from the east.
Their luxury arts were much influenced by
Phoenician art, while humbler crafts were more
Greek – and these won the day, so that by the
end of the sixth century Etruscan art looks like
a highly idiosyncratic derivative of archaic
Greek. This was an art shared by early Rome.
MONUMENTAL ART
By 500 BC Greek artists were well on their way
to the idealized realism that characterizes the
full classical style, while they had already
established orders of monumental architecture
that are still copied today. Orientalizing
sculpture of the seventh century had been
small in scale and generally of soft stone or
hammered bronze (‘sphyrelaton’), much
influenced by Syria. Crete was a major centre.
In the later seventh century the establishment
of a trading town in Egypt (Naucratis)
opened Greek eyes to the possibilities of colossal
sculpture executed in hard stone. This, for
Greeks, meant the white marble so accessible
in the Cyclades islands, where the earliest
studios were located. It was soon augmented
by other sources, notably the Pentelic marble
of Attica. They also had an advantage in using
tools that were virtually of steel, whereas the
Egyptians still worked stone by abrasion.
Another major source of influence was
Anatolia, where the sculpture and architecture
owed much to the example of Mesopotamia, as
well as the domination, often beneficial, of rich
Lydian kings (such as Croesus). The Greek
Ionians embarked on major architectural
projects and introduced influential new
sculptural modes. By the end of our period the
Persian empire had expanded to embrace all
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, but
the new masters learned more than they
imposed on their Greek, Levantine and
Egyptian subjects.
The characteristic figures are standing male
nudes (kouroi), which look more Egyptian than
they in fact are. On them anatomical patterns
were devised which gradually conformed more
to live forms. Their female counterparts, korai,
have elaborately patterned, pleated dress
which is also designed to reveal the forms of
the body beneath, unlike such figures in
eastern art.
Meanwhile, relief sculpture, often now
applied to buildings, developed narrative
themes more familiar to us from the vase
painting of the day, especially the ‘black figure’
incised scenes on vases. They came from
Corinth and Athens, but also from many other
centres, including wealthy colonies that responded
to all the artistic innovations. Greek formulaic
presentation of narrative, developed in the archaic
period, was to be the mode for much of Western art
thereafter. The vases travelled the whole
Mediterranean and beyond, from Germany to Upper
Egypt, from Morocco to the Caucasus. Through their
sheer numbers they proved important messengers
of Greek narrative styles to non-Greek peoples. In
this respect they were no less influential than the
more prestigious metalwork, which was also
coveted but was less informative.
In mainland Greece the Doric order of
architecture was devised before 600 BC, a stone
translation of wooden forms. The temples are
rectangular in plan, with a peristyle of columns, a
porch, and a main room to house the cult statue.
Altars stood outside. In eastern Greece (Ionia) the
more ornate Ionic order developed, based on
orientalizing patterns more familiar in furniture. The
orders also spread through the colonial world and
beyond, the western colonies being adept at
combinations of the orders not admitted in the
homeland. Eastern arts had no effect on this
development and the temple plans were traditional.
The transmuted orientalizing arts of Greece,
developed in this period, were to be returned in
their new forms to their lands of origin in the
following centuries.
36˚
38˚
40˚
26˚22˚
Hermos
Maritsa
Vardar
Ali
akmon
Evrotas
Acheloo
s
Spercheio
s
Al
pheios
Bosporus
I O N I A N
S E A
A E G E A N
S E A
SEA OF MARMARA
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
P E L O P O N N E S E
AT T I C A
P
IN
D
O
S
M
TS
C R E T E
RHODES
SAMOS
COS
THERA
PAROS
CHIOS
LESBOS
LEMNOS
THASOS
T H R A C E
LY D I A
CHALCIDICE
THESSALY
PROCONNESOS
AEGINA
NAXOS
DELOS
C
Y
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L A
D E S
E U B O
EA
Ephesus
SmyrnaEretriaChalcis
Phocaea
Sardis
Troy
Thebes
EleusisSicyon
Sunium
Argos
Corinth
Knossos
Clazomenae
Olympia
Sparta
Miletus
Delphi
Athens
N
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150 kms
2 Major Arts in Greece
marble sources in archaic Greece
centres for sculpture and architecture
centres for vase painting and metalwork
2 MAJOR ARTS IN GREECE Development of the
monumental arts – sculpture and architecture –
depends in part of the availability of satisfactory
marble, but also on other material resources, and
on local politics. Figurative vase painting and
metalwork were sophisticated crafts which reveal
much about life, myth and interaction between
Greeks and non-Greeks. Some cities – notably
Corinth and Athens – were major exporters.
KOUROS DEDICATION in white marble – 3 metres (10 ft) high –
from an early sixth-century temple to Poseidon at Sunium in
Attica. The pose looks Egyptian but is freer since the figure
balances on both feet where Egyptian stone figures of this
size stand as against a back pillar. The anatomy is strongly
patterned, but barely realistic, and the figure is foursquare
with as yet no sense of volume. Details
would have been picked out in paint. Similar
figures also served as
tomb markers.
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
34
THE BEGINNING OF the first millennium BC
saw, in much of the Mediterranean world, a
profound break with its Bronze Age past. In
some places, such as Greece, there was to be a
flowering of the arts which owed virtually
nothing to the past. The eastern shores of the
inland sea were under threat from Assyria to
the east and Egypt to the south. Even so,
Phoenicia was growing in influence and was
responsible for the design of Solomon’s temple
in Jerusalem, a model for later sacred
buildings. Cyprus was emerging as an
important meeting point of east and west, and
by the eighth century Greeks were probing
eastern shores, in Syria.
In Italy and Spain, successors to Bronze
Age societies were modest in their arts. The
Villanovans in Italy, ancestral to the Etruscans,
practised unambitious metalwork related
mainly to European crafts. In Sardinia until the
eighth century the ‘Nuraghic’ culture produced
more sophisticated bronze figures. In Spain,
Iberian art was centred on the silver-bearing
areas of the south, and waited for trade with
the east before developing a distinctive
‘Tartessian’ style.
All were to be reawakened by events that
added the arts of the Near East to the more
mannered ‘geometric’ arts of ninth- and
eighth-century Greece. The Greeks then
mediated this orientalizing mood to the rest of
the Mediterranean world through vigorous
colonization, side by side with equally
vigorous trading and settlement by
Phoenicians, who carried their own brand
of eastern, mainly Egyptianizing, arts.
ORIENTALIZING AND COLONIZING
Greek interest in the east grew by way of a
settlement they made on the Syrian coast (Al
Mina) and the reciprocal interest shown by
easterners in the major cities of central Greece
and Crete. It persuaded Greek artisans to
develop totally new decorative styles. These
are mainly two-dimensional, best studied in
vase painting. More realistic figure scenes,
with greater detail defining the identity of
actors and sometimes helped by inscriptions
(the alphabet had just been learnt from the
east), soon led to the creation of a lively
narrative idiom. To this was added a range of
eastern animal and floral motifs which all but
overwhelmed Greek geometric styles, with
their stick figures and maeander patterns.
By the mid-eighth century, the Greek need
for land and other material resources led to a
busy period of colonization in southern Italy
and eastern Sicily, the foundation of new cities
and the introduction through them of the new
orientalizing styles to neighbouring peoples.
The Greeks colonized the long-familiar shores
that were nearest to them.
At the same time, Phoenicians also moved
west, through Greek waters and now no longer
in competition with Greeks. They moved to
shores beyond the main Greek colonizing area
– to Sardinia, Spain and North Africa
(Carthage). In Spain they stimulated local
THE MEDITERRANEAN 1000-500 BC
1 COLONIZING THE MEDITERRANEAN FROM THE EAST The
flow of people and ideas begins in the eighth
century. Colonists from Greece and Phoenicia move
west, often along shared routes, but the two
cultures create definable spheres of influence. A
second phase of consolidation north and south
follows in the sixth century – mainly by Greeks – in
the Black Sea, France and Libya. Winds and currents
promote circulation, allowing different routes to be
used on outward and return voyages, ensuring
varied contacts and facilitating strong links with the
homelands. Northerlies take Greeks traders directly
to Egypt. They return by the Levant, making these
areas a main influence on the arts.
ATHENIAN BLACK FIGURE VASE – a mid-sixth century
jug by Amasis, showing Perseus decapitating
Medusa in a popular myth. This is a typical
example of thousands exported around the
Greek world and beyond. It was found in an
Etruscan grave.
0˚ 10˚10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚
40˚
30˚
Rhône
Ebr
o
Tagus
Nile
Danube
Tigris
Po
Tiber
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
M E D I T
E
R
R
A
N E A N S E A
A
D
RIATIC
SEA
B L A C K S E A
RED
SEA
AEGEAN
SE
A
P
Y
R
E N E E S
A
L P S
A
T L A S
M T S
TAURUS M
TS
SIERRA
NEVADA
S C Y T H I A N S
I B E R I A N S
PHRYGIANS & LYDIANS
BALEARIC IS
SARDINIA
Nuraghic art
CORSICA
SICILY
MALTA
CRETE
RHODES
CYPRUS
EUBOEA
IONIA
PHOENICIA
ETRURIA
A F R I C A
ITA
LY
GREECE
A N A T O L I A
S Y R I A
E G Y P T
Iberian art
Villanovan
/
Etruscanar
t
Massalia
Cumae
Pithecusae Poseidonia
Syracuse
Cyrene Naucratis
Al Mina
Taras
Thasos
Sinope
Olbia
Phasis
Istrus
Sybaris
Emporion
Sidon
Tyre
CarthageLixus
Ibiza
Toscanos
Motya
Tharros
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500 miles
750 kms
1 The Colonizing of the Mediterranean from the East
flow of Syrian goods and Greek
orientalizing styles
flow of settlement
8th/7th centuries BC
flow of settlement
c. post 625 BC
flow of Phoenician goods
prevailing currents/winds
Phoenician colonies
and trading posts
Greek colonies
AFRICA 5000–500 BC
37
30˚
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Cu
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Elephantine
Aniba
Amara
Buhen
Abu Simbel
Shalfak
Semna
Sai
Askut
Uronarti
Kumma
Kawa c.650 BC
Napata c.700 BC
Kurru
mound graves of
Kushite kings,
from c.760 BC
Nuri
Kushite pyramid
burials, from c.664 BC
Meroë c.700 BC
Sedeinga
Sesibi
Kerma
N
ile
WhiteNile
BlueNile
Atbara
N U B I A N
D E S E R T
W E S T E R N
D E S E R T
S A H A R A
D E S E R T
First Cataract
Second Cataract
Third Cataract Fifth Cataract
Fourth
Cataract
Sixth
Cataract
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150 kms
3 EGYPTIANS BEGAN THEIR
colonization of the
southern Nile from about
2000 BC. Their presence in
the northern part of this
region left an indelible
mark on indigenous
cultures along the river.
An important state based
at Kerma confronted the
southern outposts of Egypt.
Large brick structures and a
distinctive pottery mark this
culture. It was superseded
by the state that grew up at
Napata, three of whose
kings also ruled Egypt.
ROCK PAINTING, c.3000 BC,
from the central Sahara. It
shows men herding what
are thought to be sheep
and cattle. Similar paintings
are widespread across the
Sahara. Some, showing wild
animals and hunting
scenes, are certainly earlier
than the ones showing
domesticated animals. At
this time the Sahara was
much greener than now
and men and animals were
able to move freely.
about 5000 BC. Potshards decorated with a
distinctive wavy line pattern are found here and at
many other sites in the Sahara. In addition, there
have also been finds of a distinctive type of bone
harpoon (freshwater fishing was then a mainstay
of life in what is now desert) and other items
which suggest that a similar level of cultural
development extended from the Sudanese Nile
Valley across much of the Sahara.
EARLY EGYPTIAN CULTURE
From this time on there was a rather rapid
development of cultures along the Nile, both in
Egypt and the Sudan. In Egypt the earliest village
cultures were found on the edge of the Faiyum
and at Merimda on the west edge of the Nile
delta. Soon after there were settlements at many
places along the Nile. The site at Naqada in
Middle Egypt has given its name to the main
culture of this period. From about this time there
is much evidence of decorated, painted pottery of
varying styles, mostly found in burials, and some
other artistic items such as female figures
frequently made of bone, or sometimes ivory or
limestone. From this period there is evidence of
village settlements, or even small town
settlements. At Hierakonpolis in Upper (southern)
Egypt there was a town which may have had as
many as 5000 inhabitants.
The beginning of an organized state can be
seen during this period. Writing, which made
administering the state possible, is known from
short inscriptions on large slate palettes, which
record the activities of early rulers. By about 3000
BC writing was sufficiently developed to meet the
needs of the single state that had by then united
Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom.
CULTURES OF THE SOUTHERN NILE
Further south, upstream of the First Cataract of
the Nile, the situation was rather different, and
the cultural remains there can be distinguished
from those of Egypt. From about 4000 BC to about
3200 BC the first settled food-producing societies,
known as the ‘A Group’, were occupying the Nile
banks between the First and the Second Cataracts,
living in mud houses of some size. They had a
distinctive pottery style. Wheat and barley were
cultivated, while fishing and hunting added
variety to the diet.
The ‘A Group’ were followed in the middle of
third millennium by a different culture, known as
the ‘C Group’. They are distinguished by quite
different pottery styles and by evidence from
buildings and tombs of a more advanced lifestyle.
The presence of imported Egyptian goods in
graves reveal contacts with Egypt, and the great
number of graves implies an increase in
population.
KERMA CULTURE
The Egyptians had entered Nubia and established
a series of forts as far south as Semna from about
2000 BC, but withdrew a few hundred years later at
the time of a spectacular development of an
independent Sudanese culture based at Kerma,
the first large town on the upper Nile. The Kerma
culture is renowned for its new and spectacular
developments in pottery styles, in weapons and in
elaborate burials, as well as the building of very
large mud-brick structures.
It is not clear what happened in the final
stages of the Kerma civilization, but after c.1500
BC the Egyptians once again entered and
conquered the northern Sudan (Nubia) and
eventually occupied it as far south as the Fourth
Cataract, building temples and towns at many
places. The furthest upriver they reached was
Napata, where a prominent hill, Jebel Barkal,
marked a site considered to be especially holy.
THE RISE OF MEROË
Near Jebel Barkal, an independent line of
Sudanese rulers established the Napatan
kingdom some time after 1100 BC. They built
palaces and temples, as well as cemeteries of
small pyramids. For a short time, from about
the middle of the eighth century BC in the
reign of Kashta, these Sudanese kings ruled
Egypt as its 25th Dynasty. They were defeated
and ejected from Egypt after the Assyrian
invasion of 671 BC, when King Tanwetamani
returned to his own territory, where the
Napatan Kingdom continued to develop.
After a move of the royal residence to Meroë,
in the south, in the seventh century BC, the
Napatan kingdom established a fascinating
new civilization with its own language and
writing.
Meroitic towns, temples and other
buildings took something from Egyptian styles,
but they were sufficiently different to be clearly
identifiable. By 500 BC Meroë was a wellestablished
city with many manufactures and
was the most highly developed society in Africa
south of the Sahara. The many towns, temples
and cemeteries of this period are all situated
along the banks of the River Nile as the desert
encroaches closely on both sides of the river
and made agriculture and animal herding
impossible. The one area where the Meroites
were able to live away from the Nile valley was
near Meroe itself – here in the vast plains
between the rivers Nile and Atbara there was
considerable activity, although much of it was
only toward the close of the period covered in
this section.
The Upper Nile,
3000-500 BC
‘C Group’ of cemeteries
and dwelling places,
c. 2250-c.1500 BC
Egyptian occupation of
Lower Nubia,
c.2000-c.1100 BC
Kerma culture,
c. 2400-c.1500 BC
Egyptian town
with temple
Egyptian fort
Egyptian religious site
Kushite town (with date
of temple building)
Resources:
gold
copper
limestone
calcite
(Egyptian alabaster)
basalt
sandstone
iron
fertile area
pastoralism
desert tracks
Cu
L
C
B
S
3
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
36
eastern Sahara reveal that cereal crops were
being cultivated at several sites in what is now
desert, but then had plentiful rainfall – for
example, Nabta Playa. Large numbers of
grindstones provide good evidence for the use
of cereals. It is not certain at what point
farmers were able to grow domesticated cereal
crops to replace the collecting of wild grains,
but by 5000 BC it seems that this important
advance had been made.
The earliest pottery known in Africa is from
a site at Khartoum, where it can be dated to
THE EARLIEST EVIDENCE of artistic activity
in Africa can be seen in rock engravings and
rock paintings, which are located mainly in the
Sahara and in South and East Africa – those
parts of the continent where suitable rock faces
are located.
Scenes illustrated on rock faces frequently
depict animals both wild and, in later times,
domesticated. It is difficult to date these works
of art, but by 5000 BC they were widespread,
and some may be much earlier – examples in
Namibia are dated to as early as 25,000 BC.
Apart from pottery remains dating from as
long ago as 3000 BC, there is no evidence of
visual culture preserved in West and Central
Africa before 500 BC. Rock art is all we have
from southern Africa for this period.
AGRICUTURAL LIFE IN THE SAHARA
Rock paintings and rock engravings from North
and East Africa that date from 5000 BC to 500
BC are significant in that they show the
development of herding at about the same
time as archaeological excavations in the
AFRICA 5000-500 BC
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10˚ 0˚
10˚ 20˚ 30˚
40˚ 50˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
20˚
30˚
?
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?
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?
Haua Fteah
Faiyum
Memphis
El Khattara
Merimda
El Badari Hammamiya
Nabta
PlayaWadi
Shaw
Daima
Arlit
Karkarichinkat
Amekni
Tiltekin
Tichitt
Kourounkorokale
Bosumpra
Cave
Kintampo Iwo Eleru
Njoro River Cave
Ele Bor
Lowasera
Afikpo
Birimi Ntereso
Yagala
Kamabai
Yengema
Adrar Tioueïine
Tamaya
Mellet
GabrongAcacus
Ti-n-Torha
Outeidat
Meniet
Esh Shaheinab
Meroë
Shaqadud
Early Khartoum
Lalibela
Narosura
Long’s Drift
North Horr
Kadero
Shabona Tagra
Kiseiba
Sarurab
Wadi
Wassa
Jebel et Tomat
Capelletti
El Mermouta
Kristel-Jardins
El Khril
Nile
WhiteNileBlueNile
Nige
r
Benue
Congo
Zambezi
Lake
Victoria
Lake
Chad
ATLANTIC OCEAN
I N D I A N
O C E A N
RED
SEA
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
NAMIBDESERT
KALAHARI
DESERT
S A H A R A
W
E
STERN
DESERT
ATLAS MTS
ETHIOPIAN
HIGHLANDS
UWEINAT
TASSILI
PLATEAU
TIBESTI
MASSIF
wheat and
barley c. 5300 BC
c. 1000 BC
c. 600 BC
before 3000 BC
by 1000 BC
by 1000 BC
pearl millet c. 1500 BC
c. 600 BC
c. 3000 BCc. 1500 BC
barley c. 500 BC
Tef and finger
millet, c. 5000 BC
N
0
0
600 miles
800 kms
Agriculture:
the probable limits of domestic cattle:
c.4500 BC
c. 3500 BC
c.2000 BC
c.500 BC
probable spread of sheep and
goats from c.5000/500 BC
finds of early livestock remains
evidence of cereal cultivation
evidence of domestication of
indigenous African crops
Artefacts:
earliest known pottery, 6000/5000 BC
earliest known pottery in Sub-Saharan Africa
best-recorded prehistoric art
early copper-working
early iron-working
1 Rock Art and Agriculture, 5000-500 BC
Sahara Desert, c.6000 BC
Vegetation zones, c.500 BC:
desert
sub-desert
dry savannah
Lake Chad, c.500 BC
woodland
cape and Mediterranean vegetation
tropical forest
2 The Cultures of the Nile Valley, 5000-3000 BC
early predynastic Egyptian sites (c.5500-c.5000 BC)
middle predynastic Egyptian sites (c.5000-c.4000 BC)
late predynastic Egyptian sites (c.4000-c.3200 BC)
main First Dynasty Egyptian sites (from c.3200 BC)
southern limit of Egypt under the First Dynasty, c.3200 BC
?
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1 AND 2 THE OLDEST SURVIVING ART IN AFRICA is
rock art, depicting at first only wild
animals, found widely in southern and
eastern Africa and the Sahara. Northern
rock art later depicts both animal
herding and crop growing. Early
pottery making and metallurgy in the
continent flourished, especially in the
Nile Valley region.
30˚
30˚
Faiyum
Saqqara
Buto Minshat
Samara
Tell Ibrahim Awad
Maadi
Omari
Memphis
Tarkhan
Abusir el Malaq
Haraga
Gerza
Beda
Mendes
Matmar
El Badari Naga-ed-Der
Hu
Naqada
Armant
Hierakonpolis
Hammamiya
Mahasna
Abydos
Gebelein
Mostagedda
Merimda
Heliopolis
Nile
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
EASTERN
DESERT
WESTERN
DESERT
Earliest fully developed dated
Egyptian writing, tomb of Queen
Neithotep (c. 3000 BC)
‘A Group’ cemeteries
and dwelling sites
(c. 4000-c. 3200 BC)
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
BONE FIGURE OF A WOMAN from a
predynastic grave in Egypt, c.3500 BC.
Similar figures have been found in
graves of both men and women.
The eyes of this figure are made
of lapis lazuli, a prehistoric
trade good that came
from Afghanistan.
THE NILE VALLEY 3000–500 BC
39
Copper, gold and tin were mined in the
eastern deserts and were vital to Egyptian
craftsmanship and art. Copper was used for
tools and weapons after being hardened
through repeated heating and cooling. Sheets
of copper could be hammered over a core to
make large metal statues, although examples
rarely survive from antiquity.
Copper mixed with tin produced bronze,
which was easily worked into weapons, tools,
toiletry items like razors and mirrors, and cast
statuettes of gods or royalty. Gold was used
lavishly in products destined for temples or the
royal household, such as gilded furniture and
statuary, gold jewellery and vessels, and the
solid gold coffins and mummy mask made for
King Tutankhamun (c.1320 BC).
Mud and sand were also resources. Sundried
mud bricks were the most common
building material for the earliest tombs and
temples and for urban structures throughout
Egyptian history. Sand was formed into a paste
with quartzite and fired to produce Egyptian
faience, a forerunner of glass which took on a
distinctive blue or green colour when exposed
to heat in a kiln.
Although Egypt is primarily a desert
country, wood was available both from native
trees, like sycamore and acacia, and from
abroad, notably cedar imported from the
Levant. Statues, furniture and coffins were
among the products crafted from wood.
ART IN SOCIETY
Royal patronage funded temple and palace
construction and royal mortuary complexes.
Styles established by royal workshops were
imitated in work for private patrons. Even
lesser-quality works required considerable
outlay for the labour and materials involved,
putting them out of reach of most people.
Egyptian art from all periods has a
homogeneous character, because of the
conventions adopted from the outset. Art
depicts an idealized world revolving around
order and internal logic. In two dimensions,
figures and objects are shown in an outline
form that combines typical vantage points –
the human figure is seen with legs and head in
profile, shoulders squared and arms on either
side of the torso. To indicate depth, figures are
overlapped, and scenes are generally divided
into rows called registers. Scale conveys
information about the relative importance of
figures within a scene, with the most important
person as the tallest figure. Statuary also
assumes static postures, whether sitting,
kneeling or striding forward on the left leg.
A statue of a king might represent his wife and
children as reaching only to the height of his
knees. Wall decoration and most statues were
painted in vivid colours with an abundance of
green, red and yellow.
This representational system is linked
strongly to how Egyptians perceived the world
and their art. A vital role of the king and the
temples was to maintain order, or maat, in the
universe. Timelessness and the cycle of life,
death and rebirth were reflected in Egyptian
artists’ close observation of their natural world
in works of all media.
Many objects, particularly statues and
architectural decoration, were inscribed with
invocations, prayers and identifying texts, and
the arrangement of the hieroglyphs was an
integral component of the artwork. Whereas
the image itself might be ideal and universal,
the text gave it a specific identity and helped
define its purpose. On a funerary stele, for
instance, the text names the deceased and
grants them a share of the food, drink, linen
and ointments required for the afterlife.
Precinct of Amun (Karnak)
Precinct of Mut
Temple of Ramesses II (Ramesseum)
Temple of Amenhotep III (Memnon colossi)
Temple of Ramesses III
Temple of Hatshepsut
Temple of Mentuhotep
Cache of royal mummies
Tomb of Tutankhamun
Tomb of Nefertari
Workmen’s tombs
Precinct of Montu
Luxor Temple
DRA ABU EL-NAGA
DEIR EL-BAHRI
DEIR EL-MEDINA
SHEIKH ABD EL-QURNA
VALLEY OF THE KINGS
VALLEY OF THE QUEENS
MEDINET HABU
MALQATA
Nile
Nile
N
0
0
1 mile
2 kms
WALL PAINTING from the tomb of Nebamun at Thebes
(New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, c.1400 BC). The abundant
plant and animal life of the Nile marshes symbolize
erotic pleasure, fertility and rebirth. The scene evokes
both life and death: Nebamun and a cat attack birds
among their nests, while the young daughter of
Nebamun pulls lotus flowers from the river.
2 THE CITY OF THEBES (modern Luxor), was the site of
the state god Amun’s temple, Karnak. Nearby
temples honoured his consort Mut and falconheaded
Montu. In the annual Opet Festival,during
the flood season, Amun was carried to Luxor to be
united with the reigning king. For the Beautiful
Festival of the Valley, Amun crossed the river to
royal mortuary temples on the west bank. People
celebrated with feasts and visited family tombs.
Every 10 days, a form of Amun – Amunemopet –
was carried to Medinet Habu, and the offerings of
food and drink made during this procession were
believed to nurture the dead in the afterlife.
2 Thebes, 1500 BC
fertile area
estimated extent
of ancient city
temple
palace
tomb
concentrations of
private tombs
route of the Opet Festival
route of the Beautiful
Festival of the Valley
route of the Amunemopet
procession
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
38
The first kings were buried at Abydos,
which was the mythological burial place of
Osiris, god of the afterlife, and the site of
private cemeteries and chapels, as well.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
During periods of strong central government,
the state had access to metal mines and stone
quarries in Egypt and in regions under
Egyptian control, such as Nubia and Sinai. The
Egyptians began building in stone as early as
the Third Dynasty (c.2600 BC), when the Step
Pyramid at Saqqara was constructed as a
mortuary complex for king Djoser. Stone
sculpture in the round and in relief was
another early accomplishment, along with
virtuoso carving of stone bowls and vases.
Coloured stones from distant parts of the
country, like red granite from Aswan, were
especially prized, as was calcite (known as
‘Egyptian alabaster’) for its translucency and
its veining.
THE NILE VALLEY, rich in resources, is
equipped with natural boundaries: the
western and eastern deserts, on the north the
Mediterranean Sea and, to the south, river
cataracts that make navigation nearly
impossible. These factors, coupled with annual
floods that supported agriculture, helped a
unified state to form in Egypt around 3000 BC.
The north-flowing Nile eased communication.
Cooperative action to regulate the floods may
have contributed to unifying the country under
a sole monarch.
Egypt was divided into 42 nomes, or
administrative districts, which embraced local
deities and sacred sites. Cult centres underwent
continual development, and landscapes
were adapted through the construction of
temples, palaces, causeways and monuments.
Certain towns had strong and ancient
affiliations with gods who attained national
importance: Buto, in the Delta, was the home
of the cobra goddess Wadjet; El-Kab, south of
Thebes, of the vulture goddess Nekhbet. These
goddesses personified the north and south of
the country and appeared in the two crowns
most often worn by kings. Ptah, the god of
artists and craftsmen, was based at Memphis,
while Amun was a Theban deity.
THE NILE VALLEY 3000-500 BC
25˚
30˚
30˚ 35˚
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu Cu
Memphis
(Mit Rahina)
El-Amarna
Aswan
Luxor
Asyut
Hibis
Balat
Elephantine
Aniba
Qift (Coptos)
Karnak
Thebes
Hierakonpolis
Bubastis
Buto
Sais
(Sa el-Hagar)
Tanis
Mendes
Giza
Saqqara
Abu Simbel
Abydos
El-Kab
Nile
BahrYusuf
Delta
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
N U B I A N
D E S E R T
EASTERN
DESERT
FAIYUM
W E S T E R N
D E S E R T
SINAI
E G Y P T
First cataract
Second
cataract
Bahariya
Oasis
Siwa
Oasis
Farafra
Oasis
Dakhla
Oasis
Kharga
Oasis
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 Sites and Monuments
fertile area
desert route
political centre
other important city
religious site
fortification
pyramid site
natural resources
gold
copper
tin
natron (salts)
limestone
calcite
(Egyptian alabaster)
basalt
greywacke
coloured stones
(jasper, porphyry)
quartzite
red granite
sandstone
turquoise
Cu
PAINTED AND CARVED WALL RELIEF of donkeys, from
the tomb of Metjetji at Saqqara (Old Kingdom,
Dynasty 5, c.2300 BC). Scenes of agriculture, animal
husbandry and manufacture brought the natural
world into the context of a funerary monument in
order to evoke the plentiful material resources
that were at the disposal of the deceased.
1 URBAN AND RELIGIOUS CENTRES played an important
role throughout Egyptian history. Capital cities
such as Memphis and Thebes, in particular,
supported the workshops of artists and
craftspeople responsible for architectural
decoration, statuary and work in precious metals
and stones. If necessary, completed works of art
could be moved from their place of manufacture to
the temple or tomb in which they were to be set
up. The raw materials for artistic production were
often obtained through expeditions organized by
the state. Limestone, sandstone and hard stones
such as calcite and granite were quarried in the Nile
Valley, whereas metals and coloured stones had to
be mined in the Eastern and Nubian deserts.
Art and the Akkadian
Empire, 2350-2100 BC
Akkadian Empire
import of lapis lazuli
import of etched
carnelian beads
import of carved
chlorite vessels
import of copper
chlorite
silver
gold
cedarwood
ancient coastline
Ch
2
WEST ASIA 3000–2000 BC
41
these areas are now attested in cuneiform
texts, written in the Sumerian language.
Carved chlorite vessels from Iran increasingly
appear in the archaeological record, as do objects
made of lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and etched
carnelian from the Indus Valley. Although metal
deposits are unknown in Mesopotamia, large
numbers of metal objects have also been
found, especially in the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
Sixteen extremely rich graves have been
excavated there, and – uniquely in
Mesopotamia – were found to contain multiple
sacrificial victims. The owners of the majority of
the graves are unknown but the wealth buried
with them, together with the human victims,
suggests that they were kings and queens or
religious leaders. Among the grave goods were
weapons and vessels in bronze, gold and silver,
and an astonishing amount of elaborate
jewellery. Inlay was a common feature of many
objects including sceptres, musical instruments
and, most famously, on the ‘Standard of Ur’.
Artistic connections are demonstrated by rich
finds from Troy and Alaca Hüyük in Anatolia.
30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚
40˚
30˚
Ch
Ch
Susa
Umm an Nar
Tepe Yahya
Shahdad
Tillya Tepe
Lagash
Ur
Tell Brak
Nineveh
Tell Asmar
Ebla
Damascus
Byblos
Memphis
Thebes
Ugarit
Mari
Sippar
Kish
Nippur
Uruk
Ashur
Alaca HüyükTroy
Nile
Halys
Tigris
Khabur
Jordan
Euphr
ates
Orontes
Maeander
L. Van
L. Urmia
Dead Sea
B L A C K S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
RED
SEA
AEGEANSEA
CASPIAN
SEA
P
E R
S I A
N
G U L F
C A U C A
S U
S
Z A
G
R
O
S
M
T
S
TAURUS
MTS
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
FAILAKA
TARUT BAHRAIN
CYPRUS
A N A T O L I A
A K K A D
S U M E R
A R A B I A
E G Y P T
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
2 MESOPOTAMIA WAS UNITED
under the military empire of
Akkad, a city thought to lie
close to Kish. The Akkadian
rulers diverted trade routes
through their cities and
established connections with
the civilizations of Iran, the
Indus Valley and Central Asia
as well as the resource-rich
regions of Anatolia and the
eastern Mediterranean.
The dynamic art of Akkad
influenced many of the
surrounding cultures.
THE FIRST EMPIRE
The commercial and military contacts of
Mesopotamia reached a peak with the dynasty of
Akkad, around 2350 BC. The rulers seem to have
been the first to unite the southern plain,
extending their control over much of northern
Mesopotamia. The dynasty’s founder was Sargon
of the city of Agade (Akkad) – its location remains
unconfirmed. The new dynasty displayed strong
cultural continuity with the Early Dynastic period.
However, under Naram-Sin (c. 2254–2218 BC) an
imperial state was born, the ideology of which is
reflected in an art which depicts the monarch as
intimately associated with both his city and
patron goddess Ishtar. Sculpture displays physical
naturalism and sensitivity, with many details
shown for the first time. For example, Naram-Sin
is depicted on a stele wearing the horned headdress
that was formerly the exclusive
prerogative of gods. Commercial links with the
Indus Valley were now focused on Akkad.
Ultimately both internal and external forces
overwhelmed the Akkadian Empire. Some citystates
regained their independence, for instance
Lagash which was ruled by King Gudea. This is
expressed in the many statues of the ruler
carved from diorite, which was imported from
the region of modern Oman. In the same
period Ur-Nammu established his rule over the
city of Ur and founded the Third Dynasty of Ur
which came to dominate southern Mesopotamia
(c.2100–2000 BC). The Third Dynasty rulers
presided over a prosperous kingdom, with an
ambitious programme of building, which
included palaces and temples. The most
spectacular religious monuments are the great
ziggurats, or staged towers, of which the best
surviving example is that of Ur-Nammu at Ur.
THE STANDARD OF UR. Dating from around 2500 BC,
this object came from one of the largest graves
in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in which sacrificial
victims accompanied the main burial. Its function
is not understood though it may have formed
the soundbox of a musical instrument. An inlay
of shell, limestone and lapis lazuli depicts one of
the earliest representations of a Sumerian army.
The other side shows animals and other goods
brought in procession to a banquet.
1 The Art of West Asia, 3000-2000 BC
spread of cuneiform
carved chlorite vessels
rich burial
palace
ziggurat
schematic female figures
copper standards
ancient coastline
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
40
power or felt the need to distinguish
themselves in inscriptions or monuments.
However, finely carved stone sculpture for
urban temples continued to be produced, often
combining animals and human figures and
probably influenced by contemporary artistic
traditions of southwestern Iran.
THE EMERGENCE OF AN ELITE
Over time the rise of a secular elite created
changes in the social structure. By around 2600
BC, palace architecture began to appear and kings
are depicted as warriors or builders, or presiding
over banquets. Statues of men and women, many
identified by short cuneiform inscriptions, were
set up in temples in Mesopotamia and Syria,
which were dedicated to specific gods. Similar
figures are also represented on stone plaques
carved in relief. The growth of this wealthy
class led to an increasing demand for luxury
items fashioned from materials obtained largely
from abroad. Military encounters with many of
WEST ASIA is a vast geographical area
covering ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq), Iran,
Syria and Anatolia, and extending in a great arc
from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River
valley. Societies throughout the region
maintained commercial and cultural contacts
across these great distances, although the
routes, trade goods, and artistic styles and motifs
that were exchanged varied in different periods.
The art and culture of Mesopotamia and Syria is
central to an understanding of the region, as it
had a profound impact on the surrounding areas.
THE FIRST CITIES
The world’s first literate, urban civilization
developed in southern Mesopotamia during the
late fourth millennium BC. Increasing trade
connections between Mesopotamian cities and
the surrounding regions led to major
innovations. The rise of elite institutions, such
as temples, created greater impetus for artistic
creation that would reflect both their power and
considerable wealth. Large-scale sculpture in the
round and relief carving appeared for the first
time, together with metal casting using the lostwax
process. A new realism is apparent in the
treatment of the human form, and figures appear
as part of narratives, especially on the miniature
reliefs carved on cylinder seals. Seals were used
to authorize transactions by officials, including
the allocation of rations, a development probably
linked to the expanding administrations of
cities. Simple pictographs, drawn on clay
tablets, were the precursors of later cuneiform
writing. Objects inspired by southern
Mesopotamia, such as cylinder seals, are found
from central Iran to Egypt. However, around
3000 BC, this widespread culture collapsed.
The result was that southern Mesopotamia
(Sumer) turned inward, although the cities,
centered on temples, continued to grow. It
appears that no individuals held supreme
WEST ASIA 3000-2000 BC
1 OVER SEVERAL CENTURIES centres of urban life, with
associated elites, emerged across West Asia. This
stimulated a demand for luxury goods and a flow
of materials and ideas began to circulate around
2500 BC. Artistic motifs increasingly linked the
eastern Mediterranean with the Indus valley.
Cuneiform writing, which had developed in
southern Mesopotamia, was adopted by palace
administrators to the east and the north. Rich
graves and monumental architecture are a
testament to the wealth of regional rulers.
30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚
40˚
30˚
Susa
Umm an Nar
Tepe Yahya
Shahdad
Lagash
Ur
Acem Hüyük
Kanesh
(Kültepe)
Banat
Tell Brak
Nineveh
Eshnunna
(Tell Asmar)
Ebla
Byblos Mari
Sippar
Kish
Umm al
Marra
Nippur
Uruk
Tell el ’Ubaid
Ashur
Alaca HüyükTroy
Yortan
Horoztepe
Nile
H
alys
Tigris
Khabur
Jordan
Euphr
ates
Oront
es
Maeander
L. Van
L. Urmia
Dead Sea
B L A C K S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
R
ED
SEA
AEGEANSEA
CASPIAN
SEA
P
E
R
S
I A
N
G
U L F
C A
U
C
A
S
U
S
Z A
G
R
O
S
M
T
S
TAURUS
MTS
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
FAILAKA
TARUT
BAHRAIN
CYPRUS
A N A T O L I A
A K K A D
S U M E R
A R A B I A
S Y R I A
E G Y P T
M
ESO
POTAMIA
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
THE ZIGGURAT OF UR. From
around 4000 BC, the temples
of Mesopotamia were raised
on mud brick platforms.
During the Third Dynasty of
Ur the platforms were
elaborated into ziggurats or
staged towers. The best
surviving example is at Ur. The
exterior is decorated with
buttresses and recesses to
break the monotony of the
flat surfaces. Archaeologist Sir
Leonard Woolley created this
reconstruction, restoring the
upper stages and a temple on
the summit.
2 Art and Empire, c.640 BC
Assyrian empire, c.640 BC
royal tomb
capital city
Assyrian stele/rock relief
Assyrian building
local metal production
local ivory carving
ancient coastline
WEST ASIA 2000–500 BC
43
along the coast. In northwest Iran local imagery
on finely crafted gold vessels from sites like
Marlik and Hasanlu reflects the wealth of
settled communities with links to the art of
nomadic groups in Central Asia.
THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
After a period of relative weakness, the ninth
century BC saw Assyria emerge as a world power
and by the mid-seventh century, during the socalled
Neo-Assyrian period, it dominated the
region from Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean
to Iran and the Gulf. This imperial power is well
symbolized by enormous palaces and temples
built at Ashur, Nimrud and Nineveh.
The art of the Neo-Assyrian period consists
mainly of architectural decoration in the form
of reliefs which, though also a feature of
monumental buildings in Syria, were unique in
their scale. These carved stone slabs lined the
walls of important rooms in both palaces and
temples. The slabs, with images and texts
recording the activities of the ruler, are carved
in low relief, generally in a soft alabaster.
Figures are shown in the pose commonly used
in Mesopotamian art, with the head and legs in
profile and the torso generally shown frontally.
The wall reliefs were often complemented or
replaced by paintings.
It was probably during the period of Assyrian
domination that extraordinary bronze objects
were manufactured in the region of Luristan.
Elaborate standards with complex animal
imagery are part of a repertoire of objects known
from cemeteries, although many have been
plundered from sites or forged in modern times.
The great wealth of the empire during
these centuries is also reflected in other forms
of art, often originating outside Assyria. Huge
quantities of ivories found in the palaces,
30˚
30˚
35˚
40˚
35˚ 40˚ 45˚ 50˚ 55˚
Byblos
Sidon
Tyre
Aleppo
Hamath
Til Barsip
Samal
Gaza
Samaria
Gezer
Dor
Hazor
Arslantas
Megiddo
Nar al-Kalb
Carchemish
Gordium
Ashur
Balawat
Dur Sharrukin
NinevehTell
Halaf Nimrud
Babylon Susa
Nushijan
Nippur
Ur
Uruk
Ziwiye
Marlik
Hasanlu
Van
Toprakkale
Jerusalem
Lachish
L. Van
L. Urmia
Dead Sea
Euphrate
s
Tigris
Khabur
Nile
Halys(Kiz
il Irmak)
Orontes
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
PERSIAN
GULF
B L A C K S E A
CASPIANSEA
CYPRUS
FAILAKA
QUE
E L A M
L U R I S T A N
PHRYGIA
BAB
Y
L O N I A
PHOENICIA
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
A N A T O L I A
A R A B I A
URARTU
ASSYRIA
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 BETWEEN 900 AND 612 BC the
Assyrians came to dominate
much of West Asia. Freestanding
stele and rock
reliefs were carved in
Assyrian style to celebrate
the furthest extent of the
empire under succeeding
rulers. Artistic influences
flowed into Assyria from the
wealthy Phoenician cities to
the west and from the lands
rich in metal and horses to
the north and east.
temples and private houses at Nimrud had
arrived there as booty or tribute. Carved ivory
was used to decorate furniture as well as
daggers, cups and dishes and was sometimes
overlaid with gold or silver, or inlaid and
bejewelled. Three main styles of ivory carving
can be identified: a local Assyrian style, similar
to the stone reliefs in design; a North Syrian
style, with designs related to stone carvings of
the north Syrian cities; and a ‘Phoenician’ style,
with designs reflecting Egyptian influence.
As well as their distinctive ivories, the
Phoenician city-states also manufactured and
exported purple cloth, timber, copper, and
jewellery throughout the Mediterranean region.
Seeking new markets and sources of raw
materials, the Phoencians, in competition with
the Greeks, established trading colonies
throughout the Mediterranean. The most
famous Phoenician site was Carthage where
many elements in art and religion reflected the
city’s Near Eastern origins.
The Assyrian empire was briefly succeeded by
the Babylonian empire. Under kings Nabonidus
and his more famous son Nebuchadnezzar II the
city of Babylon was rebuilt to become one of the
wonders of the ancient world. Rather than using
stone reliefs, as in Assyria, royal buildings were
decorated in the traditional Babylonian manner –
glazed moulded bricks, often depicting animals
sacred to the gods of Mesopotamia, were used to
decorate the walls. Babylon and its empire fell
to the Iranian Persians in 539 BC, and the Near
East was united under a new dynamic imperial
power which produced an art that fused various
styles from throughout its vast empire.
ASSYRIAN WALL RELIEF. Important rooms within
Assyrian palaces were often decorated with huge
slabs of alabaster carved in relief. Many depict
the king who is shown as either the chief priest
of Assyria or the conqueror of dangerous forces.
The latter could take the form of rebellious
people or wild animals such as the lion, an
animal that had an ancient association with royalty
in Mesopotamia.
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
42
were encouraged by an extensive system of
international contacts that stretched across the
entire region. From western Iran to the Aegean,
from Anatolia to Egypt, states were in contact and
an exchange of goods and art took place at a high
level of society. The exchange of gifts between
kings allowed them access to precious materials
unavailable at home. Babylonia and Assyria, for
instance, actively participated in this system and
as a result obtained gold from Egypt. In the
eastern Mediterranean, exchange of gifts created
international styles for elite objects, many
displaying a fusion of the dynamic Aegean animal
style with Egyptian and Syrian imagery and
compositions. This Mediterranean international
style survived into the early first millennium BC,
especially in the Canaanite (Phoenician) cities
FROM AROUND 2000 BC the Assyrians,
a north Mesopotamian people whose
civilization was centred on the city of Ashur,
established trading colonies throughout
Anatolia and exchanged Anatolian silver for
textiles and tin. The activities of these Assyrian
merchants are recorded in many cuneiform clay
letters found in their main colony, or karum, at
the site of Kanesh. The letters provide details
about all aspects of their culture – from the
varieties of Mesopotamian cloth to relations
with their home city – as well as preserving the
impressions of Assyrian-style cylinder seals.
Over the following centuries large
kingdoms came to dominate Mesopotamia,
especially that of Yamhad (with its capital at
Aleppo) in Syria and the successive powers of
Isin and Larsa in southern Mesopotamia.
Around 1760 BC King Hammurabi of Babylon
conquered much of Mesopotamia. A large
diorite stele known as the Code of
Hammurabi is perhaps the most famous work
of art of this time. It continues traditions of
representation found in the late third millennium
BC. The relief decorating the top of the stele
shows the king standing before the seated sun
god Shamash. Both the king and Shamash are
depicted for the first time with eyes in profile,
establishing a real gaze between god and ruler.
INTERNATIONAL ART
The second half of the second millennium BC saw
new styles of art emerge with the growing political
and economic importance of a variety of people.
These included the Hittites in Anatolia, a people
speaking an Indo-European language who had
possibly migrated from Europe in the late third
millennium BC, and the Canaanites, who spoke
a Semitic language and lived along the
Mediterranean coast. Much of the art of this
period was heavily influenced by Mesopotamian
traditions. For example, in Elam (southwest Iran)
the religious imagery of Mesopotamia was used to
depict Elamite mythology. However, new art-forms
1 DURING THE PERIOD 1500–1100 BC the states of the
Near East were linked through diplomatic
exchanges of people, precious materials and
artistic motifs. International styles developed,
particularly in the eastern Mediterranean where
Egyptian images fused with Aegean and Syrian
forms. Throughout the region, both palaces and
temples reflected the wealth of powerful
kingdoms. In Mesopotamia the most impressive
religious buildings were the solid stepped towers
or ziggurats.
30˚
40˚
35˚ 40˚ 45˚ 50˚ 55˚
35˚
35˚
Alalakh
Byblos
Aleppo
Troy
Tell el-Ajjul
Mari
Kanesh (Kültepe)
Hattushash (Bogazköy)
Ashur
Tell Brak
Nineveh
Babylon
Isin
Chogha
Zanbil
Kish
Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)
Tell el Rimah
Susa
Ur
Uruk
Larsa
Hasanlu
Ziwiye
Marlik
Jerusalem
Ugarit
Dur Kurigalzu
Sippar
L. Van
L. Urmia
Dead Sea
E
uphr
ates
Tigris
Nile
Jordan
Halys(K
izil Irmak)
Orontes
Diyala
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
PERSIAN
GULF
B L A C K S E A
CASPIANSEA
C A U C A S U S
Z
A
G
R
O
S
M
T
S
TAURUS M
TS
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
CYPRUS
FAILAKA
E L A M
LURISTAN
MITANNI
YAMHAD
H AT T I
BA
B
Y
L O
N I A
CANAAN
A N A T O L I A
E G Y P T
A R A B I A
ASSYRIA
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
THIS SOLID GOLD bowl from the site of
Ugarit demonstrates high quality
craftsmanship in metal and the wealth of
this important trading centre. The dense
composition and diverse motifs are
characteristic of the artwork of the
coastal Levant. The figures include
gazelles, bulls and lions, and mythical
creatures. Elements were borrowed from
many parts of the eastern Mediterranean
and this hybrid art was distributed along
trade networks across the region.
1 International Art, 2000-1000 BC
royal palace
ziggurat
movement:
tin
horses
lapis lazuli
gold
silver
textiles
copper
glass technology
local artistic metal
production
ancient coastline
WEST ASIA 2000-500 BC
CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA 5000–500 BC
45
THE GREAT BATH AT MOHENJO-DARO. One of the finest
examples of Indus architecture built from brick, the
Great Bath is lined with bitumen, with a dedicated
water supply, and is believed to have been used for
both public and ritual bathing. It links two major
aspects of Indus civilization: the importance of
major public buildings within the urban centres,
which can be interpreted as indicators of a strongly
egalitarian society, and the sophisticated ways in
which water management and other public
services were approached. The significance of ritual
is less well understood, but in addition to bathing
is likely to have included the veneration of cattle.
70˚65˚ 75˚
20˚
25˚
30˚
35˚
Musa Khel
Chanhu-Daro
Rupar
Banavali Rakhigarhi
Sukkur
Kot Diji
Nuhato
Allahdino
Desalpur Surkotada
Lothal
Rangpur
Rojadi
BalakotSutkagen Dor
Amri
Nindowari
Lohumjo-Daro
Mohenjo-Daro
Delhi
Karachi
Harappa
Naushahro
Judeirjo-Daro
Alamgirpur
Kalibangan
Islamabad
Indus
Chenab
Jhelum
Narmada
Tapi
Sutlej
Yamuna
G
anges
Chambal
A R A B I A N
S E A
GULF OF CUTCH
GULF OF CAM
B
AY
TH
A
R
DESERT
SULAIMANRANGE
H I N D U K U S H
K A C H I P L A I N S
I N D I A
A F G H A N I S TA N
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 Mature Harappan Sites
major Harappan site
modern city
local resources:
lapis lazuli
gold
copper and steatite
copper
deodar
pine
elm
2 THE INDUS IN THE BRONZE AGE is one of the world’s
great civilizations, and finds of worked goods from
copper, gold, lapis lazuli, exotic woods and so forth
show an extensive internal trade network between
the major cities and the outlying rural areas within
South Asia. Craft specialization, uniformity of
architecture and standardization of many artefacts
are among the main characteristics of the Indus
civilization.
silver (from Afghanistan or even Iran) and
coastal shells at inland sites. Etched carnelian
beads and lapis lazuli were exported from the
Indus region, particularly to the west.
Craft specialization, taken to the point of
mass production and great standardization,
were trademarks of the Indus, and goods
produced included well-fired, wheel-made
pottery with distinctive designs and shapes.
Bronze-working was significant, and along with
tools such as axes and swords, bronze
sculptures have also been recovered, one of the
most famous of which is the ‘Dancing Girl’ from
Mohenjo-Daro. Stone sculptures have also
been recovered, including the well-known
limestone ‘Priest-King’, also from MohenjoDaro.
The pottery decorations tended to be of
single subjects, such as people, animals or
birds, rather than narrative scenes.
The production of steatite seals was
particularly important, both for local use and
for long-distance trade. These seals were
carved with script and animal designs, such as
tigers, elephants, rhinoceros and bulls, and
were very finely made. Terracotta figurines
including zebu (humped cattle) and toy carts,
have been recovered from a large number of
sites. While these are often interpreted as
children’s toys, they may also be linked to the
veneration of cattle, an important source of
wealth within the Indus.
The two major cities of Mohenjo-Daro
and Harappa are strikingly similar in terms
of planning and layout. Both have two main
mounds, an eastern citadel and a western
occupation area. There is a lack of
conspicuous private buildings that could
be interpreted as palaces, giving rise to
suggestions that this was an egalitarian
society. There are major buildings that are
thought to be more public in nature, such as
the Great Baths at Mohenjo-Daro, and the
‘granary’ at Harappa. A standard brick size is
found throughout the region, with ratios of
1:2:4, suggesting a strong uniformity.
The end of Indus civilization is traditionally
thought to have been inexplicably sudden. It is
now known that while the major urban areas
certainly declined, many traits of the Indus
civilization continued into the next, or Early
Historic, urban period c.1000 BC. Although
relatively short-lived during its mature phase,
the Indus civilization without doubt achieved
remarkable cohesion of artistic style and
design across a huge area, and through traded
goods spread artefacts and influence across a
very large part of Central and South Asia, and
to areas beyond.
TERRACOTTA CART. Humped
cattle or zebu were vital to
Indus life, and cattle and
carts are frequent subjects of
numerous terracotta
figurines. The purpose of
these figurines is open to
debate, with suggestions
ranging from their
connection to ritual or
religion (particularly cattle),
a decorative or artistic
function, or simply use as
children’s toys.
70° 80°60°
50°40°
20°
10°
30°
40°
Mehrgarh
Mohenjo-Daro
Dholavira
Amri
Lothal
Sutkagen Dor
Harappa
Shortughai
Ganweriwala
Kalibangan
Kili Gul Muhammad
Chust
Kayrakkum
Dal’verzin
Zaman-Baba
Dzhanbas-Kala
Kokcha
Altin Tepe
Shibe
Katanda
Pazyryk
Ganeshwar
Jorwe
Inamgaon
Gaurimedu
Bariduh
Rupae
Lal Qila
Indus
Jh
elum
Ch
enab
Brahmapu
tra
God
avari
Narmada
Sutlej
Ganges
Am
uDarya
Tig
ris
Eu
phrate
s
Sy
rDarya
A R A B I A N
S E A
I N D I A N O C E A N
ARAL SEA
PERSIA
N
G
ULF
CASPIANSEA
H
I M A L A Y A S
H
IN
DU
KUSH
TA K L A M A K A N
ZA
G
R
O
S
M
T
S
PA M I R S
T H A R
D E S E R T
IRANIAN
PLATEAU
I N D I A
CEYLON
(SRI LANKA)
C H I N A
T I B E T
P E R S I A
A R A B I A
M
ESO
P
O
T
A
M
I A
N
1 Central Asia and India, 5000-500 BC
long-distance routes for trade and contact
cultures contemporary with Harappan:
Harappan/Indus, 2500-1500 BC
Bronze Age nomadic groups with graves and grave goods
Bactrian-Morgiana complex, 2nd millennium BC
peninsular Neolithic
Kayatha
Ganeswar
pre-Harappan site
Harappan site
Bronze Age settlement site
Bronze Age nomadic grave site
contemporary sites in India
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
44
recent work has shown that early agricultural
sites, such as Mehrgarh in the Kachi Plains of
Pakistan (7000–3500 BC), are likely to be direct
precursors of this great urban civilization,
which relied heavily on floodwater irrigation
based round the Indus and other rivers.
Characterized by great uniformity of
architecture and art (although with many local
variations), the Indus is known to have been
part of a major trade network, both within
South Asia and beyond. Lapis lazuli from
Afghanistan and jade from China have been
recovered, along with gold (likely to have been
imported to supplement more local sources),
CENTRAL ASIA was an area of trade and
movement – not only of people and goods,
but also ideas and styles. This had a major
impact on the art and culture of this region,
while Central Asian materials and styles in turn
influenced other regions, particularly to the
west. Central Asia, to the north of the
Himalaya-Hindu Kush range, was home to a
mixture of nomadic cultures which ranged
across the lowland area stretching from central
Europe right across to China. They are known
primarily through their rich graves. Settled
peoples exploited river valleys and the fertile
loess soils between the mountains and the
deserts. To the south of this major physical
boundary lies India, a focal point for the
exchange of artefacts and ideas.
WESTERN INFLUENCES
The influences of the great cultures to the west
(Mesopotamia, Persia and Greece) can be seen
in the architecture, artefacts and archaeology
of Central Asia, and similarly, contact with
China and the north can be seen here. Bronze
tools, figurines, weapons and jewellery are
among the many finds that have been
recovered from both burial and settlement sites
to the north of the great mountain ranges,
along with fine pottery painted with both
geometric designs and wild animal motifs. The
recovery of artefacts of lapis lazuli, carnelian
and turquoise shows the extent of trading links
within this wider region. Indeed, large numbers
of seals very similar to those produced within
the Indus Valley have been recovered from the
site of Altin Tepe in modern Turkmenia. This is
significant evidence for trade and contact
between South and Central Asia during the
Bronze Age.
HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
The Indus, or Harappan, civilization covered an
area of 500,000 square kilometres (193,000
square miles) extending across large areas of
Pakistan and northwest India. It was one of the
great civilizations of antiquity. Traditional dates
place its emergence around 2600 BC and
suggest that it appeared rather suddenly, but
CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA 5000-500 BC
1 THE INFLUENCE OF TRADE on the culture and art
of many groups in this region is clearly evident.
Pottery with distinctive decorations and
architectural styles reveal contact with the great
civilizations of the west, while jade ornaments,
burial patterns and styles of axes and other tools
show influences from the north and northeast.
In return, etched carnelian beads from the
specialized workshops of the Indus have been
recovered from Mesopotamian cities.
2 Bronze Age China, 2000-500 BC
political centre/capital
Shang
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou
Spring & Autumn
other important Bronze Age centre
major archaeological site
modern city
EAST ASIA AND CHINA 5000–500 BC
47
decoration. Its peak is seen in the Longshan
culture on the east coast, where fine black
pottery was produced using advanced wheelthrowing
techniques and superb kiln control.
RITUAL AND ORNAMENTAL JADE
Early artisans also worked in other materials,
such as textiles, wood and bone. The earliest
silk production was developed in eastern
China. Jade was the most symbolic of all the
materials used: owing to its durability, smooth
texture, translucency and subtle colours, it was
regarded as a spiritual stone, which
communicated between man and gods. It also
came to symbolize different human qualities.
The earliest personal ornaments in jade were
found in northeast China, where jade birds,
turtles and a dragon with a curved body were
found in the elite tombs of the Hongshan
culture, which dates to the middle of the fourth
millennium BC. Jade was used in a similar
fashion in the south, most notably in the
Liangzhu culture of the southeast, where the
two most important types of ritual jades, the
bi-disc, symbolizing heaven, and the congtube,
symbolizing earth, were first found in a
ritual context. The distinctive taotie-motif,
combining both animal and human features,
which first appeared on Liangzhu jades, later
became the major motif in the decoration of
Shang ritual bronzes.
THE BRONZE AGE
Early use of bronze has been found in
northwest China, in the Tarim Basin and on the
Tibetan Plateau, but the Bronze Age in China is
more closely associated with the three
dynasties of the Central Plains: the Xia, the
Shang and the Zhou. Historians and
archaeologists continue to argue about the
existence of the Xia dynasty, but there is no
doubt that the Shang dynasty existed. Indeed,
archaeology has confirmed that the Shang had
a mature writing system and a sophisticated
calendar. In contrast to the civilizations of the
Near and Middle East, which created prominent
stone monuments and sculptures representing
their kings and queens, the Shang cast large
bronze vessels for use in sacrifice to the
ancestors and deities, and buried them in tombs.
SQUARE BRONZE DING with a human face decoration,
Late Shang period, c.1200 BC. Bronze vessels were
used in ritual ceremonies in the Shang dynasty,
often involving sacrifices to the ancestors. The
decoration on this ding, or cauldron, is unique. The
main motif is a human face, but with two horns
and animal claws. The whole scheme is realistic, in
a manner more typical of the
south than of the metropolitan style in the
capital city, Anyang (Yinxu).
130˚120˚110˚100˚90˚80˚50˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
Beijing
Shanghai
Xi’an
Luoyang
Zhengzhou
Erligang (Early Shang capital)
Jiang
Erlitou (early
Bronze Age site/Xia)
Sanxingdui (early
Bronze Age centre)
Zongzhou (Western Zhou capital)
Zhouyuan (Western Zhou ritual centre)
Chengdu
Lhasa
Wuhan
Dadianzi
(Lower Xiajiadian culture)
Gaocheng
(Shang burial)
Zhukaigou
(Bronze Age burial)
Shilou (Shang burial)
Qucun (Jin burial)
Baoji (Western Zhou bronzes)
Funan (Shang burial)
Danyang (Western
Zhou burial)
Ningxiang
(Shang bronzes)
Panlongcheng
(Shang garrison town)
Dayangzhou
(Shang burial)
Qugong
(early Bronze
Age site)
Kongquehe
(early Bronze Age site)
Chawuhugou
(Bronze/Iron Age site)
Anyang (Yinxu)
(Late Shang capital)
Xincai
Kuaiji
Xu
Xinzheng
Qufu
Linzi
Chengzhou (Eastern
Zhou capital)
KOREA
T I B E T
C H I N A
G O B
I
TAKLA MAKAN DESERT
Tarim Basin
QIN LING
QILIAN
SH
A
N
A LTA
I
M
T S
TAIHANGSHAN
K U N L U N M T S
P L A T E A U
O F T I B E T
N O R T H E R N S T E P P E
H
I
M
A
L A Y A S
Hexi
Corridor
Sichuan
Basin
Yellow River
Yangtze
Huai He
Qinghai Hu
Lop Nor
Poyang
HuDongting Hu
T I E N S H A N
BO
HAI
YELLOW
SEA
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E AN
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
2 THE CHINESE BRONZE AGE is marked by the ritual use
of bronze. The capitals of the Shang dynasty were
located in the Central Plains, and Shang people
had an advanced calendar and writing system. In
1045 BC the Zhou conquered the Shang and built a
new political system. The king was regarded as the
‘Son of Heaven’, whose mandate was symbolized
by the bronze ding (cauldron).
The invention of bronze casting, as well as
the basic schemes of shape and decoration,
were developed from earlier ceramic and jade
traditions. The piece-mould technique was very
efficient for making hollow vessels and allowed
great freedom in surface decoration. The most
important decorative feature on Shang ritual
bronzes was the taotie-motif, the usually highly
stylized animal mask comprising two eyes, two
ears and a nose, and sometimes horns and
claws.
The Shang were conquered in the eleventh
century BC by the Zhou, who brought new
changes to bronze art. The Zhou people
acquired new tastes, and this is reflected in the
different forms and surface decoration of their
bronze vessels. The taotie-motif gradually
disappeared, and the phoenix, bird and ox
became the favourite motifs. The changes were
not merely decorative: underlying them was the
huge transformation taking place in the Zhou
belief and ritual practice. Bronze vessels
became status symbols. They were buried with
the dead, and were displayed in ancestral
temples. Ancestor worship predominated and a
feudal system was established. Meanwhile, a
literary tradition was developed – inscriptions
on bronze vessels often carried more
significance than the decorations.
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
46
THE BIRTH AND GROWTH of civilizations in
East Asia took place in a distinctive
environment. Japan is an island country where
the indigenous Jomon culture developed
independently. The earliest pottery in the world
has been discovered in Japan: it is hand-built,
and densely decorated with incised or cordimpressed
patterns. Similar techniques and
motifs are also found in Jomon figurative art.
The early cultures in the Korean peninsula, on
the other hand, share characteristics, such as
pottery with geometrical decoration, with
cultures in Siberia and northeast China.
China is a vast and geographically diverse
country with plateaus, basins, deserts and
grasslands. There are huge differences in
climate, ranging from the arid Gobi Desert to
tropical Hainan Island. Early civilizations in
China developed along the two major rivers,
the Yellow River (Huang He) and Yangtze River
(Chang Jiang). Both have their sources in the
Qinling Mountains and flow eastwards to the
Pacific Ocean. The Yangtze River has served as
a dividing line between north and south from
the very beginnings of Chinese civilization.
EARLY NEOLITHIC CULTURES
By the fifth millennium BC, several distinctive
Neolithic cultures had emerged in both north
and south China. From its origins in the
middle valleys of the Yellow River, the
Yangshao culture spread both up and
downstream. Its distinctive polychromatic
painted pottery, made of carefully selected
clays and fired at a high temperature, shows a
highly developed aesthetic value and skill. The
decoration of Yangshao pottery comprised
painted geometric and stylized flower patterns,
and more realistic animal and human motifs.
Religion played an important role in early
Neolithic art and interpretations of these
works often relate to the belief and practice of
Shamanism.
The Neolithic cultures in the south were
based mainly on rice-agriculture, differing from
the millet-agriculture in the north. Their
pottery tradition was also highly developed,
usually with incised rather than painted
EAST ASIA AND CHINA 5000-500 BC
JADE DRAGON, Hongshan Culture, c.3500 BC,
greenish nephrite. This is the earliest threedimensional
representation of a dragon found in
China. The dragon is the most prominent creature
in Chinese mythology, symbolizing the concept of
transformation and is associated with royalty in
much later periods. This jade dragon has a curved
body, forming a ring. Its face is similar to that of a
pig, with a protruding mouth and wrinkles on its
nose. The hole in the back suggests it may have
been used as a pendant.
100˚ 110˚ 120˚ 130˚ 140˚ 150˚
40˚
Beijing
Xinle
Niuheliang
Shanghai
Majiabang
Hangzhou
Xi’an
Beishouling
Yangshao
Xinglongwa
Liangzhu
Daxi
Jiangzhai
Laoguantai
Longshan
Dadiwan
Majiayao
Liuwan Pyongyang
Shenyang
Tokyo
Guangzhou
Zhengzhou
Peiligang
Jiahu
Banpo
Miaodigou
Dahecun Cishan
Dawenkou
Hemudu
Shijiahe
Qujialing
Taipei
KOREA
C H I N A
JAPAN
CISHAN,
PEILIGANG,
YANGSHAO
CULTURES
XINGLONGWA, XINLE,
HONGSHAN CULTURES
JOMON
CULTURE
CHULMAN
CULTURE
DAXI
CULTURE
QUJIALING,
SHIJIAHE
CULTURES
NEOLITHIC CULTURES
YINTAOWEN CULTURE
HEMUDU,
LIANGZHU
CULTURES
DAWENKOU,
LONGSHAN
CULTURES
TAIWAN
HAINAN
G O B
IQ I L I A
N
S H
A
N
TAIHANGSHAN
Q I N L I N G
HeLiao
Yellow River
Huai He
He
Wei
Yan
gtze
U
ssuri
Xi Jiang
Qinghai Hu
Tai Hu
S E A
O F
J A PA N
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
E A S T
C H I NA
S E A
Y E L L O W
S E A
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
BO HAI
K
O
R
E
A
S
T
R
A
I T
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
Jomon Culture: c.10,000-300 BC;
maritime economy, pottery with shells
and rotary stamps, clay figurines
Chulman Culture: c.8000-700 BC;
pottery with incised decoration
Cishan, Peiligang, Yangshao Cultures:
c.6000-3000 BC; millet agriculture,
slash-and-burn technique,
semi-subterranean/ground level
architecture, reddish pottery
with painted decoration
Hemudu/Liangzhu Cultures:
c.6000-3300 BC; early rice cultivation,
timber buildings, weaving, bone and
wood carving, earliest lacquer,
pottery with incised decoration,
carved jade with religious iconography
Daxi Culture: c.4400-3300 BC;
red/black/gray/white pottery, stamped
and painted, bone and stone carving
Dawenkou/Longshan Cultures:
c.4300-2500 BC; rich burials, great
variety of pottery typology and
painted decoration, jade carving
Xinglongwa, Xinle, Hongshan Cultures:
c.6500-3500 BC; early Neolithic
settlements; carved jade
Qujialing/Shijiahe Cultures:
c.3000-2600 BC, c.2500-2000 BC; pottery
with painted decoration, weaving;
city walls, pottery and stone carving
Neolithic Yintaowen Culture:
dates c.2000 BC; stamped pottery
1 AGRICULTURE BEGAN IN EAST ASIA as early as 10,000
years ago. From around 6000 BC large numbers
of farming communities emerged in the Yellow
River valleys and on the the east coast; millet
was grown in the north and rice
in the south. By 2000 BC competition and
interaction among different cultural zones
created a new era, and civilization was born.
1 Neolithic China and East Asia, 5000-2000 BC
Neolithic cultural zone
archaeological site
modern city
JAPAN AND KOREA 5000–500 BC
49
147˚144˚141˚
138˚135˚132˚129˚126˚123˚
42˚
40˚
38˚
36˚
34˚
32˚
30˚
Akyu
Tanabatake
Ikawazu
Shakado
Awazu
Jinnai
Shigasato
Yoshigo
Kashihara
Butsunami
Kitamura
Togari-ishi
Arayashiki
Ohatadai
Komakino
Sugizawadai
Teraji
Kinsei
Horinouchi
Nakasawame
Satohama
Omori
Kasori
Ogyozuka
Chikamori
Torihama
Mawaki
Minamikata
Maeike
Kuwagaishimo
Tsukumo
Yamaga
Ataka
YazeFudodo
Unggi
Negoyadai
Yoksam-dong
Oksong-ni
Yangpyong-ni
Ubayama
Kazahari
Korekawa
Nirakubo
Oyu
Nishida
Chiamigaito
Sakuramachi
Miharada
Higashi-Kushiro
Hamanasuno
Sannai
Maruyama
Bibi
Kashiwagi B
Hupo-ri
Mimanda Higashibaru
Kyo-dong
Amsa-dong
Osan-ni
Sinmae-ri
Kumgang-ni
Tosong-ni
Mizonoguchi
Naepyong-ni
Kungsan-ni
Soktal-li Simchol-li
Namgyong
Songgu-ni
Chitam-ni
Chonjin-dong
Hogok-dong
Kuksong-dong
Hunnam-ni
Song-Do
Changchon-ni
Naju
Sougam-dong
Taegong-ni
Taepyong-ni
Mugye-ri
Sangnodae-Do
Hwangsong-ni
Suga-ri
Yongsangong
Tongsam-dong
Tadaepo
Tongnae
Imbul-li
Shinam-ni
Taehuksan-do
Songgung-ni
Namsong-ni
Sogong-ni
Yangul-li
Naedong-ni
Undae-ri
Choji-ri
Kimpo
Nongpo-dong
Sopohang
Naktong-gang
Shi
nano-gawa
Han-gang
Imjin-gang
L. Biwa
Osumi-shoto
Oki-gunto
Izu-shoto
Sado
Cheju-do
Tsushima
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
S E A O F
J A P A N
S E A O F
O K H O T S K
TIARTSAEROK
NANGNIM-SANM
AEK
SOBAEK-SANMAEK
TAEBAEK
SANMAEK
HONSHU
HOKKAIDO
SHIKOKU
KYUSHU
KOREA
JAPAN
C H I N A
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 The Forager Communities of
Japan and Korea, 6000-500 BC
important settlements
settlements with large buildings
cemeteries
burials
cist burials
stone circles and standing stones
waterlogged sites
shell middens
sites with figurines
sites with face masks
sites with lacquer
sites with bronze
rice cultivation
millet cultivation
Japanese sites, 6000-500 BC
Korean sites, 6000-2000 BC
Korean sites, 2000-500 BC
sources of obsidian and greenstone
ancient coastline
2 A SERIES OF RELATIVELY SEDENTARY CULTURES, with no
clearly institutionalized social hierarchies, was wellestablished
across the Korean peninsula and
Japanese archipelago by 5000 BC. While these
communities show clearly localized developments
in their material culture, they were not totally
isolated, as shown by shared pottery styles. There
was also some contact between the peninsula and
archipelago, as shown by Jomon pottery sherds
and by obsidian from Korean Neolithic coastal sites
and influences from the peninsula on some Jomon
pottery styles. Resistance to change from outside,
however, is suggested by the relatively late arrival
of metallurgy and agriculture in the region.
DECORATING THE BODY was important in Jomon
times. Elaborate pottery ear ornaments became
especially popular in the Kanto region of Honshu
in the final stage of the Jomon period. Over 1000
ear ornaments were discovered at Chiamigaito
in central Honshu, indicating they were produced
in a specialist workshop. Large numbers of ear
ornaments are only found at a few sites, although
strikingly similar designs are found from sites
separated by long distances. These ornaments
were made from specially selected clay and are
sometimes decorated with red pigments. They
belong to a tradition of ear ornaments that
extends back to 5000 BC.
sap. Numbers of lacquered objects, including
hairpins, were excavated at Torihama on the
coast of Honshu. Lacquered bows and bows
whose shafts are wrapped in cherry bark were
also recovered from waterlogged sites.
THE AGE OF BRONZE
Bronze working, developed in China from the
start of the second millennium BC, appeared in
the Korean peninsula by about 1000 BC. At the
same time a new form of individual burial
monuments, dolmens – in which the remains
of clan chiefs were interred – appeared on the
Korean peninsula. These dolmens are an
important regional manifestation of megalithic
burial, examples of which are found around the
world, and prefigure the monumental mounded
tombs in which later elites were interred on
both the Korean peninsula and the Japanese
archipelago. Prior to 500 BC, however, social
power rested in the hands of local leaders and
household heads, and it was in this context of
relative domestic independence that the great
ceramic traditions of the Jomon and Chulmun
flourished. Bronze was a new medium for
expressive design, and with its use came new
locations for display, often in ritual and
funerary contexts away from settlements.
1 Pottery
Manufacture in
Jomon Japan
neolithic style zone
with example of
characteristic pottery
natural resources:
cold deciduous forest
evergreen
broad-leaf forest
warm deciduous
forest
wild boar
deer
sea lion
seal
salmon
acorns
chestnut
walnuts
buckeyes
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
48
Body symbolism is further demonstrated
through the evidence for tooth filing from
skulls excavated at sites such as Tsukumo and
Yoshigo. This practice may have occurred at
age-related rituals and has been used by
archaeologists to identify people born in a
particular village and those who may have
‘married in’. Pottery masks, often suggesting
identifiable character traits, are known from a
number of sites across the Japanese
archipelago. At other sites, large numbers of
ear ornaments have been discovered.
THE CRAFTS OF JOMON JAPAN
The manufacture of certain objects, notably
greenstone jadeite beads and elaborate
earspools, luxury commodities which were
transported over great distances, indicates that
prestige goods were being circulated among
these forager societies. The construction of
carefully designed and laid out stone and
wooden monuments attests to the ability to
control and direct labour. These monuments,
including the twin circular arrangements of
stones at Oyu and the stone lines at Komakino,
which are often aligned on significant
topographic landmarks, also suggest a concern
with measuring and marking time and the
seasons. Certain buildings appear to have been
constructed using standardized units of
measurement. In addition, the analysis of the
design structure of pottery vessels suggests
that they express the conceptualization of
certain numbers, in particular 4, 5 and 7 which
may have had particular significance for Jomon
communities.
In recent years a number of waterlogged
sites have been investigated which
demonstrate how much of the rich material
culture of these early societies has perished.
Lacquer was used in Japan from before 5000 BC,
and its use demonstrates a high degree of
knowledge of the potential of the environment,
as the extraction and use of lacquer requires a
detailed understanding of the not immediately
obvious properties of the lacquer tree and its
frogs and snakes, and anthropomorphic
designs also occur, executed in relief appliqué
attached to the surfaces of some of the vessels.
Pottery vessels were often made in very large
numbers, as can be seen
in the massive pottery dumps at the site of
Sannai Maruyama.
In the Japanese archipelago, from about
5000 BC, pottery was also used to create clay
figurines, both anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic. Certain settlements were the
focus of figurine manufacture and use. At
Shakado over 1000 figurine fragments have
been recovered. These figurines were possibly
made so as to be easy to break into their
component body parts (possibly for use in
rituals), and complete figurines are rarely
discovered. Figures are varied; some have
female bodily attributes, while many others
appear more masculine, or androgynous. These
figurines bear designs which suggest elaborate
coiffures, facial tattooing, and decorative
clothing, indicating that bodily ornamentation
was important to many Jomon societies. Some
have distended stomachs,
and are thought to have played an important
role in fertility rites.
JAPAN AND KOREA 5000-500 BC
NEOLITHIC POTTERY from central western Korea
was often decorated with incised and
impressed geometric patterns, often applied
with a comb. This chulmun pottery was
replaced in the first millennium BC by plain
pottery (mumun). Many pointed-based
cooking vessels were found from settlements
of the period, such as Amsa-dong on the Han
River, where the remains of 20 pit buildings
were excavated. These vessels were used to
cook the foods derived from gathering,
hunting and fishing and, later, cultivated rice
and millet.
141˚135˚129˚
40˚
36˚
32˚
28˚
44˚
147˚
Sobata
Taishakukyo
Torihama
Togari-ishi
Okinohara
Natsushima
Kamo
Hamanasuno
Tokoro
S E A O F
J A PA N
Osumi-Shoto
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
KOREA
STRAIT
S H I K O K U
H O N S H U
H O K K A I D O
K Y U S H U
J A PA N
C H I N A
K O R E A
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 THE DIVERSITY of
forested environments
that supported a rich
array of wild food
resources across the
Japanese archipelago
was matched by a
multitude of local
pottery styles.
ASERIES OF FORAGER SOCIETIES was
well-established throughout the Korean
peninsula and the Japanese archipelago by
5000 BC. These societies subsisted on the
natural resources available in the rich
temperate forests, which included mediumsized
animals, notably deer and wild boar, nuts
and wild grains, as well as abundant aquatic
resources, such as shellfish, fish and sea
mammals. They lived in villages that were often
made up of clusters of pit houses, and on
occasion constructed large buildings and stone
monuments. These villages were sometimes
occupied for many generations and suggest a
remarkable degree of residential stability for
non-agricultural societies.
EARLY POTTERY IN JOMON JAPAN
The manufacture of pottery in the Japanese
archipelago has been practised for over 7,000
years. As pottery-making developed, a series of
regional traditions emerged and these are
recognized by Japanese archaeologists as
distinct styles, each with its own favourite
forms and decorative motifs. Deep, jar-shaped
cooking vessels formed the core of the
repertoire of forms, supplemented over time
with other vessels for the serving and
consumption of food. The basic decorative
element was cord-marking, produced by
pressing twisted cords made of plant fibres
into the leather-hard surface of pottery vessels
before firing them in bonfires. In some areas,
the upper parts of the vessels became highly
elaborated with the development of exotic
heavily sculptured rims. Abstract designs
became very sophisticated, although
representational images were relatively
uncommon – one good example of a hunting
scene is known from a vessel recovered from
the site at Nirakubo in northern Honshu. Other
motifs include zoomorphic designs similar to
THE PACIFIC AND INDONESIA 5000–500 BC
51
LAPITA FIGURATIVE POTTERY from the Santa Cruz
Islands. As little as one percent, never more
than 30 percent, of the pottery excavated at
Lapita sites is decorated. There is a strong
continuity in repeated patterns and faces,
but over time they become gradually
simpler. Among tools potters used to
impress patterns into the wet clay were
toothed combs and styluses.
180˚
15˚
15˚
0˚
165˚ 165˚150˚135˚120˚105˚
Duke of York Islands
Aitape
Manus
(250 BC)
New Ireland
Gazelle Pen.
Kandrian
Umboi
Ambitle
Bougainville
Tikopia (700 BC)
Efate
Lifou
Ile Maré
Futuna
Niuatoputapu
Uvea
Talasea
(1000 BC)
Reef Islands (800 BC)
Aneityum
(900 BC)
(800 BC)
Isle of Pines
(800 BC)
(900 BC)
Sigatoka
(750 BC)
Lakeba Island
(800 BC)
Ha’apai Islands
(900 BC)
Lifuka Island
(800 BC)
Foa Island
(940 BC)
Ofu Island
(950 BC)
New Caledonia
(1200 BC)
Naigani Island
(1100 BC)
Mussau (1500 BC)
Watom (1450 BC)
Arawe
(1500 BC)
Nissan (1300 BC)
Santa Cruz (1100 BC)
Anuta (800 BC)
Malo (1100 BC)
Viti Levu
(1200 BC)
Tongatapu
(1180 BC)
Upolu (1200 BC)
Samrong Sen (1540 BC)
Non Nok Tha (2785 BC)
Ma Dong
(2755 BC)
Hang Gon
(2515 BC)
Long Thanh (1075 BC)
Musang Cave (2722 BC)
Tham Ongbah
(2490 BC)
Niah
(1510 BC)
Pejaten
(650 BC)
PRESUMED LAPITA
HOMELAND
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
INDIAN
OCEAN
J A V A S E A BANDA
SEA
TIMOR
SEA
CELEBES
SEA
SULU
SEA
SOUTH
CHINA SEA
S
U
M
A
T
R
A
MOLUCCAS
VANUATU
SOLOMON ISLANDS
B O R N E O
NEW GUINEA
FIJI
TONGA
SAMOA
CELEBES
JAVA
TIMOR
A U S T R A L I A
C H I N A
I N D O N E S I A
MALAYSIA
BURMA
THAILANDLAOS
PHILIPPINES
CAMBODIA
VIETNAM
N
0
0
600 miles
900 kms
2 The Lapita Expansion, 2000-500 BC
the extent of human settlement, 2000 BC
possible expansion of Lapita settlement
distribution of Lapita pottery sites, 1500-750 BC
Lapita pottery sites:
1500-1000 BC
1000-700 BC
date unknown
obsidian quarries associated with Lapita sites
earliest finds of bronze implements in Southeast Asia
2 THE SPREAD OF LAPITA CULTURE, as indicated by finds
of pottery and remains of settlement, is still
enigmatic. In the oldest strata, the distribution of
Lapita-ware suggests that the pottery may have
been associated with quite different functions and
diverse social purposes in different places.
By 3000 BC many new traditions including
pottery began to develop throughout Indonesia
and the Philippines and in a few parts of New
Guinea. Fully ground stone axes appeared
about 3000 BC in Indonesia, representing the
final stage of the Hoabinhian culture on
mainland Southeast Asia. The inhabitants of
Indonesia were in contact with their mainland
neighbours during this period, but while
mainland peoples started using bronze and
iron over the next two millennia, there is no
clear evidence for the use of metals in
Indonesia until about 500 BC.
LAPITA CULTURE
The most important artistic development in the
Indo-Pacific region began in about 1500 BC.
This innovation was the appearance of a
certain style of dentate-impressed pottery
called Lapita, named after one of the sites
where it had been found in New Caledonia.
Pottery with more or less comparable dentate
designs has been found as far west as Aitape in
New Guinea and as far east as Samoa in
Western Polynesia. This type of pottery has
repeatedly been found associated with
obsidian tools, particularly tanged blades, and
a variety of shell ornaments or valuables made
from conus shells, trochus shell, spondylus
oysters and tridacna (giant clams).
From an artistic perspective Lapita pottery
represents the first class of highly decorated
objects in either Melanesia or Polynesia. From
an archaeological perspective the importance
of this pottery is that it is associated with the
earliest settlement of western Polynesia (Tonga
and Samoa). Since most scholars accept that
the rest of Polynesia was colonized from Tonga
and Samoa, Lapita has became associated with
the origin of the Polynesians.
A second approach accepts that
Austronesian languages came into Melanesia
and Polynesia from Southeast Asia, but
scholars argue that Lapita designs originated
in Melanesia and are a local development
rather than an Asian tradition – no one has
found any Lapita pottery in Indonesia. Many of
these scholars accept that the ‘tool kit’ of
Lapita pottery, obsidian tools and shell
ornaments represents a ‘Lapita cultural
complex’, but see this tool kit as one that was
put together in the Bismarck archipelago
before it was gradually brought to southern
parts of Melanesia, especially Vanuatu and New
Caledonia and then Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
Both the designs stamped on the
earthenware and the delicately flaked obsidian
tools that so often accompany Lapita pottery
are magnificent artistic expressions – the most
elaborate artistic expression in the Pacific
world up to 1000 BC.
We now know that Lapita pottery began
about 1500 BC, and disappeared completely
1500 years later. The most highly decorated
forms are in the earliest strata, dating from
1500 BC to about 800 BC. In Tonga and Samoa, in
particular, this highly decorative pottery gives
way to plain pottery by 500 BC, and pottery
disappears altogether during the first
millennium AD.
Some scholars, drawing on the similarity
between Indonesian and Polynesian languages
(the Austronesian language family), have
proposed that Southeast Asians from the
Indonesian region migrated across the top of
New Guinea to the Bismarcks in about 1500 BC
or slightly earlier, bringing the technology for
pottery. They propose that Lapita represents
the prehistoric expression of the Neolithic
revolution in Melanesia. Thus, Polynesians
(and the rest of Austronesian-speaking peoples
in Melanesia) were essentially Southeast
Asians who had brought agriculture and
pottery with them.
ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION
50
HUMANS HAVE LIVED in island Southeast
Asia, New Guinea, the Bismarck
Archipelago and Australia for a very long time.
In Java and mainland Southeast Asia, human
occupation dates back over a million years,
while New Guinea and Australia were settled
by at least 40,000 BC. When Europeans
discovered Australia, the inhabitants – like
their earliest ancestors – were still huntergatherers,
while most groups in Melanesia
were horticulturalists, and many relied heavily
on sago and other tree crops.
EARLY HORTICULTURE
No archaeological sites dating from before
5000 BC in Indonesia or Melanesia have
produced evidence of anything except flaked
tool industries. The earliest evidence for
horticulture in the Pacific occurs at Kuk in
the western highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Dating to 7000 BC, this site is the earliest
known example of swamp drainage for
horticultural purposes in the Indo-Pacific.
By 5000 BC simple horticulture was probably
present in most parts of New Guinea. A mortar
and pestle tradition of uncertain date appears
to begin by about 3000 BC. Some of these
utensils are elaborately carved with faces and
representations of animals and birds.
In Australia rock-painting sites at Jinmium
in the Northern Territory and in the Kakadu
area are thought by some to be 6000 years old.
The rock-art site near Kakadu, which depicts
the rainbow serpent, is evidence of the
oldest continuous religious art tradition in
Australia – a tradition that continued until
recent times.
THE PACIFIC AND INDONESIA 5000-500 BC
THE PREHISTORIC AMBUM STONE from the highlands of New
Guinea. More than 18 cm (7 ins) high, this pecked and
ground igneous rock carving appears to join the head
of an anteater to the body of a human. Along with
sculptures from the same region, exhibiting animal,
bird and human motifs, it is among the earliest known
Pacific art. Besides free-standing figures, the New
Guinea stones include pestles in the form of phallic
birds and mortars shaped like birds with spread wings.
180˚
45˚
30˚
15˚
0˚
165˚150˚135˚120˚
Ha Lung
(5300 BC)
Ulu Leang (3130 BC)
Niah
(5650 BC)
Vanimo
(c.3000 BC)
Sepik River
(c.3000 BC)
Hang Gon
(2515 BC)
Laan Spean
(5180 BC)
Non Nok Tha
(4170 BC)
Spirit Cave
Kok Phanom Di
(5720 BC)
Dimolit (3940 BC)
Sangasanga
(5520 BC)
Bagumbayan
(4280 BC)
Gua Harimau
(1815 BC)
Leuwiliang
(3050 BC)
Uai Bobo (2160 BC)
Kimberley
Kakadu
Jinmium
Ingaladdi
Port Hedland
Dead Man’s
Pocket
Papunya
Wargata
Mina Cavern
Spear Hill
Ramu River
Buka
Guadalcanal
Pamwak
Kuk
(earliest Pacific
horticulture,
from 7000 BC)
Nombe
rockshelter
Bobongara
Balof
Buang Merabak
Matenkupkum
Misisil
Yombon
Matenbek
Panakiwuk
Kosipe
Niah Caves
Tabon Caves
Madai &
Baturong
Paso midden
Halmahera
East
Timor
Talaud Islands
Gua
Lawa
Maros
Kalumpang
Bandung
DarlingRiver
VictoriaRiver
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
SOUTH
CHINA SEA
TIMOR
SEA
ARAFURA
SEA
CELEBES
SEA
SULU
SEA
BANDA SEA
T A S M A N
S E A
C O R A L
S E A
JAVA SEA
S O U T H E A S T A S I A
S
U
M
A
T
R
A
I N D O N E S I A
BORNEO CELEBES
JAVA
TIMOR
MOLUCCAS
NEW GUINEA
BISMARCK
ARCHIPELAGO
SOLOMON
ISLANDS
M
I
C
R
O
N
E
S
I
A
M E L A
N
E
S
I
A
A U S T R A L I A
NEW
ZEALAND
PHILIPPINES
N
0
0
600 miles
900 kms
1 The Extent of Early Settlement, 4000 BC
pre-Lapita flaked industries
non-ceramic sites in Melanesia
rock-art sites in Australia
areas of early prehistoric stone mortars
and pestles in Papua New Guinea
pre-Lapita pottery sites, with dates
furthest extent of settlement, 4000 BC
Ice Age coastline, to 4000 BC
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
HAWAII
MARQUESAS
ISLANDS
EASTER
ISLAND
MELANESIA
MICRONESIA
AUSTRALIA
NORTH
AMERICAA S I A
Area of main map
1 IN ABOUT 4000 BC glacial ice finished melting and
sea level reached its current level, perhaps 150
metres higher than it had been 10,000 years earlier.
Rising sea level gradually inundated low-lying areas
leaving hundreds of islands that would formerly
have been continental land masses.
buildings of baked brick, concrete and marble. Not all cities were
built of such permanent materials, but many, like Chang’an,
capital of Han China, or Teotihuacan in modern Mexico, had large
populations, were extremely extensive and were filled with large
structures. Pataliputra (Patna), the Mauryan capital, was the largest
city in the world under Ashoka (r.268–232 BC), with as many as
300,000 inhabitants, Jenne on the Niger in Sub-Saharan Africa
occupied more than forty hectares (100 acres) by AD 500 and the
Huaca del Sol at Moche on the coast of modern Peru was
expanded by stages until it incorporated some 143 million
adobe bricks. Many of the monuments in these cities, as well as
the homes and the tombs of their citizens, were richly decorated
and filled with a wide variety of artefacts made of such processed
substances as metal and glass. Imperial rule over an unprecedented
number of people brought with it a hitherto unprecedented
exploitation of nature.
ALL THESE LARGE CITIES and empires depended on lands outside their
direct control for particularly valued material, such as amber from
the Baltic or lapis lazuli from modern Afghanistan. The human
contact and the exchange of goods and currency associated with
such trade steadily extended the area of intense material
consumption. Technologies were exported as part of the same
process. The Celtic peoples of Europe became expert metalworkers,
as did the nomadic tribes who followed them into the more
northerly areas. The same process also occurred in Central Asia.
Japan, too, which had long been relatively isolated, acquired bronzeand
iron-working and rice and silk production from China and Korea,
and took on the appearance of a more and more centralized state.
Further south, on the edge of modern Indonesia, improvements in
seafaring allowed longer and longer voyages into the Pacific,
bringing Neolithic agriculturalists deeper into Polynesia and
Micronesia. In Africa, ironworking was adopted south of the Sahara
and, when exploited for military purposes and associated agriculture,
sustained the Bantu expansion southwards at the expense of the
existing hunter-gatherers, who began their withdrawal into the
forests and deserts where farming was difficult or impossible.
ELSEWHERE, IN ALL CONTINENTS, other groups of hunter-gatherers
continued to develop their existing ways of life, which were largely
dependent on stone and bone tools, with little outside interference,
as did the Australian aborigines or the tundra-dwelling Inuit. The
most elaborate artefacts of such people were rock paintings and
carvings, vast numbers of which survive from numerous sites in
Europe, Asia, Africa, both North and South America and Australia.
Although often difficult to date, many must come from this period.
The majority of their products were, however, made of less
permanent materials such as wood. The main exception were those
communities such as the Inuit, Okvik and Ipiutak living on the Bering
Straits in northern Alaska two thousand years ago, whose lack of any
timber except driftwood led them to exploit walrus ivory, making
their traditions more easy to trace. At this period, like all the others
that are mapped in this atlas, our ability to document the uncertain
record of human material culture depends on wide variations in the
natural environment and the lifestyles it supported.
TERRACOTTA CAVALRYMEN, Qin Dynasty, 221–202 BC, discovered in Xi’an near the
tumulus of the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.
D
URING THESE CENTURIES the full impact of humanity’s
domination
of the planet emerged. Agriculture became more widespread
and urbanization was extended. Above all, warfare was carried out
more effectively. The experience of the Persian and Peloponnesian
wars, Alexander’s campaigns in Asia, and the
Warring States period in China in particular, brought great
improvements in weaponry, tactics, command and communications,
and these allowed rapid conquests to be effectively consolidated
into vast, centrally managed territories. The greatest of these are
today often called empires after one of the most successful, that
centred on Rome.
RULERS WERE OFTEN GENERALS, as was Augustus, the first Roman
imperator or commander (r.31 BC–AD 14). In all cases they relied on
military control, as did Qin Shihuangdi, the first emperor (r.221–210
BC) of an area comparable to modern China, and his Han Dynasty
successors, or Chandragupta Maurya (r.321–297 BC) and his
grandson Ashoka, who extended their authority over most of India.
The new power of such figures enabled them to transform both
society and the environment. They could use captives and criminals
as slaves to extract and work raw materials. They could levy taxes
with which to fund public works. They could standardize measures
to facilitate such activities as trade and construction. They could
impose and maintain peace over such large areas that private wealth
was generated on an unprecedented scale. As a result, by
AD 600, larger portions of the world had been changed by human
activity than ever before. The transformation was also far more
drastic. This can be seen in the further material enhancement of the
areas that had been urbanized earlier. As the pharaohs of Egypt were
succeeded by the Persians, the Ptolemies and the Romans
and the kings of Assyria by the Persians, the Parthians and the
Sasanians, new and larger cities, such as Alexandria at the mouth
of the Nile, were established and the numbers of baked- brick and
stone buildings rose steadily.
WHEREVER NEW STATES appeared lakes, were drained, canals were cut
and ports extended into the sea. Fortifications ringed cities and the
walls surrounding the Chinese and Roman empires stretched for
thousands of miles. Large areas of the globe were criss-crossed by
roads, some of which were paved and carried across rivers on
permanent bridges. Food and luxuries were transported along these
roads, down the rivers and across the seas for consumption in the
great centres. In Rome these luxuries included not only statues
looted and bought from Greece, but ancient granite obelisks and
modern columns from Egypt. Rome was distinguished by its huge
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE 500 BC-AD 600
NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA 500 BC–AD 600
55
AT TEOTIHUACÁN IN CENTRAL MEXICO the entire city –
including crowded apartments, craft workshops,
elegant palaces and towering monumental public
structures (such as the Pyramids of the Sun and
Moon) – was laid out along a grid. By AD 600 the
city covered nearly 21 square kilometres (8 sq miles).
20˚
30˚
90˚80˚70˚60˚50˚40˚30˚
Ga
M Ch
Cu
Cu
Cu
Serpent
Mound
Squawkie Hill
Crystal River
Weeden Island
Fort Center
Mandeville
Kolomoki
Swift Creek
Tremper
Gaston
Seip
Wright
Tunacunnhee
Mcquorquodale
Porter
Helena
Crossing
Fourche Malines
Marksville
Bynum
Miller
Pinson
Renner
Sterns Creek
Cahokia
Knight
Howard Lake
Effigy Mounds
Trempealeau 1
2
3
4
5
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
19
16
17
18
6
Boone
Cresap
Grave Creek
Abbott Farm
Mann
Grand Gulch
Mogollon
Pine Lawn Valley/
Bat cave and
Tularosa Cave
Mesa Grande
Talus Village
Igloolik
Gulf Hazard
Tyara
Step House
Snaketown
Patrick’s Point
Port-aux-Choix
Lonesome Creek
Ozette
St Lawrence
Island sites Ipiutak
Little
Diomede Island
Iyatayet
Norton
Walakpa
Engigstciak
Cottonwood Creek
Rolling Bay
Joss
Dundas Island
Keatley
Creek
site
Tuburon Hills
Coso Range sites
Little Harbor
Gunther Island
Marpole
Rio Gra
nde
St.Lawrence
L. Ontario
Columbia
Fraser
Yukon
L. Superior
L. Michigan
L. Erie
L. Huron
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
HUDSON
BAY
BAFFIN
BAY
B E R I N G
S E A
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
GULF OF MEXICO
R
O
C
K
Y
M
O
U
NTAINS
GREAT
PL
A
IN
S
Cape Nome
VANCOUVER
ISLAND
KODIAK
QUEEN
CHARLOTTE
ISLANDS
SIERRA
NEVADA
N O R T H
A M E R I C A
SONORAN
DESERT
MOJAVE DESERT
ballcourt
distribution of
Beluga whales
distribution of
Beluga whales
distribution of
Beluga whales
areaofhemlock,cedarandspruce
d i s t r i b u t i o n o f p o l a r b e a r s
distributi
onof Bearded and Ringed seal
s
distrib
ution
of Bearded and Ring
edseals
d i s t r i b u t i o n o f p o l a r
be
ars
d i s t r i b u t i o n o f p o l a r b e a r s
northe
rn
l
imit of trees
distrib
utionof Bearded
and
Ringed seals
1 Pikes Peak
2 Toolesboro Mounds
3 Norton Mound
4 Crab Orchard
5 Mount Horeb
6 Mound City
7 Serpent Mound
8 Fort Ancient
9 Adena
10 Hopewell
11 Alum Creek
12 Newark
13 Robbins
14 Turner
15 Bedford
16 Havana
17 Goodall
18 Jaketown
19 Harness
N
0
0
400 miles
300 kms
2 MANY CULTURES AND LIFESTYLES that continue until
the present-day were formed between 500 BC and
AD 600 in North America. In the Southwest initial
versions of the Hohokam, Mogollon, Ancestral
Puebloan and Fremont traditions crystallized. The
Adena and slightly later Hopewell traditions
spread throughout the Midwest and Eastern
United States. Resources from the Gulf of Mexico
to the Great Lakes and west to Wyoming moved
throughout the Hopewell Interaction Sphere,
which exhibited at least thirteen regional variants.
Mirador by their complex logophonetic writing
system. Architectural innovations such as the
corbel vault opened up narrow interior spaces,
while roof combs raised the exterior space of
plastered palaces and temples. These sat atop
large platform pyramids built in tiers that often
correlate with sacred numbers, such as the
nine levels (of the underworld) seen at Tikal
and Palenque. While some cities, such as Tikal
and Calakmul, were larger than others and may
have formed ‘superstates’, most Mayan cities
controlled limited land and competed with
adjacent city-states.
LOWER CENTRAL AMERICA
While this region interacted with Mesoamerica
and South America, it also developed distinct
indigenous cultures. Mace heads and
ceremonial stools from Las Huacas signal the
emergence of ranked societies prior to AD 500.
In eastern Costa Rica, large hierarchical sites
are identified as the El Bosque complex. Artists
excelled in jade-working in northern Costa
Rica. By AD 500 gold-working, with hammered
and lost wax techniques – probably from
Colombia, became important in Panama.
NORTH AMERICA
Over much of North America after 500 BC
pottery began to make its first appearance or
was more widely accepted. Throughout the
continent, groups used local resources to
produce various regional traditions. Peoples in
the Arctic and Subarctic focused on marine
resources, primarily seals, walruses and whales.
Artists from Ipiutak carved walruses, bears,
humans and fantastic creatures on bone, antler
and ivory. By AD 600 Northwest coast peoples
mastered carving the abundant cedar from the
coastal forests. In the American Southwest and
Northwest Mexico the large rocks of the caves
and canyons in this semi-arid/desert area
served as canvases for styles of pictographs and
petroglyphs, many of which have pre-500 BC
origins and continued after AD 600.
The Adena complex, with roots stretching
back to 700 BC, and the slightly later Hopewell
complex, peaked between 100 BC (Adena) and
AD 400 (Hopewell) in Ohio. Within the so-called
Hopewell Sphere elaborate networks moved
disparate raw materials and finished products
(such as beaten native copper artefacts) among
groups east of the Mississippi River. Both
Hopewell and Adena people built large
earthworks – often in bird, serpent or
geometric shapes – to form sacred enclosures.
People of both traditions also built burial
mounds, placing individuals in large log
tombs. Hopewell peoples elaborated Adena
traits, generating fine ceramics, human effigy
figures and platform pipes. The Hopewell also
exhibited more evidence of conspicuous
consumption and social differences.
Ch
Ga
M
2 North America, 500 BC-AD 600
areas of cultural influence:
Hopewell
Adena-Hopewell heartland
Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi)
Fremont
Mogollon
Hohokam
Cosumnes tradition
Hopewell site
Adena site
other archaeological site
copper ornaments
pictograph/petroglyph
stone palettes
stone pipes
beaver pipes
female effigy vessels/figurines
male figurines
antler/ivory/bone carvings
shell ornaments
mica ornaments
raw materials:
copper
silver
chert
galena
obsidian
mica
crystal
chlorite
whelk
barracuda
shark
alligator
whale
salmon
turtle shell
shell
Cu
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
54
An entire Zapotec barrio (urban area), found
at Teotihuacán, symbolizes the complex
relationships between states. Much of the
population of the Valley of Mexico shifted to
Teotihuacán from around 150 BC. By its peak in
AD 600, Teotihuacán, with a population of over
100,000 people, was the sixth largest city in the
world. Distinctive polychrome pots and
stereotyped faces on figurines and masks
identify this style throughout Mesoamerica;
objects in the Teotihuacán style have been
found at Mayan sites such as Copan and Tikal.
Teotihuacán’s control over important obsidian
sources illustrates its importance in regional
trade. The influx of distinctive Teotihuacán
talud/tablero architecture (sloping surfaces
alternating with vertical ones) around AD 400 at
the early Mayan centre of Kaminaljuyú
suggests to some scholars an aggressive
element to Teotihuacán interaction.
Teotihuacán both influenced and received
stimuli from Gulf Coast centres such as El Tajín
(known for its many ball courts and scrolling
sculptural motifs) and Cerro de las Mesas
(known for life-size ceramic sculptures).
Classic Mayan cities emerged throughout
the Petén after AD 300, distinguished from
earlier Mayan developments such as El
FROM 500 BC TO AD 600, traditions as rich,
complex and long-lived as any in the ‘Old’
World coalesced in North and Central America.
THE CULTURES OF MESOAMERICA
Mesoamerica witnessed both important
endings and new beginnings in 500 BC. The last
expressions of Olmec-style art, the La Venta
Horizon, occur between 500 and 400 BC at Gulf
Coast sites and in the Mexican Highlands at
Chalcatzingo, where artists familiar with the
Olmec style carved low-relief sculptures
illustrating enthroned rulers and scenes of
supernatural animals attacking humans. Basrelief
sculptures, probably marking a coastal
trade route, proliferate along the Pacific Coast,
from Chiapas, Mexico (Pijijiapan) to El
Salvador (Chalchuapa), although most of these
date between 800 and 500 BC.
New beginnings are seen in both the
valleys of Oaxaca and Mexico with the
emergence of the first cities and states.
Construction at Monte Albán, located on a
hilltop in the centre of the Oaxaca Valley,
began around 500 BC. Bas-relief sculptures
from this date illustrate ancestors and
sacrifices vital in the founding of the city, and
include some of the earliest examples of
Mesoamerican writing. By AD 200 Monte Albán
incorporated much of the Oaxaca Valley and
adjacent regions through trade, alliances and
possibly conquest. Zapotec craftsmen made
greyware pottery and anthropomorphic urns;
NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA 500 BC-AD 600
MAP 1
CENTRAL AMERICA
153.5 X 219mm
NB. Map has been skewed 10
degrees E to W to improve size.
Can we do this??
1 CENTRAL AMERICA encompasses
three cultural regions: Greater
Southwest/Northern Mexico,
Mesoamerica, and Lower Central
America. In Mesoamerica, several
different writing systems, earlier
than that of the Maya, emerged
after 500 BC. Some groups carved
‘Long Count’ dates that can be
correlated to those in our
calendar system; the earliest is 36
BC from Chiapa de Corzo. States at
El Tajín, Monte Albán and
Teotihuacán interacted in various
ways with each other and
Mesoamerica.
AT ITS PEAK BETWEEN AD 400 AND 600 Monte Albán
covered 7.5 square kilometres. The Zapotecs
approached urbanism by focusing this hilltop city
on a large open space, the Main Plaza, surrounded
by roughly symmetrically arranged public and
administrative structures. Additional civicceremonial
features – such as Mound H, in the
foreground – lie in the centre of this plaza.
15˚
80˚85˚
100˚105˚110˚115˚
30˚
25˚
20˚
CerrosRío Azul
Barriles
La Cabana
Las Mercedes
La Montana˜
˜
Nosara
Matapalo
Vidor
Playa Venado
Las Huacas
Lotun Cave
Acancéh Yaxuná
Palenque
Cobá
Uaxactún
Nakbe
Seibal
Piedras
Negras
Tonina
El Mirador
Tikal
Calkamul
Chiapa
de Corzo
Altar de
Sacrificios
Xunantunich
Caracol
Copán
Yaxchilán
ChalchuapaKaminaljuyú
Sitio Sierra
Yarumela
Los Naranjos
Naco
Quiriguá
Ceren
Santa Leticia
El Baúl
Abaj
TakalikIzapa
Pijijiapan
Tonalá
Remojadas
Cholula
La Mojarra
Cerro de las Mesas
Tres Zapotes
Miahuatlán
Río Grande
Etlatongo
Cerro de las Minas
Yucunudahui˜ Dainzú
Ejutla
Monte Albán
Huamelulpan
San Francisco de Arriba
San José Mogote
Río Viejo
Yucuita
Monte Negro
Tollantzinco
TehuacánPavón
El Tajín
Matacapan
Diquiyú
Quiotepec
La Venta
Cuicuilco
Teotihuacán
Calixtlahuaca
Xacalla
Apatzingán
Xiuhquilpan
Itztepetl
El Teul
Chalcatzingo
ZacoalcoAmeca
Etzatlán
El Arenal
Ixtlán del Río
Las Cebollas
Cueva Pintada
Los Ortices
Atzcapotzalco
Huetamo
Tuxtepec
Usumacinta
Motagua
Pánuco
GU
LF
O
F
CA
LIFO
R
N
IA
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
GULF OF
CAMPECHE
Yucatán
Peninsula
Isthmus of
Tehuantepec
T H E G R E A T E R
S O U T H W E S T
LOWER
CENTRAL
AMERICA
MESOAMERICA
PETÉN
Mostly hunter-gathering
Cultural influences:
area impacted by
Monte Albán
area impacted by trade
routes of Teotihuacan
area impacted by
Cerro de las Mesas
Raw materials:
jade/jadeite
cacao
salt
feathers
obsidian
desert and semi-arid scrub zones
Cultures of Central
America 500 BC-AD 600
major regional centre
important city/site
site with ballcourt
site with pre-Classic Maya writing
and/or long count date
sites with Late Preclassic
giant architectural masks
pictographs/petroglyphs
Oaxaca
Maya
Teotihuacán
1
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
these are found at regional centres well beyond
Monte Albán’s sphere of influence, from Río
Viejo on the coast to Mixtec centres such as
Cerro de las Minas and Yucuñudahui.
SOUTH AMERICA 500 BC –AD 600
57
CENTRAL ANDEAN CULTURES
Within the Andean area, extensive ritual practices
continued to be rooted in complex societies with
corporate political and religious leadership
throughout the Early Horizon (800–200 BC) and
the early Intermediate Period (c.200 BC–AD 600).
Chiripa (c.850–400 BC) is located in the
Titicaca basin. The site consists of a platform
mound with a sunken court and carved stone
stelae and plaques, ringed by rectangular
chambers. The economy was based on
intensive exploitation of lake resources as well
as domesticated and wild camelids, seeds and
tubers. Textiles and pottery were used, the latter
with incised and painted feline and human faces.
To the south, Pucará became dominant in the
Titicaca area in around 400 BC. Incised pottery
found there was decorated with slip-painted
panels, felines, birds, llamas and people. Stone
carvings occur frequently. Staircases and sunken
courts are common in the terraced hillsides.
Chavín de Huantár, located on a tributary of
the Marañon River, has been dated to c.800–200
BC. Its large U-shaped temple platform contains a
sunken court and galleries. Elaborate line
carvings of mythical beings include elements of
felines, snakes, cayman and plants. Within the
core of the principal temple there is a series of
corridors and channels. It also contains a crossfigures,
sometimes with aspects of a jaguar.
The oldest sculptures belong to the Isnos
phase (c.100 BC). They are found on hill slopes,
sometimes in elaborately painted tombs. San
Agustín is associated with the construction of
large earthworks and gold smelting as well as
wire and sheet metalworking.
The Periperí style, which belongs to the
eastern Brazilian pottery tradition, is related to
the Sambaquí cultures farther south. Houses
were post-built. Artefact assemblages are
dominated by pounding and grinding tools.
Beads from fish vertebrae and shell are common.
The pottery is plain and dark brown to black.
SOUTHERN CULTURES
The Paraná-Pampean cultural tradition (first
millennium BC) from Uruguay and Argentina
emerged from a hunter-gatherer economy.
Much of the pottery is plain, although finds
from Mal Abrigo, in the Santa Fe area of
Uruguay, include modelled animal head lugs.
THE ‘DECAPITATOR GOD’ in painted and modelled
plaster work at the ‘Temple of the Moon’, at the
site of Moche. Moche iconography was a complex
symbolic language expressing in summary a limited
number of themes which were understood by
society at large. A number of the characters
depicted were actual persons and officers within
Moche society.
80˚
0˚
?
St
St
St
St
St
NawinpuquioHuari
Waywaka
Chanapata
Sipán
Chavín de Huantár
Cerro Blanco
Cajamarquilla
Moche
Pampa Grande
Galindo
Pachacamac
Moxeke
Cahuachi
Pucará
Chiripa
MOCHE
Huascarán
Chimborazo
Ausangate
Coropuna
Misti
Chacani
L. Junín
L. Titicaca
Maranón˜
Chicama
Moche
Casma
Supe
Fortaleza
Chill
ón
Hua
llaga
Puira
Urubamba
Pampas
Oco
na˜
Sam
a
Canete
˜
M
ala
Pisco
Apurimac
P A C I F I C O C E A N
A
N
D
E
S
A TACA
M
A
D
ESERT
SECHURA
DESERT
L I M A
HUARPA
NAZCA
PARACAS
CHAVINOID
TRADITION
PUCARÁ
CHANAPATA
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 Early Horizon to Early
Intermediate Period
desert
highland
jungle
mountain peak/volcano
tradition/culture
site location
principal site
secondary site
religious site/shrine
terraced agriculture
raised fields
irrigation
gold
copper
cinnebar
salt
stone, andesite, basaltSt
spondylus
camelids, wool, textiles
cotton and textiles
birds and feathers
dung and guano
wood
maize and beans
obsidian
potatoes
gourds and squash
manioc
hallucinogens
coca
totora
emeralds
probable sea trade routes
shaped room with a large columnar sculpture
shaped like a very large foot plough and carved to
represent a large feline deity. This deity mediated
between the supernatural world and that of the
living. It has been persuasively argued that the
channels and vents found throughout the
temple enabled the deity to make sounds.
On the south coast of Peru the coastal
Paracas tradition shared elements of both the
Pucará and Chavín cultures. Incised pottery
painted with organic paints, and highly ornate
textiles showing flying shaman designs, are
common. Mummies are seated in shallow
baskets, wrapped in multiple textiles. Cemeteries
show a pattern which suggests that related kin
groups were entombed in the same grave.
During the Early Horizon period many
innovations in textile production developed, such
as tapestry weaving, tie-dye and batik techniques.
Metallurgical techniques such as soldering, sweat
welding and repoussé decoration developed, and
the frequency of metal use increased. Pottery
tended to have incised decoration, burnishing,
slip painting and organic paint.
THE MOCHE AND OTHER CULTURES
By the end of the first century BC most of the
land which could easily be taken into production
was in use. Ceremonial sites were reduced in
number and size whereas settlements, including
fortified ones, grew and multiplied. Regional
kingdoms and chiefdoms were established.
On the north coast in the Early Horizon,
Cupisnique style was followed by the Salinar,
Viru and Gallinazo traditions. In time, Moche
became the dominant culture, amalgamating a
series of independent valley-based chiefdoms
and kingdoms under one central authority. At
Cerro Blanco, the capital of the Moche, there
are two principal ceremonial sectors: the
Huaca del Sol (Temple of the Sun) and the
Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon). On
these large platform pyramids prisoners were
ritually dismembered at times of crisis. The
Huaca del Sol is the largest single earth-built
structure in the Americas.
The Nazca culture dominated four river
valleys on the south coast. The Huarpa culture,
with sites such as Conchopata, Nawinpuquio and
Huari, focused on the Ayacucho basin, where
terraced fields and irrigation channels formed the
basis of an innovative agricultural strategy.
2 ANDEAN CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT during this period
was clearly affected by the comparative closeness
of very contrasting ecosystems. Because of the very
pronounced topography of South America, a range
of environmental zones, including coastal deserts,
mountains and tropical jungles were all within easy
reach. This proximity resulted in the development
of a cultural assemblage that was both materially
and symbolically very rich.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
56
SOUTH AMERICA IS A LARGE and varied
continent and so were its cultures during
this period. The central Andean area was
dominated by complex societies, with elaborate
hierarchies, whereas the cultures of the Andes
of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, like much
of the lowland rainforest, were often chiefdoms.
NORTHERN CULTURES
In Ecuador, the Guangala phase (340 BC–AD 360)
is distinguished by multi-coloured and engraved
pottery with geometric designs, small villages
and a maize-based agriculture. During this phase
metals were used for the first time, particularly
in hammered fish hooks and nose rings.
In the north and north-west of
Venezuela (500 BC–AD 500)
societies were predominantly
agricultural and were producing
pottery. The principal ceramic
tradition was the Barrancoid,
distinguished by its modelled
and incised designs. At sites
such as Barrancas in the Lower
Orinoco valley, houses were
built on piles and on earthen
platforms. Manioc cultivation
probably originated in this area.
The Barrancoid tradition
originated in the central Amazon
basin and its spread was linked
with the Maipuran and Arawak
language families. It was
widespread within the tropical
forest. At Jauari, on the lower
Amazon, there are midden remains, where Tshaped
and notched axes and pottery are
common. The Itacoatiara sites east of Manaus
have ceramics with typical scroll designs. The site
of Hupa-iya of the central Ucayali had un-walled
houses with earthen floors. Spindle whorls
indicate that textiles were being produced.
In Colombia, near the headwaters of the Rio
Magdalena, the San Agustín culture produced
stone monolithic sculptures depicting human
SOUTH AMERICA 500 BC-AD 600
GOLDEN EAR SPOOLS showing the ‘Spider God’ or
‘Decapitator’, as excavated from ‘Royal’ tomb 2 at
the Moche site of Sipán near Chiclayo in Peru. In
Moche art, the spider was seen as a spiritual
equivalent of the model Moche warrior. Just as
spiders capture their prey, bind them with thread,
and extract and consume their vital fluids, so
Moche warriors took their enemies prisoner, bound
them with ropes, and drained and drank their
blood in sacrifice.
1 SOUTH AMERICA is a continent with
a great variety of mineral
resources and environments, which
resulted in many diverse cultural
adaptations, ranging from the
hierarchical societies of the Andes
mountain range to the scattered
chiefdoms of the lowland
rainforests. Many of these societies
were based on agriculture, but in
the south of the continent smaller
groups depended more on
hunting, fishing and gathering.
40˚
50˚60˚70˚80˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
20˚
30˚
St
St
St
St
Barrancas
Mangueiras
Manta
Hupa-iya
Caimito
Chavín de
Huantár Camancaya
Moche
Pachacamac
Cahuachi Pucará Chiripa
Mal Abrigo
Chotua
Jauari
Itacoatiara
Teso dos Bichos
GUASARE
BAHIA
CANDELARIA
PUCARÁ
CHIRIPA
SAN
AGUSTÍN
B A R R A N C O I D T R A D I T I O N
B A R R A N C O I D
T R A D I T I O N
B A R R A N C O I D
T R A D I T I O N
ELMOLLE
VALLISERANA
LASMERCEDES
PARANÁ-PAMPEAN
TRADITION
EASTERN
BRAZILIAN
PO
TTERY
TRADITIO
N
CHAVINOID
TRADITION
CHANAPATA
Huila
Sierra Nevada
de Santa Marta
Antisana
Chimborazo
Huascarán
Illimani
Illampu
Coropuna
Tacora
Llullaillaco
Chachani
Misti
Cotopaxi
Amazon
M
adeira
Ju
rua
Negro
JapuraPutumay
o
Maranón˜
Ucayali
Para
ná
S
ãoFrancisco
Tocantins
Paraná
C
olorado
Negro
Loa
Maipó
Maule
Salado
Desaguadero
Deseado
Ch
ico
Paraguay
O
rinoco
Essequibo
Corantijn
Maroni
O
iapoque
Branco
Cauca
M
agdalena
L. Titicaca
L. Poopó
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
CARIBBEAN SEA
A
N
D
ES
ATACAMADESERT
B
R
A
Z
IL
IA
N
H
I G
H
L A
N
D S
GUIANA
HIGHLANDS
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Principal Cultural
Traditions,
500 BC-AD 500
dry pampa
tropical rain forest
pampa
desert
mountain
peak/volcano
tradition/culture
principal site
religious site/shrine
raised field
irrigation
gold
silver
copper
tin
cinnebar
salt
stone, andesite,
basalt
obsidian
St
spondylus
strombus
coral
camelids, wool,
textiles
cotton and textiles
birds and feathers
dung and guano
wood
maize and beans
potatoes
gourds and squash
manioc
hallucinogens
totora
EUROPE 500 BC–AD 300
59
30˚20˚10˚0˚
40˚
50˚
ˇ
Medionemeton
Nemetobriga
Nemetacum
Drunemeton
Delphi
Roquepertuse Entremont
Fellbach-Schmiden
Bouray
Gournay-sur-Aronde
La Tène
Msecké Zehroviceˇ
Deskford
Neuvy-en
-Sullias
Euffigneix
Gundestrup
Praha Sarka
Salzberg-Reinberg
Báta
Luncani
Malaia Began
Mezek
Mérida
ˇ
Turoe
Reims
Pfalzfeld
Glauberg
Heidelberg
Holzgerlingen
Hirschlanden
Montbouy
Bichl
Clonmacnoise
Torrs
Llyn Cerrig Bach
Snettisham
Battersea
Aylesford
Amfreville
Basse-Yutz
Dürrnberg
-bei-Hallein
Waldalgesheim
Ciumesti¸
Massalia
Spina
Rhine
Elbe
Danube
Vistula
Dnieper
D
on
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
N O R T H
S E A
B L A C K
S E A
B A
LT
IC
SEA
PYRENEES
A L P S
CARPATHIAN
S
I B E R I A
C E LT I B E R I A
G E R M A N I A
S C Y T H I A
S A R M AT I A
D A C I A
G A L AT I A
T Y L I S
I L LY R I A
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
BAL
EARIC ISLANDS
GREECE
S C A N D I N AV I A
B R I T I S H
I S L E S
A N AT O L I A
Possible route of
Sarmatians' plunder
after defeat of
Galatian Celts
Alexander's
Celtic mercenaries
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
sites and artefacts:
nemeton sanctuaries and other cult centres
colonies
stone carvings
wood carvings
classic metalwork sites
wild boar representations
late La Tène vessels
Etrusco-Italic and Celtic vessels
2 THE CELTIC DIASPORA was both ethnic and
economic. From a heartland on the French-German
border militaristic elites spread southwest into
Spain, and eastwards to set up kingdoms in the
Balkans and Turkey. Mercenaries, wars and looting
carried La Tène objects to south Russia and
beyond. It is uncertain to what extent the ‘Insular’
style in Britain and Ireland was introduced by
continental invaders rather than adopted.
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF POWER
These elite artefacts, preserved from the hoards
and burial monuments of the wealthy, express
ideologies of power the iconography of which
may actively obscure the brutal realities of Iron
Age life. The obsession with virtuosity,
especially in repoussé metalwork, suggests a
high degree of competition among intensely
aesthetically-sensitive patrons. Gold-, silverand
bronze-smiths, however, may have ranged
in social status from mobile entrepreneurs to
virtual chattels.
By 500 BC the slave trade, powered by
endemic warfare, was crucial. Slaves reached
the Classical world via the coastal colonies of
the Black Sea and Mediterranean in exchange
for wine and finished goods, including pottery
finewares, jewellery and precious metalwork.
The Greek mercantile credit economy was
supported by the massive silver output of the
slave-worked mines of the Laurium peninsula
in Attica and the islands of Thasos and
Siphnos. It was such wealth, displayed in
votive offerings, that attracted the Celts south
to sack the sanctuary of Delphi in 279 BC. The
expansion of Celtic warrior society is evident in
the nemeton (sacred grove) sites, which extend
from Scotland to Spain to Turkey; small groups,
serving as mercenaries under Alexander, may
have reached India.
Trading and raiding brought Achaemenid
Persian objects into Europe in the fifth century
BC, La Tène bowls to the north Caucasus and
Kuban in the third century BC, and Thracian and
Dacian motifs as far west as the south coast of
Britain by the time of the Roman conquest, and
exposed local conventions to broader scrutiny.
The development of commercial markets
intensified in the second and first centuries BC,
THE BASSE-YUTZ FLAGON (one of a pair). This early
fourth-century BC vessel refines Italic prototypes.
Red champlevé enamel and Mediterranean coral
insets form interlace and chequerboard patterns.
The La Tène Early Style figural elements include a
maned wolf-form handle with engraved palmettes
rising from a human face built of S-curves, a
chained stopper with zoomorphic decoration and a
small duck swimming down the spout in the
direction of the pouring wine.
illustrated for example by the distribution of
mass-produced decorated clay lamps of the
types known as Dressel 2-4, which occur from
southern Spain and Sicily through to the Rhine
and North Sea coast. The extent to which the
later Iron Age societies produced and
maintained such distinctive styles over time is
fascinating. In Celtic art, the Early Style
developed via Waldalgesheim and Vegetal, the
Plastic and the Hungarian ‘sword style’, into
the late Insular styles which were still strong in
Ireland as late as AD 300.
This is ultimately an issue of ethnic
identity, expressed through close control of
form and content, the need for which was
actually heightened by the fluxes of wars,
invasions and resettlements. For the Scythians
the beast-fight, whether expressed at a
mythical or more realistic level, was central as
a metaphor of struggle and conquest. Swordscabbards,
belt-plates, bridle appliqués, and
pectorals, such as that from Tolstaya Mogila,
all depend on the same theme, one that was
continued by their martial successors on the
steppe, the Sarmatians. This worn art was
displayed on the body, expressing ethnicity
and social status on the move. The La Tène
Celts had their favourite motifs too (the wild
boar and horse, among animals) and a
penchant for virtuoso, vegetally-based
symmetries. The human form, often almost
cryptic in metalwork, found clear expression in
anthropomorphic grave stelae and in the
elaborate stone sacrificial altars of the south
French sites near Massalia.
2 The Spread of Celtic Culture
area of origin of La Tène style, 500-450 BC
Early Celtic world (western), 450-400 BC
Early Celtic world (eastern), 450-400 BC
primary Celtic expansion (western), 400-250 BC
primary Celtic expansion (eastern), 400-350 BC
secondary Celtic expansion (western), 250 BC-AD 300
secondary Celtic expansion (eastern), 350-150 BC
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
58
THE LATER IRON AGE was the age of the
Celts, Thracians, Scythians, Sarmatians,
Germans and Dacians. These quasi-national
tribal confederacies were in direct competition
with and dependent on the swathe of urban
empires – Persian, Greek, Macedonian and
Roman – to their south (see the later spreads in
this part). Although called ‘barbarian’ by the
Greeks (from their babble – ‘bar-bar’ – of
languages), it would be a mistake to judge their
arts ‘barbaric’. The Celts and Scythians
developed two of the most seductive and
sophisticated styles in world art: the La Tène
Style and the Steppe, or Scythian, Animal Style.
INDIGENOUS STYLES
Grounded in indigenous themes and craftskills,
the La Tène and Scythian styles
transformed Classical and Oriental elements in
memorable visual syntheses. In the CarpathoBalkans
the styles overlap to create lessintegrated
fusion styles, such as Thracian,
Thraco-Getic and Daco-Sarmatian, which all
owe debts to Greek, Achaemenid and central
Asian production. Other lesser style zones
include the Celt-Iberian, the Insular Celtic, the
Germanic-Scandinavian and the Etruscaninfluenced
southeast Alpine region with its
frieze-based situla (bronze bucket) style.
Everywhere there was a reawakening of
vibrant iconic content after the formulaic
themes of the later Bronze Age Urnfield period
and the restricted early Iron Age (Hallstatt)
repertoire. Significantly, with certain exceptions
among the situlae and in the most Hellenized
Thracian art, the literal narrative approach of
the Mediterranean area is eschewed in favour
of an emblematic or hieratic style – a
significant pre-figuration of medieval heraldry.
The rare preservation of wood-carving, as at the
Celtic sacred site of Fellbach-Schmiden in
Germany, indicates that conventions such as
symetrically paired animals extended to more
fugitive media: the richness of barbarian
tattooing, often remarked on by commentators,
can only be guessed at.
The military, political and economic
complexity of the period is immense. Most of
the art that survives is of a portable nature,
made in gilded bronze, silver and gold, used for
decking out horses, worn on the body as part of
a costume, or displayed at feasts. There is
evidence from metrology that the convertible
or bullion value of the art was of considerable
significance, and that pieces (such as the 165
silver and silver-gilt vessels that make up the
Rogozen hoard from Bulgaria) were made to
known weights.
EUROPE 500 BC-AD 300
30˚20˚10˚0˚
40˚
50˚
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Sn
Gundestrup
Oberaden
Hohemichele
Helden
Witaszkowo
Sark
Portland Bill
Colchester
Wroxeter
Kuffarn
Bologna
Orlovo
Olbia
Gaimonova Mogila
Tyras
Istrus
Tomi
Svestariˇ
Durentsi
Peretu
Herastrauˇ ˇ
Agighiol
Cotofenesti¸¸
Salistea/Cioara¸
Surcea
Poiana Baiceniˇ
Iron Gates
Rogozen
Galiche
Vratsa Stara Zagora
Abdera
DouvanlijKoukouva
Mogila
Starobel’sk
Balakliya
Aleksandropol’
Chertomlyk
Oguz
Solokha
TaganrogTolstaya Mogila
Great Ryzhanovka
Uspenskaya Stanitsa
Melitopol’
Severskaya Stanitsa
Panticapaeum
Chersonesus
Taxila/Rawalpindi
Sinope
Byzantium
Trebizond
Nymphaeum
Certosa
Hochdorf
Hallstatt
Spina
Vaceˇ
Tápiószentmárton
Zo´´ldhalompuszta
Magdalenska
Gora
Emporion
Massalia
Elbe
Rhine
Vistula
Don
Danube
Dnieper
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N N O R T H
S E A BALTIC
SEA
B L A C K S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
PY
RENEES
A
L
P S
CARPATHIANS
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
BALE
ARIC ISLANDS
B R I T I S H
I S L E S
S C A N D I N AV I A
I B E R I A
A N A T O L I A
G R E E C E
BALKANS
E
U
R
O
P
E
Persian
Achaemenid
Influence
Thracian
cavalry
auxiliaries
major
source
major
source
Cimbri
booty
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
commodities:
silk
amber
silver
gold
tin
copper
red coral
trade flows
Sn
Cu
1 Eastern Influences
Dressel 2-4 lamp distribution, 70 BC-AD 15
cultural areas:
Scythian (500-150 BC) and
Sarmatian (150 BC-AD 300) zone
Southeast Hallstatt zone, until 400 BC
Geto-Dacian sphere, 400 BC-AD 107
South Thracian sphere, 500-85 BC
Bosporan Kingdom, 302-63 BC
Kingdom of Pontus, 480-63 BC
sites and burials:
Scythian ‘Royal’ burials
Thraco-Getic burials and hoards
Thracian dynastic tombs
Greek colonies
artefacts:
Geto-Dacian coins and grave stelae
Sark-class Dacian phalerae
Oriental silks
bronze situlae
Scythian animal-style objects
Achaemenid Persian objects
1 EASTERN INFLUENCES include the import of
Achaemenid artefacts, iconographies and silk to
Europe following the Persian occupation of Thrace
(513–480 BC), the impact of Scythian nomads on the
Hungarian basin and beyond, and the transport of
Thracian and Sarmatian motifs, some with north
Indian connections, westwards by cavalry
auxilliaries under Rome. The Gundestrup cauldron,
made with Thracian techniques and depicting La
Tène Celts, may have been carried to Jutland in the
booty of the Germanic Cimbri around 118 BC.
THE TOLSTAYA MOGILA PECTORAL is Graeco-Scythian in
style. The central flower and tendril frieze betrays
the master goldsmith’s training in southern Italy,
but the upper and lower friezes carry pastoral and
mythological scenes of pure steppe inspiration:
above, foals and calves suckle, a boy milks a ewe,
two men stretch a sheep skin and another threads
an awl for sewing leather; below, horses, stags and
boars are attacked by lions and griffins.
Dipylon
Gate
Pnyx
road to Peiraeus
Sacred W
ay
Panathenaic W
ay
roadtoAcharnai
Street
ofTripods
A G O R A
A R E I O PA G O S
A C R O P O L I S
Tholos
Strategeion
Hephaisteion
Statues of Heroes
South Stoa
Twelve Gods
Painted
Stoa
Royal
Stoa
Kerameikos
Tombs
Pompeion
Amyneion
Eleusineion
Stoa of Zeus
Temple of Nike
Sanctuary of Asklepios
Propylaia
Parthenon
Theatre of Dionysos
Odeion of
Pericles
Choragic
Monument of
Lysicrates
Erechtheion
N
0 200 m 0
0
2 miles
3 kms
N
2 Athens and Peiraeus, 500-300 BC
0 5 kms
N
Athens
Peiraeus
Phaleron
Academy
THE AEGEAN 500–300 BC
61
build long walls linking the port to the city. With her
position as both a military and trading power greatly
strengthened, Athens then entered on an exceptional
period of public building, private consumption and
personal self-development, during which architects such
as Ictinus, sculptors such as Pheidias and teachers such as
Socrates, acquired an authority in their fields matching
that of the city’s leader, the charismatic general, Pericles.
Expensive materials, both local and exotic were widely
employed. Marbles of different colours were used for the
building and sculptural decoration of the Parthenon
(447–32 BC), with its 15-metre-high (49 ft) gold and ivory
image of Athena, and for the Erechtheion, with its bronze
chimney. One of several new stoas, the Painted, was filled
with large pictures of Attic victories. Large but less
extravagant projects were the carving of new seating for
the Assembly from the hill of the Pnyx, the enlargement of
the Theatre of Dionysus, and the building of a new covered
Odeion to house musical performances.
Since Athens’ wealth depended critically on the
importation of raw materials, the establishment of the
Athenian colony of Amphipolis in 437 BC was vital, in that
it safeguarded supplies of gold from nearby Mt Pangaeum
and of timber for ship-building from the surrounding
forests. The loss of the colony in 424 BC paved the way for
the city’s defeat at the hands of Sparta in 404.
Nevertheless, public impoverishment had little impact
on growing personal expenditure. At the great drinking
parties, or symposia, in private houses, at which young men
would compete in conversation with their teachers, Attic
wine was served from painted Attic pottery, which
continued to dominate the international market into the
fourth century. From the late fifth century large marble
tomb reliefs in the Kerameikos, or Potter’s Quarter, show
2 ATHENS CONSISTED of an Acropolis (Upper City) on a great
fortified rock and a lower city that centred on the Agora, or
Market. The Acropolis was restored and rebuilt after the Persian
sack in 480. It was dominated by four magnificent marble
buildings, the Parthenon, the Propylaea or Entrance, the
Erechtheion and the Temple of Nike. In the lower city less
important temples of Apollo and Ares were constructed in the
Agora area, as were three stoas, while the theatre of Dionysos
was extended and a covered Odeion built nearby. The city’s
trade was assured by its connection, through a system of walls,
with the port of Peiraeus. Its flowering during the fourth
century was brought to an end after its conquest by Alexander
and by the passing of laws limiting expenditure.
THE PARTHENON, with its combination of Doric forms, typical
of the mainland, and Ionic forms and marble material, typical of
the islands and Ionian coast, illustrates Athens’ desire to lead all
Greece. Its sculptures celebrate the city's human and material
resources. The west pediment shows the competition for Attica
by the rival deities, Poseidon, who produces a fountain of salt
water, and Athena, who produces an olive tree.
Lower down, on an inner frieze, young women of the city offer
the goddess a newly woven embroidered robe.
THE ATTIC ‘FOUNDRY CUP’ provides evidence for some of the phases
in the production of a work of art in the early fifth century BC. It
illustrates the production process, from the sculptor's furnace
and tools, to the painted models that aided standardization, to
the final assembling of whole bronze statues.
women rivalling each other in their finery, as they sit in elegant dresses on elaborate
chairs taking jewels from rich caskets.
Both at symposia and on tombs the celebration of the individual reached new
heights, and during the fourth century both body and mind received new attention. At
Athens teachers established themselves at the gymnasia where young men went for
physical training – just as Plato did at the grove of the hero Academus. Such concerns
with the self relate closely to the consolidation of the roles of individual patrons and
individual artists, especially after the emergence of super-rich rulers such as King
Mausolus, the rebuilder of Halikarnassos, or the greatest city-founder of all time,
Alexander of Macedon. Mausolus’ wife Artemisia employed four famous
sculptors on her husband’s gigantic tomb. Alexander insisted on
patronizing the architect Dinocrates when planning his most
famous city, Alexandria in Egypt. He also patronized the
sculptor Lysippos when ordering portraits and grand
figure groups and the painter Apelles when
commissioning important paintings. It is against this
background that the first writings on art by
architects, sculptors and painters appeared in the
sixth and fifth centuries, and by around 300 BC the
first critical histories of painting and sculpture
by Xenocrates and the first biographies of
artists by Douris had made their appearance.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
60
principal town of Attica, a large peninsula
projecting into the Aegean. Athens maximized
the benefit from its own Great Games by
sending around Greece and the Mediterranean
as prizes special Attic oil lamps made by the
best Attic potters and decorated by the best
Attic painters. It was competition between its
craftsmen that ensured the exceptional quality
of the city’s products.
In 509 BC the promotion of political
competition by the strengthening of
democratic institutions fostered a new selfawareness
on the part of the citizens of Athens.
This would mark many of their actions, whether
collective or individual, over the next two
hundred years. During this period, political
power was often concentrated in the hands of
generals, and economic considerations,
military policy and civic patronage were closely
linked. The discovery of important new veins in
the silver mines at Laurium in southern Attica
in 483 BC, for example, allowed Athens to
immediately expand ship production in time to
defeat the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 BC
and made it easier subsequently both to
construct new harbours at Peiraeus and to
THE AEGEAN 500-300 BC
DURING THIS PERIOD the Aegean
experienced an unprecedented expansion
in the production of permanent artworks,
many made for private individuals. From 600 BC
the Greeks began representing themselves in
life-size statues, first of marble and then of
bronze, and from 500 BC, especially after the
defeat of the mighty Persian Empire, the
production of hard and durable artefacts, which
could be as large as temples or as small as
seals, rapidly increased.
THE RISE OF THE COMMUNITY
The original driving force behind this
development was competition between the
more or less independent communities that
grew up on the many Aegean islands and in the
fertile valleys of the European and Asiatic
mainlands. The settlements close to the coasts
grew rapidly, safeguarding their security by
constructing stone walls and forming well-
1 AS SHIPBUILDING AND NAVIGATION SKILLS improved,
the Aegean became the focus of an efficient multidirectional
trade in raw materials and finished
goods. Improved metal technology meant that
raw marbles and finished statues, in
marble or bronze, could be shipped long
distances. Better communications, as well
as the interest in display that came with
greater wealth, brought more and richer
visitors to the many cult centres to fund
bigger and better buildings.
Communication stimulated rivalry and
the wave of construction of stone
temples that had begun in the sixth
century only accelerated in the fifth and
fourth. Alexander of Macedon, who
conquered first Greece and then the East
as far as India before his death in 323 BC,
opened the area to new exotic luxuries
such as glass and unfamiliar gems.
trained and -equipped citizen armies and
navies. Increasingly, skilled craftsmen, soldiers
and artists exploited, and improved upon, the
available technologies of metallurgy, and
stone- and woodworking, as well as developing
their skills in navigation, agriculture, ceramic
and textile manufacture, warfare and
education. They also maximized the resources
of their small territories by exchanging their
surpluses of raw materials and finished
products, including trained and untrained
people, over great distances.
Often the degree of a community’s, or
individual’s, success could be measured in
displays of artistic patronage at the great cult
centres, such as Olympia and Delphi, where
people from all over the Greek world, from
southern France to North Africa, gathered at
the Great Games. Competing cities built
treasuries to show off their trophies, and rival
athletes were commemorated in increasingly
lifelike statues.
THE ATHENIAN EXPANSION
No city was more productive or more
successful in this competition than Athens,
21˚20˚ 22˚ 23˚ 24˚ 25˚ 26˚ 27˚ 28˚
36˚
37˚
38˚
39˚
4
(Tyrannicides c.470 BC)
(Lysander and battle of Aigospotamoi c.400 BC;
Daochos group c.335 BC; Alexander and Krateros hunt c.330 BC)
Megara
Salamis
Dion
(Alexander and
Hephaisteion c.320 BC)
(Athena c.440 BC)
(Zeus c.430 BC;
Philip of Macedon
and family c.336 BC)
(Hera
c.415 BC)
(Asklepios
c.380 BC)
Eretria
Oropos
Rhamnous
Peiraeus
Kephalos
Kassope
Lemnos
Messene
Thorikos
Plataea
Agrinion
Molycrion
Corinth
Mantineia
Megalopolis
Cu
Cu
Thebes
Pharsalos
Vergina
Olynthus
(Athena Nike, Erechtheion, ‘Ilissos’)
(Apollo)
(Athena)
(Zeus, Stratios)
Priene
(Athena Polias)
(Artemis)
Sardis
(Artemis-
Cybele)
Sounion
(Athena)
Labranda
Aegina
(Aphaia)
(Asklepios)
Epidauros
(Athena Alea)
Stratos (Zeus)
(Apollo, Ptoios)
Nemea
(Zeus)
Argos
(Apollo)
Delos
(Athena Pronaia, Apollo)
(Ares, Hephaistos, Parthenon)
(Nemesis)
(Amphiaraos)
(Poseidon)
(Metroum, Zeus)
(Apollo)
(Hera)
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
Dodona
Sparta
Elis
Brauron
Miletos
Knidos
Ephesos
Olympia Magnesia
Didyma
Samothrace
Samos
Corinth
Eleusis
Phigaleia Bassai
Lindos
Rhodes
Thasos
Tegea
Pentelikon Belevi
NaxosParos
Marmara
Delphi
Mt Ptoion
Amphipolis
Halikarnassos
Athens
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A E G E A N S E A
IONIANSEA
BOEOTIA
LACONIA
RHODES
LESBOS
CHIOS
THASOS
ZAKYNTHOS
KEPHALLENIA
AETOLIA
CHALCIDICE
ARCADIA
PHRYGIA
C A R I A
MESSENIA
EUBOEA
A N A T O L I A
KYTHERA
NAXOS
PAROS
MELOS
LEMNOS
SAMOS
KOS
M
A C E D O N I A
T H R A C E
T H E S S A L Y
E
P
I R
U S
AT
TICA
gold,silver,timber
tin, silver
vases, figures
ivory, gems
marble from
Marmara
PELOPONNESE
N
0
0
50 miles
75 kms
1 The Aegean, 500-300 BC
sources of metals:
copper
gold
iron
movement of marble
movement of Attic pottery
Greek artists to Persia
trade routes
major shrine
major town planning
major Doric temple (with dedication)
major Ionic temple (with dedication)
tholos
monumental
tomb
tomb relief
council
chamber
choragic
monument
propylaeum
major
sculptural group
Cu
TP
lead
silver
marble quarry
minor shrine
stadium
stoa
hotel
theatre
gold and ivory
cult statues
pediments
monumental
paintings
painted pottery
THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN 500–100 BC
63
university (the ‘Museum’), and a great library in
Alexandria, but he, like others of his house,
also patronized Egyptian sanctuaries.
Traditional art forms continued alongside
Greek ones, and inscriptions were set up in
hieroglyphic and demotic Egyptian as well as
in Greek. Similarly, although Antioch and
Pergamum were very thoroughly Hellenized,
native cultures and languages, notably
Aramaic, continued to flourish away from these
centres. From the beginning, there was a
tendency for this vast empire to fragment, most
particularly Seleucid Asia.
In the later third century in the west of Asia
Minor, the native people of Pergamum who had
come to think of themselves as Greeks, under
the patronage of Pallas Athene, resisted both
Antiochus I and invading Gauls. They
established a confident and vital state, a major
artistic centre epitomized by a lively sculptural
tradition but also by mastery of other arts.
Concurrently in the Far East, in the old
Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria, a line of Greek
kings managed to maintain their independence
for two centuries, greatly influencing the native
arts of northern India.
THE NATURE OF HELLENISTIC ART
The major centres of Hellenistic patronage
were the royal courts. They patronized
architects and sculptors as well as those
involved in the luxury arts, notably silver plate
and gold jewellery. This was often set with
gems, such as garnets, from the Himalayas.
Such materials had not only been hitherto too
distant from the Mediterranean world of the
Greeks to be imported, but the use of gold,
gems, ivory, silks, gold inlaid glass, and even
silver plate, would have been regarded with
great suspicion by the more egalitarian states
of old Greece.
Artistic expression, as shown by the
blatant exploitation of emotion in art – as well
as in literature as epitomized by the ‘new
comedy’ of the dramatist Menander – laid
great stress on individual character. Some
artists worked on an enormous scale. Even
before the Hellenistic age had begun, King
Mausolus (r.377–353 BC) of the Persian satrapy
of Caria had ordered Pythias of Priene to build
a colossal hero-shrine for him and his wife,
2 PERGAMUM. The city was founded on terrain too
irregular to allow a grid pattern. Instead buildings
were arranged on a series of dramatically rising
terraces. Many of the buildings of Attalus I and
Eumenes II, including the Great Altar of Zeus,
celebrate the regime’s remarkable victories over
the invading Gauls.
Upper Agora
Lower Agora
Arsenal Barracks
Palace
Library
Theatre
Sanctuary of
Athena
Stoa
Sanctuary
Great AltarTemple of
Dionysus
Sanctuary of Demeter
Gymnasia
(i) young men
(ii) Ephebes
(iii) boys
N
0
0
200 metres
150 yds
2 Pergamum
RELIEF FROM GREAT ALTAR OF ZEUS, Pergamum.
Eumenes II (r.197–158 BC) had his defeat of the
Gauls symbolized as the triumph of the gods over
the giants. In this masterpiece of the Pergamene
school of sculpture, the contest is given an epic
grandeur. The calm efficiency of the Olympian
gods (in this detail led by Athena) contrasts with
the emotional decadence of their barbarian foes.
anticipating in effect the 33 metre (109 ft)
Helios statue which Chares of Lindos created
for the independent island state of Rhodes in
304 BC to celebrate the lifting of a siege by the
Macedonian Demetrius I Poliorcetes (‘The
Besieger of Cities’). By contrast other craftsmen
such as Alexander the Great’s gem-cutter
Pyrgoteles specialized in creating the same
powerful effects on a miniature scale.
Hellenism was now manifested by the
externals of language, manners and taste
rather than by race. Even though the old Greek
world remained, Sparta, for example, was
merely a historical curiosity. Even Athens was
valued mainly for its culture, being patronized
not by her own citizens but by others such as
King Attalus I of Pergamum (r.241–197 BC).
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
62
DURING THE SECOND HALF of the first
millennium BC, goods and techniques were
brought in an increasing stream from east to
west by way of the ‘silk route’ through Central
Asia to the Levant as well as up the Persian
Gulf from the Indian Ocean. The conquests of
Alexander III of Macedon (‘the Great’, r.334–323
BC), in their turn brought cultural influences
back from the West to the East – so that to
some degree we can see a real circulation of
culture during the Hellenistic period. This
brought with it a transmutation of art and
intellectual ideas everywhere, and so paved the
way for the Roman empire.
In the fifth and early fourth centuries, the
Greek world was made up of autonomous city
states, generally small in size and for the most
part short of natural resources, ruled directly
by their citizens. From the time of the
Macedonian conquest of Asia, the most
powerful Greek states were infinitely larger, far
richer and under the control of kings. These
rulers were widely regarded as divine, and
called themselves by such epithets as
‘Saviour’, ‘Benefactor’ or ‘God made manifest’.
Even long-standing taboos such as that
against incest were overturned in the adoption
by the Ptolemies of the age-old Pharaonic
custom of brother and sister marriages.
POLITICS AND PATRONAGE
The empire of Alexander briefly encompassed
the same territory as the old Achaemenid
empire of Persia, which he had overthrown, but
after his death it was broken into three by his
generals, who established themselves as his
heirs. Antigonus Monophthalmos (‘The Oneeyed’)
took Macedonia itself and the old
European possessions; Seleucus Nicator (‘The
Victorious’) seized the satrapy of Babylonia
and most of the rest of Asia, while Ptolemy
Soter (‘The Saviour’) established himself as
Pharaoh of Egypt.
Greek literature was encouraged by these
rulers. For example, the ‘sister-loving’ Ptolemy
II and his consort Arsinoe, established a
THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN 500-100 BC
SILVER TETRADRACHM of King Antimachus I (c.181 BC)
of Bactria. This masterful portrait shows the king
wearing the traditional Macedonian kausia headdress.
Although from the most easterly part of the
Greek world, this coin shows the typical Hellenistic
interest in physiognomy.
60˚45˚30˚
45˚
30˚
Tropic of Cancer
Pergamum
Priene
Delos
Miletus
Cnidus
Lebena
Halicarnassus
Ephesus
Antioch
Antioch
Aspendos
Kourion
Nea Paphos
Trapezus Artaxata
Ecbatana
Hecatompylos
Alexandria Areion
Alexandria
Prophthasia
Alexandria
Alexandria
Olbia
Chersonnesus
Panticapaeum
Alexandria Eschate
Patala
Gabae
Maracanda
Ai Khanum
Taxila
Bactra
Pura
Carmana
Zadracarta
Apollonia
Samothrace CyzicusOlynthus
Eretria
Cos
Didyma
Odessus
Thessalonica
Pella
Aegae
Demetrias
Lysimachea
Istrus
Ancyra
Sinope
Petra
Jerusalem
Jericho
Apamea
Dura-Europos
Babylon
Ptolemais
Persepolis
Susa
Athens
Delphi
EpidaurusOlympia
Sicyon
Corinth
Vergina
Lefkadia
Kazanluk
Dilberzin
Sparta
Cyrene
Euhesperides
Alexandria
Memphis
Berenice
Seleucia
Heraclea
Byzantium
Tyre
Sidon
Nile
Euphr
ates
O
xus
Jaxartes
Tigris
Indus
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
B L A C K S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
ARABIANSEA
PERSIAN
GULFC
A
S
P
IA
N
SEA
ARAL
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
H I N D U
K U S H
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
C A U C A S U S
Z A
G
R
O
S
M
T
S
CYPRUSRHODES
LYCIA
BOSPORAN KINGDOM
CARIA
S E L E U C I D
K I N G D O MA R A B I A
I N D I A
GREECE
MACEDON
BITHYNIA
GALATIA
MEDIA
ATROPATENE
P A R T H I A
MARGIANA
E G Y P T
CAPPADO
CI
A
M
ESO
P
O
TA
M
IA
BABYLO
N
IA
PERS
IS
C A R M A N I A
S
Y
RIA
G E D R O S I A
D
R
A
N
G
IANA
A R A C H O S I A
S O G D I A N A
B A C T R I A
A R E I A
A
R
M
ENIA
HYR
CANIA
PAPHLAGONIA
spices
silk and spices
gem
s
and
spices
ivoryandslaves
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 The Hellenistic World, c.240 BC
independent Greek states
Antigonid Kingdom and dependencies
Ptolemaic Kingdom and dependencies
Kingdom of Pergamum
Hellenized non-Greek kingdoms
Seleucid Kingdom and vassal states
major sculpture centres
wall paintings (predominantly tombs)
important sanctuaries
mosaic workshops
Hellenistic royal palaces
gold finds
finds of silver plate
gem source
mint
currents in the Mediterranean
1 THE HELLENISTIC EMPIRES were essentially landbased.
They were connected by caravan routes
and, to some extent, by rivers such as the Tigris,
Euphrates and Nile. Luxury goods were
transported by sea through the Mediterranean.
The centres of patronage in this world were often
royal palaces. Fabulously rich kings were able to
collect artworks from distant places or
commission painters, gem-cutters and architects
to set up court studios.
40˚
10˚
Bononia (Felsina)
Marzabotto
Arretium
Vulci
Rome
Nemi
Caere
Tarquinii
Veii
Praeneste
Poseidonia (Paestum)
Elea
Taras (Tarentum)
Clusium
Urbs Vetus (Orvieto)
Morgantina
Locri
Croton
SyracuseAcragas
(Agrigentum)
Selinus
Segesta
Po
Tiber
A
D
R
I
A
T
I
C
S
E
A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
A
L P S
A
P E N
N
I N
E S
VENETI
CENOMANI
SENONES
LINGONES
BO
II
ETRUSC
ANS
FALISCI
LATINI
VOLSCI
CAMPANI
LUCANI
S I C I L I A N S
APU
LI
BRUTTII
MESSAPII
SAM
NITES
CORSICA
SARDINIA
I T A L Y
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
2 Italy, c.400 BC
peoples
paintings
bronzes
terracottas
jewellery
mosaics
Greek temples
non-Greek temples
sculpture
VOLSCI
THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN 500–100 BC
65
recording its manufacture in Rome) and some
extremely advanced gems, and coins of
thoroughly Greek style but inscribed in Latin.
Initially, Roman expansion was directed
against other similar Italian peoples as well as
the Greeks in the south. Ultimately, hegemony
in the Mediterranean had to be settled with
Carthage. Remarkably, Rome managed to defeat
this centralized monarchy without rejecting her
own republican constitution. The First Punic
War (264–241 BC) ended in the Carthaginians
being driven from Sicily. The Second Punic War
(218–201) began disastrously for Rome, with the
Carthaginians under Hannibal invading Italy.
However, it ended with the defeat of what was
by then the only power which could halt
Rome’s seemingly inexorable progress.
In the following century, wars against
Macedon and other Greeks led to an enormous
influx of wealth. Some Romans acquired great
personal fortunes, although there was always
pressure to give much of the loot from the sack
of cities such as Syracuse (211 BC) or Corinth
(in 146 BC) to the gods.
THE CULTURE OF THE WEST
Although power in the western Mediterranean
was in Roman hands by 200, the cultural
influence of the Greeks was overwhelming. In
many respects it took the militarily stronger
Romans captive. Some Greek cities remained
independent and flourished, notably Massalia.
Hellenization came mainly from Roman
conquerors wishing to emulate what they had
seen in Sicily and the east.
FUNERARY STELE from Bologna with a wolf suckling a
boy child (mid-fourth century), showing that other
Italians shared this device, associated with the
Roman myth of Romulus and Remus.
1 THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN was culturally very
diverse, with only small areas colonized by nonnative
peoples, Greeks and Phoenicians. Syracuse
and Carthage were organized like Hellenistic
monarchies, but one native state, the Roman
Republic, defeated them and assumed a potential
for patronage surpassing all of them. Concurrently,
trade routes shown through Gaul and the eastern
Alps were taken over by Roman merchants.
2 ITALY HAD A great diversity of peoples. Power
lay in city states, mainly on the coast. Apart
from the Greek cities of the south,the most
important were those of Etruria, rich from trade
with Gauls to the north as well as with Greeks
and Etruscans. Culturally related, but speaking a
different language, the Latins of Rome
ultimately took over the entire peninsula.
to Greek and Phoenician influence, it is very
distinctive in its character.
The same can be said of the art of the city
states of Etruria, which grew rich through
trade, for example, in the eastern Alps through
Spina. Etruscan painted tombs, ornate
jewellery and engraved gems, and bronze and
terracotta sculpture (though obviously Greek
influenced) could not be mistaken for the
productions of any other people. Other Italian
peoples such as Lucanians and Samnites were
likewise influenced by Greek artistic styles,
though – with a superb position halfway up
the western coast of Italy – the Latins of Rome
were even better able to benefit from trading
and cultural currents within the peninsula. Not
only were they in touch with Etruria and
Magna Graecia but even with Athens.
By the later fourth and early third century
BC, Rome was in the cultural forefront, as it
was a political leader in the Mediterranean.
Among surviving artworks are the bronzes of
Praeneste (one of which bears an inscription
Nevertheless Italian art remained
distinctive and far from uniform. Separate
styles of gem-carving for signet rings were used
in Campania and Etruria, and these were in
their turn different from those of the eastern
(Hellenistic) world. Etruscan terracotta
sculpture, especially the tradition of funerary
chests with images of the deceased are
similarly idiosyncratic; while the historian
Polybius (c.200–118 BC) records a distinctive
Roman custom associated with wax funerary
effigies. Religious considerations also dictated
the continued use of a specific type of temple
on a high podium, uninfluenced by the Greek
temple type. And of course, the Latin language
more than held its own in the West against the
progress of Greek.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
64
Greek expansion was always limited by
the dominant power of the Phoenicians of
Carthage, who controlled not only the western
part of North Africa (especially Tunisia) but
also had important trading posts in western
Sicily, Sardinia and southern Spain.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Influential as these essentially easternMediterranean
peoples were in moulding the
art and culture of the area, indigenous peoples
were of at least equal importance, one group
increasingly so. Apart from the barbarian art of
the Celts and related tribes such as the
Ligurians, a high culture developed in eastern
Spain characterized by elegant pottery, a
superb tradition of bronze casting and, above
all, sculpture. Although this owed something
THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN in this
period is, in many respects, a great contrast
with the East. Although there were powerful
city states in southern Italy (Magna Graecia)
and especially eastern Sicily – where the
kingdom of Syracuse had much in common
with some of the smaller Hellenistic
principalities – Greece was not the dominant
power here. Certainly, through being wellpositioned
for trade, some Greek communities
achieved considerable wealth and influence.
Important in this sense were Tarentum on the
heel of Italy, well-placed for trade up the
Adriatic, and Massalia and her colonies in
southern Gaul and in northeastern Spain
(notably Emporiae). They grew rich on
commerce up the Rhône and in the northern
part of Iberia.
THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN 500-100 BC
DAMA DE BAZA. This limestone sculpture of a
goddess seated on an elaborate winged and lionfooted
throne shows the mixed traditions of
Iberian sculpture in the fourth century. The deity is
related to the Punic Tanit and the Greek
Persephone, but the jewellery she wears is
distinctively Iberian. The statue seems to have
served as a funerary urn.
10˚
10˚
20˚
40˚
0˚
Cu
Cu Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Temple of Melkart
Río Tinto
mines
Nemi
Luceria
(Felsina)
Verona
Comum
Entremont
Roquepertuse
Glanum
Ensérune
Tolosa (Toulouse)
Mediolanum (Milan)
Bononia (Bologna)
Clusium
Ariminum
Spina
Perusia
Spoletium
Alba FucensOstia
Motya
Èze
Nicaea
Tivissa
Tarraco
Numantia Rhode
Emporiae
Ullastret
(Gerona)
Agathe
Santesteban
Despenaperros
Baza
CigarralejoPorcuna
Castulo
Tejada la Vieja
Massalia
˘
Carthago Nova
Ebusus
Paterno
Volsinii (Bolsena)
Taras (Tarentum)
Cumae
Santa
Eufemia
Avola
Gela
Sabratha
Oea
Leptis Magna
Vulci
Populonia
Rome
Caere
Pyrgi
Tarquinii
Cosa
Casilinum
(Capua)
Praeneste
Tarracina
Puteoli
Stabiae
Salernum
Pompeii
Nola
Veii
Neapolis
Herculaneum
Poseidonia
Heraclea
Sybaris
(Thurii)
Metapontum
Apollonia
Canusium
Beneventum
Aesernia
Kerkouane
Hadrumetum
Kef el-Blida
Utica
Zama
Cirta
Iol
Selinus
Nora
Tharros
Himera
Morgantina
Heraclea Minoa
Zancle (Messana)
Carthage
Syracuse
Segesta
Acragas
(Agrigentum)
Croton
Locri
Rhegion (Rhegium)
Montefortino
Arretium
Marzabotto
Pisae
Gades
Malaca
Carteia
Tingis
Abdera
Rusaddir
Carmona
Hemeroscopeum
Saguntum
Tagus
Eb
ro
Rhône
Po
Tiber
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
M
E
D
I T E R
R
A
N
E
A
N
S E A
ADRIATIC
SEA
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
A
L P S
P
Y
R
E
N
E E S
C E L T I B E R I A N S
B E R B E R S
I L L Y R I A N S
N U M I D I A N S
C
E
L
T
S
L I G U R I A N S
SICILY
SARDINIA
CORSICA
BA L E A R I C I S
A F R I C A
Tinfrom
Bri
tain
Tin from Britain
amber
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
cities of Celtic origin
peoples
currents in the Mediterranean
silver sources
silver finds
gold sources
gold finds
tin sources
BERBERS
tin trade routes
amber
amber trade route
centres of bronze manufacturing
mints
paintings
mosaics
palaces Cu
Greek temples
important early non-Greek temples
Punic sculpture
Iberian sculpture
Greek sculpture
Etruscan sculpture
Celto-Ligurian sculpture
copper sources
1 Greeks, Carthaginians and Etruscans: The Western Mediterranean World, c.450 BC
Punic settlement
Iberian settlement
Greek hegemony
Punic cities
Iberian cities
Greek cities
Italic cities
Etruscan cities
THE MEDITERRANEAN 100 BC–AD 100
67
Hill. In many respects the city was the direct
successor of the great Hellenistic royal cities,
such as Antioch, Pergamum and Alexandria –
though by providing more marble façades,
more public sculptures, more exotic beasts and
larger spectacles than had ever been seen
before, Rome demonstrated her superiority.
THE BRINGER OF CIVILIZATION
Roman culture sometimes appeared upstart
when viewed from the east, but it was the
bringer of Mediterranean civilization to much
of western Europe, including northern Gaul,
Germany and Britain. Such provinces fell into
Roman hands partly through conquest and
partly through diplomacy, an art in which the
Romans excelled. Julius Caesar and especially
Augustus founded settlements of Romans,
generally retired soldiers, throughout the
empire but most densely in the west, as
bastions of Roman culture.
Greco-Roman culture was not only spread
by colonists but even more resolutely by ruling
elites among the peoples under Roman sway.
Proud to be given Roman citizenship, they vied
with each other as public benefactors. Notable
for their wealth and influence over their
subjects were native princes such as Herod the
Great in Judaea (r. c.40 BC–4 BC), Juba II of
Mauretania (r.25 BC–AD 23) or King Togidubnus
in Britain (second half of first century AD), who
lived opulent life-styles in rooms veneered with
marble and floored with mosaic. Herod built
several palaces including Herodium and
Masada; Togidubnus is believed to have lived
in a large villa at Fishbourne, famous for its
elegant formal garden. Such men re-founded
cities: Caesarea Maritima by Herod, Caesarea
(modern Cherchel) by Juba and most probably
Noviomagus (Chichester) by Togidubnus,
endowing them with splendid buildings,
notably temples. They also used their wealth to
endow temples elsewhere, from Herod’s temple
to the Jewish God in Jerusalem to the temple of
Sulis Minerva at Bath, probably built by
Togidubnus.
Some arts appear to have been more
homogeneous than others. Silver plate,
produced in relatively few centres for very rich
patrons, was light and supremely portable. It
was spread through the empire and even
beyond the frontiers as diplomatic gifts.
Businessmen dined off the same plate as army
officers took on campaign. On the other hand,
sculpture, wall painting and even mosaic was
often made locally in provincial workshops.
Only the most important artists normally
travelled; the rest stayed and worked in their
home towns. It was not easy for those who
were not rich to go far, especially overland, and
this prevented total homogeneity of culture.
Regional schools in sculpture, painting,
mosaics and jewellery added interest to Roman
art. They also provided pools of non-Classical
ideas such as the frontality and linearity
displayed in some of the art of Syria and Egypt,
which may have influenced later art.
Augustus wanted to stress Roman and
Italian customs and religious rites. In his reign
the Latin language, handled by writers of
distinction, achieved parity with Greek. Yet
mainstream Roman art and architecture, both
public and private, could not avoid being a
development of the late Hellenistic culture,
making use of its existing rich repertoire of
mythology, iconography, symbolic
personification and vegetal decoration.
ODYSSEY FRESCO from a house on the Esquiline hill in
Rome. This scene shows the Laestrygones of Sicily
preparing to attack Ulysses’ ships, in a landscape
showing the rocky terrain of the Mediterranean
basin. In the mid-first century BC, classical Greek
culture was widely admired and imitated. Shortly
after the Odyssey frescoes were painted, Virgil
wrote The Aeneid, likewise with an Italian setting.
2 THE EMPIRE WAS HELD TOGETHER by ancient maritime
trade routes which in part reflect natural features
such as currents. Although portable works of art
such as silver plate were spread around the Roman
world, difficulties in communication – for example,
over mountains and through marshy areas – still
allowed a diversity of local artistic schools: for
example, of interior decoration and sculpture.
THE GEMMA AUGUSTEA, a sardonyx cameo cut in the
tradition of late Ptolemaic cameos but showing a
Roman subject – a victorious general visiting the
Emperor Augustus after a campaign. The stone
may have been imported from India and cut by a
Greek artist in Rome.
40°30°20°10°0°
30°
40°
50°
Gades
Tingis
Tarraco
Narbo
Mogontiacum
Messana
Leptis Magna
Rhegium
Panormus
Caesarea
Rome/Ostia
Puteoli
Salonae
Dyrrhachium
Thessalonica
Tomi
Olbia
Panticapaeum
Apollonia
Aquileia
Massilia
Ancona
Magdalensberg
Brundisium
Athens
Delos
Byzantium
Trebizond
Alexandria
Gaza
Rhodes
Myra
Ephesus
Sidon
Corinth
Cephalonia
Cyrene
Carthage
Pentelic
Quarries
Carrara
Barcino
Vasio
Fishbourne
Utica
Emporiae Praeneste
Tivoli
Rabat
Hildesheim
Arcisate
Vicarello
Thorey
Bursa
Hockwold
Verulamium
Hoby
Antioch
Capua
Jericho
Herodium
Masada
Herculaneum
Pergamum
Aphrodisias
Pompeii
Glanum
Brixia
Danube
Vistula
Loire
Nile
Tigris
Euphrate
s
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
M E D I T
E
R
R
A
N E A N S E A
BALTIC
SE
A
B L A C K S E A
RED
SEA
CAUCASUS
CARPATHIAN
M
T
S
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
CRETE
CYPRUS
BALEARIC IS
N
0
0
500 miles
750 kms
2 Art and Trade
Roman Empire
maritime trade routes
sculpture centre
painting school
silver workshop
finds of silver plate
gem workshop
1st century BC-1st century AD
mosaic school 1st century BC
mosaic school 1st century AD
marble quarry
66
THE PEOPLE OF LATIUM (the plain around
Rome) forged a new civilization after
throwing off their Etruscan rulers in about 500
BC. It reflected both the Etruscans (whose art
was very influenced by the Greeks) and the
Greek cities of southern Italy. Greek influence
intensified in the third and second centuries BC
through eastern Mediterranean contacts – at
first commercial and cultural, then political
and military, resulting in a vast Roman empire.
The process of eastern Mediterranean
conquest was only complete with the defeat of
the Ptolemaic empire in 31 BC by Octavian,
soon to become Augustus, the first emperor. By
the middle of the first century BC, however,
plundering Greek cities for treasures of
precious metals, gems and statues had already
come to seem uncouth. The writings of Romans
of the late republic and early empire confirm
the Hellenized character of their world. Cicero
expected to buy copies of Greek master-pieces
for his home and prosecuted the governor of
Sicily, Gaius Verres, for looting his province.
ROMAN PATRONAGE
The importance of Rome as a centre of
patronage is shown by finds such as that – in
the wreck of a ship at Nahdia off Tunisia – of
sculptures made in Athenian workshops for
export, as well as finds of numerous neo-Attic
sculptures from Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum
and elsewhere. Many of the most important
artists of the first century BC, such as the
sculptor and silversmith Pasiteles and the gemcutters
Aulos and Dioskourides, were Greeks
working for Roman patrons.
The same is true in the early empire when
Zenodoros set up statues both for the Gallic tribe,
the Arverni, and for the Emperor Nero. Early in
the second century, Trajan employed Apollodorus
of Damascus to build his forum, as Greek in
conception and decoration as it was Roman.
The city of Rome grew prodigiously in
the first centuries BC and AD, eventually to a
million or more inhabitants. They were
provided with ever more temples and public
places (the imperial fora), with horti (public
gardens), baths and major centres of
entertainment, including theatres, race tracks
and the enormous Flavian amphitheatre now
known as the Colosseum. These public
buildings provided unrivalled displays of art
ranging from Greek pedimental groups to gem
collections shown to the cognoscenti visiting
select temples. There were also the private
marvels of the imperial palaces on the Palatine
THE MEDITERRANEAN 100 BC-AD 100
3 THE CITY OF ROME was the focus of the empire up
to the third century AD, but many of its grandest
buildings date from the reign of Augustus and his
successors, who wished to impress foreign visitors
by the grandeur of its buildings and provide ‘bread
and circuses’ for the urban masses.
1 COLONIES CLUSTER IN THE WEST in this view of the
Roman Empire shortly after AD 100, when it
reached its greatest extent. They were leading
centres of Italian culture, but the many important
centres of Greek culture would in their turn
Hellenize members of the colonial elites, like the
young Hadrian – future emperor of Rome – from
Italica in southern Spain.
40°30°20°10°0°
30°
40°
50°
Epidaurus
Dodona
Claros
Antioch
Alexandria
Rhodes
Cyrene
Ephesus
Delos
Athens
Eleusis
Syracuse
Massilia
Pergamum
Augusta Taurinorum
Parma
Minturnae
Augusta Praetoria
Brixia
Cremona
Ateste
Sora
Bononia
Pisaurum
Ariminum Senia
Narona
Patrae
Falerio
Firmum
Ancona
Beneventum
Antiochia
Lystra
Olbasa
Comama
Berytus
Cremna
Parlais
Venusia
Noviodunum
Lugdunum
Tarraco
Tucci
Astigi
Emerita Augusta
Pax Iulia
Cartenna
Gunugu
Zuccabar
Aquae
Calidae
Rusazu
Saldae
GilgiliCirta
Thubinica
Utica
Thermae
Tyndaris
Catana
Simitthu
Sicca
Veneria
Neapolis
Uthina
Tupusuctu
Rusguniae
Ucubi Carthago
Nova
Osca
Calagurris
Turiasso
Bilbilis
Dertosa
Arausio
Forum Iulii
NuceriaVenafrum
Corduba
Pollentia
Palma
Clupea
Messana
Curubis
Tragurium
Celsa
Arelate
Baeterrae
Carthage
Capua
Butua
Acruvium
Lipara
Allifae
Calatia
Nola
Corinth
Buthrotum
Sinope
Narbo
Italica
Scodra
Lissus
Cassandrea
Lampsacus
Heraclea Pontica
Dium
Risinium
Pompeii
Praeneste
Casilinum
Florentia
Arretium
Interamnia
Clusium
Faesulae
Aleria
Mariana
Jerusalem - centre of unique counter-culture
Danube
Vistula
Loire
Nile
Tigris
Euphrate
s
Ebr
o
Tagus
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
BALTIC
S
EA
B L A C K S E A
RED
SEA
AEG
EA
N
SE
A
C A U C A S U S
CARPATHIAN
M
T
S
CORSICA
SARDINIA
CRETE
CYPRUS
BALEARIC IS
GERMANIA
INFERIOR
BRITANNIA
43-71
LYCIA 43
JUDAEA
EPIRUS
DACIA
106
ACHAEA
GERMANIA
SUPERIOR 83
ALPES
POENINAE
ALPES COTTIAE 64
ALPES
MARITIMAE
A F R I C A
A
F
R
I C A
ARABIA
106
MACEDONIA
MOESIA INFERIOR
SUPE
RIOR
NORICUMRAETIA
BELGICA
LUGDUNENSIS
AQUITANIA
NARBONENSISTARRACONENSIS
LUSITANIA
BAETICA
MAURETANIA 44
NUMIDIA
CYRENAICA
A E G Y P T U S
SYRIA
MESOPOTAMIA
115-117
ASSYRIA
114-117
CAPPADOCIA
18
ARMENIA
114-117
A S I A
GALATIA
CILICIA
T H R A C I A
4 6
BITHYNIA & PONTUS 107
PANNONIA
SUPERIOR
PANNONIA
INFERIOR
ILLYRICUM
N
0
0
500 miles
750 kms
1 Colony and Empire
Roman Empire, AD 14
provinces added after AD 14, with date
colonies founded up to death of Julius Caesar, 44 BC
colonies founded up to death of Augustus, AD 14
centres of Greek artistic patronage
places of pilgrimage
Castra Urbana
Stadium of
Domitian
Baths of
Nero
Odeon
Baths of Trajan
Golden House of Nero
Baths of Titus
Castra
Pantheon
Castra Praetoria
Baths of
Caracalla
Temple of
Apollo
Colosseum
Mausoleum
of Hadrian
Circus
of Hadrian
Saepta
Julia
Baths of Agrippa
Theatre of
Marcellus
Theatre of Balbi
Circus
Maximus
Forum of Augustus
Emporium
Mausoleum
of Augustus
Theatre of Pompey
Forum
Julium
Basilica Julia
Circus Flaminius
Forum
RiverTiber
Quirinal
Hill Viminal
Hill
Esquiline
Hill
Palatine Hill
Caelian
Hill
Aventine
Hill
Capitoline Hill
CAMPUS
MARTIUS
Via Praenestina
Via Latina
Campus
Vaticanus
Pagus
Janiculensis
Aurelian
Wall
Via Nomentana
Via Flaminia
Via Portuensis
Via Ostiensis
Via Ardeatina
Via Appia
Servian Wall
Via Aurelia
Via Tiburtina Vetus
Via Tiburtina
N
3 Rome
road
wall
gate
bridge
aqueduct
Republican buildings
Augustan buildings
later Imperial buildings
0 500 m
0 500 yds
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
THE MEDITERRANEAN AD 100–300
exotic products of India and Sri Lanka (such as
gems, perfumes and spices), and of equatorial
Africa (ivory and black slaves).
Although by modern standards the Romans
did not really change the nature of the planet,
the historian Tacitus places in the mouth of a
British chieftain Calgacus sentiments that
sound modern in their environmental alarm:
‘Brigands of the world, they have ruined the
land by their indiscriminate robbery, and now
they ransack the sea ... Theft, murder and rape,
the liars call empire; they create a desolation
and call it peace’ (Tacitus, Agricola 30).
While some of the items imported or
extracted had few redeeming features (the slave
trade and the trade in wild animals), others
allowed the creation of new categories of art,
decoration and dress. The coloured marbles
from Mons Porphyrites in Egypt became elegant
columns in Imperial buildings; amber from the
Baltic and a great variety of precious stones from
Afghanistan and India, including lapis lazuli,
garnets and even sapphires were worked into
jewellery in Rome, Aquileia and elsewhere;
fragments of silk from China have been found
as far to the west as York, while the spice trade
had a direct effect on art as seen in distinctive
pepper pots.
LOCAL SCHOOLS AND MATERIALS
Despite the large numbers of statues carved
from marbles quarried in Greece, Asia Minor or
Italy (Carrara), in many regions of the Empire,
including the northwestern provinces (Gaul and
Britain), the Balkans and Syria sculptors worked
in local limestones and sandstones. These
works are often far more individual, perhaps
because they were not normally exported.
2 OUTSIDE THE MEDITERRANEAN most provinces were self-sufficient in their basic
needs, and mainly traded luxury items. Within the Mediterranean trade was
important for a wider variety of goods (to make up for occasional crop
failures or the lack of certain raw materials). Particularly important for art
were the numerous stone quarries. Though most were of only local
significance, some provided stone across the Empire, which was transported
in unhewn blocks or as partially worked pieces, such as columns or sarcophagi
which would be finished on site. There were huge stone depots at Ostia and
Rome. Coloured marbles were much sought after for decorating walls and
pavements and also for statuary, but the most important trade was in white
marble. The best-known quarries for these were in Greece and Asia Minor,
such as those providing marble for sculpture from Pentelikon in Greece.
DETAIL FROM A MOSAIC (‘The Great Hunt’) from the
Villa Filosofiana near Piazza Armerina, Sicily,
showing the embarcation of an antelope (perhaps
at Carthage) destined for the amphitheatre at
Rome (c.AD 300, preserved in situ).
30°
40°
50°
0° 10° 20° 30°
Cu
Cu
Londinium
Augusta
Trevirorum
Colonia Agrippinensis
Mogontiacum
Augusta
Vindelicorum
Mediolanum
Bononia
Salonae
Carnuntum
Syracuse
Tarentum
Nicomedia
Sinope
Athens
Rome
Ostia
Lugdunum
Byzantium
Narbo
Tarraco
Carthago
NovaCorduba
Emerita Augusta
Tingis Caesarea
Gades
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
M E D
I
T
E
R
R
A N E A N S E A
B
L A C K S E A
RED
SEA
BRITANNIA
GERMANIA
INFERIOR
GERMANIA
SUPERIOR
BELGICA
LUGDUNENSIS
AQUITANIA
NARBONENSIS
TARRACONENSIS
LUSITANIA
BAETICA
MAURETANIA
TINGITANA
MAURETANIA
CAESARIENSIS NUMIDIA
CYRENAICA
AEGYPTUS
ARABIA
JUDAEA
CYPRUS
CILICIA
CRETA
SICILIA
ITALIA
SARDINIA
CORSICA
ALPES
COTTIAE
ALPES
MARITIMAE
ALPES
POENINAE
EPIRUS
ACHAEA
MACEDONIA
LYCIA-PAMPHYLIA
DALMATIA
PANNONIA
NORICUM
RAETIA
DACIA
THRACIA
MOESIA
INFERIORMOESIA
SUPERIOR
CAPPADOCIA
A S I A
GALATIA
BITHYNIA AND
PONTUS
S Y R I A
A
F
R
I
C
A
Hadrian’s
Wall
from
Afghanistan/
India
from India/
Sri Lanka/
S Arabia
from
China
from
China
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
Almost every city had its workshops of wallpainters
and stuccoists, including Rome (note
the catacombs) and Ostia – and ranging from
Verulamium and Colonia Agrippina in the west
to Leptis Magna in Tripolitania to Dura Europos
(with its strikingly beautiful painted synagogue)
on the eastern border of the empire. Funerary
portraits on wooden panels from the Faiyum in
Egypt are good evidence for portable painting,
which was probably widespread.
Mosaicists used mainly local stones,
together with glass and pottery, and the work
of regional workshops can often be recognized,
for instance those of Antioch, Cyprus,
Carthage and Augusta Trevirorum (Trier). No
less than six distinctive schools have been
recognized in Britain alone, though even here
they drew on a common stock of ideas,
originally brought in by artists from other
provinces or else recorded in portable media,
such as illustrated scrolls and, later, books.
In this respect the most important material
in the empire was probably papyrus from the
Nile Delta, the main medium for permanent
record-keeping (though in northwestern
Europe slivers of wood were often used as
substitutes). In the late Roman period
parchment was used for luxury books, and
there was a vast manufacture from animal
skins ranging through dyed and gilded leathers
to utilitarian objects such as boots and horsetrappings.
Ultimately, the art of the Empire
rested on insatiable consumerism.
AKEY FACTOR IN the development of art in the
Roman Empire was the wealth derived
from agriculture – wine, olive oil, grain, and to a
more limited degree, the produce of the sea –
which created aristocracies able to purchase art
on a large scale. The other determining
influence was the geographical scope and variety
of the empire. The terrain in many regions was
difficult, for example, the mountains of the
Balkans, the hinterland of Asia Minor, the
Atlas Mountains and even northern Britain,
and areas of desert in parts of the Levant, Egypt
and North Africa. Thus, communication by sea
was often more reliable than that by land,
though the Mediterranean has yielded
many shipwrecks (the density around
France and Italy merely reflects the
focus of recent marine archaeology).
Few men travelled through the
entire Empire – Hadrian (AD
117–138) was exceptional in this
respect. Provinces and even parts of
provinces always differed markedly
from one another, and almost every
town of any size had its own traditions
in arts such as sculpture and mosaic
as it did in mundane crafts such as
pottery. Nevertheless, culture, based
on the universal use of Greek and Latin,
the idea of the city as the basis for
civilized life, and efforts to standardize
dress and the appearance (if not the
substance) of religious cult lent the
Empire unity.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
THE MEDITERRANEAN AD 100-300
68
1 SILVER HOARDS have been found all across the Empire, particularly in the north
and west, though silverware was equally valued in the east. The quality of the
craftsmanship, together with the value of the material, made it a much-traded
commodity, though little is known of the individual silversmiths. Mosaic
schools arose in almost every major town of the empire, and especially in Asia
Minor and North Africa. Mosaic pavements became a very popular art form,
and genuine regional schools developed with their own distinctive styles. By
contrast, the models for the local sculpture schools frequently came from far
away. Often local sculptors adapted classical models in ways that suggested
little understanding of the canons of classical art.
TRANSPORTING ART AND MATERIALS
Despite great difficulties, works of art and raw
materials were extensively transported, as shown
by the well-studied finds of silver hoards, and
Attic and Proconnesian sarcophagi in map 2
(the last two are types of sarcophagi named
after their regions of main production).
The trade in marble and metals provides
another graphic instance: both were often
extracted from almost inaccessible
mountainous regions, though the building of
roads, bridges and large ships with substantial
port facilities made this prodigious exploitation
of natural resources possible. From the edges
of the Roman world and beyond came the
30°
40°
50°
0° 10° 20° 30° 40°
Colonia Agrippina
Glanum
Pompeii
Thamugadi
Caesarea
Lixus
Volubilis
Italica
Conimbriga
Sabratha
Delos
Paphos
Augusta Emerita
Luguvallium
Corinium
Verulamium
Camulodunum
Aquae Sulis
Augusta Trevirorum
Celeia
Sarmisegetuza
Adamklissi
Lugdunum
Vienna
Augustodunum
Agedincum
Aventicum
Salonae
Carthage
Leptis Magna
Pergamum
Proconnesus
Aphrodisias
Palmyra
Dura Europos
Hatra
Syracuse
Agrigentum
Tarentum
Dyrrhachium
Neapolis
Athens
Corinth Sparta
Alexandria
Ascalon
Philadelphia
Fayum
Tyre
Ephesus
Rhodes
Cyrene
Berenice
Antioch
Sidon
Attaleia
Tarsus
Rome
Ostia
Pisae
Aquileia
Byzantium
Thessalonica
NaissusNarbo
Arelate
Burdigala
Tarraco
Nemausus
Nile
Ebro
Loire
Seine
Rhône
Danube
Tagus
Gar
onne
Po
Tiber
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
M E D
I
T
E
R
R
A N E A N S E A
B L A C K S E A
RED
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
PYRENEES
CYPRUS
CRETE
SICILY
SARDINIA
A F R I C A
BALEARIC IS
CORSICA
gem and
amber working
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Art in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
local sculpture schools
major mosaic workshops
finds of Proconnesian
sarcophagi
finds of Attic sarcophagi
Roman imperial silver hoards
painting
2 Trade in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
province boundaries
Roman roads
site of 4 or more shipwrecks
major sources of traded items:
gold
silver
copper
tin
iron
lead
finished bronze items
glass
jet
amber
Cu
papyrus
Samian pottery
grain
olive oil
wine
spices
silks
perfumes
gems
ivory
slaves
wild beasts
major quarries of
decorative stones
(marble, coloured stones,
porphyries, granites)
M
BACCHUS SUPPORTED BY A SATYR – an amber
figurine of the third century, found in a
tomb at Esch in the Netherlands. Amber was
a prized luxury, believed to possess magical
powers. It was obtained from the Baltic,
worked in Aquileia, northern Italy – where
amber figurines and ornaments have been
found in quantity – and disseminated
throughout the Roman world.
69
EUROPE AD 300–600
71
and at Cologne. The latter industry, perhaps in
part in the hands of Syrian craftsmen, survived
the end of Roman control in the fifth century
and was involved in making claw-beakers and
other barbarian types. ‘Cage’ cups in g1ass
(cups with an openwork outer layer) seem to
have been widespread, made in both western
and eastern workshops. It is probable that the
models were far more precious vessels in hard
stone. Finally, gold glasses – that is, layered
glasses ornamented with thin sheets of gold
leaf showing portraits, Christian scenes and
(very occasionally) Jewish or pagan subjects –
are associated with Rome and were sometimes
employed decoratively in the catacombs.
The most characteristic of the precious
materials used at this time was elephant ivory
– normally for small boxes (generally with
biblical scenes) or decorative plaques, often
hinged together to comprise an invitation to a
wedding. Sometimes much larger objects were
made, such as Bishop Maximian’s throne at
Ravenna. Not only was ivory very beautiful and
capable of taking excellent carving, but it was
also very expensive. Quite clearly ivory was a
suitable homage to pay an emperor. One of the
finest surviving diptych-leaves shows Justinian
on horseback and various offerings being
brought to him, including an elephant tusk.
Other diptych-leaves show lion and stag hunts,
demonstrating the same cavalier attitude to
animal resources displayed by ‘The Great Hunt’
mosaic from Piazza Armerina (see p.69).
The superb cypress doors of St Sabina,
Rome (early fifth century), carved with biblical
scenes, stand for the widespread use of timber,
decorative as well as functional. Surviving
timber lintels and beams in Cairo and at St
Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, suggest
that wood-carving achieved real distinction at
this time. Large timbers were in fact required
to roof all the large basilicas and argue a long
tradition of organized forest management.
Underlying the surprising achievements of
the Late Empire was an enormous volume of
trade. For example, fifth- and sixth-century
wine and oil amphorae are found in bulk
throughout the Mediterranean and beyond at
sites like Tintagel in Cornwall. This exchange of
commodities helped to support patronage.
SPLENDID SILKS AND JEWELLED METALWORK in this wall
mosaic in St Vitale, Ravenna (AD 546–547) of the
Emperor Justinian and his retinue emphasize
luxury and eastern contacts.
30°
30°
40°
20°10°
0°
30°
Paris
Dorchester
Sparta
Toulouse
Rouen
Trier
Córdoba
Complutum
(Alcalá de Henares)
Pedrosa
de la Vega
Cologne
Pisa
Valence-
sur-BaiseServiac
Tarragona
Desenzano
Centcelles
Cádiz
Bordeaux
Nantes
Balline
Balinrees
Toledo
Thuburbo Maius
Thamugadi
(Timgad)
Marseille
Milan
Kaiseraugst
Cagliari
Lyon
Piazza
Armerina
Sabrata
Ostia
Memphis
Sinop
Durrës
London
York
Cirencester
Water Newton Mildenhall
Hoxne
Canterbury
Brough-on-Humber
Traprain Law
Corbridge
Arles
Aquileia
Porec
Ravenna
Rome
Naples
Ephesus
Sardis Antioch
Zeugma
St Catherine’s
Monastery
Carthage
Nicopolis
Argos
Alexandria
Thessalonica
Trebizond
Nebo
Apamea
Palmyra
Nea Paphos
Madaba
Tiberias
Ma`on Nirim
Jerusalem
Tyre
Hama
Constantinople
Solin
A F R I C A
SCANDINAVIA
BRITAIN
BALKANS
LEVANT
I B E R I A
ITALY
GREECE
E G Y P T
GAUL
ASIA MINOR
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
CRETE
CYPRUS
BALEARIC IS
ALPS
A T L A S M T S
PYRENEES
CAUCASUS
S A H A R A
ARABIAN
DESERT
Mt Sinai
D
niester
Rhone
L
oire
Tagus
Ebr
o
R
hine
Elbe
Oder
N
ile
D
anube
NORTH
SEA
BALTIC SEA
M E D I T
E
R
R
A N E A N S E A
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
B L A C K S E A
RED
SEA
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
2 Late Roman Art
African Red Slip Ware, 6th century AD
Phocaean Ware, mid-5th-6th century AD
finds of silver plate, 4th century AD
glass-making centres
major churches with surviving vault mosaics
late Roman floor mosaics
late Roman sarcophagi
maritime trade routes
L
ycus
S E A O F M A R M A R A ( P r o p o n t i s )
G
O
LDE
N
H
O
RN
(Chry
sokeras)
BOSPORUS
KASHMIR
PSAMATHIA
EXOKI
O
NION
P
HANARION
EXOPHILOPAT
ION
PHILADELPHION
XEROLOPHOS
DEUTERON
XEROLOPHOS
PEMPTON
BLACHERNAE
STRATEGION
SYCAE
ACROPOLIS
TRITON
BLANGA
Harbour of
Theodosius
Cistern of
St Mocius
Golden
Gate
Cistern of
Aetius
Gate of
Charisius
Church of the Mother of God
Gate of Plataea
Cistern
of Aspar
Aqueduct
of Valens
Harbour of
Kontoskalion
Hippodrome
Augusteum
Hagia Sophia
St Irene
Baths of Zeuxippus
Imperial Palace
Forum of Constantine
Sts Sergius and Bacchus
Forum of
Theodosius
Forum of
Arcadius
Church of
the Holy Apostles
mese
mese
WallofTheodosius(AD
413)
WallofConstantine(AD
330)
N
0
0
1 miles
1.5 kms
3 Constantinople
wall
cistern
major building
built-up area by c. AD 413
church
2 MARITIME TRADE continued to flourish, servicing
the Justinianic revival of the sixth century, with
African and Levantine pottery reaching as far as
western Britain. The Late Roman dominus and
domina passed their lives in mosaic-floored
rooms, being served from silver vessels. Equal
opulence was evident in Christian church vaults
and floors, sparkling with mosaic.
33 CONSTANTINOPLE was founded by Constantine I in
324 on the European side of the Bosporus, and
maintained by his successors as a capital to rival
Rome itself, with its great Theodosian walls,
several fora, the hippodrome, the imperial palace
and many churches, especially Hagia Sophia. It
remained the eastern capital until 1453.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
70
THE LATE ROMAN EMPIRE includes periods
of political dislocation, invasion, civil unrest
and famine. However, throughout the Roman
and former Roman provinces, from Britain to
Syria, the art continued to be rich. There is
impressive evidence for long-distance trade
reaching, as earlier, into sub-equatorial Africa
for ivory, to India for gems and spices and even
to China for silks, though in Justinian’s time the
secret of the silk worm and silk manufacture
came to Constantinople.
Most patronage was now private, wealth
being lavished in particular on the palatial
houses of the aristocracy. Mosaic floors survive
in considerable numbers and can often be
assigned to particular workshops – for
instance, those of the Cirencester region in
Britain, Carthage in North Africa, Nea Paphos
in Cyprus, Sparta in Greece and Antioch and
Apamea in Syria. Veined marbles were still
widely used and are commented on by writers.
There was some use and re-use of marble
sculpture. However, the only substantial
sculpture trade was in marble sarcophagi,
which now often had Christian scenes.
The sarcophagi were often placed in or
around churches. Churches and baptisteries
were patronized by emperors like Constantine
(St Peter’s in Rome and the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem), or Justinian (Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople), or else by churchmen, such as
Bishop Patiens at Lyon, Bishop Ambrose at
Mediolanum (Milan) or Bishop Neon at
Ravenna. The church of St Vitale at Ravenna,
though dedicated by Bishop Maximian, was
financed by a banker called Julianus. Not only
were such buildings – with their marble and
mosaic décor – public displays of wealth and
power for this life, they ensured the pious
donor repose in the next, especially when
interred near the remains of holy men. In
Palestine, and sometimes elsewhere, especially
in Asia Minor (for example, at Sardis), similar
patronage was lavished by rich Jews on wellappointed
synagogues.
The minor arts are of especial interest.
Some of the silver treasures are very large – for
instance, those from Mildenhall, England, and
from Kaiseraugst, Switzerland, or the so-called
Sevso Treasure, possibly from Hungary. Many
of the vessels used at table are chased with
scenes from mythology, hunting and feasting.
Contacts with the east are shown not only by
pepper pots to include this much prized spice
but by the evident influence of western silver
on that of Sasanian Persia, which in its turn
was a model for the plate of western China.
Intricate workmanship was much prized,
whether in the cutting of sheet gold into
openwork patterns, inlaying gold or silver with
niello (silver sulphide) or the skilful setting of
gems in jewellery. The so-called barbarian
peoples in Visigothic Spain, Frankish Gaul and
Anglo-Saxon Britain produced their own
distinctive cloisonné jewellery. Here, too, a taste
for texture and the radiance of gems (often
brought in from the east, together with cowrie
shells and bronze vessels) is a feature.
Glass manufacture was carried on wherever
suitable sands existed, especially in the Levant
EUROPE AD 300-600
A SILVER-GILT PEPPER POT (piperatorium), one of four
from a rich treasure buried at Hoxne, Suffolk, in
the fifth century and now held in the British
Museum in London. This one takes the form of a
Late Roman empress. Its style suggests that it was
made in northwest Europe, perhaps even in
Britain, but the precious pepper it contained was
imported from India.
30°
30°
40°
20°10°
0°
30°
Paris
Troyes
Trier
Córdoba
Cologne
Genova
Pisae
Narbonne
Bordeaux
Saragossa
Tarragona
Cádiz
Toledo
Marseille
Mediolanum
Caralis
Lyon
Lisbon
Besançon
Leptis Magna
Memphis
Cyrene
Sinope
London
York
St Albans
Arles
Geneva
Aquileia
Ravenna
Rome
Naples
Ephesus Antioch
St Catherine’s
Monastery
Carthage
Sabratha
Nicopolis
Athens
Alexandria
Philippi
Thessalonica
Trapezus
Damascus
Caesarea
Bethlehem
Jerusalem
Mosul
Constantinople
Nicomedia
S L A
V
S
P I C T S
C
E
L
T
S
BASQUES
B E R B E R S
F I N N O U
G R I A N S
S L A V S
IRISH
BRITONS
IRISH
A F R I C A
SCANDINAVIA
BRITAIN
I B E R I A ITALY
GREECE
E G Y P T
GAUL
ASIA MINOR
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
CRETE
CYPRUS
BA
LEARIC IS
A L P S
A T L A S M T S
PYRENEES
CAUCASUS
S A H A R A
ARABIAN
DESERT
Mt Sinai
Dnieper
D
niester
RhôneLoire
Tagus
Elbe
Oder
N
ile
Danube
N O R T H
S E A
BALTIC SEA
M E D I T
E
R
R
A N E A N S E A
ENGLISH
CHA
N
N
EL
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
B L A C K S E A
RED
S
EA
370
376
455
410
439
418
406
452
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
1 The Disintegration of the Roman Empire
important churches
Huns
Vandals,Alans, Sueves
Visigoths
Burgundians
Ostrogoths
Angles, Saxons, Jutes
Lombards
Franks
Empire of Justinian, AD 565
successor kingdoms:
East Roman Empire
Kingdom of the Vandals
Kingdom of the Visigoths
Burgundian Kingdom
Kingdom of the Ostrogoths
Sasanian Empire
Kingdom of the Sueves
Frankish Kingdom
1 THREATENED BY BARBARIANS through the fourth
century and especially in the fifth century, the
western empire collapsed, though many elements
of its culture survived. The eastern empire was
eventually able to deflect its enemies. Mainly of
Germanic origin, the barbarians were forced
westwards by pressure from the nomads of
central Asia.
AFRICA 500 BC–AD 600
73
the name of a queen, Shanakdakhete. It is,
outside Egypt, the earliest writing in Africa.
AXUM
The city of Axum, located high on the
Ethiopian plateau, was the centre of a kingdom
which by the fourth century AD was a power in
northeast Africa and was responsible for the
collapse of Meroë in about AD 350. By this time
the people of Axum had developed a writing
system for their own language, Ge’ez. This
system was originally derived from the writing
of ancient south Arabia. The Ge’ez language is
now used only in the rituals of the Ethiopian
church, but it is the basis for the modern
Amharic script. Some inscriptions have also
been found in Greek, since a trade route had
been opened to the Mediterranean via the Red
Sea, and Greek merchants had come to Axum
bringing their language with them. The main
port was at Adulis on the Red Sea coast, and
50˚40˚30˚20˚10˚
30˚
20˚
20˚
30˚
10˚
10˚
0˚
Taruga
Nok
Samun Dukiya
Jenne
Taghaza
Mogador
Taoudenni
Bilma
Meroë
Axum
Musawwarat es-Sufra
Nuri
Napata
Kawa
Lydenburg
Alexandria
Memphis
Thebes
Syene
Philae
Niger
Benue
Congo
Zamb
ezi
Nile
BlueNile
WhiteNile
Lake
Victoria
Lake
Chad
Lake
Rudolf
Lake
Tanganyika
Lake
Nyasa
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
M E D
I
T
E
R R A N E A N S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
K A L A H A R I
D E S E R T
W E S T E R N
D E S E R T
S A H A R A
TASSILI
PLATEAU
TIBESTI
JEBEL
OWEINATHOGGAR
ETHIOPIAN
HIGHLANDS
ATLAS MOUNTAINS
NAMIBDESERT
salt,ivory,gold,
animalskins,slaves
Cowrie shells from the
Indian Ocean to Meroë.
Used in the decorative
arts from AD 100.
Domestic cattle everywhere
in Africa except heavily
forested areas by AD 600
Pottery in southern
Africa by AD 100
Sheep and goats
in eastern southern
Africa by AD 300
Yam
cultivation
from AD 100
c. AD 400-500
c.500 BC-AD 200
salt,glass,pottery,m
etalwork
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
1 Iron Age Africa, 500 BC-AD 600
frontier of the Roman Empire in AD 300
probable limits of domestic cattle, c.500 BC
spread of domestic animals and cereals
salt deposits
main trans-Saharan trade routes
earliest known iron-working
spread of iron working
main rock art areas
rock art showing wheeled chariots
terracotta sculpture
1 SEVERAL IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS took place at
this time, of which the most important for
subsequent development in Africa was the
appearance of iron-smelting. The map shows
the two best-known iron-smelting sites, Meroë
and Taruga, both of which flourished in the
5th century BC. Another important change was
the spread of domestic animals southwards.
The main areas of rock art are indicated and
the ones in the Sahara are of special interest
because they show many illustrations of
chariots, which appear to indicate routes
across what by this time had become desert.
AXUMITE STELA. This
monolithic stone stela
marks a royal burial at
Axum. It is 21 metres (68 ft)
in height, and with 3
further metres (10 ft)
underground, it represents
a royal building with nine
storeys. One even taller
stela, shattered by a fall,
lies nearby. It is likely that
royal residences were built
with façades like this.
Simpler, undecorated pillars
may mark important, nonroyal
burials.
traces of foreign merchants’ activities have
been found there. The inscriptions provide
information about the rulers and their military
activities, such as the attack by King Aezanes
on Meroë, and military expeditions to south
Arabia by King Kaleb in the sixth century AD.
Axum is best-known for the massive stone
stelae erected to mark royal burials, as well as
simpler, monolithic pillars that probably mark
important, non-royal burials. Recent
archaeological excavations in the area of the
group of stelae on the edge of the present-day
town of Axum have revealed some of the
underlying royal tombs, and though many of
these had been plundered, a number of luxury
objects brought to Axum by Mediterranean
trade have been found.
The Axumite kingdom was, apart from
Ptolemaic Egypt, the first in Africa to produce a
coinage, and many coins are known. Some
have a cross on the reverse showing that
Christianity had reached the area by the early
centuries AD and gradually superseded the
pagan relgions of earlier times. Because the
earliest Christian missionaries came from
Egypt, the Ethiopian church became associated
with the Coptic church of Egypt, and until
recently the head of the church was always
appointed by the Coptic patriarch in Egypt.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
72
DURING THIS PERIOD there was an
increase in human control over Africa’s
natural resources. The smelting of iron
became common throughout much of the
continent and, wherever climatic conditions
made it possible, there was a development of
crop-growing and animal husbandry.
The earliest iron-producing sites were
associated with the famous Nok terracotta
figures at Taruga in Nigeria, and at Meroë in
the Sudan. At both places iron was being
smelted and tools and weapons were being
made from the sixth century BC.
Throughout the Sahara there are many
rock paintings and engravings showing light,
horse-drawn vehicles, and their distribution
may indicate routes from the Mediterranean
towards the River Niger. By the beginning of
the second century BC, a large town existed at
Jenne, where the earliest cultivation of African
rice took place. There, and in many other
places along the valley of the Niger, elaborate
terracotta figures, many depicting warriors on
horseback, were made.
TERRACOTTAS
During the early centuries of this period in SubSaharan
Africa the main art forms were
terracotta heads, and sometimes complete
figures, which have been found at several
places. The best-known are those of the Nok
culture discovered throughout the Jos plateau
of northern Nigeria. Many of these pieces were
found in the course of mining for tin. At two
small ancient villages located at Taruga and
Samun Dukiya, examples of terracotta art as
well as evidence for iron smelting were found.
These domestic traces are dated to between 300
and 100 BC, but some Nok pieces are earlier.
Much further south, pottery heads of
humans and one of an unidentified animal and
belonging to a different tradition, dating to the
fifth century AD or later, have been found at
Lydenburg in South Africa. Their use is not
known but the two largest could have been
used as masks.
CENTRAL AFRICA
This region has been much less studied than
the rest of the African continent, and dense
forest in some areas has been an obstacle to
research. Iron-smelting was widespread from
about 500 BC, and characteristic pottery types
are known from village sites. Iron-smelting
took place throughout the area, and may
indicate that Bantu-speaking people settled
there. Others moved south in what has
become known as the ‘Bantu migration’; as a
result, related Bantu languages are now
spoken widely over the whole of central and
southern Africa.
The spread of these languages has been
much discussed and there are several theories
as to how they came to dominate the area. The
Bantu language may have originated in
Cameroon, and it has been suggested that
agriculture, animal herding, ironworking and
pottery-making were all associated with
speakers of Bantu languages, who ultimately
spread throughout southern Africa.
MEROË
There is more information available about the
cultures of the Nile Valley, and the presence of
a literate civilization in Egypt enables
archaeologists to precisely date events. The
Egyptians penetrated south of the first cataract of
the Nile at Philae and subsequently ruled
northern Nubia from c.1550 BC. When Egyptian
rule was withdrawn from the area in c.1100 BC an
indigenous state arose which, by 500 BC, had
developed a culture based on two towns, Napata
and Meroë. By that date it is likely that Meroë was
where the rulers lived, though their burials
continued to be near Napata until early in the
third century BC. From that date, the rulers were
buried at Meroë and continued to be interred
there until the collapse of the Meroitic kingdom
in the fourth century AD.
The town of Meroë consists of a large area of
domestic houses built of sun-dried mud bricks,
and a royal palace, parts of which are built of
sandstone. There were several temples, also built
of sandstone. In one part of the town were the
furnaces for iron-smelting, for which ancient
Meroë has become famous in modern times.
The people of Meroë developed a writing
system based on an Egyptian model but used
their signs as an alphabet of 23 letters. The
earliest use of this writing system that can be
dated is of the early second century BC, although
it was probably in use before that date. It gives
AFRICA 500 BC-AD 600
40˚30˚
20˚
30˚
Cu
L C
B
S
S
S
Syene
Philae
Kalabsha
Faras
Amara
Kawa
Old Dongola
Jebel
Barkal
Kurru
Nuri
Napata to c.300 BC
Meroë
Wad ben Naqa
Musawwarat es-Sufra
from c. 300 BC
Naqa
50 BC-c. AD 50 Soba
Sennar
Jebel Moya
Adulis
Axum
Matara
Nile
Atbara
BlueNile
First Cataract
Second Cataract
Third Cataract
Fourth
Cataract
Fifth Cataract
Sixth Cataract
Lake Tana
WhiteNile
N U B I A N
D E S E R T
W E S T E R N
D E S E R T
S A H A R A
ISLAND OF
MEROË
Meroitic cemetery,
300 BC-AD 250
Axumite royal-stela
burial c.AD 250-700
664 BCc.AD
310
295 BC-c.AD 320 20 BC-c.AD 20
R
E
D
S
E
A
GULF
OF ADEN
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
Resources:
gold
copper
limestone
calcite
(Egyptian
alabaster)
basalt
sandstone
fertile area
pastoralism
desert tracks
Cu
L
C
B
S
2 THIS MAP OF THE NILE to the south
of Egypt shows activities, towns
and royal palaces in the kingdom
of Meroë and the surrounding
area until just after the arrival of
Christian missionaries in the middle
of the sixth century AD.
It also shows the area of the
Axumite kingdom and the main
trade routes of the period which
made use of the Red Sea and went
via the Gulf of Aden as
far as India. Aezanes, king of Axum
in c.AD 350, invaded Meroë as
described in an inscription in Greek
in Axum. Two Axumite inscriptions,
again in Greek, as
well as a coin have also been
found at Meroë.
TERRACOTTA HEAD from the Nok culture of northern
Nigeria, dated to approximately the fifth century BC.
The Nok culture is believed to have lasted for a few
hundred years. Many figurines are now known from
this artistic tradition and from excavations at Taruga.
Nok culture is known to be contemporary with the
earliest known iron-smelting from Sub-Saharan Africa.
It is likely that many of the heads were part of
complete figures but none have yet been found.
The Upper Nile,
500 BC-AD 600
extent of Meroë,
500 BC-AD 350
extent of Axum,
AD 300-700
Meroitic attack on
Egypt, c. 23 BC
Roman attack, 23 BC
Axumite invasion, AD 350
Egyptian town with temple
royal pyramid burials
Meroitic town, with date
of temple-building
trade routes
probable trade routes
2
THE NILE VALLEY 500 BC–AD 300
75
In urban and domestic art, new products
and techniques were developed or improved
upon, such as glassblowing, bronze casting and
mould-made pottery figurines. A popular
Egyptian product was faience, a quartz mixture
that was moulded, glazed and fired to a green
or blue colour for small sculptures, bowls,
vases and other objects.
Glass and ceramic vessel forms and
decoration styles parallel developments
elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. They
attest to the extent of communication and
trade in this region. Egypt’s caravan, road and
seafaring routes gave it a pivotal military and
economic position, and the arts and crafts
within Egypt were affected by the movement of
people and ideas.
SOCIAL AND ARTISTIC CHANGE
Whereas Persian rule had minimal effect on
Egyptian cultural life, the Greeks had a great
impact. Greek culture was transmitted first
through trade contacts, especially in the Delta,
and, under the Ptolemies, through immigrants.
As Egypt was transformed into a Hellenistic
kingdom and then a Roman province, changes
in its administration altered the country’s
social structure and, consequently, the
make-up of the elite. In the Roman period,
status depended not only on wealth but also
on social standing, through belonging to the
gymnasium, holding a local office, and having
Roman, Alexandrian, or metropolitan citizenship,
all of which were highly desirable and
stringently regulated.
Egypt came to value Greek products and
art forms, sometimes adapting them in local
materials. For instance, popular figural themes
like grotesques (exaggerated depictions of the
poor and infirm) were reproduced in terracotta
figurines. The postures and costumes standard
to Greek and Roman sculpture, where they
would be executed in marble, were carved in
plentiful Egyptian limestone, as were classical
architectural elements such as columns,
friezes and capitals. Cities enjoyed Greek and
Roman features like baths, theatres and
colonnaded streets with public statuary.
Larger buildings and houses might have
mosaic floors, and smaller houses might have
a painted wall scene or small niche for
statuettes, for religious observances at home.
Conventional Egyptian art and architecture
became increasingly specialized for use in
temples and the funerary sphere. Egyptian
deities were widely worshipped and some,
especially Isis, had flourishing cults throughout
the Mediterranean. Few people funded
tombs or statues for themselves, but the
decoration of mummies was often elaborate
and used versatile materials such as cartonnage,
plaster and painted linen or wood. Some
funerary art included portraits of the deceased,
executed in the naturalistic style of Greek and
Roman art and depicting contemporary
fashions in hair, clothing and jewellery.
Hawara
er-Rubayat
Arsinoe
Narmouthis
Theadelphia
Tebtunis
Herakleopolis Magna
Karanis
Bacchias
Philadelphia
Soknopaiou Nesos
Dionysias
Lake Moeris
Bahr Yu
suf
N
0
0
10 miles
10 kms
2 TEMPLES TO THE EGYPTIAN GODS
continued to be built throughout
the Ptolemaic and Roman periods,
further developing traditional
forms and themes. Sculpted relief
was of the highest quality and
depicted myths and rites
alongside elaborate hieroglyphic
texts. The temple of Horus at
Edfu, seen here in a nineteenthcentury
lithograph, is the most
intact of the surviving temples. On
its outer pylon, Ptolemy XII
is depicted as a pharaoh smiting
his enemies.
2 LAND RECLAMATION AND GREEK IMMIGRANTS made the
Faiyum the most populous and agriculturally
abundant region in Egypt. Thousands of papyri
from this period have been found there – written
primarily in Greek and providing a detailed glimpse
of day to day life. Towns and temples in the Faiyum
used a variety of art and architecture, and in
several local cemeteries, mummified bodies were
buried with masks and painted portraits that
combined Egyptian, Greek and Roman forms.
2 The Greco-Roman Faiyum, AD 100
fertile area
extent of lake in
Roman period
extent of lake in
Ptolemaic period
temple
bath complex
papyrus findspot
glass findspot
mummy portrait findspot
mummy mask findspot
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
74
art. Instead, construction of Egyptian temples
continued even in physically remote areas like
the Kharga Oasis, where a temple was decorated
under the reign of Darius I (c.500 BC). All
the oases in the western desert, as well as
desert routes south to Nubia, became more
accessible following the Persian introduction of
the camel. Persian rule was resented, and
Egyptian rebels tried to re-establish native
rule. Alexander the Great and his armies were
welcomed as liberators from the Persians.
Egypt became a kingdom ruled from
Alexandria by Ptolemy, a Macedonian Greek
general whose heirs governed Egypt, Cyprus
and parts of Cyrenaica (modern Libya) until 30
BC, when Rome annexed Egypt as a province. At
the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, Greek
settlers from the eastern Aegean brought their
own cultural institutions and art forms but
intermarried to some extent with Egyptians.
After AD 284, the Emperor Diocletian divided
the Roman Empire in two, and Egypt, an early
centre of Christianity, became part of the
eastern empire, which was governed from
Constantinople (modern Istanbul).
TRADE, MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Egypt’s natural resources were valuable
exports, especially grain, papyrus, precious
metals and luxurious stones. Egypt sent wheat
to Rome, and later to Constantinople, and also
supplied the Mediterranean world with
papyrus sheets for writing material. Stone
quarries in the eastern desert provided
porphyry, a hard purple-hued stone, for the
columns of the Pantheon in Rome and for
imperial sculptures. Romans transported
works of art from Egypt to Italy, both to
symbolize conquest and to satisfy their
fascination with an exotic, alien culture.
Within Egypt, extensive construction in
these years required ample supplies of
building materials. Existing urban areas were
added to in order to create new structures with
both Greek and Egyptian architectural forms
and decorations. Recently established cities
such as Alexandria (founded 332 BC) and
Antinoopolis (founded AD 130) were built from
almost nothing. Traditional Egyptian art was
fostered in the many temples built or rebuilt
with funding from the state, especially under
the Ptolemies. Temples at Dendera, Esna,
Edfu, Kom Ombo, Philae and Kalabsha, date
from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
EGYPT AND EGYPTIAN ART after 500 BC are
enmeshed with the Mediterranean and
Asia. The country was under Persian control
from 525 to 404 BC. Kings based in the Delta
were able to reassert native rule only until a
second Persian invasion in 343 BC. From then
on, Egypt was ruled by foreigners: Alexander
the Great in 332 BC, the Ptolemaic dynasty from
304 BC and the Romans from 30 BC. The
dominance of Greek culture brought sweeping
social, economic and artistic changes.
The Persians governed from Persepolis (in
modern Iran) and appointed Egyptian officials,
called satraps, to act for them locally. There was
little interaction between Persian and Egyptian
THE NILE VALLEY 500 BC-AD 300
30˚ 35˚
30˚
Thmuis
Arsinoe
Panopolis
Coptos
Syene (Aswan)
Berenike
Oxyrhynchus
Memphis
Paraetonium
Pelusium
Gaza
Edfu
Esna
Hermopolis Magna
Kom Ombo
Philae
Kalabsha
Dendera
Diospolis
Magna (Thebes)
Hibis
Alexandria
Naukratis
Antinoopolis
Ptolemais Hermiou
Via Hadriana
E G Y P T
EASTERN
DESERT
W E S T E R N
D E S E R T
SINAI
FAIYUM
Nile
BahrYusuf
Delta
Trajan’s
Canal
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
First cataract
Bahariya
Oasis
Siwa
Oasis
Farafra
Oasis
Dakhla
Oasis
Kharga
Oasis
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 Sites and Monuments
fertile area
Roman road
desert route
polis
native temple
known church
STATUES CARVED FROM HARD, DARK STONE and given a
fine polish were a hallmark of Egyptian art during
this period. Sculptors evoked the past by adapting
earlier artistic forms, and the short kilt and tightly
curled wig on this fourth-century BC statue recall
Old Kingdom styles. A hieroglyphic inscription on
the back invokes three Egyptian gods.
1 GREEK SETTLEMENT IN EGYPT began with Naukratis, a
trading colony founded in the seventh century BC.
Alexander the Great added a second Greek city
(polis) when he established a new capital at
Alexandria. A third, Ptolemais Hermiou, was
founded soon after by Ptolemy I. The cities were
vital to the spread of Greek, and later Roman,
culture, especially art and architecture. They
provided social centres, such as the gymnasium and
baths, as well as theatres and hippodromes.
Although such amenities were originally put in
place for Greek settlers, they were adopted along
with other aspects of Hellenism by a growing
portion of the population in urban areas.
Antinoopolis was the last Greek polis founded in
Egypt; it was established by the emperor Hadrian
in AD 130 during his tour of the country.
NORTH AFRICA AD 300–600
77
30˚
30˚
Mt Sinai
Monastery of the
Burning Bush,
now St Catherine’s
1st cataract
Alexandria
Menapolis / Abu Mena
Kellia
Memphis / Saqqara
Oxyrhynchus
Panopolis
(Akhmim)
Antinoopolis
(Antinoe)
Hawara
St Antonios
St Paulos
Herakleopolis Magna
Bawit
(Apa Apollo)
Hermonthis (Armant)
Bagawat
Latopolis (Esna)
Nile
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
S I NA I
RED
SEA
H
ILLS
WESTERN
DESERT
DAKHLA
OASIS
BAHARIYA
OASIS
EASTERN
DESERT
L O W E R E G Y P T
ARABIA
White Monastery
of Apa Shenoute
site of the Burning Bush
and handing down of the
Ten Commandments
fr
om
W
M
editerranean
from the Holy
Land
(Tomb of St Menas)
(Apa Jeremia)
N
0
0
120 miles
180 kms
2 CHRISTIANITY WAS
widespread in Egypt by the
beginning of the fourth
century, and had a major
effect on the country’s
landscape. The rise of
ascetic monasticism in the
villages of Egypt in the
fourth century led to the
creation of monasteries at
the juncture between
settled land and desert.
Two major pilgrimage sites
were also located in Egypt:
the shrine of St Menas,
near Alexandria, and the
monastery at Mt Sinai.
These acted as a focus for
artistic patronage and
production, much of which
has a distinctive regional
Egyptian character.
DOMINUS JULIUS MOSAIC. A grand country
villa, complete with its private bath
house, is surrounded by scenes of rural
activity corresponding to the four
seasons on this late fourth-century
mosaic from Carthage. In the top
register the mistress of the house is
offered products of the land, amid
depictions of olive harvesting (winter)
and a shepherd with his flock (summer).
The middle register shows the master
arriving at the villa on horseback,
together with preparations for a hunt,
while in the bottom register the
mistress of the house is presented with
flowers and a necklace. In the lower
right-hand corner a grape-harvester
(representing autumn), is shown behind
the master who is being handed a scroll
addressed to ‘Lord [Dominus] Julius’.
Such scenes of agricultural prosperity
hint at the source of the wealth of the
North African urban elite.
declined in the fifth and sixth centuries, but
sufficient examples exist, especially in the
vicinity of the regional capital of Carthage, to
show that some Vandals continued to
patronize the mosaic workshops, and favoured
the traditional subjects of hunting and the
spectacles of the amphitheatre and circus.
THE IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY
Many of the mosaic workshops in this later
period may have turned from domestic to
ecclesiastical commissions, as artistic
patronage became increasingly directed
towards church building and decoration.
Church floors and even baptismal pools were
regularly covered with mosaics (sometimes
spectacularly, as at Rusguniae, or in the
Justinianic basilica at Sabratha); mosaic
pavements were also used in funerary contexts.
No wall or vault mosaics survive in North
Africa; those in the Monastery of the Burning
Bush (now St Catherine’s) at Sinai, built by the
emperor Justinian, were almost certainly
executed by craftsmen brought from
Constantinople. Located in the monastery
church’s apse, they depict biblical events
connected with Mount Sinai – Moses before
the burning bush and receiving the Ten
Commandments – as well as Christ’s
Transfiguration, when he appeared to the
apostles in the company of Moses and the
prophet Elijah.
Churches in Egypt were as numerous as
those in North Africa, but fewer have been
excavated in modern times. The churches and
funerary chapels associated with the
monastery at Bawit are decorated with
frescoes showing saints, the Virgin Mary and
angels. Other common forms of decoration
include carvings in local limestone and wood
carving, used to ornament beams and doors.
Limestone carving was also a major medium
for private funerary monuments, both pagan
and Christian. These carvings are a mixture of
decorative patterns and figural imagery, much
of the latter reflecting Graeco-Roman
mythological traditions.
The dry climate of Egypt has preserved
many of the woollen and linen textiles buried
in the graves of the better-off. These often
brightly coloured garments and wall-hangings
are decorated with both traditional GrecoRoman
subjects (including images of gods and
heroes) as well as Christian subjects from the
Old and New Testaments. The Hellenized
Egyptian tradition of funerary portraits painted
on wooden panels also contributed to a new
form of Christian art: the devotional icon.
A number of striking examples dating to
the sixth century have been found at Bawit and
Sinai, some painted in the local Egyptian
(‘Coptic’) style and others in a Hellenized, more
cosmopolitan, style. One of the ‘local’ type
from Bawit shows an abbot of the monastery,
Menas, in the company of Christ, who places a
protective arm around the abbot’s shoulder.
The icon of St Peter from Sinai, with its
naturalistic shadows and highlights on the
apostle’s face, and its illusionistic receeding
background of classical architecture, is a fine
example of the Hellenistic style.
Art and Monasticism
in Egypt
monastery
pilgrimage route
pilgrimage site
Christian cemetery
2
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
76
ART AND URBAN LIFE
North Africa had been a centre for domestic
floor mosaics since the early second century,
and their production continued unabated in
the fourth century. Many surviving examples
come from Carthage as well as the smaller
towns of the region, attesting to the continued
vitality of urban life. Subjects represented
include race horses, charioteers and the events
of the amphitheatre – a longstanding North
African fascination – but an increased
preoccupation with the lifestyles of the elite,
and the agricultural basis of their wealth is also
evident. Idealized scenes of life on country
estates have been found in Carthage and
Thabraca, and a scene of a wealthy woman at
her toilet was discovered at a villa at Sidi
Ghirib, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Carthage.
The mixed hoard of fourth- and fifthcentury
silver plate and gold jewellery found in
Carthage is an example of the portable wealth
of those who commissioned such mosaics for
their dwellings. As ever in North Africa,
mythological scenes were less popular, but a
fine mosaic of a scene from the Iliad survives at
Neapolis, while at Caesarea there are scenes
from the life of Achilles, and a Judgement of
Paris. Production (and in some cases quality)
EGYPT AND THE NORTH AFRICAN
provinces in the year 300 were stable and
prosperous in comparison to the Roman
Empire’s western and eastern frontiers, and
would continue to be so for much of the next
three hundred years. However, political and
cultural upheaval affected Latin-speaking
North Africa in the fifth century, when the
Vandals, a tribe originally from central Europe,
north of the Danube, invaded the region via
Spain in 429. It was reconquered after a
century by the Roman emperor in the east,
Justinian, who placed the region under a
Greek-speaking administration for the first
time in its history. At the same time North
Africa was also forced to defend itself from
raids by the nomadic Berbers, who had
gradually encroached on its southwestern
frontier during the Vandal conquest.
Unfortunately, little is known of Berber material
culture in this period.
TRADE AND THE ECONOMY
Despite these disruptive events, North Africa’s
agricultural economy remained intact and
prospered. It was this economy, based on the
export of grain and olive oil, which supported
the region’s rich and varied artistic production
in late antiquity. In Egypt, too, it was the export
of grain (especially to Rome, and subsequently
the eastern capital of Constantinople), which
underpinned artistic production. The
manufacture of red slip pottery (exported as a
secondary cargo on grain or oil ships) was a
major industry, based initially in Carthage and
its vicinity, but also successfully copied in
Aswan in Egypt. Some of these tablewares
displayed a wide variety of stamped
decoration, both figural and ornamental. A
more valuable export was ivory, which came
principally from East Africa via Egypt’s Red Sea
ports, but also from the North African
elephants of Mauritania. Although ivory was
often exported in its raw state, there is
evidence that Alexandria was a major centre of
ivory carving, especially of decorative plaques
to cover furniture.
NORTH AFRICA AD 300-600
30˚20˚10˚
30˚
Ag
Carthage
Sabratha
Leptis Magna
Alexandria
Ptolemais
Hippo Regius
(Annaba)
Thugga
(Dougga)
Uthina
(Oudna)
Thabraca
(Tabarka)
Rusguniae (Matifou)
Iomnium
(Tigzirt)
Cirta
(Constantine)
Thamugadi
(Timgad)
Theveste
(Tébessa)
Clupea (Kélibia)
Neapolis (Nabeul)
Memphis/Saqqara
Syrene (Aswan)
Arsinoe
Oxyrhynchus
Faiyum
Antinooplois (Antinoe)
Panopolis
Aphrodito
Karanis
Hawara
Herakleopolis Magna
Hermopolis Magna
Bawit
Hermonthis
Latopolis (Esna)
Taparura (Sfax)
Thysdrus / El Djem
Cuicul (Djemila)
Thurburbo Maius
Caesarea (Cherchell)
Tipasa
N
ile
1st Cataract
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
R
E
D
S
E
A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A T L A S
M T S
S I NA I
S A H A R A D E S E R T
SICILY
CRETE
CYPRUS
A F R I C A
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 Continuity and Change
frontier of Roman Empire, c. AD 300
Vandal Kingdom, AD 429-533 (reconquered by Justinian, AD 533)
Berbers
source of raw ivory
domestic/secular mosaics
ecclesiastical mosaics
church/baptistry buildings (known from archaeological sources)
church (attested in literary sources)
wall/panel painting
Coptic textile finds
wood carving
stone carving
ivory carving
finds of silverware
pottery production centre
Ag
1 CARTHAGE AND ALEXANDRIA were the two largest
urban centres in Late Roman Africa, serving major
administrative as well as commercial roles, and
their hinterlands accordingly carried the largest
density of settlements, following the fertile banks
of the Nile in Egypt, and clustering in the Roman
provinces of Africa Proconsularis and Numidia to
the west. Local artistic products, such as mosaic
pavements, wall and panel painting, weaving, and
stone carving, which had long been deployed in
domestic and secular contexts, were now also used
in the service of the Christian church.
THIS TERRACOTTA PILGRIM FLASK depicts the Egyptian
saint, Menas, wearing the costume of a Roman
soldier, and flanked by the camels which legend
said brought his body to its resting place of Abu
Mena, near Alexandria. This was a major place of
pilgrimage, and flasks such as this were sold for
pilgrims to fill, either with the water of a
miraculous spring near the saint’s tomb, or oil
from the lamps which hung above the tomb.
A similar image of the saint appears on a
contemporary ivory box, probably carved in
Alexandria.
WEST ASIA 500–300 BC
79
Seal-stones were widely used throughout
the empire to ratify official and personal
documents and to claim ownership of
commodities. They demonstrate the choice
by an individual of a single artistic emblem
to indicate him or herself. The most frequently
depicted image in Achaemenid art (both
monumental and small-scale) is the figure of
a hero, often to be identified as a king,
mastering beasts. In individual as well as
official imperial art the image of the king
exerting control over nefarious forces to
maintain a balanced, symmetrical whole, was
widely favoured. Art had therefore become a
N
0 10 m
2a Palace P at Pasargadae
2 CYRUS II BUILT AN EXAMPLE of the Achaemenid
many-columned audience hall at Pasargadae, amid
tremendous formal gardens. Darius and his
successors elaborated on the idea. At Persepolis,
the entire fortified terrace was built up with
columned halls which fulfilled different functions
(audience halls, living quarters, treasury). Even at
the ancient city of Susa, Darius and his successors
built a new many-columned palace to complement
the city’s ancient Mesopotamian palace.
RELIEF FROM THE APADANA, or audience hall, at
Persepolis. It shows the king enthroned,
with his heir and other retainers standing
behind him. In front of him are two incense
burners of a type found as far away as Güre, in
Anatolia. A man bows towards the king, kissing his
hand: he is the foremost of many figures shown on
the Apadana reliefs, including
Persians as well as the 26 subject peoples
of the land, bearing gifts of animals,
textiles, and metal crafted into
Achaemenid-style vessels.
Xerxes Gate
Apadana
Tripylon (small central palace)
Treasury
rock-cut royal tomb
Hall of 100 columns
Tachara
(Palace of Darius I)
remains of mud-brick
fortification wall
remains of mud-brick
fortification wall
pavilions
terrace wall
Hadish (Palace of Xerxes)
Palace of Artaxerxes I
N
0 100 m
2b Persepolis
Propylaion
Gate of Darius
Mesopotamian
-type palace
Persian
Apadana
0 100 m
2c Susa
N
widely popular and effective way to proclaim
the stability of the empire, a stability that was
founded on the figurehead of the king himself.
There was remarkable coherence of style in
particular artefacts throughout the empire.
Metal vessels found in Anatolia, like the one
illustrated opposite, resemble very closely
those found in the southern and eastern
reaches of the empire as well as those depicted
on the Apadana reliefs at Persepolis. Indeed,
there is little stylistic variation in particular
categories of artefact across hundreds of years
and thousands of miles. A particular artistic
style was itself identified with the king, and
ownership of objects created in this style
proclaimed nearness to the king, and hence
membership in the Achaemenid elite.
ALEXANDER OF MACEDON
When Alexander of Macedon conquered Darius
III in a series of battles in the late 330s, he was
able to take over an empire that already
possessed an elaborate administrative hierarchy
and ready-made channels for propaganda
through the manipulation of artistic imagery. For
the rest of his life (he died in Babylon in 323)
much of his attention was focused on warfare.
He also founded many new cities to house
troops loyal to him who would oversee
administration of the region in his name. But
much of what had existed before his arrival
remained the same during his short reign. It is
clear, for instance, that official Achaemenid art
was perceived as being specifically Persian; and
it was used even after Alexander's death to
reinforce the ethnic identity of Persians.
CONCLUSION
Developing a new artistic style and
iconographic vocabulary that drew on antique
Mesopotamian and other regional traditions
was part of the overarching Achaemenid
strategy to incorporate widely disparate
peoples and places into the new empire.
Through ideologically charged art, the
Achaemenid Persians emphasized the new
world order that relied upon the good offices
of the Persian king. Imperial Persian art was
designed for widespread dissemination. Its
overarching message was one of a world under
control, a world in which the population joined
in harmonious, even joyous, service to the king
who maintained the empire. This art was so
widely recognized that it might be used to
identify people as Persian, or members of the
Achaemenid elite, throughout the empire and
even after its demise.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
78
Achaemenid imperial art. Achaemenid art was
founded on ancient local artistic traditions:
throughout the empire, the Achaemenids
took local art and reformulated it to place the
figure of the king in positions previously
occupied by deities. Thus it became the king
who, artistically, held the universe in harmony.
An example of this is the Apadana relief
(illustrated opposite): depictions of people
bearing gifts to enthroned gods, and assuming
particular pious gestures in the presence of
deities (such as the traditional Mesopotamian
hand-over-wrist gesture, not shown here), had
a long-standing history. But here it is the king
who is the focus of the action. To reinforce that
sense of focus, the Achaemenid kings devised a
new ideologically charged kind of palace
including a columned audience hall at its core.
This idea of showing the king in the central
role traditionally attributed to deities was
repeated time and time again, in many
different contexts throughout the empire.
Drawing from different local traditions, the king
is depicted as godhead on architectural and
free-standing sculptures, on seal-stones and
coins and on embossed metal vessels. Imperial
texts make it clear that the kings saw
themselves as in direct communication with
the deity Ahuramazda, holding their positions
because of divine favour. It is a recurrent theme
both on imperial architectural sculpture and on
Achaemenid seal-stones.
THE ACHAEMENID PERSIAN EMPIRE was
vast and its people diverse. Its 26 different
subject peoples spoke different languages,
worshipped different deities, lived in different
environments and had widely differing social
customs. The Achaemenid kings had to devise a
system of empire strong enough to keep
themselves in control and flexible enough to
provide for the needs of all their subjects. The art
and architecture of the period both reflect the
diversity of the empire and proclaim the notion
of a stabilized, harmonious world under the
control of the Persian king. The last ruler of this
vast empire, Alexander of Macedon (the ‘Great’),
used the pre-existing Achaemenid ideological
channels and methods to maintain control.
Achaemenid art is preserved in many
media, including official architecture built of
stone and mud brick, architectural sculpture in
stone and brick, glazed bricks, wall paintings on
wood and stone and plaster, rock reliefs and
free-standing sculpture in stone and metal. On
a smaller scale, there are seals (preserved both
as stone artefacts and also as impressions left
on the documents they ratified), coins,
jewellery, weapons, horse trappings, vessels of
stone and glass and metal, personal effects
such as mirrors, ornamental wood and ivory
carvings and textiles. These artistic remains
complement the Greek and Near Eastern texts
to provide a complex image of the empire.
THE ART OF KINGSHIP
The concept of a harmonious world order is the
central theme of the entire programme of
WEST ASIA 500-300 BC
1 THE ACHAEMENID PERSIAN EMPIRE (c.550–330),
founded by Cyrus II, centred on southwest Iran and
lower Mesopotamia. Under Darius I (521–486) it
reached its greatest extent, stretching from the
Aegean Sea to the Indus River, from Egypt to the
modern Central Asian republics. When Alexander
of Macedon conquered the empire in 331, he
retained much of the Persian administrative system
and made use of many pre-existing artistic
channels to propagate his new ideology of empire.
20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚ 80˚
40˚
30˚
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
SsSs Gordium
Halicarnassus
Kelaenae
Güre
Meydancikkâle
Deve Hüyük
Taxila
Tyre
Jerusalem
Tarsus
Damascus
Samaria
Sidon
Jericho
Ascalon
Lachish
Sais
Bubastis
Pazarlı
Erzincan
Aleppo
Thapsacus
Mari
Nimrud
Nineveh
Kharga Oasis
Ur
Uruk
Ashur
Hasanlu
Al Mina
Ctesiphon
Bisitun
Godin Tepe
Baba Jan
Anshan
Carchemish
Altıntepe
Byblos
Kerkenes Dagıˇ
Bactra
(Balkh)
Merv
Peshawar
Multan
Cyropolis
Kabul
Ai-Khanoum
Samarkand
Rhagae
Gaza
Miletus
Thebes
Sogdian Rock
Susa
Babylon
Seleucia
Sardis
Ecbatana
Persepolis
Elephantine
Ain Manawir
Pasargadae
Dascylium
Larisa am Hermos
Elmalı
LimyraXanthus
Hacımusalar
Afyon
Labraunda
Pasa Tepe¸
Erzurum
Köskerbaba Höyük¸
Sinop
Panticapaeum (Kerch)
Memphis
Priene
Bayindir
Magnesia ad Maeandrum
Ephesus
Abusir
Alexandria ad Issum
Alexandria
Charax
Alexandria
(in Carmania)
Alexandria Margiana
Alexandria Areion
Alexandria Prophthasia
Alexandria Arachoton
(Kandahar)
Alexandria
Oreiton
Alexandria
(south of Kabul)
Alexandria
ad Caucasum
Alexandria Eschate
Alexandria Oxiana
Nicaea
Bucephala 326BC
Alexandria ad Indum
Alexandria
(in Egypt)
Tigris
N
ile
In
dus
Za
radros(Sutlej)
Acesines
Hydaspes
(Jhelum)
(C
henab)
O
xus (Syr Dar
ya)
A
raxes
Cy
rus (Kura)
Euphr
ate
s
Red Sea Canal
J
axartes
(A
m
uDarya)
B L A C K S E A
C
A
S
P
IA
N
SEA
M
E
D
I T E R R A N E A N S E A
RED
SEA
PER
S
IA
N
G
U
LF
ARAL
SEA
A R A B I A N
S E A
AEGEAN
SEA
C A U C
A
S
U
S
HIN
DU
KU
SH
ZAGROS MTS
T H A R
D E S E R T
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
PERSIS
SATTAG
YDIA
HYRCANI
A
ASSYRIA
CAPPADOCIA
PHRYGIA
PAPHLAGONIA
PISIDIA
LYCIA
CARIA
LYDIA
CYPRUS
BITHYNIA
DRANGIANA
CILICIA
SOGDIANA
PHOENICIA
NUBIA
MAKA
SCYTHIA
A
N A T O L I A
A R A B I A
I N D I A
L I B YA
E G Y P T
S I N D
GEDROSIA
ARACHOSIA
GANDARA
BACTRIA
MARGIANA
PARTHIA
MEDIA
ELAM
BEYOND
THE RIVER
ARMENIA
COLCHIS
CARMANIA
CHORASMIA
S A K A
SEISTAN
ARIA
ancient
coastline
Sagalassus
333BC
Issus
333BC
Gaugamela
331BC
Granicus
334BC
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
1 The Achaemenid Empire
extent of the Achaemenid
Empire, c.500 BC
administrative centre
extent of Alexander’s Empire, 323 BC
Alexander’s route
Alexander’s commanders’ routes
major battle
siege
cities founded by Alexander
fortifications
architecture
inscriptions
sculpture
ceramics
metalwork
tablets
sealstones
stone vessels
Ss
glass
painting
coins
papyrus
ELABORATE METAL VESSELS like this bowl were probably
imbued with great symbolic significance during the
Achaemenid period. They were made throughout
the empire in a particular, recognizable, style,
brought to the king at his capitals in Iran, and
redistributed from there. Ownership of such a
vessel signified membership in the Achaemenid
elite, a polyethnic group of people responsible for
imperial administration.
WEST ASIA 300 BC–AD 600
81
building of churches with Christian stone
sculptures – particularly after the partition
(AD 387) of the kingdom between Persia
and Rome.
The Sasanians are credited with
introducing the medieval period to the Middle
East. The language of the Sasanian empire was
Middle Persian, and appears as a more
universal language than Parthian. Unlike the
preceding empire, this period is noted for
greater control over regional dynasties.
Sasanian art is of an entirely different
nature from that of the preceding dynasty. The
Sasanians supported court artists and
produced luxury goods for trade. While it is
likely that a trade in silk from east to west was
a major factor in earlier periods, at no other
time is there such a wealth of evidence for
trade between China and Rome. Elaborate
royal portraits, with crowns that differed from
ruler to ruler, can be found on everything from
coins to vessels and statues. Sasanian silver
bowls have been found in the Russian steppes,
textiles have been recovered from the dry
western Chinese deserts, and Sasanian glass
has even been found in Japan.
Sasanian rulers also carved rock
sculptures. Some of the best (Naqsh-e Rostam
and Naqsh-e Rajab) are near the ancient
Persian capital of Persepolis. Royal courts were
also active in creating grand architectural
monuments. Khosrow II built a vast palace –
with an intact mud-brick barrel vault – at
Ctesiphon (Taq-i Kisra). Many Sasanian
limestone and mortar buildings still survive in
Fars. The most important is the palace of
Ardashir I at Gur (Firuzabad).
After Khosrow II (r.590; 591–628) the
empire went into a sharp decline. Devastated
by fighting, plague, and a succession of weak
rulers, the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon fell in
637 to advancing Islamic Arab armies. In a
short space of time, Zoroastrian religious
SASANIAN TEXTILES, such as this one decorated with
the mythological winged horse Pegasus, drew on
a long history of weaving, and employed ancient
Iranian as well as Greek motifs. Pegasus, of Greek
inspiration, would have been known from Classical
art. The pearl roundel that frames the image is
typical of the Sasanians, and appears in Far Eastern
art at about this time. Finely woven and brightly
coloured with bold designs, such textiles were in
demand from Europe to China.
30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
Veh Ardashir
Nehavend
Abarshahr
(Nishapur)
Ram Hurmizd
Kvas
Peshawar
Hurmizd Ardashir
Bost
Stakhr
Kangavar
Salmas
Bamiyan
Susa
Naqsh-i BahramShiraz
Warka (Uruk)
Hatra
Gundeshapur
Kuh-i Khwaja
Tashkent
Fortat
Bishapur
Edessa
Ganzak
Ghiz Kabul
Kholm
Darabgird
Dinavar
Balkh
(Bactra)
Zuzan
Yazd
Nisibis
Ahmantan
Herat
Rokhuadh
Rayy (Rhagae)
Jus
Samarkand
Kerman
Amida
Antioch
Damascus
Merv
AmolCarrhae
Nahr-Tire
Jerusalem
Rev Ardashir
Ctesiphon
Gur
Babylon
Dura-Europos
Palmyra
Tigris
Euphrates
Araxes
Indus
S
ir
Da
rya
Amu
D
arya
Ochus
Eryma
ndrus
Atrek
Nile
L. Urmia
L.Sevan
L.Van
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
B L A C K S E A
PER
SIAN
GULF
A R A B I A N S E A
CASPIANSEA
RED SEA
KO P E T DA G
S A LT D E S E R T
IRANIAN PLATEAU
KHYBER
PASS
TAURUS MTS
ELBURZ MTS
Z
A
G
R
O
S
M
T
S
CASPIAN GATE
M A C H E L O N I A
PUNJAB
D R A N G I A N A
M A R G I A N A
( M E R V )
S O G D I A N A
K H WA R I Z M
( C H O R A S M I A )
PA R T H I AHYRCANI
A
P O N T U S
G
A
LAT I A
C A P PA D O C I A
LYDIA
ARABISTAN
JUDAEA
IBERIA(GEORGIA)
C I L I C I A
PHRYGIA
P E R S I S
( F A R S )
PATISHKHWAGAR
S U S I A N A
A B A R S H A H R
G A N D H A R A
PA R ATA N
( PA R A D E N E )
M A K R A N
T O R A N
C A R M A N I A
( K E R M A N )
ALBANIA
ARMENIA
S Y R I A
MEDIA
ATROPATENE
A R I A
ASURISTAN
MAISHAN
ELYMAIS
E G Y P T
A R A B I A
To Europe
To China
Han dynasty 206 BC-AD 221
to Kashgar (W China) controlled by
Shapur I defeats
Roman emperor
Valerian 260
defeats Shapur I 260;
remains associated with Rome
Holy Sepulchre destroyed,
'True Cross' carried to
Ctesiphon 614
captured briefly
by Sasanians 613
Roman mosaics
1st-6th centuries AD
taken by
Sasanians 256
centre of
Nestorian Christianity
palace of Khosrow II
590; 591-628;
fell to Arabs 637
palace of Ardashir I
Buddhist
complex
world's tallest
standing Buddha;
destroyed
21st century
2 The Sasanian Empire, AD 250-650
Sasanian heartland
extent of the Sasanian Empire
under Shapur I, AD 241-272
Sasanian mints
Sasanian palaces
Sasanian rock sculptures
area of textile production
area of glazed ware/glass
area of silver production
area of bronze production
Silk Road
Sasanian architecture
N
0
0
350 miles
500 kms
2 DRAWING UPON THEIR ANCESTORS’ cultural
achievements in Fars province, the Sasanians are
known for their luxurious court. They controlled
the trade route between China and Rome, and
manufactured cloth and silver vessels that were
extensively traded. Sasanian mints, widely spaced
but under central control, produced a mass of coins
that were known from Europe to China.
horsemen – armed for war and in baggy
trousers with pointed hats – are popular.
Animals are rendered in a ‘steppe art’ style.
Figures in a flying gallop, with legs
outstretched, are common, as are a variety
of other poses that depict animals in motion
executed with bold lines. Parthian pictorial
art is noted for looking at a figure in full face,
which is a marked departure from the
earlier use of profile.
THE ART OF THE SASANIANS
In AD 224 a Sasanian king Ardashir I (r.224–241)
from Fars defeated and killed the Parthian
monarch. This signalled the end of Parthian art.
With their homeland in the centre of the
ancient Persian empire, the Sasanians were
reminded, through ruins, of a golden age
of culture with an elaborate court art.
Resenting the Parthians as usurpers of this
heritage, they sought to erase them from the
historical record.
The Sasanian dynasty adhered to the
Zoroastrian faith as a state religion. Silver coins
were now made from a broad, flat blank rather
than a short, thick flan, and were typically
struck with an elaborately crowned king on one
side, and two attendants and a Zorastrian fire
altar on the other. This dichotomy between
church and state draws attention to a powerful
priestly class that was unknown in the Parthian
empire. Gone was the loose confederation of
states with religious tolerance. Persecutions of
religious minorities, including the Christian
Armenians, occurred in cycles. This kindled
Armenian nationalism – reflected in the
imagery disappeared from the artistic
repertoire, though the tradition of luxurious
court art – such as textiles and metalwork –
was left intact.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
80
TWO EMPIRES IN SUCCESSION, the
Parthians and the Sasanians, contained
Roman and then Byzantine expansion into
western Asia. Under them, the region became
progressively less Greek. Eastern culture was
re-asserted after being challenged by the
conquests of Alexander the Great.
Both visual art and language underwent a
gradual change over time. The Greek quest for
beauty and Roman realism were disregarded
for symbolic art. While scholars from previous
ages suggested that this was regression into
barbarism, the art of this region emerges as
one that contributed greatly – particularly
through architecture and textiles – to Roman
and early medieval European styles.
THE ART OF THE PARTHIANS
The Parthians, originally an Indo-Iranianspeaking
people from the steppes, defeated
the Greek successors to Alexander and
established a confederation of states under a
monarch who collected taxes and raised
armies. Mithradates I (r.171–138 BC) proclaimed
his independence by issuing coins bearing his
portrait with a royal diadem. The reverse bore
an image of Arsaces – ancestor of the dynasty –
seated holding a bow. Coins in the same Greek language and art was predominant
in the first phase of the Parthian period. In the
last centuries of the empire there was an
increasing use of the Parthian language (an
Iranian dialect written in Aramaic), as well as
distinctive art forms. The art of the Parthians is
rather hard to define, as they were more
collectors than originators. In general it
reflects the many nationalities incorporated
into their empire, but there are some nearly
universal features. Reflecting nomadic origins,
WEST ASIA 300 BC-AD 600
PARTHIAN GOLD DRACHM of Vonones I (r. AD 8–12)
struck at Rhagae to commemorate his victory over
his rival Artabanus II (r. AD 10–38). Parthian
portraits of rulers on coins, in contrast to rock art,
were hardly ever shown full face. The coin is a
mixture of east and west: the use of Greek for the
inscription contrasts with the representation of
the king as a horseman dressed in trousers.
Parthian gold coins are very rare.
30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
Alexandria Areion (Herat)
Alexandria (Merv)
Abarshahr
(Nishapur)
Hecatompylos
(Shahr-i Qumis)
Nisa (Mihrakert)
Apamea
Saramana Syrinx
Laodicea
Kangavar Epardus
Tambrax (Sari)
Rhagae (Tehran)
Spasinou
Charax Persepolis
Susa
Bisitun
Ecbatana
(Hamadan)
Nineveh
Artemita
Seleucia
Edessa
Taxila
Metsketa
Kabul
Alexandropolis
Kandahar
Bactra (Zariaspa)
Alexandria Oxiana
Macacanda (Samarkand)
Alexandria
Meshed
Gabae
Praaspa
Artaxata
Gaugamela
Arbela
Borsippa
Tyre
Circesium
Singarra
Nisibis
Tigranocerta (Siirt)
Carrhae (Harran)
Zeugma
Jerusalem
Ashur
Hatra
Ctesiphon
Vologesias
Babylon Uruk
(Warka)
Dura-Europos
Palmyra (Tudmur)
Ti
gris
Euphrates
Indus
Jaxartes
Oxus(Am
u
Darya)
O
chus
Erym
a
ndrus
(Hel
m
and)
Atrek
Nile
L. Urmia
L.Sevan
L.Van
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
B L A C K S E A
PER
S
IA
N
G
U
L F
CASPIANSEA
RED
SEA
A R A B I A N S E A
S A L T
D E S E R T
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
KHYBER
PASS
TAURUS MTS
ZAGROS MTS
KO P E T DA G
CASPIAN GATES
ELBURZ
MTS
D A H A E
A R M E N I A
PUNJAB
G E D R O S I A
DRA
N
G
IA
N
A
A
RA
CHOSIA
A R I A
B A C T R I A
M A R G I A N A
S O G D I A N A
C H O R A S M I A
A S TA U E N E
P O N T U S
G
A
LAT I A
C A P PA D O C I A
LY D I A
S Y R I A
JUDAEA
I B E R I A
C I L I C I A
P H RY G I A
HYRCANIA
P
E
R
S
I
S
ELY
M
A
IS
COMMAGENE
SOPHENE
ARZANENE
GORDYENE
OSRHOENELYCIA
PARTHIA
(PARTHYENE)
MEDIA
ATROPATENE
M E D I A
CHARACENE
(MESENE)
E G Y P T
A R A B I A
captured by
Parthians AD 52
Parthian
capital
148-147 BC
Parthian royal
palace falls to Rome AD 115;
164/165; to Rome AD 198
Antony fails to
take city for
Rome, 36 BC
captured by
Rome 69 BC
Parthian from 113 BC; Roman AD 163
controlled by Romans AD 30
53 BC Parthians
defeat Rome
Parthians storm
city 40 BC
N
0
0
350 miles
500 kms
1 The Parthian Empire, 150 BC-AD 250
Parthian heartland (Mithradates I,
171-138 BC)
Parthian migration
extent of the Parthian Empire
under Mithradates II, 124-87 BC
Parthian architecture
Elymais, vassal kingdom 81 BC-AD 224
Osrhoene, independent 131 BC-AD 216
Characene, vassal kingdom 125-121 BC
Parthian mint
1 THE PARTHIAN MIGRATIONS from Central Asia
were dictated by geography. Separated from
Iran and subsequent nomadic attack by the
Zagros Mountains, Mesopotamia offered
rich cultural traditions, and was the centre
of the empire. Most surviving Parthian
architecture is from the west. The powerful
trading cities on the Euphrates, the
traditional border with Rome, fused Eastern
and Western motifs into a new style.
style were issued till the end of the empire,
though they range from the early style which
employed Greek artisans, to later issues that
reflected the nomadic heritage of these people.
The Parthians rapidly moved through Iran
and into the fertile Mesopotamian lowlands,
where they encountered ancient civilizations
with their own distinctive cultures and art
forms. Ceramics from this period show
strong regional trends.
Mithradates II (r.124–87 BC), perhaps the
greatest monarch, reconquered Mesopotamia.
By 113 BC, the Greek city of Dura-Europus
was taken, and the Euphrates River was
established as a border with Rome. This
city became a trading metropolis, and struck
Parthian tetradrachms (coins four times the
weight of the standard drachm), a preferred
silver coin in the west.
CENTRAL ASIA 500 BC–AD 600
83
PAINTED SCRIPTURES similar to this
surviving fragment from an
illuminated codex of Kocho,
Xinjiang, attracted adherents along
the Silk Road to Manichaeism, a
gnostic dualism originating in Iraq
in the third century. The fragment
is from a later period (11th–12th
century) but its subject-matter is
probably a scene that would have
been familiar in earlier centuries:
the Manichaean ‘Sermon Scene’.
Gold leaf, ink and pigments have
been used to portray Manichaean
leaders with the figures wearing
Uyghur royal headdress.
90˚80˚70˚60˚
20˚
30˚
40˚
Merv
Tus
Gurgan
Zaranj
Begram Tochi
Valley
Bactra (Balkh)
Dilberjin
Bishkek
Nishapur
Samarkand
Tok-kala
Afrasiab
Varakhsha
Bukhara
Khalchayan
Mt Mug
Kara-tepe
Ayrtam
Khalchangan
Ajina-tepe
Yakke-Parsan
Urgench
Koy-Krylgan-Kala
Kokand
Talas
Panjikent
Tash-Kurghan
Bamiyan Bimaran
Kashgar
Toprak-kala
Yarkand
Gilgit
Shatial Shigar
Hunza-
Haldeikish
Taxila
Manikyal
Huskapura
Rabatak
Mathura
Kocho
Jagatu
Barygaza
Kaushambi
Tamralipti
Khotan
Dandan Oilik
Niya
Cherchen
Aksu
Bulayiq
Hami
Bezeklik
Anxi
Dunhuang
Turfan
Urumchi
Loulan
Karashahr
Kyzyl
Kucha
Kushka
Purushapura
(Peshawar)
Uruzgan
Shiraz
Kapisa
Ganges
L. Balkhash
Syr Darya
AmuD
arya
Ch
e
nab
Sutlej
Helmand
Indus
I N D I A N O C E A N
CASPIANSEA
ARAL
SEA
K U N L U N S H A N
T A K L A M A K A NT A R I M B A S I N
T I E N S H A N
NAN SHAN
KARA KUM
KYZUL
KUM
PAMIRS
K
A
RAKORUM
HINDU KUSH
IRANIAN
PLATEAU
ELBURZ MTS
ZAG
RO
SM
TS
SOGDIANA
G A N D H A R A
B A C T R I A
A R A C H O S I A
D R A N G I A N A
C A R M A N I A
G E D R O S I A
I N D I A
P E R S I A
A R A B I A
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
2 Trade and Art Production
Silk Road
other trade routes
sites with Buddhist/Kushan art
sites with Buddhist art/Chinese
silk/lacquerware
ivory
glass
manuscripts
murals
statues/friezes
petroglyphs/graffiti/inscriptions
mummy remains
2 TRADE ROUTES AND RELIGIOUS ART.
Known as the ‘Crossroads of Asia’
Central Asia has been pivotal in the
movement of goods, people and
ideas from east to west and north
to south. This map shows the
spread of Kushan or Gandharan art
as well as the importance of the
Silk Road and other trading routes
across Central Asia. The region has
always developed its own unique
artistic tradition, drawing on the
many styles converging there.
THE BUDDHIST IMPACT
The birth of the Lord Buddha at Lumbini in
Nepal in c.560 BC had a major impact on
ideology in Central Asia, envisaging a means
for many of escaping the reincarnation cycle
of Hinduism. Buddhism also had an impact
on art through Ashoka and the later Kushans.
Ashoka’s aim was to spread his version of the
dharma or teachings, and he did this through
a series of edicts carved into boulders and
pillars across the whole of northern Nepal,
India and Pakistan. The Kushans, a branch of
a nomadic Chinese tribe spread through
Central Asia, Bactria and down into northern
India, and had united this whole region by
the early second century AD. Kanishka is one
of the best known Kushan rulers, and like
Ashoka he converted to Buddhism and was
ardent in the spread of Buddhist teachings,
building new monasteries and repairing old.
During Kanishka’s rule the style of art
known as ‘Gandharan Art’ which comprises
representations of the Buddha and scenes from
his life spread and developed. Gandharan Art is
so called because it is broadly spread
throughout the area of old Gandhara, a former
Achaemenid province. Gandharan stone
sculptures and reliefs draw heavily on GrecoRoman
styles of human depiction.
THE SILK ROAD
During Kushan rule another major
development was crucial in the spread of
goods and ideas: the Silk Road. This
international trading link increased in
importance from the early centuries AD as the
Chinese realized the potential market for their
valuable silk in the west, particularly the
Roman world. Trade along the road meant that
the Kushans were able to take advantage of
demand for products such as precious stones
and metals, and spices from India, while
receiving silks and jade and other rare goods
from China. Indeed, excavations at the Kushan
summer capital of Kapisa (north of Kabul),
reveal the richness of the Empire. A treasure
store, with carved ivories from India, Chinese
lacquers, Roman bonzes, Alexandrian glass was
uncovered. Yet the trade was not only in rare
goods – Buddhism also spread east along the
Silk Road at this time, becoming a major
religion in eastern Asia, and there are many
Kushan Buddhist sites with stupas decorated
with sculpted scenes from the life of the
Buddha in distinct Gandharan style to attest to
this movement.
Central Asia between the mid-first
millennia BC and AD is an area where the very
rich artistic traditions are the result of human
contact and movement – conquerors from the
east absorb indigenous styles and influences
from the north and east to produce distinctive
regional artistic cultures.80˚70˚60˚
30˚
40˚
Alexandria
Areion (Herat)
Alexandria Paropamisadae (Begram)
Ortospana
Shotorak
Tepe Maranjan
Tepe Sardar
Nagarahara
Hadda
Charsadda
Alexandria
Nicaea
Alexandria
Bucephala
Alexandria Margiana
MervAntioch-in-Margiana (Merv)
Maracanda (Samarkand)
Fayaz-tepe Ayrtam
Tillya-tepe
Takht-i-
Sangin
Dalverzin-tepe
Khalchayan
Kara-tepe
Dilberjin
Taxila
Manikyal
Takht-i-Bahi
Puskalavati
Bajaur
Jalalabad
Alexandria Bactra
(Bactra)
Surkh Kotal
Bamiyan
Paitava
Alexandria Oxiana
Ay Khanum
Drapsaca (Kunduz)
Kobadian (Oxus treasure)
Alexandria Eschate (Khojent)
Alexandria
Prophthasia
Alexandria Arachoton (Kandahar)
Alexandria
in India
Alexandria
Oreiton
Balkh
Sy
r Dar
ya
A
m
u D
arya
Indus
Sutlej
Chen
ab
Helmand
L. Balkhash
A R A B I A N S E A
A R A L
S E A
CASPIANSEA
K
A
RAKORAM
PA M I R S
K A R A
K U M
KYZUL KUM
IRANIAN
PLATEAU
ELBURZ
MTS
ZAGROS
MTS
HINDU KUSH
INDO-PARTHIANS
C A R M A N I A G E D R O S I A
A R A C H O S I A
DRANGIANA
S O G D I A N A
BACTRIA
G A N D H A R A
PARTHIA
A R I A
I N D I A
P E R S I A
A R A B I A
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
82
FROM THE MID-FIRST millennium BC
onwards Central Asia was a place of great
change and development. Trade and
ideological expansion stimulated artistic
growth in a variety of ways, leading to a rich
cultural heritage that we can trace through
artefacts and styles.
The Achaemenids (Persians) controlled
much of this area between c.539–311 BC, and
their awareness of the rich natural resources of
Central Asia is reflected in the natural goods
such as camels, horses, and bulls, and the
worked items, such as jewellery and skins that
were exports from both Bactria and Gandhara.
Achaemenid influence in art can be seen in the
items recovered from the frozen tombs of the
Altai in Siberia. Achaemenid elements, such as
columns with animal sculpture, persist into the
Buddhist art of the later Mauryan Emperor of
India, Ashoka.
THE HELLENISTIC IMPACT
The legacy of the Macedonian conqueror
Alexander the Great in Central Asia is thought
to include planned cities such as Ay Khanum,
Shaikhan Dheri (Charsadda) and Sirkap (Taxila)
as well as Greek mythological scenes in
sculpture and pottery. When Alexander
conquered the Achaemenids in c.331 BC, the
Greeks then ruled in much of Central Asia,
including Bactria and Sogdiana. Their attempts
to move further east into Northern India were
foiled by a number of smaller Indian states,
which eventually emerged into the great
Mauryan Empire. Ashoka (r.268–232 BC) is
perhaps the best known of the Mauryans, and
this is largely due to his ardent promotion of
Buddhism. Indeed, it was Ashoka who sent his
son Mahinda as a friend and missionary to
convert the ruling family of Sri Lanka to
Buddhism.
CENTRAL ASIA 500 BC-AD 600
FROM THE ‘GOLDEN MOUND’, a pair of open-worked
gold clasps representing warriors between columns
or trees. They are classically dressed but with
Graeco-Bactrian plumes on Macedonian-type
helmets. Menacing dragons at their feet betray
Eurasian ‘animal style’ influence. Unearthed from a
female grave, this is one of 20,000 artefacts
discovered in 1978 at Tillya-tepe or the ‘Golden
Mound’, a 2100-year-old necropolis in Bactria. The
priceless 'Treasure of Bactria' was last seen and
inspected by international archaeologists in 1993.
1 Empires and Tribute
campaigns of Alexander the Great
cities founded by Alexander
Hellenized cities
Kushan Empire
sites with Kushan art
Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom
Parthian Empire
sites of hoards
Achaemenid tribute:
bulls
camels
horses
silver
rings/jewellery
lances and shields
weapons
battle-axes
swords
vessels
animal hides
leather goods
lion-skin cloaks
1 GREAT EMPIRES OF CENTRAL ASIA
from the Persians to the Kushans
show just how desirable this region
is. Rich natural resources such as
camels and bulls, as well as access
to a variety of raw materials as
well as the indigenous skills to
produce fabulous jewellery and
weapons, have meant that Central
Asia has been conquered by
western, eastern and indigenous
groups over many centuries.
SOUTH ASIA 500 BC–AD 600
85
locally produced clay and pressed from
moulds, would have served the needs of the
burgeoning urban population. In addition to
Sanskrit, these growing cults often expressed
themselves in the local vernacular, the
prototypes of various modern Indian
languages. The earliest body of Dravidian
literature written in Tamil is the Sangam poetry
of the early centuries AD.
WIDER CONTACTS
Large areas of the northern parts of the
subcontinent were closely linked to
developments in Central Asia during the first to
the fourth centuries AD. The Kushan Empire’s
control over the Silk Road was aided by the
links between their twin capitals near modern
Peshawar in Gandhara, and Mathura in
northern India. Each region engendered a
prolific centre of artistic activity. Although
largely Greek or Roman and, to a lesser extent,
Central Asian in inspiration and expression,
the distinctive sculptural art of Gandhara was
mostly Indian in its content. Large Buddhist
stupas sculpted at first in local grey schist and
later in stucco were covered with narratives
from the Buddha’s biography and Jatakas
(mythological stories) that monks carried with
them from Indian stupas and monasteries. At
the same time, extensive maritime trade
between Rome and southern India is evident
from archaeological finds, texts and art.
Mainland India’s own artistic ideals reached
another apogee under her final empire in the
ancient period during the reign of the Guptas
and their tributaries, when previous
iconographic, structural and literary experiments
were given a fixed, classically Indian form. Their
bronze, stone and terracotta sculpture forms a
standard to which all subsequent Indian art
refers. The influence of the visual arts of this
period spread far beyond India, to Sri Lanka,
Southeast Asia and the Far East.
65° 70° 75° 80° 85° 90°60°
80˚ 85˚ 90˚ 95˚
30˚
25˚
20˚
15˚
10˚
5˚
1
2
3
4
Bamiyan
Peshawar
Rangmahal
Hadda
Akhnur
Srinagar
Harvan
Taxila
Mirpur Khas
MathuraAhar
Bhitargaon
Pawaya
Deogarh
Varanasi
Nachnakuthara
Tigawa
Ramtek
Nalanda
Sultanganj
Kurkihar
Pandu Rajar Dhibi
Vaishali
Elephanta
Kondapur
Ter
Anuradhapura
Sigiriya
Kanchipuram
Nagapattinam
Amaravati
Udayagiri
Bhattiprolu
Ghantasala
Goli
Nagarjunakonda
Jaggayyapeta
Sanchi
Akota
Ellora
Aihole
Kolhapur
Brahmagiri
Bagh
Ajanta
Dwarka
Barygaza
Phophnar
Noh
Gop
Sarnath
Kannauj
Bodh Gaya
Kaushambi
Ma
hanadi
Godava
ri
Ka
veri
Krishna
Ganges
Yamuna
Sutlej
Indus
Indus
Jhelu
m
Chen
ab
Ravi
Brahmaputra
A R A B I A N
S E A
I N D I A N
O C E A N
H
I
M
A
L A Y A S
EASTERNGHATS
WESTERNGHATS
D E C C A N
H I N D U
K U S H
T H A R
D E S E R T
KSHATRAPA
W
ESTERN
A N D H R A S
SATAVA
H
A
N
A
S
G U P T A S
H U N A S
IKSHVAKUS
PALLAVAS
CHOLAS
PANDYAS
CHERAS
VAKATAKAS
S
A
S
S
A
N
I
A
N
S
H E P H T H A L I T E S
K
U
S
H
A
N
A
S
Southwestern ports:
clothing/linen,
copper, tin, lead,
semi-precious stones,
coins, glass, wheat, wine
Eastern ports:
muslin, pearls,
ivory, cinnamon
Indus ports:
semi-precious stones,
furs/skins,
indigo/other dyes,
cotton, silk
Southeastern ports:
muslin,
semi-precious stones,
pearls, tortoise shell
N
0
0
2 India, AD 100-600
area of Gupta overlordship
major dynasty,
1st-3rd centuries AD
major dynasty,
3rd-6th centuries AD
route of Faxian,
AD 399-414
probable route of
Xuanzang, AD 629-645
painting
pillar
monastery remains
stupa
cave: sculpted or painted
temple structure
bronze sculpture
stone sculpture
terracotta/stucco imagery
ivory carving
jewellery
coins
imports
exports
ANDHRAS
GUPTAS
- Indus ports (imports):
silver/gold plate, semi-precious stones, glassware,
clothing/linen, wine
- Barygaza ports (exports):
semi-precious stones, cotton/silk cloth, yarn, pepper, ivory
- Southwestern ports (exports):
precious/semi-precious stones, tortoise shell, silk cloth,
cinnamon, pepper, ivory
- Barygaza ports (imports):
silverware, gold/silver coins, copper, tin,lead, glass,
clothing, wine
1
2
3
4
300 miles
450 kms
2 THE TRAVEL ACCOUNTS from the pilgrimages of the
two Chinese Buddhists Faxian and Xuanzang to
ancient Indian sites in the fourth and seventh
centuries have greatly assisted archaeologists.
Their descriptions of sites, the routes of their
travels and a wealth of other detail often ties in
well with interpretations of ancient Indian
literary sources and what has been excavated to
reveal one of the greatest phases of Indian art.
Maritime, riverine and overland trade both
within South Asia and with the rest of the world
saw the exchange of not just the listed
commodities but also ideas and artistic ideals.
DETAIL OF A WALL PAINTING from Ajanta caves, c. fifth
century AD, in the domain of the Vakataka dynasty.
These Buddhist paintings are celebrated for their
sophisticated compositions that burst with life. Set
in palaces and gardens, they show kings, ascetics,
animals and the most seductive women in selfconsciously
languid poses. The depictions of
textiles, furniture and ornament allow us a vivid
window into early India.
also preserve two of the earliest readable
Indian scripts: Brahmi and Kharoshti.
POST-MAURYAN ART
Early Buddhist and Jain worship was centred
on the cult of the veneration of relics housed in
stupas. In the politically fragmented PostMauryan
period (roughly c.250 BC–AD 100) preexisting
brick and clay stupas, such as those at
Sanchi, Amaravati and Mathura, began to
attract a vibrant tradition of stone sculptures
and buildings sponsored by the growing
middle classes. Some of the earliest Hindu
sculptures of Shiva, Vishnu, Lakshmi and other
forms of the goddess also made their first
appearance in stone. At the same time vast
amounts of sculpture in terracotta, made from
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
84
of the northeastern state of the Shakyas and
founder of Buddhism, emerged from this
tradition of heterodox sects. So too did
Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder of Jainism.
Although there are few artistic remains of this
early period, the early heterodox sects and
other pre-existing theistic cults perpetuated
the sanctity of sites associated with their seers
and myths. These sites consequently became
major centres of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain
pilgrimage, trade and artistic activity.
THE FIRST EMPIRE
The mountain passes of the northwest frontier
have always been India’s vital corridors for links
to the west, whether for overland trade, or, as
in the case of Alexander in the third century BC,
for conquest. Following Alexander’s retreat
from the Jhelum River in 326–5 BC, his
possessions in northwest India and
Afghanistan were divided between his generals.
By the period of the establishment of the
subcontinent-wide Mauryan Empire in the
third century BC, therefore, indigenous and
foreign models of statecraft, administration
and, moreover, control over a standing army
were well-known.
The extensive diplomatic and trade
exchanges of the Mauryan emperors
Chandragupta (r.321–297 BC) and Ashoka
(r.268–232 BC) with Iran, Greece, Egypt, Sri
Lanka and Southeast Asia are reflected in not
just the influences on their art, but the
conscious choice to leave lasting legacies in
stone. Imperial Mauryan freestanding
monolithic pillars were all quarried near
Varanasi and then transported over river
networks to far-flung regions of the empire.
Ashokan stone inscriptions concern a variety of
social, religious and economic matters. They
AN ENORMOUS BODY of artistic and
material remains and literary sources
survive from the period 500 BC–AD 600 from
South Asia. They reveal the establishment of
some of the most defining characteristics of
Indian civilization. From the sixth century BC
onward states formed as monarchies and tribal
confederacies. This was accompanied by the
development of urban centres, artisanal
classes, agriculture and trade. Major artistic
and architectural projects were supplied with
an increasingly wide range of raw materials as
India’s natural resources were exploited. Trade
in precious and semi-precious stones, such as
sapphire, coral, diamond and agate, and in
perfumes and ivory generated a surplus that
furnished crafts guilds with raw materials.
As an increasing number of peoples were
incorporated into wider organized trade and
agricultural networks, their various
shamanistic cults, wandering ascetics and
local theistic pantheons contrasted with the
existing Vedic liturgy. In the fifth century BC,
Siddhartha (later Gautama Buddha), a prince
SOUTH ASIA 500 BC-AD 600
65° 70° 75° 80° 85° 90°60°
65˚ 70˚ 75˚
40˚
35˚
30˚
25˚
20˚
15˚
90˚85˚80˚
Begram
Tashkent
Sogdian Rock
Rupar
Amin
Sanchi
Ujaini
Junagadh
Pattala
Multan
Nicaea
Herat
Gwadar
Taxila
Sangela
Kanheri Ajanta
Sannathi
Kolhapur
Amaravati
Udayagiri
Gudimallam
Arikamedu
Anuradhapura
Bhaja/Bedsa
Vidisha
Nagari
Bharhut
Hastinapura
Ahichhatra
Sravasti
Ayodhya
Sarnath
Chandraketugarh
Tamralipti
Varanasi
Vaishali
Pataliputra
Rajgriha
Bodh Gaya
Kaushambi
Mathura
Pushkalavati
Bala Hissar
Bactra
Ai Khanum
Samarkand
Indraprastha
Peshawar
Mahanadi
Godavari
Narmada
Krish
na
Kav
eri
G
anges
Yamuna
Sutlej
Indus
Indus
Jhelum
Chen
ab
Ravi
Bra
hmaputra
A R A B I A N
S E A
I N D I A N
O C E A N
H
I
M
A
L
A Y A S
EASTERNGHATS
WESTERNGHATS
D E C C A N
H
I N
D U
K U
S H
T H A R
D E S E R T
S C Y T H I A N S
IN
D
O
- G
R
E
E
K
S
GRAECO-BACTRIANS
S E L E U C I D S
S U N G A S
M A U R Y A S
K A L I N G A
economic commodities/
raw materials:
horses
elephants
cotton
silk
spices
iron/coal
gold
diamonds
gems
pearls
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
1 Early Historic India, 500-100 BC
dynasty
major trade route
Alexander's route
material remains:
painting
pillar
monastery remains
stupa
cave: sculpted or painted
structural remains
bronze sculpture
stone sculpture
terracotta/stucco imagery
ivory carving
jewellery
coins
SUNGAS
1 WHILE HUNDREDS OF megalithic burial sites were
dotted across India in this period and traces of
civilization and rural dwellings can be found across
the subcontinent, this map shows only major sites
or regions that either manufactured
or supplied materials for the production of ‘art’.
Several cities and monastic dwellings have
revealed structures, coins, paintings and artefacts
for what is called the ‘early-historic’ period in
India. The structures are mostly Buddhist, Jain or
Hindu, although there are traces of others which
can no longer be clearly identified. The map
uses only the most commonly known names
of dynasties.
LION CAPITAL, SARNATH, 3RD CENTRY BC. This monolithic
pillar capital was one of many erected by King
Ashoka. The capital is made from spectacularly
polished cream sandstone. Sarnath is the site where
the Buddha delivered his first sermon, thereby
establishing the religious order of Buddhism.
Interestingly, the pillar bears an inscription left by
Ashoka threatening dissenting monks with
expulsion from the order.
CHINA 500 BC–AD 600
87
living space. Their wealthy occupants have
been discovered wearing elaborate suits of
jade, or with the bodies preserved in silks.
The construction of the ‘Hall of Brightness’,
which symbolized the cosmos, demonstrated
a strong trend in architectural innovation
(using earth platforms and timbers for multistorey
buildings), which would continue into
later periods.
RELIGIOUS AND LANDSCAPE ART
After the fall of the Han dynasty, China split
into several small dynasties and was
fragmented until the sixth century. The
importance of art for the afterlife persisted:
Bronze vessels remained one of the highest
art forms, and innovations in metalwork, such
as new inlay techniques and the lost-wax
method, allowed for a much more sophisticated
scheme of decoration. At the same time,
particularly in the more southern Chu state,
there was significant development in textiles
and lacquerware. The status of such objects was
raised higher than ever before, and this in turn
stimulated new approaches to the forms and
decorations of mainstream bronze art.
There was also influence from further
afield, particularly from the nomadic art of the
northern steppes. Bronzes found at the tombs
of the kings of the Zhongshan state included
winged animals, a motif typical of western and
Central Asia. The influence was not one-way:
Chinese artworks, especially bronzes and silk,
now became sought-after commodities and
were exported to the west.
A UNIFIED STATE
In 221 BC the ruler of the northwestern Qin state
brought the Warring States to an end, unifying
them to create the Qin dynasty. He became the
First Emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi. His
reforms included a series of standardizations: of
weights, measurements, currency and written
script. He amassed great wealth and
summoned skilled craftsmen to his capital at
Xianyang to build his palaces and his tomb
complex. The architectural remains of his
massive palaces show decorated ornaments
and walls. Most famous of all was the discovery
in the 1970s of the thousands of terracotta
warriors near his enormous tomb mound, which
revealed unprecedented achievements in
sculpture and human representation in early
Chinese art. The warriors are life-size and hold
real weapons, as though heading out for war in
the other world. They were created by modelling
on a mass-production line.
The Qin dynasty was overthrown by a
peasant uprising in 206 BC. The new ruler, Liu
Bang, established the Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD
220) and as peace prevailed, the Han dynasty
flourished. The two periods of the Han dynasty
reflect the location of the capital city: the
Western Han (206 BC–AD 24) with the capital at
Chang’an, and the Eastern Han (AD 25–220)
with its capital at Luoyang.
The Western Han capital at Chang’an was
the largest urban centre in Asia, with a
population of almost half a million, and a
thriving centre for art. The main themes in Han
art were paradise and immortality.
Contemporary belief and funerary practice
ensured that valuable objects were buried with
the dead for use in the afterlife. Indeed, many
funerary objects were made especially for the
burial. Archaeologists have excavated
decorated tombs, sometimes with several
chambers, which were intended to imitate real
‘THE ADMONITIONS OF THE INSTRUCTRESS TO COURT
LADIES’, attributed to Gu Kaizhi (c.AD 344–406),
though this is still a matter of scholastic dispute.
This silk painting is based on an essay by the Jin
scholar Zhang Hua. It has eleven different scenes,
with Chinese text written between each scene. The
importance of the painting lies in its fine
draftsmanship. It represents the highest
achievement ever of Chinese figurative painting.
70˚ 80˚ 90˚ 100˚ 110˚ 120˚ 130˚
40˚
50˚
60˚
70˚
Linzi
(Wang Xizhi 303-61,
Wang Xianzhi 344-86,
calligraphers)
Jiaojun
(Dai Kui d.396,
Dai Yu 378-441, sculptors)
Wuxi
(Gu Kaizhi
346-407, painter)
Dunhuang
Turfan
Kashgar
Khotan
Kucha
Yungang Caves
Mogao
Caves
Kezil Caves
Longmen
Caves
Juyan tombs
(murals depicting
everyday life)
Danyang tombs
(pictorial bricks
depicting famous
scholars)
Astana Cemetery
(textiles, clay figurines, tomb murals)
Chang’an
(silver)
Dingzhou
(silk)
Jingzhou
(paper)
Jinyang
(iron)
Xuzhou
(copper)
Kuaiji
(paper, ceramics)
Qingzhou
(Buddhist
sculpture)
Jianye
(royal tombs,
architecture,
animal sculpture,
ceramics)
(paper, iron, lacquers)
(copper mines, architecture, tombs)
Beijing
Shanghai
Guangzhou
Xi’an
Chengdu
Luoyang
Nanjing
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
SEA
OF
JAPAN
L. Balkhash
MANCHURIAN
PLAIN
ALTA
I
M
T
S .
T I E N
S H A N
TA K L A M A K A N
D E S E R T
TA R I M BA S I N
P L A T E A U O F T I B E T
G
O
B
I
H
I
M
A
L
A
Y A S
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
2 China Divided, AD 300-600
ancient city important for raw
materials/art production
maritime trade route
Silk Road
important archaeological site
site with Buddhist art
city associated with artists
modern city
2 THE CHINESE EMPIRE fragmented into many small
states from 220 to 581. There was a short period of
unity under the Western Jin dynasty (AD 265–316),
but during this 200-year period the political
landscape was dominated by nomadic invaders,
who adopted the culture and way of life of the
Chinese. In 581 the Sui dynasty reunified China.
huge stone sculptures of exotic animals were
placed at royal cemeteries, and small luxury
items are often found in tombs. Religious art
flourished under the patronage of the Northern
and Southern dynasties (420–581). The
introduction of Buddhism inspired an
enormous output of Buddhist icons, paintings
and scriptures. This in turn stimulated artistic
creativity in the indigenous religion, Taoism.
As urbanization intensified in the third and
fourth centuries, landscape architecture,
painting and poetry, which represented a desire
to be closer to nature, became the major new
passion of the elite. It coincided with the
transformation of calligraphy into a fine art.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
86
THE EASTERN, OR LATE, ZHOU dynasty
(770–221 BC) witnessed the waning and
eventual collapse of the central power of the Zhou
royal house, as dukes and lords began to develop
their own states more or less independently.
ZHOU DIVERSITY
The names of the two periods of the Eastern
Zhou reflect these political changes: the Spring
and Autumn period (770–475 BC) and the
Warring States period (475–221 BC). These
changes are manifested in the great diversity of
the cultural development and art of the Eastern
Zhou. Many Eastern Zhou finds have been
traditionally interpreted as ritual art, but in such
diverse cultural contexts, and without a clear
understanding of the beliefs of the people, this
interpretation is no longer appropriate.
CHINA 500 BC-AD 600
TERRACOTTA CAVALRYMAN and
saddled horse, Qin Dynasty,
221–202 BC. In the 1960s
thousands of terracotta
warriors and horses were
discovered near the
tumulus of the first
emperor, Qin Shihuangdi,
in Xi’an. They are all lifesize
and made in a realistic
manner. Great attention
was paid to details such as
hairstyle and armour, and
originally both the human
and animal figures were
painted. Both the
scale of the burial and
the exquisite artistic
representation of these
tomb figurines are unique
in Chinese history.
140˚130˚120˚110˚100˚90˚80˚70˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
Leigudun
Tomb of Zeng Hou Yi
(bronze bells, bamboo documents,
bronze and jade artefacts)
Mancheng
Tomb of Liu Sheng and Douwan;
(both bodies wearing jade suits)
Tomb of the first Emperor
of Qin (and terracotta army)
Tomb of the
King of Nanyue
(bronze and
jade artefacts)
Qixian
Tomb of the King of Zhongshan state
(earliest known example of funerary
architecture; inlaid bronzes
with animal motifs)
Yangling
Tomb of Emperor Jing of Han
(terracotta figurines)
Mawangdui
Western Han tombs
(painted coffins, silk manuscripts,
funerary banners with earliest
portraiture, textiles, lacquer ware)
Shizhaishan
(cemetery, bronzes)
Alagou
cemetery
Bronze culture
Niya
major town on Silk Road
Loulan
major town on
Silk Road
Aluchaideng
(cemetery;
Ordos bronzes)
Houma
Jin royal cemetery;
centre for bronze production
Maoqingguo
(cemetery;
Ordos bronzes)
Ba
Dian
Shu
Chang’an
Chu
Changsha
Chengzhou
Sanmenxia
(Guo cemetery)
Dunhuang
major town on
Silk Road
Zhao
Wei
Han
Wenxian
(covenant tablets)
Shanbiaozheng
(Wei cemetery)
Jijiahu
(Chu cemetery)
Lelang
Qi
Nanyue
Lu
Wu
Yue
Xu
Luoyang
Chu
Yan
Qin
Xianyang
Beijing
(Peking)
ShanghaiXi’an
Guangzhou
(Canton)
Chengdu
Ürümqi
Kunming
Pyongyang
Jiangling
Ussuri
Yangtze
Huai R
iver
Bo Hai
Lop Nor
L. Balkhash
YellowRiver
S E A
O F
J A PA N
E A S T
C H I NA
S E A
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
YELLOW
SEA
H
I
M
A
L
A
Y A S
G
O
B
I
ALTA
I
M
T
S .
QILIAN SHAN
P L A T E A U O F T I B E T
M A N C H U R I A N
P L A I N
TA K L A M A K A N
D E S E R T
T I E N
S H A N
TA R I M BA S I N
ORDOS
DESERT
Q I A N G
(nomadic culture)
SAKA (nomadic culture)
X I O N G N U
(nomadic culture)
HAINAN
TAIWAN
KOREA
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Building the Empire, 500 BC-AD 300
ancient capital/political centre
major archaeological site
important royal/aristocratic tomb
nomadic culture
maritime trade route
Silk Road
fortifications (Great Wall)
modern city
SAKA
1 THE QIN EMERGED FROM THE NORTHWEST, defeated
all their enemies and unified the country in 221
BC. The Qin king became the first emperor of
China. The Qin dynasty was short-lived, but its
successor, the Han dynasty, inherited its legacy
and turned China into an empire. A state
bureaucracy, territorial expansion, the opening
of the Silk Road, Confucian philosophy and
popular religious belief in the afterlife, all laid
foundations for Chinese society for centuries to
come.
147˚141˚129˚123˚
44˚
40˚
36˚
32˚
Hansan
(-AD 474)
Ungjin (AD 475-538)
Nam Puyo
(AD 538-663)
Pyongyang
(AD 427-668)
Kuknaesong
(37 BC-AD 427)
Kumsong
Acha-sansong
Isong-sansong
Mongchon
Hwangsae
Pusok-sa
Pulguk-sa
Kyongju10
Miruk-sa
Hae’in-sa
Denenchofu
Tamazukkuri-Uenodai
Nakazato
Koshinden
Tsuchihashi
Takahashi
Jizozo
Okaku
Shimoyama
Tohari ichibanwari
Sakitama
Suwayama
Gekkodaira
Nakayama
Minami
Takanohara
Tsukazaki
Matsuoka
Imakumano
Sanzen
Karausubayashi
Yotodoki
Horikoshi
HaranojoArago
Maruyama
Mitsudera
Nagamine
Nishikoko
Furuichi
Tadadayama
Oyamato-Yanagimoto
Saki
Mozu
Narutaki
Ozono
Waki
Takaita 3
Kitadeni
Asuka-Itabuki
Nakayama chiku
Ikaruga
Kayama
Katamatasuzuka
Umami
Umanoyama
Yoshizuka
Yoshida
Yajiri
Matsuno
Omiya
Miyamaegawa
Saitobaru
Kitsunezuka
Arita
Kumanohara
Magome
Sakuranojo
Ozuka
Ama
Hie
Takehara
Tojin
Yodong
Ponghwang
Cholbon
Ansi
Puso-sansong
Kumsong
maximumextentof
Koguryo border
Imjin-gang
H
an-gang
L. Biwa
Osumi-shoto
Oki-gunto
Izu-shoto
Sado
Cheju-do
Tsushima
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
S E A
O F
J A P A N
YELLOW
SEA
S E A O F
O K H O T S K
KOREA
BAY
TIARTS
AEROK
TAEBAEK
-SANMAEK
NA N G N I M
- S A N M A E K
KIBI
NOBI
KINAI
JOMO
IZUMO
YAMATO
SILLA
KAYA
PAEKCHE
K
O
G
U
R
Y
O
9
15
17
26
25
6,18
22
4
7
13 21
2,14,20
3
1,11,19
12,16,23
5,8,24
KYUSHU
SHIKOKU
HONSHU
HOKKAIDO
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
2 The Emergence of Elite Art, AD 300-600
Korean states:
Koguryo (37 BC-AD 668)
Paekche (18 BC-AD 664)
Silla (57 BC-AD 668)
Kaya (AD 42-562)
successive capitals
fortresses
early Buddhist temples
important tombs and cemeteries
Kofun Japan:
Yamato state
peripheral areas of state formation
expansion of state
major Kofun settlements
early palace sites
elite compounds
mound cemeteries
major decorated tombs
1- Bangi-dong
2- Bangyeje
3- Chinpa-ri
4- Chisang-dong
5- Choyang-dong
6- Hoechong-dong
7- Imdang-dong
8- Inwang-dong
9- Ipchom-ni
10- Kachoa-dong
11- Karak-dong
12- Kuam-dong
13- Kyo-dong
14- Okchon
15- Paekchon-ni
16- Pisan-dong
17- Pobchon-ni
18- Pokchon-dong
19- Sokchon-dong
20- Songsan-ni
21- Sunhong-dong
22- Taesong-dong
23- Tangkam-dong
24- Wolsongno
25- Yangpyong-dong
26- Yonggoong-ni
important tombs and cemeteries
JAPAN AND KOREA 500 BC–AD 600
89
were the animals most commonly depicted on
bronzes and incised on pottery, with birds also
being important, in particular water birds such
as cranes and herons. Wooden models of birds
have been found in many Yayoi settlements,
perhaps representing spiritual guardians. Dogs,
lizards, frogs and other animals also appear.
Scenes of fighting, pounding rice, storing rice
and hunting have also been found. Many deer
scapulae are known from Yayoi sites; they bear
deliberate burns and scratches, probably used in
divination, a practice which was also important
on the Korean peninsula. Ritual authority based
on the ability to communicate with the spirit
world seems to have been a major factor in
Yayoi society and Chinese accounts, such as
the Wei Zhi, provide vivid descriptions of the
way in which ritual power came to be vested in
the rulers of chiefdoms, such as the legendary
Queen of Yamataikoku, Himiko.
2 WITH THE APPEARANCE of highly
structured states on the Korean
peninsula and the Japanese
archipelago elite groups used art to
differentiate themselves from the rest
of society. Elaborate monumental
burials were the visual expression of
social and ritual power as well as the
receptacles for large quantities of
prestige items. As these early states
expanded, their elite rulers built
palaces, fortresses and, eventually,
Buddhist temples.
THE FIRST STATES
Contemporary Chinese chronicles and later
Korean and Japanese sources refer to the many
regional polities which flourished in the first
few centuries of the first millennium AD. The
influence of China is well-demonstrated by the
existence of colonies or commanderies
established by the Han Empire on the Korean
peninsula. The best-known is Lelang, near
present-day Pyongyang, where there was a
Chinese city and over 1500 tombs.
The agricultural communities on the
Korean peninsula and the Japanese
archipelago gave rise to a series of political
entities which, by the end of the sixth century
AD, had developed into states, ruled by elites
which interacted with each other and with the
Chinese empire. These included the three
kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche and Silla on
the Korean peninsula and the Yamato polity in
the Kinai region of central Honshu. These
elites, which monopolized both secular and
ritual power, expressed themselves through
new forms of art, which often involved
technological advance, as seen in the
production of stoneware pottery, and the
control of key resources, such as iron and gold.
The emergence of this new social
hierarchy, complete with strict class divisions,
is best reflected in the tradition of burying
members of the elite in monumental mounded
tombs, often along with splendid treasures.
The labour invested in these great funerary
monuments is testimony to the unparalleled
development of social power.
These elites used material culture to great
effect, manipulating it to legitimize their own
position. Military prowess and the symbolism
associated with it, including weaponry and
armour, were valued, as the contents of tombs
from fifth-century Japan attest. Elites were not
only buried apart from the commoners, but
also began to live in separate enclosures. This
trend, which led from demarcated enclosures
within settlements, as at Yoshinogari, to the
appearance of entirely separate elite
compounds at sites such as Mitsudera,
ultimately resulted in the construction of early
palace sites in the Kansai region of Japan.
On the Korean peninsula, towns and
fortifications on the Chinese model had
appeared at Kyongju from the third century AD
onwards. It was in this context that Buddhism
appeared, introduced to Korea in the fourth
century and into Japan early in the sixth
century. The beliefs and practices associated
with Buddhism were taken up by the elites and,
along with the increased use of writing,
accompanied the gradual Sinification of
elite lifestyles, which helped to create further
distinctions between the elite classes
and commoners.
CAST BRONZE BELL (DOTAKU) from
Sakuragaoka, west-central Honshu.
During the Yayoi period, bronze was
used to make ceremonial objects.
Dotaku were buried at locations
away from settlements. More than
430 of these bells have been
discovered, mainly around the Kinai
region. Just over 50 of these carry
representations in relief, depicting
animals, in particular deer, birds,
water-insects and amphibians,
hunting and fishing, and
agricultural scenes of ricepounding
and storehouses.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
88
is only in the later part of the first millennium
BC that bronze became an important medium,
when bronze assemblages included mirrors,
weapons, bells, belt hooks, horse trappings
and chariot ornaments. In Japan bronze was
used in rituals, and certain forms became very
stylized and ceremonial, in particular bronze
bells, or dotaku, and spears. Sometimes – at
sites such as Kojindani – bronzes were
deliberately deposited. At the end of the Yayoi
period, some of the newly emerging elite
groups engaged in deliberate iconoclasm,
breaking and smashing bronze objects and
burying them in pits.
Pictorial representation became much more
common during the Yayoi period. Deer, which
may have represented important local deities or
had symbolic associations with rice agriculture,
THE RICE REVOLUTION
The material culture of the Yayoi period in the
archipelago (c.400 BC–c. AD300) had much in
common with that of the Korean Iron Age
(c.500 BC–c.AD 300). In addition to the
technology associated with growing rice in
specially constructed paddy fields, such as
semilunar-shaped stone reaping knives, new
items included polished stone arrowheads,
megalithic burials (quickly replaced by jar
burials in Japan), and settlements enclosed by
ditches. These cultural traits gestated in
Kyushu during the Initial Yayoi (400–300 BC),
rapidly spreading throughout Honshu, and
displacing the preceding Jomon cultures. Yayoi
pottery differed from the elaborately decorated
Jomon traditions in terms of decoration, form
and fabrication. The shallow bowls which had
become common during the later Jomon had
all but disappeared by the end of the first
century AD, and the jar-shaped tsubo became a
distinctive Yayoi form.
Although many bronze artefacts are found
in Korea before 500 BC, in particular mirrors
and weapons such as daggers and halberds, it
JAPAN AND KOREA 500 BC-AD 600
140˚
130˚
40˚
30˚
Cho-Do
Hachon-ni
Kungong-ni
Majang-ni
Naksu-ri
Nuk-Do
Pomuigusok
Oksong-ni
Pungnam-ni
Songsan
Tang Tosong
Yonggangni
Sinmaei-ri
Nangming-dong
3
1
2
4
Choyang-dong,
Kujong-dong
Hapsong-ni
Karak-dong
Myongji-ri
Nopo-dong,Yean-ni
Singchang-ni
Sora-riSuksang-ni
Taho-ri
Tohwa-ri
Wau-ri
Wutuoling
Yangpyong-ni
Sokchong-dong
Susong-ni
Taegong-ni
PYONHAN
Tunnae-ri
Ama
Senya
Ozakidai
Toro
Kamezuka
Kanyo Iwakura
Karako-Kagi
Hidaka
Yayoi-cho
Arita
Numa
Asahi
Yoshinogari
Ikegami-Sone
Jizoden B
Oki II
Otsuka-Saikachido
Nishitani
Doigahama
Sugitani
Mine
Suku Okamoto
Tatetsuki
KamiItazuke
Kazahari
Magarida
Nabatake
Tareyanagi
Kojindani
Sakuragaoka
Jinnai
Kashihara
Kinsei
Korekawa
Kyunenbashi
Satohama
Banshoji
Kamegaoka
Nakayama
Miyanomae
Mimanda
Shinano
L. Biwa
S E A O F
J A P A N
YELLOW
SEA
SEA OF
OKHOTSK
KOREA
BAY
Osumi-shoto
Oki-gunto
Izu-shoto
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
KOREA STRAIT
NANGNIM-SANMAEK
MAHAN
CHINHAN
WIMAN
CHOSON
YE-MAEK
OK-CHO
PUYO
KYUSHU
SHIKOKU
Cheju-Do
Tsushima
Sado
HONSHU
HOKKAIDO
KOREA
C H I N A
Northern limit
of rice cultivation
in Japan, c. AD 300
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
The Spread of Agricultural Communities,
500 BC-AD 500
Japan:
Final Jomon (500-400 BC)
Yayoi (400 BC-AD 300)
Korea:
Iron Age (500 BC-AD 300)
site
important settlement
major burial and ceremonial site
hillforts and towns
shell middens
site with evidence of rice agriculture
site with major bronze hoard
ethnic groups in Korea
1
PUYO
1- Suga-ri, Ungchon,Yangsan
2- Toirae-ri
3- Chongbaeng-ni, Namsu-ri,
Sogam-ni,Taesong-ni
4- Yangdong-ni
Dengzhou
Lelang
Taifang
Toma
Yamatai
Shikashima
Na
Ito
Koyohan
Masuura
Possible route of
Wei and Himiko
embassies, AD 239-247
KOREA
historical location
along embassy route
RICE CULTIVATION and bronze working were
well-established on the Korean peninsula
by 1000 BC, and within 600 years had spread to
the Japanese archipelago. From the later part of
the first millennium BC, contacts between
Korea and Japan, as well as with China, under
the control of the expansionist Han empire,
became a major factor influencing the
development of visual, material culture and
technology. In Japan the last centuries of the
forager Jomon period saw the appearance of
plainer pottery vessels in the southwest, and
an increase in ritual activity involving clay
figurines, possibly indicating a resistance to
the advent of rice-paddy agriculture.
DETAIL OF ROCK ENGRAVINGS at Pan’gudae,
southeastern Korea, c.400–300 BC. There
are at least nine sites along the Naktong
River valley in south Korea where rock
art has been discovered. The panels at
Pan’gudae include abstract motifs such
as spirals and lozenges, as well as
representations of fishing, hunting,
boats, humans, fish and animals. Animals
and humans are depicted in two ways,
the ‘silhouette’ style and the ‘x-ray’ style,
in which bones are visible. These
different styles may represent different
periods of engraving; it appears that
some of the incisions required the use of
metal tools.
1 THE ADOPTION OF AGRICULTURAL LIFESTYLES on the
Korean peninsula and subsequently in the
Japanese archipelago was associated with major
technological, social and cultural transformations,
along with some degree of human migration and
higher population densities. These changes also
heralded changes in the
landscape, with forests
gradually being cleared to
make way for both dry and
irrigated fields.
Competition for good
agricultural land and trends
towards increasing social
differentiation were
associated with rising
tensions leading to the
appearance of defended
sites and warfare.
SOUTHEAST ASIA 500 BC–AD 600
91
sites include both bronze and iron objects as
well as carved stone ornaments, particularly
earrings, that are common in these
excavations. The Sa Huynh seem to be
ancestral to the Cham, who became prominent
by the sixth century AD.
THE RISE OF STATES
In about the first century BC, a series of
entrepôts and economic centres at the mouth
of the Mekong appear to have formed one of
the earliest indigenous states in Southeast
Asia. We know of this empire from Chinese
texts where it is called ‘Funan’. Funan’s rise in
significance is linked to two developments in
the region. Firstly, an advanced agrarian system
that included intensive rice agriculture and
swamp drainage had emerged, later evolving
into an elaborate irrigation system. Secondly,
these entrepôts had a strategic location
opposite the Isthmus of Kra on the Malay
Peninsula, which had come to dominate trade
between China to the east and India, Persia,
and the Roman world to the west. Early
sources suggest that a high-caste Indian visitor
had married a local woman to become the first
‘king’ of Funan. Contemporary texts have led
some scholars to speculate that Indian
immigrants were responsible for transforming
the style and structure of Funan society,
economics and politics. Migration of Brahman
clerks to the kingdom effectively Indianized the
state. More recent scholars tend to view the
introduction of Indian cultural and religious
forms as inspired by a local initiative to adopt
sophisticated foreign practices and ideas rather
than as the imposition of Indian culture by
immigrants. These scholars also argue that
while Chinese sources may write of Funan as a
kingdom, it was probably not a unitary state in
the modern sense, but a series of tribal
communities linked through kin ties and
marriage to form a coalition for military and
economic purposes. Some scholars suggest
that this coalition never reached the level of
integration where the chief was transformed
into a divine king, a crucial process in later
Southeast Asian states.
From its centre on the Mekong, Funan
used its superior naval power to expand its
control to the west, capturing the polity of
Dunsun at the base of the Malay Peninsula.
Dunsun was already an Indianized commercial
centre, monopolizing trade across the Isthmus
15˚
15˚
0˚
Tropic of Cancer
150˚135˚120˚105˚
Oc Eo
Salween
Mekong
Red
R.
Irrawaddy
I N D I A N
O C E A N
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
SOUTH
CHINA SEA
JAVA SEA
CELEBES
SEA
SULU
SEA
FLORES SEA
ANDAMAN
SEA
GULFO
F
THAILAN
D
BANDA
SEA
ARAFURA
SEA
STRAIT
O
F
M
ALACCA
MACASSARSTRAIT
VIETNAM
CHAMPA
SRIVIJAYA
KHMER
DUNSUN
ISTHMUS OF KRA FUNAN
YEPOTI
HELUODAN
GANTUOLI
GEYING
SHEBO
MOLU
C
C
A
S
JAVA
TIMOR
SULAWESI
BORNEO
S
U
M
A
TRA
M A L A Y A
E A S T I N D I E S
A U S T R A L I A
N E W
G U I N E A
B U R M A
P
H
ILIPPINES
S I A M
INDO
-CHINA
CAMBODIA
ANNAM
Key archaeological
site 1st-5th century
To China
To India
Creating a Cosmopolitan World:
Trade, AD 100-600
commercial centres, 1st-5th centuries
commercial centres, c. 6th century
trade routes:
1st century
2nd-3rd centuries
5th century
resources:
tin deposits
copper deposits
2
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
2 SOUTHEAST ASIAN TRADE ROUTES
by AD 100 were oriented
especially towards India,
although northern Vietnam was a
province of China. The Indianized
Funan culture of southern
Vietnam was the dominant
trading centre of the region.
Archaeological finds at the Funan
city of Oc Eo include amulets of
Hindu gods, Roman glass, coins
and medals, as well as mirrors
and Buddhist statuettes from
China. From the fourth century,
China, by then deprived of trade
through central Asia, turned its
attention south. Chinese
maritime traders developed a
commercial route through the
Strait of Malacca and developed
contacts with western Java and
Sumatra. Funan trade was now
eclipsed by that of the Khmer and
Cham centres.
of Kra. This expansion enhanced Funan’s
wealth, stimulating the local production of art.
Archaeological finds at Oc Eo include an
abundance of objects associated with Funan's
role in trade: imported jewels, gold rings,
merchant seals, ceramics, tin amulets of Visnu
and Shiva, Roman glass, a gold coin minted
during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD
161–180), a gold medal of Antoninus Pius
(dated AD 152), a Chinese bronze mirror (late
Han dynasty, first to third century) and several
Buddhist statuettes from the Wei period (AD
386–534). But besides these trade goods,
archaeologists have also found numerous glass
beads of local manufacture, interpreted as a
Funan adaptation of Roman technology, as well
as many moulded and engraved tin plaques.
Sculpture and stone architecture in Funan
show evidence of locally adapted Indian
religious art. These include wall reliefs as well
as wooden and stone sculptures of both Visnu
and Buddha.
TRADE AND CONTACT
While artefacts reveal little evidence for direct
Chinese contact in island Southeast Asia until
after the end of this period, the ties with India
were profound and influenced all forms of art,
religion and rituals, as well as the structure of
the Southeast Asian states that would form in
the following centuries. Only in Vietnam, which
became a Chinese province in about 111 BC,
was Hinduization not the predominant cultural
influence on art.
By the fourth century the Chin dynasty in
China lost access to caravan routes through
central Asia and the Chinese turned their
attention to maritime trade routes through
Southeast Asia. Chinese contacts with the lessdeveloped
centres of Heluodan in western Java
and Geying in Sumatra allowed Chinese traders
to circumvent Funan’s monopoly over the
portage across the Kra Isthmus by sailing
through the Strait of Malacca. This shift in
trade led to the demise of Funan as a coastal
entrepôt, Funan yielding to growing Khmer and
Cham centres in Cambodia and southern
Vietnam respectively. Chinese economic
influences in Sumatra encouraged the rise of
Srivijaya and other Hindu and Buddhist states
in neighbouring Java, but these states retained
their Indian cultural influences, suggesting
just how weak the cultural influences from
China still were.
KRISHNA GOVARDHANA, first half of the sixth century
AD. This Indianized grey limestone sculpture
belongs to the early Phnom Da style of preAngkorean
Cambodia. In spite of expanding
Chinese trade by the fourth century AD, the Hindu
and Buddhist states of Southeast Asia retained a
profoundly Indian cultural orientation.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
90
IT IS GENERALLY ACCEPTED that the Bronze
Age in mainland Southeast Asia had begun
in earnest by the middle of the second
millennium BC. Some archaeologists claim to
have discovered bronze-working sites in
northeast Thailand dating to 3500 BC, much
earlier than bronze-working in China. Newer
dating of related sites suggests this industry is
much later than previously thought, placing
serious doubt on the emergence of a preChinese
bronze technology in Southeast Asia. It
is now believed that the earliest bronze working
in northeast Thailand dates to about 1500 BC.
Although bronze objects of Chinese origin had
already been available in some mainland
Southeast Asian settlements for nearly a
thousand years, they made little impact on
local art traditions until c.500 BC.
BRONZE-AGE CULTURES
The fifth century BC saw the emergence of what
has come to be known as the Dong Son culture
situated on the coast and Red River delta of
northern Vietnam. Dong Son is probably the
best-known Bronze Age tradition in Southeast
Asia. The most notable and famous Dong Son
objects are the large bronze kettle drums made
with the lost-wax technique. These drums often
weighed more than 80 kg (176 lb) and were
made by specialized and highly skilled,
stratification. Dong Son craftsmen also
produced many other bronze objects such as
bowls, beads, spears, daggers and ornaments,
and by this period iron tools are increasingly
important. Ceramic dishes, bowls and jars
elaborated on earlier ceramic traditions. From
the archaeological distribution Dong Son
kettle drums, it is clear that they played a key
role in the trade networks that were gradually
extending across island Southeast Asia.
About the same period as the emergence
of Dong Son culture, the Sa Huynh culture
developed in southern Vietnam. Most of what
we know of Sa Huynh culture comes from
excavations of large pottery burial jars. These
SOUTHEAST ASIA 500 BC-AD 600
15˚
15˚
0˚
150˚135˚120˚105˚90˚
Con Con Ngua (800 BC)
Manunggul Cave (200 BC)
Niah (400 BC)
Sungai Lang
(600 BC)
Pejaten
(650 BC)
(750 BC)
Tham Ongbah
(275 BC)
Ban Puan Phu
(925 BC)
Kalanay
Tabon Caves
Sa Huynh
Phu Hoa (500-1 BC)
Hang Gon
Go Mun
Lang Ca
Viet Khe
Dong Son (500 BC)
Lang Vac
P A C I F I C O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
TIMOR
SEA
ARAFURA
SEA
CELEBES
SEA
SULU
SEA
GULF OF
THAILAND
ANDAMAN
SEA
BANDA
SEA
J A V A S E A
BORNEO
JAVA
S
U
M
A
T
R
A
LUZON
TIMOR
FLORES
BALI LOMBOK
SUMBA
SUMBAWA
CELEBES
MINDAN
MOLU
C
C
A
S
PALA
W
AN
C H I N A
BURMA
VIETNAM
THAILAND
M A L A Y S I A
I N D O N E S I A
A U S T R A L I A
P
H
ILIPPINES
N E W
G U I N E A
Mekong
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
1 Bronze Age Southeast Asia, 500 BC-AD 100
distribution of bronze technology from China, pre-500 BC
trade with China
area of Dong Son culture
important Dong Son sites
area of Sa Huynh culture
important Sa Huynh sites
other Bronze Age sites
earliest sites with iron artefacts
distribution of Dong Son bronze kettle drums:
50 drums
5 drums
3 drums
1-2 drums
DONG SON LOST-WAX BRONZE TOMB FIGURE of a lamp
bearer. Dong Son culture flourished in northern
Vietnam from the fifth to the second century BC.
Besides figures, burial bronzes included ornate
kettle drums, ankle bells, axes, daggers and belt
buckles. Burials also included pottery and woodcarved
boat-shaped coffins, oars, spear handles,
axe handles and lacquered boxes.
1 THE DISTRIBUTION OF DONG SON KETTLE DRUMS reveals
a key role for the Dong Son culture in trade
networks that were gradually expanding to
encompass all of Southeast Asia. The bronze
drums, each requiring 1 to 7 tons of copper ore
were made by lost-wax casting and were richly
decorated with scenes of daily life and ritual.
craftsmen. Both the sides of these drums and
the tympanum are decorated with scenes that
provide some of the most important evidence
of Dong Son ritual and cultural life. Scenes of
dancers wearing bird-of-paradise plumes, for
example, document the increasing importance
of trade with New Guinea and other exotic
places as well as the emergence of social
180˚165˚150˚135˚
30˚
15˚
0˚
15˚
Madang
Humboldt Bay
Tumleo
Mailu
Motu
Wewak
Tinian
Bairulchau 200 AD
Nan Madol 1 AD
Kosrae 500 AD
Sepik River
S O U T H
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
GULF
OF
PAPUA
BISMARCK
ARCHIPELAGO
LOUISIADE
ARCHIPELAGO
FIJI
NEW CALEDONIA
NEW
HEBRIDES
(VANUATU)
SOLOMON
ISLANDS
TONGA
P
O
L
Y
N
E
S I A
M
E
L
A
N
E
S
I
A
M I C R O N E S I A
NEW
GUINEA
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
2 Artistic traditions in Melanesia, to AD 600
extent of pottery in Melanesia by AD 600
carved megaliths
dolomites
early carved stone figures
paddle-and-anvil pottery traditions
shell ring-producing areas
THE PACIFIC 500 BC–AD 600
93
2 WESTERN PACIFIC ART. Inferior late-Lapita pottery
dominated ceramic styles in most of Melanesia, but
northern New Guinea witnessed a vigorous
development of paddle-and-anvil techniques, in
which pots as much as a metre in diameter were
built up by a potter holding a support (the anvil)
on the inside of the vessel while shaping the
outside with a wooden paddle. Spiral-coiling and
slab-building techniques were also in use. This
period saw the wide diffusion of two Melanesian
art traditions that have survived: the stringing of
shells into rings and strings for body
ornamentation, and carving in stone.
THE POLYNESIAN EXPANSION
In any event, by 300 BC Polynesian culture had
established itself firmly in the Tonga and
Samoan archipelagos and it was from here that
Polynesians settled the Society Islands and the
Marquesas, in about 200 BC. After establishing
stable communities in both archipelagos,
Polynesian settlement expanded to the east as
far as Easter Island (by about AD 300) and to
the Hawaiian Islands in the north (about 400).
Unfortunately, little is known about the art
of any of these central, eastern and northern
Polynesian communities from this period.
Ceramics were absent, as were the carving
traditions in wood – prominent in the later art
styles of Hawaii and Tahiti – and megalithic
carving, which was to play so important a role
in later Marquesan and Easter Island art.
Further west in Melanesia and New Guinea
archaeologists are only just beginning to piece
together ceramic sequences for this period.
Pottery, which appeared only in a few places in
New Guinea up to this period, spread to most
areas along the north coast of the island and
along the south coast into the Papuan Gulf and
to the southeastern coast. Ceramic
technologies included spiral-coiling, slabbuilding
and paddle-and-anvil techniques.
Only the paddle-and-anvil techniques seem to
have developed into major commodityproducing
industries, with large-sized pots as
much as a metre in diameter. These ceramic
centres were situated at Tumleo, Wewak,
Madang, Mailu and the Motu area. Pottery
technologies seem to have expanded inland upriver
into the Sepik basin or perhaps across the
mountain ranges in the east of the island.
In much of island Melanesia ceramic
technologies declined. Late Lapita styles are
crude as compared with early designs. In many
of the islands in southern Melanesia where
Lapita shards have been found, pottery either
INCISED AND APPLIED-RELIEF WARE of the central New
Hebrides. These fragments were found at
Mangaasi on the Island of Efate, where such wares
appear between 700 and 1600. The Mangaasi
culture also flourished up until 1200 on
neighbouring islands.
disappears completely or becomes a plainware
tradition. We know that the arts were
developing in many diverse directions, but
few examples of wood carving, featherwork,
plaiting and the like have come down to us.
SURVIVING TRADITIONS
Two aspects of the art traditions of Melanesia
have survived. The first involves the use of shell
for ornaments. It is likely that during this
period rings of tridacna, trocus, and conus
shell emerge as fully developed traditions
found on the north coast of New Guinea. Large
shell arm-rings were produced in the islands of
the Louisiade archipelago – a local industry
that would later become part of the Kula
exchange network, a cycle of gift exchange
practised among a group of islands off eastern
New Guinea. Everywhere the people of New
Guinea and Melanesia began to develop a
plethora of local styles of shell ornaments,
shell beads, pendants and armbands.
Stone-working traditions were also
developing in the Melanesian region during
this period, although archaeologists have only
been able to date some of the utilitarian axe
and adze industries. The more important art
traditions in stone have proven much harder to
date in Melanesia, but it is probably during this
period that we see the efflorescence of carved
stone clubs, mortars and pestles, and simple
megaliths.
PARTLY RESTORED PAEPAE
(house platform in
stone) at Hiva Oa on
Taa’oa Island in the
Marquesas. Wellpreserved
examples like
this date from 1300 or
later, but some stone
accumulations in the
Marquesas provide
evidence that paepae
were being constructed
by eastern Polynesians
as early as AD 200.
ART, WAR AND EMPIRE
92
Polynesians as Southeast Asians who moved
through the north of Melanesia to Fiji, Tonga
and Samoa. A second school sees the
Bismarck Archipelago, northeast of New
Guinea, as the Lapita homeland, despatching
people, arts and culture to the Fiji-TongaSamoa
region; here, Lapita art, culture, and
society regrouped before expanding into more
remote parts of Polynesia. A third school
acknowledges that Lapita culture emerged in
the Bismarcks, but sees the emergence of
Polynesian culture as essentially a local
development that drew heavily on earlier
social and artistic forms in Melanesia. More
evidence is needed to explain when, where
and how early Polynesian culture developed.
BY ABOUT 500 BC the diverse peoples who
made and used Lapita pottery had
expanded into newly settled areas of western
Polynesia, most notably Tonga, Samoa, and
Fiji. People in all three of these archipelagos
were in regular and frequent contact through
trade and probably intermarriage. Such
interactions explain why the art and material
culture as well as political formations
developed in concert with one another.
THE CULTURE OF WESTERN POLYNESIA
Ceramics become less and less important after
500 BC, and the distinctive Lapita designs
disappeared altogether in the Polynesian area.
Archaeologists have suggested that these
designs persisted for more than a millennium
in other media, and are most visible today in
designs on Polynesian bark cloth (tapa) and
tattoos. It appears that this newly settled hub
of western Polynesian culture emerged with
fully developed horticulture, sedentary
settlement, and the beginnings of stratified
political systems. In these respects, western
Polynesia differs only slightly in form from
chiefly societies that were developing in New
Caledonia and the New Hebrides.
While most archaeologists have associated
all of these traits with the so-called Lapita
Expansion, there remain several uncertainties
about how Polynesian cultural forms actually
emerged. One school of thought sees
THE PACIFIC 500 BC-AD 600
135˚150˚165˚
180˚165˚150˚135˚
30˚
15˚
0˚
15˚
30˚
45˚
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A A
A
A
A
Vanimo
Kuk
Leitre
Teop
Aitape
Sio
Lake Sentani
Jayapura
(Humboldt Bay)
Lesu
Pu’u Ali’i
Moloka’i
Bellows Dune
Kawainui
Sasi
Bird's Head Lasigi
Oposisi
Mailu
Fissoa
Arawe
Navatu
Aoa valley
Mulfanua
Sasoa’a
Vailele
Luatuanu’u
Tatangamatau
Sigatoka
Lomolomo
Potanéan
Col de la Pirogue
Éfaté
100 AD
500 BC 1 AD
1 AD
1 AD
Bairulchau
Nan Madol
Ngerulmud
Lolokoka
Lotoaa
Niutoua
Pakea
S O U T H
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
C O R A L
S E A
ARAFURA SEA
CAROLINE ISLANDS
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
SOLOMON ISLANDS
SAMOA
MARSHALL
ISLANDS
GILBERT ISLANDS
SOCIETY
ISLANDS
MARQUESAS
ISLANDS
NEW CALEDONIA
TONGA
FIJINEW HEBRIDES
(VANUATU)
NISSAN
TINIAN
BUKA
ULAWA
YAP
NGULU
FAIS
KWAJALEIN
MAJURO
MALOELAP
KOSRAE
CHUUK
YULE
ISLAND ANUTA
TONGATAPU
MAANU’A
TABUAERAN
(FANNING I.)
MÓOREA
TAHITI
MANGAREVA
PUKAPUKA
NUKU HIVA
UA POU
HIVA OA
UA HUKA
TIKOPIA
LOU ISLAND
MARE
ROTUMA
ERROMANGO
VANIKORO
FUTUANA
MARIANAS
ISLANDS
M I C R O N E S I A
M E L A
N
E
S
I
A
500 BC
500 BC COOK
ISLANDS
GUADALCANAL
NEW GEORGIA
SAN CRISTOBAL
MUSSAU
RAPA NUI
(EASTER I.)
P
O
L
Y
N
ESI
A
NEW
GUINEA
A U S T R A L I A
AD 200
AD 1
AD 500
AD 1 500 BC
500 BC
AD 100
AD 100
AD 200
900 BC
500 BC
200 BC
AD 200
AD 500
AD 300
400 BC
AD 200
200 BC
200 BC
AD 1
AD 300
AD 300
AD 1
AD 1
AD 500
200 BC
AD 100
AD 400
AD 400
AD 500
AD 620
AD 1
1000 BC
AD 500
AD 500
AD 500
1000 BC
AD 200
1000 BC
150 BC
AD 100
AD 100
AD 1
1000 BC
600 BC
AD 600
AD 400
300 BC
AD 640
AD 1
100 BC
AD 500 AD 500
N
0
0
1000 miles
1500 kms
1 The Expansion of Human Settlement, 500 BC-AD 600
extent of human settlement by 200 BC
expansion of human settlement:
300-200 BC
AD 300
AD 400
Archaeological sites, with earliest
dates where available:
archaeological site
habitation or settlement
A
cave site or rockshelter
midden
megaliths
fortification
cultivation
sites with glass or metal beads
originating in Southeast Asia
sites with brass artefacts
originating in Southeast Asia
1 THE SETTLING OF POLYNESIA. The western base of
Polynesian culture in the Tongan and Samoan
archipelagos was firmly established by about 300
BC. An eastward migration of Polynesians, starting
about 200 BC, brought human populations first to
the Society Islands and the Marquesas, then by about
AD 300 as far as Easter Island. Polynesians migrated
north to the Hawaiian Islands in about AD 400.
Evidence of ceramics and wood carving is not found
in these newly settled islands until later centuries.
By the end of the period individual Muslims were building
monuments of unprecedented refinement and luxury, such as the
Alhambra palace at Granada or the tomb of Timur (Tamerlane) at
Samarkand. In Europe, Christianity, already established in the
Mediterranean area, spread northwards, reaching most of
Scandinavia by the eleventh century. In 800 Charlemagne was
crowned western emperor by the pope in Rome, while another
Christian emperor based in Constantinople continued to rule the
East. Churches were built from Ireland to Armenia, becoming
progressively larger and more elaborate, especially in western
Europe, where first feudal rulers and then wealthy citizens competed
in the patronage of sculpture, paintings, stained glass, metalwork
and manuscripts. Activity eventually became most intense in Italy,
where the cult of the leading individual resulted in artists like
Leonardo and Michelangelo also being called monarchs and
creators. In the East Buddhism was sponsored enthusiastically by
the Sui Dynasty and then, along with Daoism, by the Tang (619–907),
whose capital of Chang’an (modern Xi’an) became the greatest city
in the world. It was also taken up by the Japanese empire, founded in
imitation of the Chinese in 645, and by the Silla Dynasty who unified
Korea in 688. In Southeast Asia Buddhism was also adopted by the
Sailendra Dynasty in Indonesia in the mid-eighth century, and by
later dynasties in Burma and Cambodia. Such cooperations resulted
in two of the biggest and most complex masonry structures ever
built: Borobudur on Java and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
ELSEWHERE, THE INCREASE IN ARTISTIC ACTIVITY was more simply the
product of economic growth and the increasing concentration of
wealth in the hands of particular groups. In West Africa the wealthy
kingdom of Benin became established about 1100, and far to the
south and east another royal capital, Great Zimbabwe, was built
surrounded by vast stone ramparts. In Central America the Maya had
their pyramidal temples and their pictorial script, and the Aztecs
their violent sculptures, their palaces and gardens. In
modern Peru the Chimu on the coast were great builders in clay,
the Inca in the Andes in stone. The Nazca, also in Peru, and the
mound-builders of Ohio, far to the north, even shaped the earth into
extraordinary, gigantic images of birds and other animals. All these
cultures had flourishing ceramic industries, but on the islands of the
Pacific, from Hawaii to the Marquesas, the hierarchical seafarers of
Polynesia abandoned pottery to concentrate on wood and stone,
building great platforms and erecting scuptures of ancestors, of
which those of Easter Island are the most remarkable.
ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR THE INCREASE IN WEALTH during this
period was the growth of trade, and it was the impact of this growth
on Europe that was to have the greatest effect on the next five
centuries. West African entrepreneurs in the thirteenth century sent
Europe the gold needed for new hard currencies, such as the
Florentine florin, while from China came vital technologies. Printing,
paper production and multiple-copy book publishing, which had
been firmly established in China in the Sung period, greatly
accelerated the circulation of knowledge when introduced to Europe
after 1450, and the adoption of the equally Chinese compass, rudder
and gunpowder allowed the more sinister worldwide circulation of a
new breed of merchant warriors.
THE BUDDHIST STUPA at Borobudur in Java.
F
IFTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO art began to take on a new
importance. The use of permanent materials, which had
previously been concentrated in western Asia, North Africa and
southern Europe, became increasingly frequent in other areas. It
spread to Central, South, and East Asia, to northern Europe and
Sub-Saharan Africa, and developed independently in the Americas
and the Polynesian islands in the eastern Pacific.
IN THIS PROCESS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS and the diffusion of
technologies were, as always, powerful factors, but the trend
towards grander and often more durable buildings, sculptures and
paintings was greatly accelerated by the increasing numbers of
connections between religious and political institutions, especially
where individual rulers encouraged religions that also focused on a
single deity, teacher or concept. These included not only the
descendants of Jewish monotheism, with its single creator,
Christianity and Islam, but Indian religions, such as Buddhism and
the cults of Vishnu and Shiva, and the Chinese belief in the ‘Way’
(Dao), Daoism. Monarchs across Europe, North Africa and Asia
indirectly enhanced their positions by pouring resources into such
religions, and these resources were often turned into buildings and
other works of art. For populations looking for order in a world
destabilized by the collapse of the great empires of Rome, Sasanian
Persia, Mauryan India and Han China, there was great reassurance
in religions and states that mirrored each other in their
concentration on one supreme authority. Since the religions
involved were all based on texts, and the texts themselves could be
made the subject of art, that reassurance was always liable to be
given material expression. This was particularly so when the
missionary nature of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity brought
them into competition.
FROM EUROPE TO JAPAN DYNASTIES SOUGHT to secure their positions by
sponsoring exclusively, or primarily, one religion. At the beginning of
the period dynasties in most of Europe adopted Christianity, those
in Spain, North Africa and much of Asia chose Islam, and those in
Southeast Asia adhered to Buddhism, often combined with related
forms of Hinduism. Buildings were essential for devotion, and in
each area churches, mosques or temples were constructed. Islam
was perhaps the religion that best represents the new trend. After
the death of its founder, Mohammed, in 632, it expanded rapidly
from the Arabian peninsula into West Asia before establishing itself
from West Africa to Indonesia. Mosques, decorated not with images
but texts, were built with great halls for prayer and preaching, often
associated with educational and other charitable institutions; new
cities, such as Haroun al-Rashid’s circular Baghdad, were laid out.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER 600-1500
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
96
shells, and copper and mica, as well as the
high development of pottery and weaving.
Even mosses and lichens were used in
Florida to weave delicate lace-like aprons,
while California tribes made exquisite
miniature gift baskets decorated with shells
and hummingbird feathers.
ART AND SOCIETY
Since many of the tribes were small
nomadic family bands, this led to the
development of sophisticated portable
THE EARLY HUNTING-GATHERING cultures
of North America had adapted to a diverse
range of environmental factors by 600 and had
developed highly specialized economies, social
structures and arts. The North American
habitats range from Arctic in the far north to
sub-tropical in the south, with rainforest,
desert, woodlands and grasslands in between.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans the tribes of
North America had devised ingenious ways of
using virtually all the resources available to them,
and were doing so with an unrivalled sense for
form and aesthetics. Although materials varied
according to local conditions, they included
extensive use of skins and furs, plant fibres,
feathers, bird and porcupine quills, wood, stone,
NORTH AMERICA 600-1500
MIMBRES MORTUARY BOWL. Pottery was among the
highest achievements of early Native American
populations, particularly among the Mogollon
of the Mimbres Valley in Southeast New
Mexico. This example, from just after 1000, is
characteristic of the Mimbres style of shallow
mortuary bowl, in which the use of positive
and negative space and of stylized form was
very sophisticated. All Mimbres bowls have a
hole through the centre by which the vessel
was ritually ‘killed’.
80˚90˚
20˚
30˚
40˚
50˚
120˚
130˚
140˚
150˚
160˚
170˚
Cape Nome
Hooper Bay
Beluga Point
Campus
Canyon
Creek
Juneau
Birnik
Kurlgitavik
Cape Krusenstern
Ahteut
Onion PortageIyatayet
Merrill
Jackson Vaughn
Kuujjua River
Resolute
Turnstone Beach
Inglefield Land
Thule (Qaanaaq)
Illumersiut
Inussuk
Sermermiut
Kangia
Illutalik
De Blicquy
Buchanan
Pembroke
Clare
Malerualik
Crystal
Silumiut
Igluligardjuk
Naujan
Pingitkalik
Mittimatalik
Qilalukan
Craig
Harbour
Maxwell Bay
Nunguvik
Strathcona
Sound
Lady
Franklin
Point
Memorana
Kodiak Island
Platinum
Togiak
Prince Rupert
Dodge Island
Cape Flattery
Ozette
Isle Royale
Harris
Alkali
Ridge
San Luis
Obispo
Smith River
Canyon de Chelly
Wupatki
Lovelock Cave
Gunther Island
Hogup Cave
Danger Cave
Borax Lake
Oak Grove
Pinto
Basin
Gypsum
Cave
Humboldt
Cave
Naco
Snaketown
Casa
Grande
Lehner
Montezuma
Castle
Bandelier
Mimbres
Folsom
Pueblo
Bonito
Mesa Verde
Quivira
Olsen-Chubbock
Lipscomb
Marksville
Spiro
Meserve
Jaketown
Poverty Point
Emerald
Mound
Lubbock Aligates
Quarry
Midland
Levi
Bonfire
Modoc
Dalton
Graham Cave
NewarkFort
Ancient
Angel
Mound City
Serpent
Mound
Effigy Mounds
Aztalan
Cahokia
Logan Creek
Starved Rock
Huff Village
Dot Island
Shethane Lake
Neck
Metabetchouan
Rosenkrans Ferry
Williamson
Key Marco
Weeden
Island
Turtle Mound
Bilbo
Hollywood
Town Creek
Point Peninsula
Etowah
Mandeville
Moundville
Yukon
RioGrande
Mississippi
S
t Law
rence
Colorado
Ohio
Missouri
Mackenzie
Great
Lakes
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
A R C T I C
O C E A N
G U L F O F M E X I C O
GULFOFCALIFORNIA
B E A U F O R T
S E A
G U L F O F
A L A S K A
B E R I N G
S E A
H U D S O N
BAY
BA F F I N
BAY
ROCKYMOUNTAINS
A
P
PA
L
A
C
H
IA
N
M
TS
GREENLA
N
D
TEMPERATE
RAIN FOREST
maritime/timber resources
(mainly cedar)
extensive wood carving; house
posts, split plank houses, masks,
canoes, abalone and shell inlay
basketwork
CALIFORNIA
maritime economy
on coast;
acorn farming in
interior, hunting,
basketry,
featherwork,
some wood carving
GRASSLANDS
big game hunting;
skin clothing, featherwork,
buffalo robes, horn utensils,
porcupine quillwork
EASTERN FOREST
(semi-tropical in south)
maize farming; hunting; maritime
resources in south and eastern
seaboard; skin clothing, birch and
elm bark houses, containers, canoes;
wood carving, bird and porcupine
quill embroidery, featherwork in
Mississippian area, use of copper,
obsidian, shark teeth, and
some pottery; cane basketwork,
woven fabrics, tattooing in south
NORTHERN FOREST
hunter-gatherer economy;
skin clothing, birch bark houses, canoes and containers
ARCTIC
tundra in south;
maritime economy, including whale hunting, sealskin,
birdskin, fishskin clothing; ivory and driftwood carving,
snow block houses (igloos), skin-covered driftwood shelters
DESERT WEST
hunter-gathering;
maize farming in southwest,
pottery, woven fabrics, basketwork,
pit houses and adobe pueblos,
featherwork, some wood carving
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
1 Major Archaeological Sites
Inuit archaeological site, post-600
late archaeological site
extent of Mogollon tradition, c.300-1300
extent of Fremont tradition, c.400-1150
extent of Patayan tradition, c.500-1100
extent of Anasazi tradition, c.500-1300
extent of Hohokam tradition, c.600-1450
1 NORTH AMERICA is usually divided into culture
areas that reflect the distribution of resources.
Archaeological evidence suggests there was a
blending of traits at the boundaries between
culture areas rather than clear-cut distinctions.
The density of archaeological sites in any
particular region does not necessarily indicate
higher occupancy. Many archaeological sites in
originally populous areas, such as the eastern
seaboard, have been destroyed or are beneath
more recent developments and therefore
inaccessible.
2 Mississippian Temple
Mound Sites, c.900
Middle Mississippian
South Appalachian
Mississippian
Plaquemine Mississippian
Caddoan Mississippian
Fort Ancient
Oneota
temple mound site
raw materials:
obsidian
grizzly bear teeth
chalcedony
flint
silver
copper
pipestone
mica
marine shells
shark/alligator teeth
Cu
M
Ag
HOPEWELL/MISSISSIPPIAN MICA CUT-OUT. Decorative arts
were highly developed among the Hopewell and
Mississippian peoples of the Woodlands, where
artisans traded widely to obtain precious materials
that were unavailable locally. This exquisite carving
of an eagle’s claw is from thin sheet mica and
demonstrates their refined use of abstraction.
Such objects served no practical purpose, other
than to attest to the skill of the carver and the
status of the person for whom it was made.
It dates to just before 1000.
2 MISSISSIPPIAN CULTURE centred
on the Ohio River Valley, but
there were many regional
variations. Each of these has
minor, but distinguishing,
features. The spread of
distinctive Mississippian
cultural traits from Ohio to
outlying regions was largely
through trade networks.
artforms using locally available materials. In
the Subarctic, for instance, extensive use was
made of sheets of rolled birchbark in the
production of canoes and as house coverings,
whereas on the Great Plains there was use of
buffalo hide tipis. Many of these tipis were
painted with emblematic designs detailing
tribal affiliation and the status of the family
that lived there.
The two major population centres were the
Mississippians in the Eastern Woodlands,
based on the Ohio Valley, and the pueblo
cultures of the Anasazi, Hohokam and
Mogollon in the Southwest, although by 1500
the cultures of the Mississippians and of the
Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon had declined,
to be replaced by the tribes recorded in
historical accounts. There were also sizable
village settlements on the British Columbia
coast of western Canada, where there was a
flourishing maritime economy. In each of these
areas settled communities enabled the
production of more permanent art as well as
the growth of significant architectural forms.
MISSISSIPPIAN CULTURE
Mississippian culture displaced the earlier
Adena-Hopewell people of the Woodlands
region, and there followed an increased
construction of earth mounds that served as
bases for wooden temples used by a governing
priesthood. Many of these mounds have
complex geometric and interlocking patterns
and designs, including animal and bird effigy
figures that served as clan markers. It is also
apparent that Mississippian culture, like that of
the Adena-Hopewell, was based on ritual sites
that attracted large urban populations.
Cahokia, the largest of the Mississippian
settlements, was founded about 700 and
contains over 100 mounds in an area of 13
square kilometres (5 square miles).
Mississippian art was intended to
demonstrate the wealth and status of a ruling
hierarchy, and to this end exotic materials such
as obsidian, shells, shark teeth, mica, copper
and silver were traded into the region from as
far afield as the Rocky Mountains and Mexico.
Much of the work made from these materials
has a fragile delicacy, such as translucent
70˚
50˚
40˚
30˚
80˚90˚100˚
Ag
Ag
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
M
M
M
Dickson
Grave Creek Mound
Newark
AdenaHopewell
Fort
Ancient
Seip
Great Serpent
Mound
Aztalan
Cahokia
Angel
Kings
Mound
Towosahgy
Knapp Mounds
Spiro
Chucalissa
Owl Creek
Moundville
Winterville
Natchez
Emerald
Mound
Shiloh
Florence
Scotts LakeRock
Eagle Ocmulgee
Lamar
Kolomoki
Lake Jackson
Town Creek
Hiwassee
Island
Etowah
Old Fort
Utz
M
ississippi
Mis
souri
Ohio
RedRi
ver
Arkansas
Lake
Michigan
Lake Erie
G U L F O F
M E X I C O
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
APPALA
C
H
IA
N
M
TS
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
paper-thin mica cut-outs of bird claws and
hands, that indicates they were made as show
pieces rather than for utilitarian purposes.
SOUTHWESTERN CULTURE
Southwestern architecture, by contrast, was
based on adobe (mud brick), multi-storied
communal dwellings and a democratic sharing
of resources. There were high achievements
here in pottery – this is the most important
pottery region of North America – as well as in
basketwork and in cotton weaving. Pottery was
in fact so important here that much of the
chronology of the region is dated from pot
sherds. Probably the most striking pottery was
made by the Mimbres, a subgroup of the
Mogollon, whose shallow bowls contain
masterful depictions of birds, animals and
human figures that seem to dance on the bowl
surfaces and interlock with complex geometric
borders and patterns.
THE NORTHWEST COAST
The other major population area, the Northwest
Coast of British Columbia and southern Alaska,
had an economy based on salmon, eulachon
(candle-fish) and sea mammal hunting. The
resources here were so rich that only half the
year was spent in economic pursuits, and the
remainder was devoted to a sacred ceremonial
season. The dominant influence on Northwest
Coast art was the massive cedars of the rain
forest. Carved and painted house posts were
the largest wood carvings on the continent and
depicted complex figures detailing a family’s
lineage. In fact, family and clan lineage was so
dominant here that everything was carved and
painted with these ownership marks. Cedar
plank houses, as much as 30 metres (100 feet)
long, had painted fronts, and wooden storage
boxes, sea going dug-out canoes, utensils,
bowls, house screens, fish hooks, masks, even
clan hats and cedar bark capes all carried these
intricate designs. A unique characteristic of this
art is the use of split-representation, in which
the clan animal being shown is depicted as if
split down the middle and laid out flat so that
the entire animal can be seen. This is a highly
sophisticated form of abstract representation,
combining symbolism and geometry with
stylized animal features.
97
NORTH AMERICA 600–1500
CENTRAL AMERICA 600–1500
99
architecture – such as colonnaded halls
fronting structures supported by feathered
serpent columns and monumental Atlantean
figures – borrowed from the past but was also
innovative. The appearance of this style
at the distant Mayan site of Chichén Itzá is
often considered a Toltec invasion of the
Yucatán, but supporting evidence remains
unconvincing. Recumbent life-size stone
figures called chacmools, used for holding
blood offerings, appear at this time at Tula
and Chichén Itzá.
The Aztecs incorporated vast amounts of
Mesoamerica into a tribute-generating empire
in the final century before the Spanish
invasion. Emulating the earlier Toltecs, Aztec
sculptors created powerful works that both
embodied sacred concepts and glorified the
Aztec state. They arranged the twin pyramids of
the Templo Mayor (Great temple) in
COATLICUE, TENOCHTITLÁN, MEXICO. This massive Aztec
sculpture shows the earth and mother goddess
Coatlicue at the moment in which she gives birth
to the Aztec tribal deity Huitzilopochtli. Her
jealous children have decapitated her; blood
gushes from her neck, forming serpents. Snakes
writhe on her skirt while she wears a necklace of
human hearts and hands.
Tenochtitlán as sacred mountains – a replica of
the cosmos, with the Aztecs at the centre
In Oaxaca, after the decline of the Zapotec
state at Monte Albán, smaller city-states
competed for control over portions of the
Valley of Oaxaca and Mixteca Alta. A series of
indigenous painted books, called codices,
show the political intrigues of rulers such as
the Mixtec king known as 8 Deer, who around
1100 extended his control over other cities
from his base at Tilantongo through marriages,
alliances and conquest. The Mixtecs were
master craftsmen of raw materials such as rock
crystal, alabaster and turquoise. Although
metalworking probably did not enter West
Mexico until after AD 600, the Mixtecs mastered
gold-working, using the lost-wax technique.
Many great Mayan cities flourished until the
end of the Classic period. Mayan artists focused
on activities of the ruling elite, who are often
shown incorporating supernatural imagery to
legitimize their rule and whose blood was holy
and offered at select dates. While portraiture
flourished at Palenque, in most Mayan cities the
ruler’s regalia is carefully depicted with little
attention to physiognomy. Increasing warfare,
shown in the Bonampak murals, coincides with
the Classic Maya collapse. Mayan civilization
continued to thrive until after 900 in the
Yucatán Peninsula, with a series of nearby
competing styles (such as the Puuk and Chenes
styles) exuberantly expressed in architecture.
The final series of small states in the Yucatán
were still in place when the Spanish arrived.
LOWER CENTRAL AMERICA
Gold replaced jade in importance after 900.
As more organized chiefdoms developed,
upheavals occurred in trade routes and
politics. In central Costa Rica, clear site
hierarchies appeared, with elaborate status
differentiation expressed in burials. Some
sites, such as Quelepa in El Salvador, became
essentially Mesoamerican by AD 650. Despite
2 The Caribbean, 600-1500
Caribbean cultures, c.600:
Ciboney hunter-gatherers
Saladoid agriculturalists
Dabajuroid agriculturalists
settlement by Barrancoid agriculturalists, c.700
changing pottery traditions:
post-Saladoid with little decorated ware, c.600-1500
Ostionian Ostionoid, c.600-1200
Elenan Ostionoid, c.600-1200
origin of Chican Ostionoid, c.1200
Caribbean cultures, 1500:
Caquetian
mixed Arawakan
and Cariban speakers
egalitarian village culture
Taino heartland
western Taino
eastern Taino
Ciboney hunter-gatherers
islands with rock
carving-lined ball courts
islands with rock carvings
at sacred sites
islands with wooden
cohuba idols
gold
import of guanín
(copper-gold alloy)
conch pearls
˜
2 AT THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Spaniards
arriving in Central America encountered
populations they knew as ‘Arawaks’ and ‘Caribs’.
Arawaks (the Taino) had a hierarchical social
structure with complex visual elements. The Caribs
had an egalitarian village-based culture combining
agriculture with marine exploitation. Both groups
spoke Arawakan languages.
these influences, areas such as the Nicoya
maintained a very unified material culture with
little foreign impact. In Panama the Chiriquí
region was famed for its exquisite goldwork.
THE CARIBBEAN
By the seventh century maize and manioc
cultivators in the Saladoid and Dabajuroid
ceramic traditions displaced Ciboney huntergatherers
as far as eastern Puerto Rico.
Saladoid pendants of amethyst, quartz crystal,
fossilized wood, carnelian, lapis lazuli,
turquoise and garnet were traded throughout
the Caribbean and northern South America.
By 600 the Saladoid tradition began to lose
its homogeneity as long-distance trade in the
Antilles declined. The richly decorated
Ostionoid ceramic tradition arose in Puerto
Rico and the western Virgin Islands, together
with Mesoamerican-influenced petroglyphs
lining the perimeters of batey (central plazas
used for sacred ball games and ceremonies).
Arawakan-speaking immigrants to Trinidad and
Tobago in the Barrancoid ceramic tradition
strongly influenced the Ostionoid after 700.
Beginning about 1200 Chican Ostionoid
ceramic styles from southeastern Hispaniola
spread widely. These were the ceramics of the
Taino culture that the invading Spaniards met
in the Bahamas and Greater Antilles. The Taino
had batey and hereditary chiefs; they ruled
partly by ownership of cohuba idols and sacred
objects, which controlled zemi (powerful
spirits). Expanding southeast into the Leeward
Islands, the Taino conflicted with practitioners
of more egalitarian village cultures that
predominated in the Lesser Antilles. They
called them ‘Caribs’. Their decorative arts
included woven cotton textiles, feather
headdresses and amulets in stone, conch-shell,
bone, clay and guañín.
80˚
70˚ 60˚
20˚
10˚
Orinoco
C A R I B B E A N
S E A
G U L F
O F
M E X I C O
A T L A N T I C O C E A N
Leeward
IslandsW
indwardIs
L e
s
s
e
r
Antilles
G
r
e
a
t
e
r
A
n t i l l e s
TURKS &
CAICOS IS
SABA
ST BARTHÉLÉMY
ST EUSTATIUS
BARBUDA
ANTIGUA
GUADELOUPE
DOMINICA
MARTINIQUE
ST LUCIA
ST VINCENT
GRENADA
ST MARTIN
VIRGIN IS
TRINIDAD
TOBAGO
ARUBA
BONAIRE
CURACÃO
CAYMAN IS
BARBADOS
FLORIDA
S O U T H A M E R I C A
C
U
B
A
JAMAICA HISPANIOLA
PUERTO
RICO
B
A
H
A
M
A
S
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
98
DURING THIS PERIOD, boundaries became
increasingly fluid between three cultural
regions: Northern Mexico/Greater Southwest,
Mesoamerica and Lower Central America.
NORTHERN MEXICO AND THE SOUTHWEST
More farmers occupied this land and
established larger settlements linked with the
increasing trade between the American
Southwest and Mesoamerica. The Toltecs
imported turquoise from the Southwest and
exported birds and feathers. La Quemada, on a
hilltop and occupied from 500 to 900, features
defensive walls, a Mesoamerican-style
I-shaped ball court, and a skull rack earlier
than the one at Tula, the Toltec capital. After
1300, Paquimé, a huge site with three
ballcourts and ceremonial effigy mounds,
would have been central to any interaction. The
Aztecs viewed the people of northern Mexico as
both nomadic barbarians and skilled craftsmen.
MESOAMERICA
After the fall of Teotihuacán, cities throughout
Mesoamerica declined. In Central Mexico the
period from 700 to 900 was a time of migrations
and competition. At the hilltop city of Cacaxtla
Mayan-style murals show a battle – real or
metaphorical – between Mayan-like bird warriors
and Central Mexican-like jaguar warriors.
From 950 to 1150, the Toltecs dominated
much of the Valley of Mexico, although their
influence beyond Central Mexico (usually
marked by finds of Tohil Plumbate ware, an
unusual glazed ceramic) is still a matter of
debate. The Toltecs’ blocky, militaristic art and
CENTRAL AMERICA 600-1500
10˚
20˚
25˚
30˚
35˚
80˚90˚
95˚100˚105˚110˚120˚ 115˚
85˚
15˚
Las Vegas
Río Claro
Cerro Brujo
Murciélago
Barriles
Bugavita
Corredor
Miraflores
Guayabo
San Francisco
Las Marías
Quelepa
Ceren
Amapa
Teuchitlán Tizapán el Alto
La Villita
Ilhuatzio
Tzintzuntzan
Pachuca
Sitio
Conte
Vidor
Barrial
Tomatlán
Alta Vista
Casas Grandes
(Paquimé)
Cueva Pintada
MolinoCuliacán
Durango
La Quemada El Tajín
Xochicalco
Teotihuacán
Chapultepec
Cholula
Tula
Río Viejo
Chiapa de Corzo
Cerro de las Minas
Tututepec
San Francisco de Arriba
El BaúlGuiengola
Zaachila
Monte Albán
Ejutla
Lambityeco
Jalieza
Mitla
Santa Rita
Naj Tunich
Seibal
Bonampak Yaxchilán
Piedras
Negras
Dos Pilas
Palenque
Toniná Tikal
Yagul
Cerro de la Campana
Coixtlahuaca
Nochixtlán
Chichén Itzá
Balankanche
CobáTulum
Iximché
Mixco Viejo
Utatlán
Hochob
Lamanai
Quiriguá
Altun Ha
Naco
Comalcalco
Copán
Río Bec
Cacaxtla
Sayula
Pungarabato
Tonalá
Cempoala
Uxmal
Jaina
Mérida Isla Mujeres
San Miguel
Xicallanco
Sayil
Maní
Kabáh
Mayapán
Tilantongo
Pánuco
Soto la Marina
Balsas
L. Nicaragua
L. Managua
L. Chapala
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
C A R I B B E A N
S E A
BAY OF
CAMPECHE
GULF OF
HONDURAS
G U L F O F M E X I C O
GULFOFCALIFORNIA
Popocatépetl
SIERRAMADREOCCIDENTAL
SIERRAMADREORIEN
T
AL
CORDILLERA
ISABELÍA
SANTA ELENA
PENINSULA
NICOYA
PENINSULA
YUCATÁN PENINSULA
CHIHUAHUA
DESERT
CHICHIMECA
export of
turquoise
Puuk style
Cotzumalhuapa style
Río Bec style
Chenes style
Tolteca-
Chichimeca
export of
turquoise
possible K‘icha-Kaqchikal
elite migration route
Greater Nicoya region
Greater Chiriquí region
Aztec Empire, 1519
Tarascan Empire, 1519
Mogollon tradition in Mexico
petroglyphs/pictographs
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Central America, 600-1500
Greater Southwest
Mesoamerica in the
Postclassic period
Lower Central America
obsidian
jade/jadeite
gold
centre of goldworking
limit of metalworking zone
site with evidence of
metalworking pre-1100
feathers
cacao
immigration of Toltecs, c.900
trade and movement of
Toltec imagery, c.980-1200
Río Bec Late Classic Maya styles
Putún Maya territory
Putún Maya trade routes
Itzá territory
probable Itzá migration route
salt
ball courts
skull racks
Late Classic and/or
Postclassic centre/site
Late Classic and/or
Postclassic regional centre
Late Postclassic trade routes
Central American imagery
Maya imagery, 700-900
extent of Xochicalco influence
Toltec heartland
other important sites
1a The Valley of Mexico, 1519
major regional Postclassic
centre/member of Triple Alliance
important Postclassic city/site
ball court
skull rack
causeways
aqueduct
TA
1 MANY FORMERLY IMPORTANT STATES in Mesoamerica,
such as Teotihuacán and Monte Albán, declined
after 600. While southern Maya cities succumbed
by 900, Maya centres flourished in the Yucatán
peninsula. In Central Mexico the Aztecs controlled
more territory than did their predecessors, the
Toltecs. The inset map indicates the arrangement
of Aztec city-states around Lake Texcoco. While the
boundaries of the Aztec Empire in 1519 are based
on ethno-historic sources, only ballcourts
documented archaeologically are shown.
YAXCHILÁN LINTEL 24, MEXICO. This Maya lintel
graphically depicts a royal bloodletting ritual,
which the text dates to October 28, 709. While the
ruler holds a torch, his wife – Lady Xoc – draws a
rope with thorns through her tongue. The details
of Lady Xoc’s garment suggest the great artistry of
Maya textiles.
TA
TA
TA
Acolman
Xaltocan
Huexotla
Texcoco
Coatlinchán
Chalco
Tenochtitlán
Xico
Amecameca
Xochimilco
Tlalpan
Coyoacán
Tlacopan
Tenayuca
Tepotzotlán
Chapultepec
Atzcapotzalco
Culhuacan
L. Zumpango
L. Xaltocan
L. Texcoco
L. Xochimilco
L. Chalco
Mt Tláloc
Popocatépetl
Ixtaccihuatl
Netzahualcóyotl’s
Dyke
N
0
0
15 miles
25 kms
80˚
0˚
10˚
?
?
Cerro Baúl
Huaca
del Loro
Jincamocco
Chimú Capac
Conchopata
Azangaro
Wari Willka
Cajamarca
Honco Pampa
Paramonga
Farfan
Niño KorinPacheco
Pampa
Grande
Pachacamac
Cuzco
(Cusco)
Tiahuanaco
Pikillaqta
Paucartambo
Huari
Manchan
Marca Huamachuco
Chan Chan
Huaca el Dragón
CHANCA
CHANCAY
HUARI
ICA
CHIM
Ú
Huascarán
Chimborazo
Ausangate
Coropuna
Misti
Chacani
L. Junín
L. Titicaca
M
arañón
Chicama
Moche
Chao
Casma
Supe
Fortaleza
Chil
lón
Hua
llaga
Amazon
Piura
Urubamba
Pampa
s
M
ala
Apurimac
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
A
N
D
E
S
A TACA
M
A
D
ESERT
SECHURA
DESERT
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 Middle Horizon to Late
Intermediate Period
Huari cultural influence
tradition/culture
desert
border highland/jungle
Inca empire
mountain peak/volcano
principal site
secondary site
religious site/shrine
fortification
gold
silver
copper
cinnebar
salt
obsidian
emeralds
spondylus
deer
camelids, wool, textiles
birds and feathers
dung and guano
potatoes
hallucinogens
coca
totora
cotton and textiles
probable sea trade routes
SOUTH AMERICA 600–1500
101
complexes of individual rulers, as well as their
tombs. Approximately 25,000 single irregular,
agglutinated rooms were used as living
quarters and for craft production.
The Incas, who may have came from Lake
Titicaca or Paucartambo, settled in Cuzco. Their
empire began to expand after their defeat of
their rivals, the Chancas, during the reign of
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (c.1438–1463).
The Inca state reached from the southern
borders of Colombia to southwest Argentina
and southern Chile. The Inca administration
demanded tribute, which was paid in labour.
achieved dominance. The agricultural success of
the Huari was based on the development of
hillside terracing and irrigation. Huari
iconography has its roots in earlier Chavín and
Pucará concepts. The state was characterized
by corporate art styles (such as Ocros,
Chakipampa, Black Decorated, Viñaque, Atarco),
rectangular compound architecture and Dshaped
‘temple’ structures. There is evidence, at
Niño Korin, of the use of the quipu, a kind of
knotted string used for record-keeping.
Worship of ancestors and cultural heroes was a
major element of the ideological framework.
Tihuanaco, on the margins of Lake Titicaca
(c.500–1000), had a marked influence on Huari
iconography. The large ceremonial core of
Tiwanaku included monolithic gateways and
stelae, sunken courts and a pyramid with great
drains, as well as an area of elite residences.
This centre was surrounded by up to 10 square
km (3.8 square miles) of lower status housing.
LATE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD
During the Late Intermediate Period
(c.1000–1476) there was a return to dispersed
political control with large numbers of regional
states. The Collao and Lupaka were located in
southern Peru. The Chanca confederation
comprised a loosely knit series of polities
within the Ayacucho and Apurimac areas,
which were characterized by terraced
agriculture, camelid herding, fortified sites on
hilltop locations and badly fired, roughly
modelled ceramics. The Chincha merchants of
the Ica area on the south coast dominated the
trade in spondylus shell from Ecuador. The
Chancay culture of the central coast produced
black-on-white coloured ceramics, including
face-neck jars and figurines, as well as very
high-quality gauze textiles.
The Chimú (c.1000–1470) were in control
of irrigated lands and population along the
north coast. Their corporate buildings were
tapia-walled (made of adobe and sun-dried
mud) and their craft production was centrally
organized and managed. Chan Chan was the
centre of Chimú power. It measured c.20
square kilometres (7.7 square miles) and
comprised ten large rectangular compounds.
These were the palaces and administrative
INCA SHIRT in a fine tapestry weave, depicting
miniature examples of other Inca shirt designs. This
may reflect the high status of the individual who
was allowed to wear the example below, who
would have been superior in the hierarchy to those
who wore the shirts depicted in miniature.
THE HUACA EL DRAGÓN in
what is now Trujillo, Peru.
This was a Chimú storage
site with a highly
specialized and effective
ventilation system that
supported the long-term
storage of organic
produce. The façades
are decorated in
modelled mudplasterwork,
depicting
a ‘Sky serpent’ design.
Exchange and trade were based largely on
kinship obligations rather than a market
system. Administration in an empire without
reading or writing was maintained by highly
structured work practices, as well as the use
of formalized aides mémoire, such as the quipu.
These knotted, multi-coloured strings were
used as accounting tools, as well as a record
of histories, legends and song. Inca shrines, or
huacas, included boulders frequently carved in
abstract geometric forms. These forms often
remained unseen as the rocks were covered in
elaborately woven textiles.
2 IN THE ANDES the Huari empire achieved
dominance over much of the Andean region
between 550 and 1000. Much of its success lay in its
system of hill terracing and irrigation, developed
during a period of severe drought in the sixth and
seventh centuries. The Huari empire lay the
foundations of many of the administrative systems
and infrastructure that were later used to even
greater effect by the Inca empire.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
100
DURING THIS PERIOD cultural and technological complexity
increased over much of South America. Pottery use was
widespread, and copper and gold-working were common in the
west and northeast.
CULTURAL TRADITIONS
A polychrome ceramic tradition, exemplified by the Guarita
phase (c.1000–1500), developed within the central Amazon
region. Anthropomorphic burial urns, such as the one found at
Miracanguera, were popular, and the culture spread into the
upper Amazon region. Ridged
field cultivation became a
feature of intensively cultivated
tropical floodplain areas such
as the Llanos de Mojos.
The Tairona of northeast
Colombia (500–700) had a
hierarchical society, possibly
connected to Mesoamerican
cultures. Large sites, with up to
3000 structures, included
religious and elite buidings and
circular houses. Ceramics
included face-necked urns, and
they also produced stone celts
and cast goldwork.
The Quimbaya culture of the
Cordillera Central (c.400–1000)
produced exceptional goldwork,
using a lost-wax technique. The
palisaded towns of the Chibcha
state (c.650–1500), with their
priestly class, were ruled by a
dual leadership. They cultivated
maize and potatoes on terrace
based fields.
The Manteño culture of Ecuador
(c.800–1500), with its principal site at Manta, is linked with the
local development of towns and small kingdoms. Gold,
copper and silver metallurgy became common. Within their
stone-built structures a typical feature was a carved Ushaped
stone seat on the back of a crouching man or animal.
The Middle Horizon period in Peru (550–1000) comprises an
era when the Huari (or Wari) polity of the Ayacucho area
SOUTH AMERICA 600-1500
60˚ 50˚70˚80˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
20˚
30˚
40˚
50˚
40˚ 30˚
Paramonga
Islands of Sun
and Moon
Samaipata
RaqchiSayhuite
Itacoatiara
Oriximiná
Santarém
Tucacas
Valencia
TAIRONA
Corobal
Paredão
Aranquin
El Cerrillo
Tambería del Inka
Iquique
Ranchillos
Punta Piedras
Puerto Montt
Malabrigo
Las Mercedes
Chagua
Mizque
Quelap
Cajamarca
Huánuco Pampa
Pumpu
Vilcas Huamán
Gran Pajatén
Machu Picchu
Oma Porco
Turi
El Shincal
Miracanguera
Pedro Oca
Quito
Manta
Cuzco (Cusco)
Chan
Chan
Pachacamac
Ciudad
Perdida
VALENCIOID
TRADITION
ARAWAK
ARATU
SITES
ARATU
SITES
SAMBAQUI
TRADITION
GÓMEZ
SAQUERERA
MACEDO
TAQUERA
TRADITION
SAN
BLAS
GUARANÍ
ARATU
SITES
SAN
AGUSTÍN
MANTEÑO
QUIMBAYA
CHIBCHA
ARAW
AK
PERIPERISITES
Huila
Sierra
Nevada de
Santa Marta
Antisana
Chimborazo
Huascarán
Illimani
IllampuCoropuna
Tacora
Llullaillaco
Coipapo
Chachani
Misti
Cotopaxi
Amazon
J
uruá
JapuráPutumay
o
Marañó
nUcayali
Par
aná
S
ãoFrancisco
Tocantins
Paraná
C
olorado
Negro
Loa
Maipó
Maule
Salado
Desaguadero
Deseado
Chi
co
Paraguay
Orinoco
Essequibo
Corantijn
Maroni
O
iapoque
Branco
Cauc
a
M
agdalena
L. Titicaca
L. Poopó
Llanos de Mojos
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
CARIBBEAN
SEA
A
N
D
ES
ATACAMADESERT
BR
A
Z
IL
IA
N
H
I G
H
L A
N
D S
GUIANA
HIGHLANDS
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Principal Cultural Traditions, c. AD 1000-1500
dry pampa
tropical rain forest
pampa
desert
mountain peak/volcano
Inca Empire
Inca road system
tradition/culture
principal site
secondary site
religious site/shrine
raised field
gold
silver
copper
salt
obsidian
emeralds
spondylus
strombus
coral
fortification
birds and feathers
dung and guano
maize and beans
manioc
totora
camelids, wool, textiles
cotton and textiles
terraced agriculture
sunken fields/gardens
deer
1 IN SOUTH AMERICA major empires located along the eastern
watershed of the Andes expanded between 600 and 1500. In the
north and east, chiefdoms developed in Ecuador, Colombia,
Venezuela and Brazil. These flourishing chiefdoms were
dependent on highly productive agricultural systems – usually
linked with drainage or irrigation techniques and the creation
of terraced or sunken fields.
EUROPE 600–800
103
combining elements of the Mediterranean
tradition, such as vine ornament, with recent
varieties of northern animal ornament and
aristocratic patronage and functions.
ROMAN CONTINUITY
Royal and ecclesiastical patrons achieved
prestige and conveyed authority through
monumental stone architecture, especially
churches, using Roman structural and
decorative features such as columns and
large arches. Some quarries were exploited
for building stone, fine carving in marble for
sarcophagi and architectural ornament such
as columns and capitals. However, when
employed, such features were frequently actual
remnants (spolia) taken from Roman buildings,
appropriated to new uses. Ancient gems were
SACRAMENTARY MANUSCRIPT from
Chelles (Vat. Reg. lat. 316, fols.
131v-132r). Produced probably by
and for the use of nuns
in a convent founded by
St Balthilde, a queen of the
Merovingian Franks, in the 660s.
The codex form, still used today,
makes possible the kind of large
pictorial spread on facing pages
fundamental also for this atlas.
10˚
40˚
50˚
60˚
Toulouse
Périgueux
Aniane
Narbonne Lérins
Gerona
Poitiers
Saintes
St Maixent
Vienne
Chalon
Arles
Gellone
Urgel
Liebana
Bordeaux
Aix-en-Provence
London
Paris
Fleury
Milan
Bobbio
Monza
Ratisbon
Freising
Mondsee
Salzburg
St Gall
Chur
Müstair
Constance
Verona
Venice
Aquileia
Ravenna
Lucca
Nonantola
Rome
Monte Cassino
Farfa
Naples
Lyon
Barcelona
25
Utrecht
York
Cividale
Lorsch
Strasbourg
Jarrow
Whitby
Bangor
NendrumMonasterboice
Glendalough
Clonard
St Mullin’s
Lindisfarne
Monkwearmouth
Jouarre
Echternach
Reims
Dol
Corbie
Aachen
Cologne
Stavelot
1
2
3
9
10
8
22
14
11 12
4
Murbach
5
6
7
16
Flavigny
18
21
19
17 15
13
24 Metz
Trier
Lobbes
Laon
20
Essen
Nivelles
Péronne
St Vaast d’Arras
23
Basle
Reichenau
Dijon
Luxeuil
Disentis
Augsburg
St Wandrille
Léhon
Redon Le Mans
Nantes
Noirmoutier
St Philibert-de-Grand-Lieu
Landévennec
Jumieges
St Bertin
Liège
Osnabrück
Münster
Bremen
Hamburg
Verden
Minden
Gandersheim
Hersfeld
FuldaMainz
Würzburg
Amorbach
Melrose
Ruthwell
Ripon
Iona
Clonmacnoise
Armagh
Malmesbury
St Denis
Orléans
Tours
Benevento
San Vincenzo
Salerno
Vivarium
Pavia
Canterbury
Langres
Bourges
Rhône
Tagus
Ebro
Danube
Elbe Vistula
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
A
D
R
I A
T I C
S E A
BA
L
T
IC
SEA
A L P S
PYRE N E E S
B
ALEARIC IS
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
2 Monasteries, Writing Centres and Artistic Work
Carolingian schools/scriptoria/literary centres
important monasteries founded 4th-7th century
monasteries founded 6th-9th century
probable centres of manuscript illumination
distribution of objects decorated in the Tassilo chalice style
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1. Prüm
2. Weissenburg
3. Faremoutiers
4. Troyes
5. Chiemsee
6. Tegernsee
7. Benediktbeuern
8. St Amand
9. Meaux
10.Amiens
11.Whithorn
12. Hexham
13. Sens
14. Chelles
15.Auxerre
16.Autun
17. St Germigny-des-Prés
18. Ferrières
19. Nevers
20. Maastricht
21. St Germain-des-Prés
22. Rouen
23. St Riquier
24. Hauvillers
25.Werden
2 MONASTERIES WERE FOUNDED by local saints, often
with the support of local aristocracies, sometimes
also by missionaries, often coming from the British
Isles. A few were large and wealthy, but even the
many small and poor ones required liturgical
implements of valued materials and workmanship,
along with reliquaries and books. A few were
engaged in production, but all provided a market
for artistic works.
similarly incorporated in liturgical crosses and
luxury bookbindings.
The Roman tradition survived chiefly in
and through Christianity, Rome becoming to
contemporaries not the city of Caesar and
Augustus but of saints Peter and Paul. The
great churches built in late Antiquity by
Constantine and his followers continued in
use, but during this period only one pagan
building was converted for Christian use, when
Hadrian’s domed Pantheon was rededicated as
S. Maria ad Martyres in 609. In a fundamentally
new phenomenon, large painted wooden
panels representing Christ or his mother were
created and displayed in many churches, and
sometimes carried in processions through the
city, for example the so-called Christ image
kept in the Lateran chapel of the Sancta
Sanctorum (‘the Holy of Holies’) in Rome from
at least the end of the eighth century.
Greco-Roman civilization was a literary
culture in which books played a large role, but
their role was both altered and intensified
through the emergence and triumph of
Christianity and Islam (established in Spain in
the 8th century). Each of them had a sacred
book at its core and both developed a new form
of decorated book commonly referred to as
‘illuminated’. Even in late Antiquity and with the
triumph of Christianity, from the fifth century or
even earlier, the new form of bound codex that
replaced the ancient book roll had been
provided on some occasions with elaborate
coloured pictures. These most commonly were
portraits of the authors or of the patrons who
either received or commissioned books of
unusual and outstanding luxury.
Only in the seventh century did the text itself
come to be a focus for decoration, with coloured
ornament around and within and sometimes
altogether comprising the letters. Pages were
provided also with ornamental embellishment,
beautifying as well as communicating the
written word. Not all new manuscripts were
made in monasteries or by monks, but many
were, and the monasteries were a major patron
of this art form, and of precious metalwork, and
thye became the eventual repositories of nearly
all examples that survive.
RECALLING ROMAN NUMISMATIC PRACTICE, a silver
denarius, with profile portrait, issued by
Charlemagne after about 806. Around the
portrait is the inscription KAROLUS IMP AUG
(Charles Emperor Augustus). On the reverse,
however, the central role of the Christian
religion is explicitly stated. The temple-like
structure is based on Roman imperial coinage,
but is now crowned with a cross and inscribed
XPICTIANA RELIGIO (Christian Religion).
metalwork and textiles, sometimes exchanged
not for purely economic reasons but as
gift-exchanges that forged ties between the
various rulers.
The range of places of origin for the
material collected in the Sutton Hoo shipburial
(c.630), indicates the direct and indirect
connections stretching from southeastern
England to Scandinavia, the Frankish kingdom,
even to Constantinople and Egypt. Towards the
end of the eighth century occurred the
converse phenomenon: the wide distribution of
objects produced in a single or closely related
centres, including both objects for Christian
use, like the Tassilo Chalice (opposite), and others
in a similar style primarily for secular use
(swords, jewellery and riding equipment). The
common denominators are a new style,
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
102
FROM THE LATER SIXTH CENTURY the
Roman Empire ceased to dominate the
western Mediterranean and European world.
Associated with this political change – the
emergence of new ‘barbarian’ rulers – was the
decline of the urban centres that had been the
focus of Greco-Roman civilization and its
artistic production.
NEW PATTERNS OF TRADE
Constantinople and, especially, Rome shrank
considerably. Alexandria was conquered by
Islam. Carthage and Ephesus virtually ceased
to exist. Smaller cities in the west such as
Trier, Winchester, Metz or Tours became
primarily military and episcopal administrative
centres. Trade also declined, especially longdistance
trade in bulk cargoes like grain, wine
and pottery. For example, the eastern and
African pottery found at many fifth- and early
sixth-century sites in western Europe is absent
at later sites. From the seventh century trade
tended to be more localized for such items,
with the emerging new economic and cultural
centres in suburban and rural estates founded
essentially upon agriculture.
Some north–south trade continued, using
the Rhine and Rhône valleys, and northern
trade around the North Sea and Baltic Sea
became significant, by the end of the period
reaching across modern Russia to the Islamic
world. Sites like Hedeby (Haithabu) on the
Baltic, Dorestad in the Netherlands on the
North Sea, and Southampton (Hamwih) on the
Channel grew rapidly in the eighth century,
and are associated with the production of
small silver coins (sceattas). Trade shifted
toward luxury items, such as precious
EUROPE 600-800
0˚
10˚
40˚
50˚
10˚ 20˚
711
714
670
697
711
Kairouan
Carthage
Tulaytulah (Toledo)
Mérida
Oviedo
(c.790)
Tangier
Saragossa
Ceuta
Toulouse
Poitiers
Turones
London
Sutton Hoo
Hamwih
Paris
Geneva
Milan
Ratisbon
Turin
Verona
Bononia
Florence
Genoa
Venice
Ravenna
Rome
Naples
Taranto
Athens
Thessalonica
Adrianople
Varna
Constantinople
Smyrna
Bari
Spalatum
Palermo Messina
Lyon
Marseille
Barshilunah (Barcelona)
Tarrakunah (Tarragona)
Cartagena
Algiers
Qurtubah (Córdoba)
Cologne
NijmegenDorestad Paderborn
(776)
Hedeby
York
Scone
Winchester
Glastonbury
Cividale
Quintanilla
de las Viñas
Lorsch
(after 764)
St Maurice
d’Agaune
Jarrow (684)
Monkwearmouth (674)
Reculver (669)
Grenoble
Germigny
-des-Prés
(c.800)
Jouarre
(670s)
Ingelheim
Centula (790s)
Aachen
(795)
Escomb
(670s) Hexham
Ripon (670s)
Yeavering
St Denis
Benevento
(c.770)
Tempio di
Clitunno
San Vincenzo al Volturno
Pavia
Lomello
San Pedro
della Nave
São Gião
de Navaré
São Frutuoso
de Montelios
San Juan
de Baños
Santa Comba
de Bande
Santianes
de Pravia
Santa María
de Melque
Canterbury
(after 597)
Seine
Rhine
Tagus
Ebro
Danube
Elbe
Oder
Vistula
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
BA LT I C
S E A
BLACK
SEA
M E D I T E R
R
A
N
E A N S E A
A
D
R
I A
T I C
S E A
A L P S
P
Y
R E N E E S
BALTIC
PEO
P
LES
S L A
V
S
S
L
A
V
S
NO
RTHM
E N
(SCA
NDINAV I A N S )
SAXO N SF R I S I A N
S
BRETONS
BASQUES
B
ALEARIC IS
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
MALTA CRETE
BAVARIA
AQUITAINE
ASTURIAS
KINGDOM OF
THE PICTS
SCOTTISH
KINGDOMS
IRISH
KINGDOMS
STRATH-
CLYDE
EAST
ANGLIA
KENT
WELSH
STATES
WEST
WALES
NORTHUMBRIA
MERCIA
AVAR
EMPIRE
BULGARIA
B
Y
Z
A
N
T I N E E M P I R E
U
M
A
Y
Y
A
D
C
A
L I P H A T E
KIN
G
DO
M
OF THE LOMBARDS
FRANKISH KINGDOM
WESSEX
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
Centres and Distribution
of Luxury Goods c.730
Muslim Umayyad Caliphate
date of Muslim conquest
Byzantine Empire
Frankish Kingdom
Kingdom of the Lombards
mints represented in the
Sutton Hoo burial (c.630)
provenance of objects found in
the Sutton Hoo burial (c.630)
distribution of marble sarcophagi
and capitals quarried/carved
in Toulouse region, 6th-7th C
ecclesiastical structures of which
significant remains survive
secular (mostly royal) sites with
substantial surviving fragments
or known from literary sources
trade route
670
1
1 CHURCHMEN’S TRAVELS played a large role in artistic
exchanges, as they brought gifts and returned with
new acquisitions. Benedict Biscop travelled five
times from Northumbria to Rome as a pilgrim,
returning to the monastery he founded laden with
books and pictures, and in 669 brought with him
Theodore of Tarsus (in Asia Minor), the new
Archbishop of Canterbury.
THE TASSILO CHALICE, a liturgical chalice in
copper, with silver and gold inlay and niello,
Salzburg region c.770 (Kremsmünster, Abbey
Treasury). A Latin inscription names Duke
Tassilo, last ruler of independent Bavaria, and his
wife Liutpirc, a Lombard princess. Images in
medallions represent four patron saints of the
family, and Christ and the four evangelists.
EUROPE 800–1000
105
campaign of literary and artistic production,
which continued into the tenth century. From
the later tenth century the Roman empire ruled
by a Saxon dynasty in Germany, commonly
called the Ottonian dynasty, also drew scholars
and artists from afar, including the Byzantine
empire.
For a small group, the world suddenly
became much smaller, and men such as
Gerbert of Aurillac took advantage of the new
range of possibilities. Born and educated in
southern France, he became a famous teacher
at Reims in northern France, then became tutor
to the future Emperor Otto III, and was
appointed by him Pope Sylvester II in 997.
Artists similarly travelled. We know of a
Carolingian painter in the employ of abbots
travelling from central France to central
Germany and returning, of Anglo-Saxon artists
active at Fleury and probably in the Meuse
region, and one famous master who worked for
the Archbishop of Trier in the late tenth century
probably visited Rome.
Gerbert’s career exemplifies the relative
insignificance of borders. Latin was the shared
language of written culture and administration
nearly everywhere in the West, and there was
an emerging sense of a special Western
Christendom, represented by the enlargement
of Christendom westwards to encompass all of
Scandinavia, including Iceland and Greenland,
and eastwards to include Poland and Hungary.
Borders were very much in flux in any event,
prompted only in part by the raids and
subsequent invasions of the Vikings. By the
tradition, and for it was made the earliest
preserved luxury illuminated manuscript for a
ruler, known after its scribe and painter as the
Godescalc Evangelistary (781–83). Although we
do not know where that book was made, it and
a group of other extraordinarily luxurious
books were made for Charlemagne.
After a hiatus of more than three centuries,
carvings on ivory were produced under court
patronage. As there was no current supply of
new ivory, many were made by turning over
Late Roman secular (never Christian) ivories
and carving the back.
Also for the court were made large-scale
works in bronze, including the doors and
railings for the palace chapel. How the difficult
art of bronze casting was recovered remains
something of a mystery, as is also the case with
the wall mosaics at Aachen and at Theodulf’s
chapel at Germigny, another technique revived
after several centuries abeyance other than in
the city of Rome.
The Frankish royal courts became the first
court centre of cultural and artistic patronage
in the post-Roman period, and drew many
creative figures from beyond the Frankish
realm, including Alcuin from northern England,
Theodulf from northern Spain, Paulinus of
Aquileia and others from Italy, and later John
the Scot Eriugena from Ireland.
OTTONIAN EUROPE
From the later ninth century the Frankish
kingdoms were in decline, but Alfred the
Great’s Wessex began a major royal-sponsored
THE EGMOND GOSPELS, facing miniatures added c.950
to a ninth-century manuscript by Count Theoderic
II of West Frisia and his wife Hildegard. The couple
present the book at the monastery’s altar, and
then are presented to Christ by the monastery’s
patron saint, St Adalbert.
Rohrbach
Leutmerken
Tägerschen
Pfäffikon
Helfenschwil
Willmandingen
Bettighofen
Dieterskirchen
Oberndorf
Buchheim
Mengen
Wolfenweiler
Spaichingen
Tuningen
Klengen
Wurmlingen
Tuttlingen
Löffingen
Fischingen
Binzen
Lausheim
Weizen Singen
Diessenhofen
Bülach
Glatt
Höngg
Zurich
Ringwil
Kempraten Grabs
Fischbach
Constance
Bermatingen
Siggingen Urlau Luttolsberg
Mindersdorf
Bussnang Amriswil
Sitterdorf
Heldswil
Zuzwil
Lommis
Aadorf
Elgg
Büren
Zell
Turbental
Jonschwil Bütschwil
Ulm
Schörzingen
Pfohren
Ewattingen
Goldach
Steinach
Durnten
Wetzikon
Langenargen
Egringen
Winterthur
Wängi
Rickinbach Henau
Uzwil
HerisauUster
Kirchen
Stammheim
Mönchaltorf
Egg
Eschenbach
Schlins
Leiblach
Buchorn
Bodman
Romanshorn
ST GALL
ST GALL
Gossau
Leutkirch
Wasserburg
Uznach
Rankweil
Rhine
Thur
Rhine
Rhine
Lake Constance
Lake Zurich
Lake Wallen
Allgäner
AlpenBregenzer Wald
S w a b i a n J u r a
Black F
orest
BREISGAU
BERCHTOLDSBAAR
SCHERRAGA
U
ARGENGAU
AARGAU
KLETTGAU
ALBGAU
LINZGAU
NIBELGAU
ZÜRICHGAU
THURGAU
HEGAU
RAETIA
CURIENSIS
N
0
0
20 miles
30 kms
2 FROM THE MID-EIGHTH CENTURY
until the end of the tenth St
Gall, supported largely by its
land holdings, was a centre
for illuminated manuscripts.
Although the most elaborate
books, ivory carvings and
metalwork were for the
abbey itself, some were sent
to the many dependent
monasteries, priories and
churches in the wide region
dominated by St Gall as an
administrative as well as
artistic centre. The map
shows how widely dispersed
the administrative work of
the abbey was – each site
‘with charters’ is a place
where these property
documents were drawn up.
end of the period the core of the later English
and French nations had been defined.
Monasteries, already important in
preceding centuries, played if anything an
enhanced role in the ninth and tenth. Many
received royal support, or the support of major
local aristocratic patrons, and in turn were
expected to contribute to royal projects,
providing not only books and teachers but also
money and even soldiers. Some of the royal
monasteries became major centres of artistic
production, the monastery at Tours, for
example, producing something like two
complete bibles and a gospel book annually
during the second quarter of the ninth century.
The ties between state and church were
especially intimate in Ottonian Germany,
culminating in the eleventh century in intense
conflicts. Some monasteries sought to insulate
themselves from secular ties; the great
monastery of Cluny (founded 919) was
chartered as dependent only upon the pope,
and also strengthened its independence by
creating an order, an alliance of many
monasteries scattered across Christendom
with the Burgundian mother house at its head.
The well-documented case of the abbey of St
Gall, just south of Lake Constance in modern
Switzerland, shows the extent of monastic
involvement in land-holding patterns and also
of literary and administrative culture.
Monasteries were also important as the
home of holy men, specialists in prayer, and of
the holy men and women of the past, present
through their relics, whose cult became
increasingly important through the period.
Relics were required in association with every
altar, usually small portions of holy bodies in
small but elaborately decorated reliquaries.
Charlemagne’s biographer, Einhard, tells how
holy relics were acquired from Rome. Other
famous relics were rescued or stolen by new
owners, including St Foi at Conques and St
Mark at Venice.
2 The Abbey of St Gall
sites with abbey properties
places with 10 charters or more
places with 5-10 charters
places with 3 or 4 charters
places with 2 charters
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
104
THE FRANKISH KINGDOMS of Charlemagne
(r.768–814) and his successors were the
dominant political and military force in ninthcentury
western Europe, and also the main
cultural centre. In the early tenth century,
artists were supported by Anglo-Saxon Wessex,
and later by the Ottonian empire in Germany.
CAROLINGIAN EUROPE
Central power in the Carolingian empire
depended upon the personal qualities and
presence of the ruler. Charlemagne travelled
incessantly for decades, and his ‘court’,
including the queen, travelled with him four
times to Italy, around the scattered royal
estates, and on annual military campaigns
which took them as far afield as northern Spain
or modern Hungary.
The construction on one of the royal
estates of a new fixed capital, at Aachen (after
794) was a new phenomenon. It contained the
first large palace chapel in the Western
EUROPE 800-1000
0˚ 10˚ 20˚
50˚
40˚
London
GhentSt Omer
Valenciennes
Ingelheim
St Quentin
Worms
Orville
Lorsch
QuierzyVerberie
Frankfurt
Soissons
Koeth
Compiègne
Corbeny
Salz
Fulda
Ven
Kissingen
St Denis
Würzburg
Chelles
Svalafeld
Remiremont
Karlsgraben
Geneva
RatisbonMetz
Lechfeld
Diedenhofen
Bodman
Longlien
(Longlier)
Speyer
Seilles
Brumath
Herstal
Schlettstadt
Duren
Sinfeld Eresburg
Herstelle
Lügde
Thuringen
Paderborn
Brunsberg
Üffeln
Rehme
Minden
Hocheleve
Oker
Ohrum
Schöningen
Wolmirst
Steinfurth
Verden
Hollenstedt
Armagh
York
Canterbury
St Riquier
Winchester
Rouen
Reims
St Amand
1
2
6 7
3 4
5
Cologne
Echternach
Aachen
Bremen
Hamburg
Gniezno
Salzburg Esztergom
Magdeburg
Tours
Germigny
Bordeaux
Auch
Bourges
St Gall
Reichenau
Paris
Toulouse
Narbonne Aix-en-Provence
Avignon
Lyon
Vienne
Cluny
Tarentaise
Embrun
Pisa
Trivento
Naples
Sorrento
Amalfi
Salerno
Messina
Aquileia
Gerona
BurgosBraga
Santiago
Barcelona
Turin
Genoa
Milan
Ravenna
Florence
Monte Sant’ Angelo
Trani
Bari
Brindisi
Otranto
ReggioPalermo
Conza
Siena
Rome
Venice
Ragusa
Oporto
Rhine
Seine
L
oire
Rhône
Elbe
Danube
Vistula
Po
N O R T H S E A
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
BA LT I C
S E A
A
D
R
IA
T
I C
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
P
Y R E N E E S
A L P S
BAL E A R I C I S
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
B R I T TA N Y
SAXONY
KINGDOM
OF ORKNEY
SCOTLAND
E N G L A N D
WESSEX
D E N M A R K
W E S T
F R A N K I S H
K I N G D O M
EAST
FRANKISH
KINGDOM
P O L A N D
H U N G A RY
BURGUNDY
L E Ó N
C A L I P H AT E O F C Ó R D O B A
CROATIA
WELSH
STATES
IRISH
KINGDOMS
CASTILE
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 Western Christendom before AD 1000
places visited by Charlemagne, 768-814
palace complexes constructed/rebuilt
major churches constructed by those
closely associated with royal/imperial court
centres of decorated book production
archbishopric
main Viking routes, 792-870
Ottonian lands, c.1000
borders c.1000
extent of Catholicism, c.1000
1 - Trier
2 - Kreuznath
3 - Hohensburg
4 - Lippspringe
5 - Detmold
6 - Mainz
7 - Seligenstadt
1 RAIDS BY VIKINGS and others destroyed many of the
works of art produced during the peak of
Carolingian culture, roughly 780–880. Nevertheless,
by the end of the tenth century Christendom had
expanded. Kings, increasingly powerful aristocratic
lords, and clergymen (especially bishops and
abbots) were patrons of books, fine metalwork
and architecture. Urban centres were also
renascent, especially in Italy.
THE WUOLVINIUS ALTAR, centre-rear view
(Milan, S. Ambrogio), mid-ninth century. On its
front this elaborately enamelled silver and gold
altar displayed Christ enthroned in majesty, with
scenes from his life at both sides. Access to the relic
(the entire preserved body of the patron saint) is
through these doors on the back displaying
archangels and the current Archbishop Angilbertus
and the craftsman Wuolvinius bowing before and
being blessed by the saint.
EASTERN EUROPE AND SOUTHWEST ASIA 600–1500
107
The Crusades increased knowledge of
Byzantine art in western Europe. In the late
Byzantine period, Byzantine art also showed an
increasing awareness of western art, reflecting
the close contact between Byzantium and the
West from the twelfth century onwards.
ARTISTIC CENTRES
Constantinople and Thessaloniki were major
artistic centres. A local artistic tradition is
exemplified by the ninth- to eleventh-century
frescoes in the cave churches of Cappadocia, in
eastern Turkey. Church decoration in Cyprus and
Serbia provides important insights into artistic
developments in the late Byzantine period
BYZANTINE SILK PRODUCTION was strictly regulated, being
an imperial monopoly. Silks were highly prized in
the West where, as in the example below, they
were often used to decorate the inside of saints’
reliquaries. The woven patterns, such as the birds
and griffins visible in this twelfth-century fabric
known as the Shroud of St Potentien (Cathedral
Treasury, Sens), find parallels in Islamic silks.
60˚
50˚
40˚
10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚
Cu
Cu
Cu
Pb
Pb
M
Venice
Ragusa
Thessalonica
Constantinople
Smyrna
Iconium
(Konya)
Candia
Caesarea
Constantia
Antioch
Damascus
Acre
Tyre
Jerusalem
Baghdad
Sebastea
Trebizond
Chersonesus
Kiev
Moscow
Smolensk
Riga
Reväl Novgorod
Van
Dvin
Ani
Tiflis
Sinope
Athens
Monemvasia
Corinth
Thebes
Dnieper
Dniester
Vistula Volga
Euphrates
Tigri
s
Danube
Oder
Donets
Don
Bug
L.Van
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
BALT
IC
SEA
ADRIATIC
SEA
B L A C K S E A
CASPIANSEA
AEGEAN
SEA
TA
U
RUS M
TS
C A U C A S U S
BALKAN MTS
RHODOPE
MTS
DINARIC ALPS
PIND
U
S
M
T
S
CARPATHIAN
M
T
S
CRETE
SICILY
CYPRUS
PROCONNESUS
from Egypt from Axum
from
Muslim lands
Byzantine
glass to Rus
Byzantine
glass to Ani
N
0
0
300 miles
450 kms
2 EASTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN were linked
by an extensive trading network. Luxury goods
from Byzantium were exported to Rus, the River
Dnieper forming an important trade route, and
overland and across the Black Sea to the Caucasus.
Raw materials from Byzantium, such as alum, were
exported to western Europe. Even though
Byzantium had its own silk production, silks and
dyes were also imported from the Islamic world.
The Caucasus, Cyprus and the mountains near
Thessalonica were mined for silver and copper.
Some gold was imported from Africa.
3 CONSTANTINOPLE formed the hub of a vast, longdistance
trade network, which carried commodities
as far afield as Russia and the Caucasus. The city’s
wealth is reflected in the religious topography of
the capital. Monasteries were lavishly decorated
with mosaics. Cult images, kept at individual
monasteries, formed an integral part of religious
life in Constantinople, attracting worshippers from
within and without the Byzantine Empire.
L
ycus
S E A O F M A R M A R A
GO
LD
EN
H
O
RN
BOSPORUS
Mother of
God Kyriotissa
St John
stoudios
Golden
Gate
Cistern
Cistern
Cistern
Christ in Chora
Blachernae
Palace
Christ
Pantepoptes
Christ
Evergetes
Mother of God Pammakaristos
Christ
Pantokrator
Mangana Monastery
St Sophia
St Eirene
Hodegon Monastery
Imperial Palace
complex
Forum of
Constantine
Forum of
Arkadios
Forum of
Theodosios
St Polyeuktos
Mother of God
Peribleptos
Church of
the Holy Apostles
N
0
0
1 miles
1.5 kms
Constantinople,
900-1300
pre-900 monuments
post-900 monuments
church
monastery
mosaic
fresco
cult image
Italian merchant
community
aqueduct
3
(12th–15th centuries). Alongside Constantinople
major centres of manuscript production existed
in Armenia, Cilicia (13th–14th centuries) and
Bulgaria (14th–15th centuries).
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Marble from the island of Proconnesus in the Sea
of Marmara was the main construction medium
in the early Byzantine period, while in later
centuries brick became dominant. Mosaic was
the prime medium of Byzantine monumental
decoration. Glass workshops are thought to have
produced mosaic tesserae as well as glass vessels
– Byzantine glass has been found in Russia and
Armenia. Glass was also used in enamel
production, with cloisonné being the most widely
practised technique. From the early Byzantine
period Constantinople was the centre of a silk
industry; from the tenth century silk workshops
also existed in Greece. Silk was also imported
from the Islamic world. Various pigments were
used to dye silk, the most expensive being purple
produced from murex shells. Mordants, such as
alum, found primarily in Asia Minor, were used to
fix the dyes. Some metals were mined within
the Byzantine Empire. Others, such as gold,
were imported. Mints producing coins in
precious and base metal existed in both
Constantinople and Thessalonica.
MOVEMENTS OF ART AND ARTISTS
Knowledge of Byzantine art was disseminated
through trade, diplomatic contacts, pilgrimage
and, starting in the late eleventh century, the
Crusades. Byzantine art looted in Constantinople
in 1204 is still housed in church treasuries in
Venice and France. In Russia, the activities of
traders, who imported honey, wax and furs from
Rus to Byzantium, and sold Byzantine silks and
glass in Rus, were complemented by the
activities of Byzantine missionaries. Following
the elevation of Christianity to the status of
official religion in Rus in 988, Byzantine icons
and liturgical silver were also imported. The
skills of Byzantine craftsmen were highly sought
after outside Byzantium. Byzantine mosaicists
were active in Kiev in the eleventh century and
in Norman Sicily in the twelfth century.
2 Natural Resources, Trade and Industry, 600-1500
trading centre
trade route
imports
exports
dyes
silk
Pb
CuM
ceramics
glass
marble
alum
mint
gold
silver
lead
copper
iron
tin
PROFOUND SOCIAL, political and economic
changes in the seventh century transformed
the civilization of late antiquity into the
medieval Greek world, known as Byzantium. For
centuries the Byzantine Empire, with
Constantinople at its centre, provided a
powerful cultural and artistic model to
neighbouring cultures, while also absorbing
cultural influences from neighbours such as the
Islamic world. The Vikings and Slavs of Rus were
incorporated into the political and ecclesiastical
orbit of Byzantium in the ninth and tenth
centuries; the introduction of both Christianity
and the Cyrillic alphabet to Rus were
manifestations of this process. Contacts with
western Europe existed throughout the period,
but became particularly intense in the
aftermath of the Crusades in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. The influence of Byzantium
declined after the Sack of Constantinople by the
participants of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. After
the fall of Constantinople in 1453 Byzantine art
and Orthodox religion lived on only in eastern
Europe and the Balkans. Until the late
Byzantine period the emperor was a major
patron of the arts. His example was imitated by
rulers of Norman Sicily, Serbia and Bulgaria.
ART AND SOCIETY
Although silks and ceramics are testimony to
the widespread production of secular arts, the
surviving arts of the period are mainly
Christian. Religious diversity is a key factor in
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
106
an understanding of the art of this region.
Parts of eastern Europe, including Poland,
Hungary and regions of the Balkans, followed
the Latin rite, whereas the dominant religion
in Byzantium and Rus was Orthodox
Christianity. Georgia was Orthodox,
neighbouring Armenia Monophysite. Such
diversity is reflected in the visual arts, with
each region presenting distinctive artistic
idioms. Throughout the Byzantine world,
religious cult sites provided a stimulus for the
production of art and architecture. Many
smaller pilgrimage sites existed alongside the
major international pilgrimage centres of
Jerusalem and Constantinople.
The influence of the Islamic world was also
profound. The Iconoclast controversy of the
eighth and ninth centuries, which concerned the
role and extent of religious imagery in Christian
worship, cannot be understood without reference
to the Islamic prohibition of iconic imagery for
religious purposes. In the secular sphere,
tenth-century courtly ceremonies of the
imperial court in Constantinople were very
similar to those practised in Baghdad.
EASTERN EUROPE AND SOUTHWEST
ASIA 600-1500
THE CLOSE CULTURAL links between medieval Russia
and Byzantium are reflected in the art and
architecture of medieval Rus. Byzantine craftsmen
and architects introduced artistic ideas to Rus, but
its art and architecture are not slavish copies of
Byzantine models. The Church of SS Peter and
Paul, Kozhevniki in Novgorod, northern Russia, is
dated 1406. It is centrally planned, radiating from
a central point, like a Byzantine church. Its onion
dome, however, is a local adaptation.
50˚40˚30˚20˚
60˚
50˚
40˚
10˚
Constantinople
Nicomedia
Pliska
Preslav
Cracow
Esztergom
(Gran)
Gniezno
Kiev
Novgorod
Pskov Moscow
Vladimir
Yaroslavl
Trebizond
˘
¸Eski Gümüs
Göreme
Soganli
Echmiadzin
Aghtamar
Hromkla
Edessa
AntiochTarsus
Tripoli
Ani
Gelati
Asinou
Acre
Sis
Iconium
Mtskheta
Thessalonica
Daphni
Meteora
Bari
Chios
Boyana
Kurbinovo
Studenica
Kastoria
Ochrida
Skopje
(Scupi) Nerezi
Gracanica˘
Sopocani
Dyrrhachium
´
Mistra
Hosios
Loukas
Palermo
Cefalù
Venice
Jerusalem
Lagoudera
L. Van
Dnieper
Dnieste
r
Don
Volga
Ural
Danube
Euphrates
Tigr
is
Jordan
Vistula
SEA
OF AZOV
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
B L A C K S E A
B A
LT
IC
SEA
A
EGEAN
SEA
A
D
RIATIC SEA
Mt
Athos
C
A
R
PA
TH
IAN
MTS
DIN
A
RIC
ALPS
C A U C A S U S
TAU
RU
S
M
TS
FINNS
FINNS
SELJUK
TURKS
ESTONIANS
LIVS
LITHUANIANS
CYPRUSRHODES
K. OF
ARMENIA
CRETE
SICILY
H O L Y
R O M A N
E M P I R E
R U S S I A N
P R I N C I P A L I T I E S
A Y Y U B I D
S U L T A N A T E
BYZANTINE
EMPIREKINGDOM
OF
SICILY
SWEDEN
POLAND
HUNGARY
GEORGIA
looted works of art
after sack of
Constantinople, 1204
Byzantine artists,
bronze doors exported
to Italy, 11th century
Byzantineartists,Byzantineicons
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
1 BYZANTINE CRAFTSMEN, mostly from Constantinople,
were much in demand abroad. Byzantine
craftsmen made mosaics in southern Italy, Sicily
and Rus. Byzantine artefacts, in particular icons or
liturgical objects, also reached Rus through trade
and diplomatic missions. Many Byzantine artefacts
in western church treasuries were looted during
the sack of Constantinople in 1204.
Art in Eastern Europe and
Byzantine Asia, 600-1500
borders c.1200
Muslim lands
Orthodox Christian lands
Christian (Armenian/
Monophysite) territory
Catholic Christian lands
Jewish settlements
pagans
Bogomils (Manichaeans)
route of the First
Crusade, 1096-99
extent of Crusader control
church pre-1000
church post-1000
monastery pre-1000
monastery post-1000
patriarchal seat
archbishopric
bishopric
pilgrimage centre
rock monasteries of Cappadocia
wall mosaic
fresco decoration
scriptorium
metalwork
enamel
relief sculpture
ceramics
bronze-casting
icons
movement of artists and
artefacts from Constantinople
1
2 Art and Trade
border of Holy Roman
Empire, c.1095
sources of:
silver
copper
iron
lead
tin
trade centre for Viking
sculpture (wood/stone/bone)
and metalwork
centres of metalwork
centres of alabaster
centres of ivory-working
export of alabaster
trade route
Cu
Pb
109
THE TOWER OF LONDON was built by William the
Conqueror soon after his invasion of England in 1066.
For the design William’s architects looked to castle
architecture in western France. The square plan
was to become typical for English castle
building. Inside were apartments, a hall and
a well. Situated on the banks of the River
Thames the dominant building was
meant to impress anyone coming
from the sea up to London.
THE LUND CRUCIFIX.
This crucifix comes
from the cathedral
of Lund, since 1103 the
seat of the
archbishopric for
Scandinavia. It is made
from gilded metal.
Originally, the figure
of Christ was
surrounded by the
symbols of the four
Evangelists on the
arms of the cross.
Crucifixes like this
were treasured items.
0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚
60˚
50˚
40˚
10˚20˚30˚
Pb
Pb
Cu
Cu
Cu
Limerick
Cork
Dublin
Wexford
York
Durham
Cammin (Kamien)
Gdansk´
´
Lund
Vejrum
Lade
Urnes
Borbjerg
Trondheim
Lincoln
Norwich
King’s
Lynn
Hull
London
Paderborn
Utrecht Hamburg
Bruges
Paris
Tours Vienna
Florence
Venice
Barcelona
Perpignan
Gerona
Valencia
Palma
Toledo
Seville
Lisbon
Cartagena
Zurich
Naples
Rome
Basle
Milan
Pavia
Genoa
Siena
Pisa
Avignon
Limoges
Bordeaux
Fuenterrabia
Aviles
Morella
Nantes
Ecaquelon
Kermaria
Chatelaudren
Roscoff
Cologne
Toulouse
MontpellierSantiago de
Compostela
Burgos
Zamora
Silos
Palermo Messina
Catania
Otok
Prague
Buda
Kiev
Novgorod
Waterford
Winchester
Tutbury
Dartmouth
Bristol
St Albans
Poole
Evreux
Southampton
Wolin
Zuchau
Gross-Grönau
Ribe
Kaupang
Oseberg
Flatalunga
Dorestad
Sigtuna
Po
Danube
Dnieper
Dvina
Volga
Rhône
Loire
Sein
e
E
lbe
Od
er
Rhine
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
BAY O F
B I S C AY
BALT
IC
SEA
B L A C K S E A
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
PYRENEES
A L P S
HARZ
MTS
SICILY
CORSICA
SARDINIA
NORWAY
ICELAND
SWEDEN
POLAND
ENGLAND
FRANCE
NORMANDY
SCOTLAND
IRISH
KINGDOMS
WELSH
PRINCIPALITIES
HUNGARY
KINGDOM
OF ITALY
BYZANTINE
EMPIRE
KINGDOM
OF ITALY
KINGDOM
OF
GERMANY
DENMARK
S E L J U K
E M P I R E S
FIN
N
O
-U
G
RIA
N
S
T
U
R
K
IC
P
E
O
P
L E S
carved wood
carved
wood
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
2 THE SUPPLY OF MATERIALS was
essential for art production. In
Germany and in England, local
stone was in good supply and
was a perfect source for
buildings and sculpture, while
in Scandinavia patrons and
artists exploited the rich
timber resources. Rare
materials like alabaster and
metal were exploited at
source and then exported to
other regions. Trade, a crucial
factor in the growing
European economy, fuelled
the arts. In turn, trade routes
contributed to the dispersal of
craftsmen and their methods.
had to be found for constructions, gold, silver
and gems were needed for the liturgical
furnishings. Such materials were sometimes
found in the local vicinity but they were often
imported. Iron, copper and tin, for example,
were brought from the east to centres of
metalwork, such as Cologne and Tours.
The perfection of the material and of the
craftsmanship was a vital factor in the
production of Christian art created for the
honour of God.
ARTISTS AND PATRONS
The European secular elite also underlined
their newly found positions of power by
patronizing the arts. They constructed castles
and palaces that reflected their
authority and position in society,
for example at Trier, Leyden and
Hildesheim. At the same time,
they also demanded religious objects for their
personal devotional practices.
The personalities and working methods of
artists are little documented at this time, and
only few artists signed a finished work. Most
art production was collaborative and often
several generations of a family worked in the
same workshop. If a wealthy patron wished it,
foreign artists travelled great distances to
bring their specialized knowledge with them.
Some areas developed a reputation for the
manufacture and sale of luxury goods, like
alabaster from England. In this way craftsmen
became entrepreneurs. Other artists worked
over long periods at the same court, for
example at Westminster and Aachen. In this
case a close consultation between artist and
patron could develop, so that works were
created that were specifically designed to
fulfill the wishes of the patron.
CENTRES OF ART AND LEARNING
The religious institutions of the time were also
the seats of education and learning. Schools
developed around many of the newly built
cathedrals. The monasteries that dotted the
landscape were also important centres of
teaching and art production. Many had
scriptoria famous for manuscript illumination,
such as the monastery of Echternach which in
turn inspired the mural painters. The
combination of religion, learning and artistic
production is symptomatic of this time when
much of the intellectual creativity was
concentrated on devotional subjects.
NORTHERN EUROPE 1000–1200ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
108
THE FIRST TWO HUNDRED YEARS of the
second millennium were a period of
expansion and economic growth for northern
Europe. This prosperity stimulated an increased
production of art and architecture. Though the
time of the great invasions from the east had
passed, political boundaries continued to shift.
Notionally the German Emperors dominated
western Europe. Nevertheless, it was often
smaller barons and counts who held real
power, and many were able to extend their
power base. The Normans of northern France,
for example, conquered England in 1066. They
brought with them their system of government,
as well as their artistic tastes and their
architects to rebuild the cathedrals, such as
Durham and Ely, and to construct new castles,
like Norwich and Rochester.
Next to the secular courts, cathedrals and
monasteries were the main centres of authority
and culture in this period. Bishops and abbots
recruited themselves from the same families as
secular rulers, and as major landowners they
held comparable power. They were also
influential patrons of the arts, commissioning
works of art for their own personal use but also
for their religious institutions. The cathedralmonastery
of Canterbury in England, the
cathedral of Lund in Sweden and the
monastery of Hirsau were all important sites.
Between 1100 and 1200 society became
much more stable. New trade links opened up
to the north and south. A thriving agricultural
base brought wealth to many regions. New
towns and universities developed, and roads
allowed safer travel for artists and merchants.
In this flourishing society, visual art and
architecture were increasingly put into the
service of individuals and institutions. Often,
they were intended to convey multiple
NORTHERN EUROPE 1000-1200
0˚ 10˚ 20˚
50˚
60˚
Lincoln
Oakham
Norwich
Bury St Edmunds
Castle Rising
Ely
Colchester
Orford
Castle Hedingham
Canterbury
London (Westminster)
Rochester
Durham
Richmond
Norham
Minden
Paderborn
Hamburg
Lund
Hildesheim
Brunswick Halberstadt
Magdeburg
Gniezno
PlockTrzemeszno
Quedlinburg
GoslarHersfeld
Wartburg
Helmarshausen
Regensburg
Weingarten
St Gall
Einsiedeln
Engelberg
Augsburg
Salzburg
Klosterneuburg
Stavanger
Bergen
Ringsaker
Gamla
Uppsala
Falun
Hamar
Trondheim
Viborg
Husaby
Visby
Soest
Essen
Corvey
Leyden
EberbachMaria Laach
(Abtei Laach)
Maulbronn
Trier
Echternach
Aachen
Liège
Stavelot
Hirsau
Reichenau
Schaffhausen
Habsburg
Cologne
Deutz
Werden
Bonn
Andernach
Mainz
Limburg
Winchester
Tournai
Peterborough
Newcastle
Conisbrough
York
Gloucester
Malmesbury
HerefordSt David’s
Exeter
Romsey
Sherborne
Shaftesbury
St Albans
Reading
Loire
Seine
Rhine
Elbe
Po
Oder
Rhône
Danube
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
BAY O F
B I S C AY
N O R T H
S E A
B A
LT
IC
SEA
A
L
P
S
P Y R E N E E S
S L AV S
FINNICPEOPLES
B
A
L T
I C
P
E
O
PLES
T U R K I C
P E O P L E S
SCOTLAND
ENGLAND
F R A N C E
DENMARK
NORWAY
SWEDEN
POLAND
HUNGARY
CROATIA
NORMANDY
LEÓN-CASTILE
BURGUNDY
POMERANIA
H O LY R O M A N
E M P I R E
B
Y
Z A
N
T I N
E
E M
P I R
E
KINGDOM
OF ITALY
IRISH
KINGDOMS
WELSH
PRINCIPALITIES
N
O
V
G
O
RO
D
P O L O T S K
K I E V
G A L I C H V
O L H Y N I A
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 Art in the Regions
borders, c.1095
border of Holy Roman Empire
cathedral/abbey
cathedral/abbey with sculpture cycle
castle
palace
manuscript illumination
mural painting
stained glass
centre of metalwork
1 WITH LESS THREAT from eastern invasions, new
cathedrals, abbeys, castles and palaces began to
cover northern Europe, including the recently
Christianized areas of Scandinavia and eastern
Europe. Rulers like Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony
(c.1129–1195) continued to suppress pagan
religions. By conquering lands to the east
Christianity extended ever further, bringing with
it Christian art and architecture and establishing
important centres of metalwork.
messages, and to express the beliefs and the
attitudes of the time.
CHRISTIANITY
In the early decades of the second millennium
Christianity finally established itself as the
dominant religion in northern Europe. The
Scandinavian rulers were the last of the
European rulers to be baptized. The
evangelizing church demonstrated its increased
influence by associating itself with opulent art
and imposing architecture. All over Europe
cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches were
built or rebuilt. The churches were filled with
paintings, altarpieces, sculpture and stained
glass. These objects performed a part in the
visual display of the Christian faith and the
rituals of the daily liturgy. The funding was
supplied mainly by donations from the faithful.
Laity and clergy alike invested in the religious
spectacle in order to illustrate their personal
devotion and to attain salvation.
Only the most famous artists and the most
precious metals were suitable for these pious
aspirations: good building stone and timber
10˚0˚
40˚
Paris
Tours
Orléans
Conques
Rome
Naples
Anagni
Catania
Palma de Mallorca
Pisa
Ferrara
Trieste
Roscoff
Cluny
Cologne
Nantes
Syracuse
Cahors
Zamora
Lisbon
Seville
Cartagena
Nantes
Barcelona
Palermo
Winchester
Bury St Edmunds
Canterbury
Amalfi
Maiori
Monte Cassino
Carcassonne
Monte Sant’ Angelo
Genoa
Chartres
Poitiers
St Jean d’Angély
Saintes
Silos
Moissac St Gilles-du-Gard
Arles
St Guilhem le Desert
Toulouse
Avilés
Salerno
Atrani
Venice
Santiago de
Compostela
Vézelay
Kermaria
Chatelaudren
Limoges
Périgueux
Le Puy
León
Bordeaux
Roncesvalles
Puente-la-Reina
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
A
D
R I A T I C
SEA
P
Y
R
EN
E
E
S
A
L
P
S
M E D I T E R R A
N
E
A
N
S E AA F R I C A N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
2 Trade and Artistic Influence
major pilgrimage route
city on pilgrimage route with major site
movements of artistic style
stylistic influence from the Holy Land
movement of Arab gold and gems
centre for trade of gems and bone
centre for import of alabaster from England
bronze doors from Constantinople
SOUTHERN EUROPE 1000–1200
111
2 IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY southern
Europe was criss-crossed by a
network of roads. From the late
eleventh century, four of these
roads developed into specific
pilgrimage roads, leading towards
Santiago de Compostela. Despite
conflict with the Arabs in the
south and a strained relationship
with the Byzantine Empire, trade
with the east was flourishing and
southern Europe depended on
artistic influences from the Holy
Land and the east.
in Germany. A major confrontation developed
between European Christians and Muslims in
southern Spain and in the Holy Land, and in
the mid-twelfth century the Plantagenet king of
England owned more land in France than the
king of France himself. Artistic production
reflects these complex relationships. There is
evidence for cross-cultural exchanges between
Islamic and Christian art, and between French
and English art. On an ideological level, the
popes used the revival of the art and
architecture of imperial Rome to underline
their authority and to emphasize the
continuing power of the Christian church.
PILGRIMAGE
The cult of relics became a major focus of
medieval life and art. Imposing churches were
built to house the precious remains of saints
and Christian martyrs. Numerous chapels and
tall towers advertised their power to the world,
and attracted pilgrims from far and wide. Inside
the churches, the story of the saints was told in
paintings and sculpture, their bones were
displayed in richly decorated gold or silver
reliquaries, and manuscripts depicted their
lives and their miracles. Here pilgrims could
pray for the atonement of sins and hope for
cures of illnesses. Their pious donations
sustained monastic communities and helped
fund churches and art works.
The main sites to be visited by Christian
pilgrims were traditionally Rome and the Holy
Land. During the eleventh century a pilgrimage
developed to Compostela in northern Spain
where the remains of James, the apostle of
Christ, were kept. Pilgrims from eastern Europe
travelled to Spain along pilgrimage routes
starting from Paris, Vézelay, Le Puy and Arles,
which took in many celebrated shrines on the
way, such as Conques, St Gilles, Limoges and
Toulouse. Relics became a major object of
trade between northern Europe and the south
where early Christian martyrs were in greater
supply. The acquisition of relics and free access
to their sites was a fundamental requirement of
Christian society, which saw saints as its
defenders, an essential part of its faith, and a
crucial factor for its economy.
CRUSADES AND ISLAM
In the seventh century, the south of the
Mediterranean world became detached from
the north by the advance of Islam. In 711
Islamic troops moved into Spain and then into
France. In the eleventh century, the Near East
was conquered by the Seljuks, separating
Christians from sites in the Holy Land,
especially from Jerusalem. In the face of this
perceived danger, Christian Europe united
behind the idea of reconquest. Initiated by the
pope, Christian knights from all over Europe
set out in 1096 on the first crusade to win back
the Holy Land. This was the beginning of
continuing Christian invasions of the east in
THE CENTRAL PORTAL of the
narthex at Vézelay, France.
The pilgrimage church was
one of the four starting
points on the route to
Santiago de Compostela.
This portal was carved in
c.1120 to welcome medieval
pilgrims who had come to
visit the shrine of Saint Mary
Magdalene. The tympanum
shows, at the centre, the
figure of Christ at Pentecost
investing his apostles with
the power to commence
their mission and preach the
Christian message to nonChristians.
On the lintel and
in the square fields
surrounding the central
scene the people of the
world are shown. The outer
voussoirs are decorated with
the signs of the Zodiac and a
decorative scroll. On the
trumeau, or central support
of the doorway, the figure
of John the Baptist can be
seen presenting a now
damaged lamb of God. The
abbey’s fame reached a peak
when at Easter 1146, the
second crusade was
launched at Vézelay.
order to keep the main pilgrimage places out of
Muslim control. Possessions in the Near East
and good contacts with the Byzantine Empire
opened up new trade routes and encouraged
artistic exchange. In Spain, the warrior image of
Saint James fused the idea of pilgrimage with
that of the Reconquista, the recapture of Islamic
Spain. Between 1000 and 1200, the Caliphate of
Córdoba was almost completely defeated.
Despite this confrontation, the north of Spain
enjoyed cultural interaction with Islamic art.
TRADE AND ARTISTS
Mediterranean trade continued to flourish.
From the Islamic coast of Africa gold and gems
were imported into Spain and France. Italian
towns like Genoa and Venice became major
trading centres linking the European west with
the south and the Near East. At Venice, buyers
could find alabaster from England, and gems,
bone and ivory from Byzantium. Artists and
craftsman from the Byzantine Empire, where
Roman artistic traditions survived, brought
their experience to the west. At Monte Cassino
in Italy, Abbot Desiderius (1058–87) rebuilt
Saint Benedict’s church in a splendour not
seen since early Christian times. A set of
majestic bronze doors was imported from
Constantinople, and artists were invited to
help to create mosaics and wall paintings.
The pope in Rome and other patrons soon
followed Desiderius’ example.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
110
IN SOUTHERN EUROPE the long-forgotten
artistic traditions of ancient Rome became
an important source of artistic models. The
city’s early Christian monuments, such as St
Peter’s, were a constant reminder that the
religion had originated there. Roman buildings
and sculpture survived elsewhere in what had
been the Roman Empire, as for example at
Autun, Arles and Tarragona. Now they became
an inspiration for artists and craftsman. The art
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries is
therefore called Romanesque, or ‘Roman-like’.
During this period France emerged as one
of the leading centres of art production. The
Capetian rulers had established a stable
dynasty, and the country was blessed with
ample resources. In the 1140s, Abbot Suger
(c.1080–1151) of St Denis near Paris and his
un-named architect created a new lightweight
architecture for the apse of the abbey church
which came to be called Gothic. It was further
developed in the northeast of France, for
example at Laon and Chartres. Although it
initially co-existed with the Romanesque, this
new Gothic style eventually dominated both
northern and southern Europe.
While the economy and the arts flourished,
European rulers continued to wrestle for
power. In the eleventh century Sicily and
southern Italy were captured by the Normans,
in 1194 they were taken over by the
Hohenstaufen Emperor Henry VI (d.1197) and
became the Kingdom of Sicily. The pope in
Rome quarrelled constantly with the Emperor
SOUTHERN EUROPE 1000-1200
20˚10˚0˚
40˚
Jumièges
Fécamp
Coutances
Bayeux
Château Gontier
Provins
St Denis
Huym St Hubert
Rouen
Gisors Reims
Laon
Dinant
Stavelot
Troyes
Avesnes
Valenciennes
Saint-Amand
Périgueux
Souillac
Cahors
Bordeaux
Moissac
Limoges
Conques
Toulouse
Angoulême
Lisbon
Alcobaca
Tomar
Coimbra
Oporto
Ávila
Sigena
Santiago de Compostela
Evora
Seville
Granada
Córdoba
Guadalajara
Arévalo
La Roda
Oviedo
León
Jaca
TahullLeyre
Pamplona
Salamanca
Zamora
Ciudad
Rodrigo
Sahagún
Las Huelgas
Silos
Burgos
Loarre
Huesca
Tarragona
Roda da Ribagorça
Lérida Gerona
Fenovillar
L'Écluse
Sorède
Ripoll
Poblet
Cuxa
San Pedro de Roda
Avignon
Carcassonne
St Gilles-du-Gard
Aix
Marseille
Arles
Cluny
Macon
St Chef
Lyon
Ebreuil
Lavaudieu
Perrecy-les-Forges
Autun
Strasbourg
Châlons-sur-Marne
Sens
Auxerre
Saulieu
Nevers
Orbais
Fontevrault
Souvigny
Le Puy
Cressac
Brioude
Clermont-
Ferrand
Angers
St André des Eaux
Langeais Cîteaux
Besançon
Payerne
Ravello
Amalfi
Atrani
Monte Cassino
Castellamare di Stabia
Calvi
Trani
Canosa
Bari
MolfettaTroia
Anagni
Sta Elia
di Nepi
Palermo
Caltanisetta
Taormina
Messina
Adrano
Monreale
Ravenusa
Cefalù
Mazara
Siena Sant’ Antimo
Assisi
Ancona
Spoleto Ferentillo
Marcellina
Ronzano Fossascesia
Rome
Tivoli
Tuscania
Termeno
Todi
Lucca
Borgo di
S. Donnino
Piacenza
Turin
Ferrara
Pompasa
BolognaModena
Genoa
Spigno
Verona
Venice Torcello
Trieste
Aquileia
Castel Appiano
Vicenza
Cremona
Como
Civate
Milan
Chiaravalle
Vercelli
Novara
Pisa
Volterra
Cortona
Montepulciano
Gimignano
Florence
Pistoia
Poitiers Chauvigny
Niort
St Savin
Les
Andelys
Bec
St Evrault
Falaise
Caen
Mayenne
Mont-Saint-Michel
Syracuse
Vézelay
Clairvaux
Cambrai
Noyon
Thérouanne
St Bertin
Arras
Loire
Po
Eb
ro
Guadalquivir
T
agus
Rhône
Rhine
A T L A N T I C O C E A N
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A
D
R I A T I C
S
EA
P
Y R E N E E S
A
L P S
KINGDOM
OF
GERMANY
KINGDOM
OF
BOHEMIA
KINGDOM OF ITALY
KINGDOM
OF
BURGUNDY
KINGDOM
OF SICILY
E
M
P
I
R
E
O
F
T H E A L M O H A D S
PO
RTUGAL
MUSLIM KINGDOM
OF MALLORCA
LEÓN
CASTILE
PAPAL STATES
CORSICA
SARDINIA
ARAGON
FRANCE
NAVARRE
1
2
34
23
33
34
35
26
32 36
37
31
28 29
30
27
5
6
7
89
10
11 12
13
14
24
25
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
15
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
1 Southern Europe,
1000-1200
borders c. 1180
border of the
Holy Roman Empire
cathedral/abbey
with sculpture
cathedral/abbey
with no sculpture
castle
palace
centre of manuscript
illumination
mural paintings
bronze doors
stained glass
mosaics
centres of metalwork
early Gothic architecture
- Poncé
- Tours
- Orléans
- Vendôme
- Dourdan
- Château-Landon
- Bourges
- Brinay
- Loches
- Tavant
- Montmorrillon
- Nohant-Vicq
- Paray-le-Monial
- Berzé-la-Ville
- Rocamadour
- Ravello
- Parma
- Pianella
- Bominaco
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
- Foro Claudio
- Sant’ Angelo in Formis
- Benevento
- Le Mans
- Lausanne
- St Maurice d’Augaune
- Paris
- Pontigny
- Étampes
- St Loup de Naud
- Preuilly
- Ivry la Bataille
- Mantes
- Châteaudun
- Chartres
- Braine
- Senlis
- St Germer-de-Fly
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
1 DESPITE FREQUENT POWER SHIFTS IN the territories of
southern Europe, art production increased
drastically after 1000. Cathedrals, abbeys, castles
and palaces began to cover the landscape. In some
cities specialized centres of art production
developed. Limoges and Pisa became famous for
their metalwork, while Strasbourg and St Denis
had important workshops of stained glass. In the
mid to late twelfth century, the northeast of France
became a hub of building activity when churches
were rebuilt in the Gothic style.
THE GREAT MOSQUE AT CÓRDOBA was built soon after
the Islamic conquest of Spain and inaugurated in
786. It was continually enlarged until the late
tenth century. When the Christians recaptured
Córdoba in 1236 the mosque became a cathedral,
but long before this time the architecture
impressed Christian artists, in particular the
horseshoe arches consisting of voussoirs in
alternating colours. The marble columns and the
use of Roman capitals can be compared to
contemporary Christian architecture.
Hôtel de Nesle
(1270-1380)
André-des-Arcs
(1210-20)
La Sainte-Chapelle
(1246-48)
ÎLE-DE-LA-CITÉ
Saints Cosme et Damien (1213)
Collège de la Sorbonne (1256)
La Trinité
(hospital, c.1200)
St-Sauveur (1214)
Abbey of
St-Victor
Hôtel of the King
of Navarre (1260)
Collège d’Harcourt (1280)
St-Jacques (1221-)
Hôtel de Nesle
(1180-1223)
Louvre
(1190-)
St-Honoré
(1205)
Collège des
Bons-Enfants
d’Arras (1208)
Collège
St-Nicolas-
du-Louvre
(1212)
St-Nicolas-des-Champs (c.1200)
St-Nicolas-duChardonnet
(1230, 1243)
Commanderie
of the Knights
Templars (1265)
St-Gervais-StProtais
(1213)
Béguines
(1264)
Monastery of Ste-Croix
(1258)
St-Merri
Ste-Opportune
(hospital, c.1200)
St-Josse (1235)
St-Leu-St-Gilles (1235)
Monastery of Les
Blancs-Manteaux
(1258)
St-Germain-l’Auxerrois (1250)
Hôtel d’Alphonse
de Poitiers
Notre Dame
Hôtel-Dieu (1200, 1250)
St-Étienne-du-Mont
(1225)
St-Séverin
Les
Halles
LaGrantRue
rueStMartin
L
a
Rue St-Victor
La Draperie
La Grève
rue aux
Écrivainsrue Erembourc-en-Brie
Seine
Seine
NORTHERN EUROPE 1200–1300
113
the agricultural surplus that resulted from the
development of better technology such as
ploughs and crop rotation. The population of
the medieval cities adjusted economically and
socially to improved living conditions, moving
toward ever greater specialization in the
production of goods. Controlled by
organizations known as guilds, specialized
workers served as engines of economic
development whose most lucrative products
were luxury goods. Because these goods were
relatively light and thus readily transported,
they could be profitably carried overland to the
fairs of Champagne in northeast France, or
alternatively traded by the merchants of the
Hanseatic League (a commercial confederation
originating in German-speaking areas
surrounding the Baltic Sea).
CULTURAL CONTACTS
These continental trades routes extended
further eastwards and southwards as Europeans
continued to make contact with the civilizations
of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Four major
Crusades offered opportunities for cultural
contact through conquest; they resulted in the
capture of Constantinople in 1204, the brief
control over Jerusalem (negotiated by the
German Emperor Fredrick II in 1229), and two
spectacularly unsuccessful campaigns by the
French King Louis IX in
1248 and 1270. The strategic failures of the
Crusaders may have been countered by the
2 BASED ON A PLAN drawn by a
nineteenth-century historian, the
map above reconstructs Paris in the
late thirteenth century. Details
derived from the records of special
taxes levied in the 1290s
demonstrate the distinct
differences in the wealth among
the city’s parishes, as well providing
a glimpse of where various
artisans, for example, glaziers lived
and worked throughout the city.
Illuminators, parchment dealers
and book traders tended to
congregate on the left bank of the
Seine, near the University, founded
in the twelfth century.
cultural effects of their interaction with the
relatively more advanced Arabic Middle Eastern
civilization, though some modern historians
argue that the Crusades did not inspire
intellectual and economic development as
much as they promoted religious, ethnic and
even national intolerance, not only between
Christians and Arabs, but also between
Christians and Jews, Latins and Greeks.
The growth of cities also provided a new
geographic focus for learning, marking a shift
from the predominantly rural monasteries to
major universities such as Paris and Bologna.
Even more than monasteries and cathedral
schools before them, universities provided
access to learning for children of non-noble
classes, especially as secular rulers looked to
university graduates to fill the administrative
ranks of government.
As universities developed their own
curricula to fill this need, they created a
demand for very different books: illustrated
anatomical treatises, law books (especially
Gratian’s Decretals), the newly fashionable texts
of Aristotle and their accompanying
commentaries, and traditional bibles, now
made in smaller ‘pocket versions’ suitable for
university students. This demand in turn
stimulated a greater specialization in the book
trade, a market that was increasingly dominated
by lay artisans in major urban areas. University
books developed a unique ‘visual geography’ in
their own layouts – the text being studied was
written in large letters in the centre of the
manuscript page, around which was gathered
marginal glosses of relevant citations from key
authorities in smaller letters, with space left in
the margins for the owner’s annotations.
PARIS: A CULTURAL CENTRE
A regional centre for artistic production in the
early Middle Ages, Paris emerged in the course
of the thirteenth century as the premier capital
city in western Europe, recognized widely for its
leading role as a producer of high-quality
manuscripts, painting and ivory carving. Paris’
reputation as an intellectual centre grew with
the establishment of its university on the left
bank of the Seine in the late twelfth century;
the presence of scholars such as Peter Abelard
ensured that the university was widely
recognized as the pre-eminent school of
theology and liberal arts by the early 1200s.
King Phillipe Auguste (r.1180–1223) established
Paris as the political and administrative centre
of an aggressively expanding kingdom. In an
age when most rulers criss-crossed their
domains, dragging along the people and
equipment necessary for government, Phillipe
permanently installed the royal archives,
treasury and staff in one place, on the Île-de-laCité
in the middle of the Seine. Under his
successors, Louis IX and Phillipe the Fair,
Paris emerged as the locus of French national
government and as an international capital of
art, learning and fashion.
REIMS CATHEDRAL. Pierced by deep porches,
covered with elaborate sculptural
programmes and supported by pointed
arches and flying buttresses, Gothic
cathedrals such as this one at Rheims
dominated the European cities of the
thirteenth century. These enormous
buildings required a huge expenditure of
capital for their construction, money made
available by a growing agricultural
economy. Records of chapter meetings at
Reims demonstrate that demands for
funds were not always welcomed by either
the lay or ecclesiastical communities.
2 Paris in the 13th Century
workshops of glaziers
1296/1297
home to a concentration of
Paris illuminators
home to parchment-makers
and scribes
major building
relative wealth of areas of Paris
(taxes paid in 1297):
less than 10 sous per household
10-20 sous
20-30 sous
more than 30 sous
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
112
IN THE YEARS 1200–1300, northern Europe
initiated a remarkable geographic shift in its
production of culture from isolated, rural
monasteries to urban centres. As enduring
landmarks of this shift, the century has left us
numerous light-filled churches which still
dominate the urban landscapes of Europe
today, a potent visual reminder of the medieval
sense of the presence of God and the power of
the Church that connected the earthly to the
divine. Often covered with elaborate
programmes of figural sculpture, these edifices
were enormous billboards in stone that
towered physically and psychologically over the
cultural landscape, so much so that craftsmen
and -women in other media quickly adopted
the slender proportions and graceful lines of
this first ‘modern’ style.
MEDIEVAL CITIES
Known in the Middle Ages as opus francigenum
(literally ‘French work’), the Gothic style spread
rapidly from city to city in and near the royal
domains in the Île-de-France and then on to
Germany, Flanders, Spain and England. Its
home was in rapidly growing cities; with a few
exceptions, such as Rome and Cologne,
important medieval cities developed as
mercantile centres in the suburbs of former
Roman towns. In northern Europe, the largest
of these cities formed at the nexus of Alpine
passes and sea- and river-routes in Flanders,
northern Germany, northern France and
southern England. These cities were fed from
NORTHERN EUROPE 1200-1300
20˚10˚0˚
50˚
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
(Westminster)
(Ste-Chapelle, Notre Dame, St-Denis)
(Westminster)
1170
1229
1229
c. 1230
1209
c. 1180
c. 1150
Limoges
Bordeaux
León Toulouse
Nantes
Orléans
Tours
Chillon
Angers
Honnecourt
Exeter
York
Flint
Roscrea
Winchester
Canterbury
St Albans
Norwich
Peterborough
Oxford
Nenagh
Roscommon
Wells
Utrecht
Cambridge
Ghent
Tournai
Cambrai
Vaucelles
Bruges
Nottingham
Laon
Meaux
Schlettstadt (Sélestat)
Paderborn
Hamburg
Prague
Vienna
Klosterneuburg
Avignon
Aigues-Mortes
Montpellier
Carcassonne
Neubrandenburg
Linköping
Meissen
Frankfurt
Marburg
Mainz
Naumburg
Erfurt
Aachen
Arras
Metz
Basle
Schloss-Bruck
Hardegg
Lausanne
La Bâtiaz
Kalmar
Magdeburg
Nuremberg
Goslar
Heiligenkreuz
Bologna
Pils
Worms
Colmar
Montségur
Grandson
Lincoln
Hull
Southwell
Rhuddlan
Conway
Beaumaris
Caernarvon
Harlech
Caerlaverock
Chellaston
Salisbury
Corfe
Pevensey
Dover
1 London
3 Cologne
4 Strassburg (Strasbourg)
Reims
5 Troyes
6 Amiens
7 Chartres
8 Bamberg
9 Bourges
3
4
8
5
9
6
2 Paris
2
7
1 Rhi
ne
L
oire
Rhône
Danube
Seine
N O R T H
S E A
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
BA
LT I C
S
E
A
PYRENEES
A L P S
H O L Y
R O M A N
E M P I R E
WALES
ENGLAND
F R A N C E
ARAGON
NAVARRE
CASTILE ITALY
VENETIAN
REP.
SCOTLAND
NORWAY
SWEDEN
DENMARKIRELAND
to Toledo
to Barcelona
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 Northern Europe, 1200-1300
borders, c. 1270
major church
church with important sculpture
church with important stained glass
church related to opus francigenum
hall church
castle/fortification
alabaster
export of alabaster
centre of manuscript painting
diffusion of manuscript styles
ivory carving
metalworking centre
spread of metalwork
university, with date of foundation
city visited by the French draughtsman
Villard de Honnecourt (fl. c.1220-40)
diffusion of artistic styles
A
1 NORTHERN EUROPE in the years from 1200 to 1300 was
characterized by increased long-distance trade, especially
in luxury goods. Paris and northern France rapidly grew in
importance as the leading international centre for art and
architecture. Artisans in and around Paris developed highly
specialized workshops, especially for the carving of ivory
and miniature painting in a fashionable and appealing
style known then as opus francigenum (‘French work’).
Recognizably idiosyncratic styles emerged in England, Germany
and France, which had a regional appeal, though both
Limoges (enamels) and East Anglia (manuscripts) produced
work that found much wider markets.
PICTURE OF AN ELEPHANT given
to King Henry III of
England by Louis IX of
France in 1255. As
Matthew Paris, a monk at
St Albans, tells us, this
elephant is drawn from
life. A suitable prefatory
illustration to Matthew’s
World Chronicle, the
elephant demonstrates
European political
relationships and the
increasing regularity of
trade with areas outside
Europe. While monks such
as Matthew would
continue to illuminate
manuscripts, lay artists
were increasingly
becoming more important
in the commercial booktrade
for universities and
aristocrats.
SOUTHERN EUROPE 1200–1300
115
30˚20˚10˚0˚
30˚
40˚
50˚
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Pb
Pb
Sn
Sn
Venice
Verona
Assisi
Rome
Vienna Buda
Innsbruck
Prague
Geneva
Paris
Rouen
Arras
Reims
Espalato
Durazzo
Zara
Trieste Belgrade
Alexandria Damietta
Famagusta
Antioch
Constantinople
Smyrna
Candia
Kaffa
Trebizond
Moncastro
Kiliya
Syracuse
Tripoli
Messina
Palermo
TunisAlgiers
Granada
Palma
Cádiz
Córdoba
Seville
Melilla
Lisbon
Southampton
London
Hull
Mainz
Worms
Hamburg
Bremen
Cracow
Breslau
Danzig
Kiev
NovgorodChristiania
Bergen
Stockholm
Nuremburg
Lübeck
Edinburgh
Bruges
Genoa
SienaMarseille
Cagliari
Lyon
Dijon
Poitiers
Aigues-
Mortes
Valencia
Barcelona
León
Milan
Tripoli
Beirut
Acre
Jaffa
Loire
Ebro
Tagus
Danube
Dneiper
Rhine
Elbe
Seine
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A BA
L
TIC
SEA
B L A C K S E A
M E D I T E R
R
A
N
E
A N S E A
PYRENEES
CARPATHIAN MTS
A
L
P S
CYPRUS
CORSICA
CRETE
SARDINIA
SICILY
BALEARIC IS
A F R I C A
E G Y P T
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
raw materials:
gold
silver
iron
copper
lead
tin
ivory
timber
wax
gems
silk
spices
hides
wool
linen
furs
Cu
Pb
Sn
2 Trade and Transmission
Venetian trade routes
Genoese trade routes
Hanseatic League trade routes
major inland trade routes
route of Fourth Crusade, 1202-04
Fifth Crusade, 1217-21
Seventh Crusade, 1248-54
Eighth Crusade, 1270
artistic influence from Paris
artistic influence from Constantinople
imported goods
witnessed by the foundation of well-respected
universities in a number of Iberian cities:
Palencia, Salamanca, Seville, Valladolid, Lérida
and Lisbon.
ROMANESQUE FOUNDATIONS
As in Spain, the struggle for political supremacy
helped determine the spread of artistic styles in
Italy. Long a temptation for northerners with
designs on imperial dignity, Italy experienced a
decades-long struggle between supporters of the
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and his
enemies, which to a large measure merely
masked local rivalries between burgeoning
cities. The collapse of the German Hohenstaufen
dynasty with the death of Frederick II permitted
greater French influence both in the political
realm, through the rise of the house of Charles
of Anjou, brother of Louis IX, in Naples, and in
the artistic realm, through the patronage of
French styles. In northern Italy, Siena and
Florence led the way in the import of Gothic
elements, especially in the Florentine church of
Sta Maria Novella. The most important stylistic
influences in Italy, however, were those
‘imported’ from its own Roman and Early
Christian past. Classicizing styles are evident in
the work of the sculptor Nicola Pisano
(d. c.1284) and in the products of the artisans
in southern Italy associated with the court of
EASTERN (PERSIAN) INSPIRED DESIGNS, expertly woven
on silk with gold and silk threads, celebrated the
pleasures of aristocratic pastimes of hunting
and feasting. A refined object of secular luxury,
this textile formed part of the grave wrappings
of a Spanish bishop, demonstrating the
interrelationships of secular and sacred and the
mutual appreciation of the visual culture of the
Christian, Islamic and Jewish inhabitants of Spain.
2 THE DISPARATE GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS of Europe in
the thirteenth century were interlinked by
trade routes controlled by the members of the
German Hanseatic League and by the Italian
city states of Genoa and Venice. The same cities
provided entryways for gold, silk, ivory and
spices from Asia and Africa, and furs and timber
from Russia and the Baltic. Artistic influences
radiated out from cultural centres such as Paris
and Constantinople.
the Holy Roman Emperor. Mosaics in Rome
were derived from styles considered to be from
the earliest, formative days of the Christian
church, while the mosaics at St Mark’s in
Venice are influenced by illustrations from a
revered sixth-century Bible. Italian painting in
the thirteenth century developed on the
foundation of Classically derived Romanesque,
spiced with influences from Byzantium. In
Rome Pietro Cavallini and Jacopo Torriti
developed mural painting influenced by the
influx of Byzantine artists following the capture
of Constantinople. Tuscan painting in the last
half of the century was dominated by Cimabue
(d.1302) who is credited with influencing the
young Florentine, Giotto (d.1337). The
connection and competition among these
artists mirror the larger networks of trade,
religion and cultures, and set the stage for the
creative explosions of the century that followed.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
114
CENTRED BETWEEN the burgeoning
markets of northern Europe and the
resource-rich provinces of Africa and the
Middle East, the cities of southern Europe
became key points of contact for the
cultures bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
MEDIEVAL ITALY
With its long coastline and well-established
tradition of civil government, Italy enjoyed an
interlinked network of cities connected by
sailors and merchants. The most extensive of
these trading networks in the thirteenth
century belong to Genoa and Venice, both of
which established fleets that traded between
the eastern Mediterranean, Africa and far
northern ports. Venice, in particular, was able
to use its trading connections to forge a wide
sphere of influence, re-directing the armies of
the Fourth Crusade towards the conquest of
the city of Constantinople in 1204.
Italy also led the way in the development
of other trans-European networks. Perhaps
the most visible belonged to the new religious
organizations of the Dominicans and
Fransciscans. Both orders were founded in
the 1220s and rejected wealth, espousing
dedication to study and simple devotion.
They were the first of the medieval monastic
orders to target cities as their special areas of
interest and influence. By the mid-thirteenth
century each order allowed its members to
settle in permanent foundations dedicated
to the memory of their sainted founders,
Francis and Dominic. Priories and churches
dedicated to preaching to large audiences
sprang up in nearly all urban communities of
note across Europe, forming vast and often
competing networks.
SOUTHERN EUROPE 1200-1300
10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚
40˚
Arezzo (1286)
Castello
dell’Imperatore
(1215)
(1224)(1283)
(1292-97)
(Cathedral San Lorenzo, 1245-)
(1266)
(1247)
(1286)(1260) (1275-78)
(1266-68)
(13th c)
(San Marco, 1280s)
(1180)
(1231)
(1246)
(1248)
(1228)
Tolentino
Urbino
San Gimignano 7
Assisi
(1228-53)
Todi
(1296)
Bologna
(S Domenico, 1233;
S Francesco, 1236-63)
Brescia
Verona(S Zeno, 1225)(1250, 1277)
Trento (1200-)
Castello del Buonconsiglio
Bassano Venice (post-1293)Lodi
Lucca
Lerici
Milan(1221)
8 Vercelli
Parma
Pisa 9
Volterra 6
Naples
(S Lorenzo Maggiore, 1266-)
Viterbo
(1266)
Anagni
Castello Caetani
Massa Marittima
(pre-1250)
Cremona (1250)
Castel Nuovo
Castello di Lombardia
Castello Maniace
Augusta
Benevento
Salerno
Monte Cassino
Castel del Monte
Lucera
Caserta Vecchia
Barcelona (1298)
(1267)
Tortosa
Gerona
Aigues-Mortes
Piacenza
Valencia
Granada
Ávila (13th c)
Évora (1186-1250)
Toledo
(1226)
(1238)
Burgos
(1221) Pamplona
Tudela
Huesca
Sigena
(1204)
(1250)
Valladolid
Montpellier
(1180)
(1229)
Toulouse
(1300)
Lérida Vic
(1290)Lisbon
(1254)
(c.1220)
(c.1285)
Seville
(1250)Salamanca
La Mota
Coimbra
(from 1281)
Calatrava
la Nueva
(1212) Palencia
Tarragona
(from 1277)
León
(1255)
(1203-78)
Santiago de Compostela
Santarém
Alcobaça
(from 1178)
Orvieto
(Cathedral, 1228-;
S Domenico, 1233-64)
Subiaco
Perugia
Siena 4
Syracuse
Alhambra
Genoa
Córdoba
Ebro
Po
Tagus
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
A
D
R
I A
T I C
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E
A
P
Y
R
E N E E S
A
L
P
S
B
A
L
E
A
R I C I S
PORTUGAL
A R A G O N
C A S T I L E
L E Ó N
CORSICA
SICILY
SARDINIA
(to Genoa)
GASCONY
(to England)
K I N G D O M
O F
S I C I LY
NAVARRE
F R A N C E
EM
P
IR
E
O
F
T H
E
A L M
O H A D S
1
2
3
5
11
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
1 Rome
(Sta Maria Sopra Minerva, 1280)
(Sta Cecilia in Trastavere)
(Curia Romana, 1244)
(Sta Maria in Trastevere, 1290s;
Sta Maria Maggiore, 1294;
San Paolo Fuori le Mura, 1220;
St John Lateran, 1291)
11 Padua
(Baptistry, 13th c; Sant’Antonio, 1232-1307)
2 Florence
(Santa Maria del Fiore, 1296-; Santissima Annunziata,
1250-; Sta Croce, 1252; Sta Maria Novella, 1278-)
(1293) (Bapistry, 1225)
3 (S Francesco, 1255-65)
4 (Cathedral, 13th c; S Galgano, 1218-)
5 (Baptistry, 1196-1260)
6 (Cathedral, restored 13th c)
7 (San Agostino,1280)
8 (Sant’Andrea, 1219)
9 (Campo Santo, 1278)
10 (S Francesco, 1230;
Cathedral San Lorenzo, 1245-)
(1210)(1222)
Italy pioneered the establishment of
another trans-European network, based on the
international market for money. The Florentine
banking families of the Bardi and the Peruzzi,
for example, financed the papacy and royalty
across Europe, even providing a type of
‘venture capital’ to certain monasteries as they
cleared more land for agricultural production.
THE CHRISTIAN ‘RECONQUEST’ OF SPAIN
In Spain, the renewed conquest of the
peninsula from its Islamic inhabitants was
driven in large measure by Ferdinand III, King
of Castile (1217–52) and León (1230–52) and
King James of Aragon. With re-conquest,
Christian rulers were able to extend cultural
patronage in ways that rivalled the legendary
Muslim caliphs of Córdoba and Granada. For
men such as Ferdinand, new French styles
represented an identifiably modern and
Christian visual symbol of the recent triumphs
over his Moorish opponents. Cathedrals in
Burgos (1226), Toledo (1227) and León (1255)
were built following patterns directly
influenced by French models, complete with
stained glass and elaborate portal sculpture.
By the century’s end, however, the Catalan
region produced its own identifiable variant of
the Gothic style, one in which spaciousness
derived from the breadth of the church rather
than height. The peninsula also boasted not
only some of the leading thinkers of the age,
but also institutions to nurture them, as
INTERIOR VIEW OF UPPER CHURCH AT ASSISI. Though
sometimes influenced by northern styles, Italian
architects sought to provide room for painted
narrative cycles such as this one at Assisi, dedicated
to the Life of St. Francis. Commissions for such
frescoes inspired competition, bringing painters
from various cities across the peninsula, including
the young Giotto. This led to the development of
innovative techniques for picturing stories with
careful observation and drama.
1 SOUTHERN EUROPE SERVED as an important gateway
for goods and ideas in the years 1200–1300. Italy
inherited a dense pattern of urban communities
from Late Antiquity. These cities increasingly
competed with one another economically and
socially. In Spain the Christian kingdoms of the
north continued to extend their political control
over the Muslim south through conquest, often
appropriating key aspects of the rich tradition of
Islamic art and literature as they did so.
1 Southern Europe, 1200-1300
border of Holy Roman Empire, c. 1223
ecclesiastical building
castle
notable municipal building/palace/tower
university (with date of foundation)
centre of manuscript production
painting
sculpture
mosaics
metalworking centre
50˚
Lille
Arras
Cambrai
Valenciennes
Tournai
Ypres Brussels
Louvain
Mechlin
Dinant
Mons
Maubeuge
Soignies
Ghent
Bruges
Utrecht
Zwolle
Amsterdam
Maastricht
Liège
Antwerp
Breda
s‘Hertogenbosch
Gouda
Delft
The Hague
Middleburg
NijmegenDordrecht
Arnhem
Deventer
Haarlem
Leiden
Rhine
M
euse
Sch
eldt
Lys
N O R T H
S E A
ZUID
ER
ZEE
H
O
LLAND
F L A N D E R S
ZEELAND
ARTOIS
GELDERLAND
LIMBURG
LUXEMBOURG
N A M U R
HAINAULT
B R A B A N T
panel paintings,
tapestries to
Scotland, England,
Scandinavia,
Germany
panel paintings,
tapestries to
Portugal,
Spain, Italy
panel paintings
to Germany
panel paintings,
tapestries to France,
Italy, Burgundy
N
0
0
50 miles
75 kms
2 The Low Countries
imports of wool for
tapestries/cloth
exports
painting and illumination
tapestry weaving
monumental brass
engraving/bronze work
sculpture
NORTHERN EUROPE 1300–1500
117
Dijon in Burgundy. Leading artists from the
Low Countries, such as the sculptor Claus
Sluter, were charged with creating an
impressive mausoleum for the dynasty he
founded. The most notable aspect of this work
is how strikingly naturalistic, forceful and
expressive it appears by comparison with Parisbased
productions. Arguably these qualities
were encouraged to distinguish a specific
Burgundian outlook. They were quickly and
widely imitated; Philip’s tomb, for example,
acted as a model for numerous prominent
monuments over several decades.
2 THE REGION STRADDLING the Rhine and Meuse was
already associated with intense artistic activity
through the wealth and number of its ecclesiastical
foundations. Rapid development of trade with
other major centres across Europe, combined with
Burgundian patronage, ensured that this region
continued to expand its prestige. Bruges and
Antwerp imported materials for the new art of
painting in oil: high-quality oak from the Baltic
regions for the panels; pigments and oils from
southern Europe and further afield. Burgundian
alliances with England (against France) ensured
that wool from the Cotswolds and other English
regions, the best in Europe, continued to feed the
cloth and tapestry industries of Flanders and
neighbouring counties. Merchants involved in this
trade were often Italians, who ensured that the
manufactured goods were exported to the
Mediterranean world. No other region of Europe
during this period could claim such a cosmopolitan
economic structure, providing a productive
environment for artistic creativity.
The third Valois duke of Burgundy, Philip
the Good (d.1467), extended his grandfather’s
political and cultural aspirations. Since he
chose to reside principally within his southern
Netherlandish territories, the patronage of his
court meant that Netherlandish artists no
longer needed to look abroad to develop their
careers. This was especially important for the
development of panel painting, which
flourished in several centres submitting to
Philip’s authority, becoming a more widely
affordable commodity by the later fifteenth
century. Detailed naturalism remained a
distinguishing characteristic of many artists
working in these centres; it may be seen at its
most refined in the work of the painter Philip
appointed to his own employment, Jan van
Eyck (d.1441). The meticulous style of van Eyck,
his contemporaries and followers, with its
bewildering range of light effects, notably
reflective surfaces and gleaming jewels, was
quickly taken up abroad. Among the earliest
reflections of these pictorial preoccupations is
the altarpiece by Lucas Moser at Tiefenbronn in
Germany (1432). Such were the reputations of
later Netherlandish artists that patrons from
distant regions frequently sought their works or
used them as models.
Philip the Good also developed further
policies to stimulate economic activity in the
Netherlands, encouraging fresh activities in
tapestry, illumination and wood-carving (in
oak). Elsewhere in Europe, artists responded to
BEAR AND BOAR HUNT, part of
the Devonshire Hunting
Tapestries, c.1425–30.
Tapestries were
manufactured in several
centres in the Low Countries
throughout this period. The
most luxurious tapestries
were woven from wool
imported from England and
included precious metals
formed into threads. Sets of
these tapestries, perhaps the
most expensive products of
the period, were exported to
all regions of Europe, for use
in larger churches and
secular residences, including
castles.
JAN VAN EYCK, Portrait of a Man (Leal Souvenir), oil
on oak panel, dated 1432. The detailed naturalism
developed by Jan van Eyck and his contemporaries
led to the development of new genres of painting
not practised since Antiquity, such as portraiture
based on observation from life. Painters succeeded
in rendering precise detail and subtle changes in
lighting by refining the use of oils as the binding
medium for their pigments. The identity of the
man in this portrait is unclear from the inscriptions
on the panel. Perhaps the man’s name was
recorded on the original frame, now lost. This is
the case with other portraits by Jan van Eyck. Here,
the words ‘LEAL SOVVENIR’ (‘Loyal remembrance’),
painted to appear as though carved into the
parapet immediately above the date and the
artist’s signature, suggest that the sitter may have
been acquainted with the artist.
the demand for more naturalistic images by
adapting local traditions or developing new
materials. For example, in southern Germany,
indigenous limewood, with its dense though
elastic properties, was found to be ideally
suited to carving complicated details and
forms unworkable in other woods. In such
regions, the development of organized religion
meant that altarpieces, often large and
imposing, were in great demand. Large
examples, like Michael Pacher’s Saint
Wolfgang Altarpiece (carved in limewood and
pine), might take as long as a decade to
complete (1471–81).
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
116
IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY centres of
artistic practice were often primarily
determined by the needs of the Church. By
the fifteenth century, as new forms of
patronage developed, artists were increasingly
required to provide decoration for secular
residences where collections might be
displayed, admired and used to impress.
PARIS AS A CULTURAL CENTRE
Throughout the fourteenth century the most
active and widely admired centre for the
production of the visual arts in northern
Europe was Paris, a position the city owed to
the primacy it had assumed in the French
realm. It was in Paris that guilds formed to
support artists – including goldsmiths,
painters, ivory carvers – and first became well
organized and numerous, effectively
streamlining artistic output and providing
models for developments further afield.
The city’s prosperity attracted merchants who
provided desirable materials for creating the
finest luxury objects of the period, such as
ivory (from Africa) and pigments for the most
dazzling kinds of painting (from Asia).
Interest in lavish decorative arts on the
part of the royal family furnished artists with a
key incentive for refining the intricacies of their
work and striving for novel effects. By c.1410
Parisian illumination, for example, was the
most ostentatious, meticulous and detailed in
Europe, and significant commissions involved
teams of artists, each dedicated to distinct
processes. The exquisite nature of such artistry
partly inspired, perhaps for the first time since
Antiquity, a desire on the part of royal patrons
to form significant collections of objects;
craftsmanship was valued above utility.
The dominance of Paris attracted artists
from many areas (especially the Netherlands),
including prosperous regions such as Italy.
Patrons from countries like Navarre, Scotland
and Bohemia also looked to Paris to form their
tastes. In many other regions of Europe, local
materials were adapted to produce devotional
and commemorative works of art for those
concerned with display, but whose financial
resources were limited. Among the most
successful of these was English alabaster,
quarried near Nottingham and used for carved
altarpieces and tombs. Alabasters were
exported across all regions of Western Europe
throughout this period. Though technically
standards are rarely distinguished, the results
were clearly considered widely desirable.
BURGUNDIAN INFLUENCE
By the 1420s the artistic predominance of Paris
sharply declined, one consequence of civil
conflict and English occupation. Perhaps the
principal political development of the period
c.1380–c.1450 was the ascendancy of the Valois
dukes of Burgundy. The power they
commanded had major cultural implications,
many aspects of their taste and patronage
being admired and imitated at courts
throughout Europe. Taking advantage of the
weakness of the French monarch, the first
duke, Philip the Bold (d.1404) was able to
manipulate himself into a position of
considerable prestige following a marriage that
brought him authority over Flanders. His
descendants extended Burgundian control
throughout the Low Countries, a region that
had traditionally furnished the courts of France
with skilled artists. Philip’s political ambitions
are to some extent reflected in the decorative
schemes he commissioned for his grandest
foundation, the Chartreuse de Champmol, near
NORTHERN EUROPE 1300-1500
0˚ 10˚ 20˚
50˚
Portsmouth WellsPoole
Southampton
Dorchester
Bayeux
Quimper
Rouen
Fécamp
Caudebec
Fougères
Liège
Lier
Zichem
Leuven
Bourges
Le Mans
Chartres
Laon
Autun
Moulins Cluny
Hull
Carlisle
Lynn
Boston
Eton
Derby
Beaumaris
Caernarvon
Ely
Lincoln
York
Pontefract
Edinburgh
Alnwick
Stirling
Tutbury
Tewkesbury
Great Malvern
Gloucester
Norwich
Canterbury
Oxford
Warwick
Kenilworth
Winchester
Chellaston
Nottingham
Bristol
Edington
Vienna
Herzogenburg
Buda
Esztergom
Zágráb
Graz
Gurk
Viktring
Landshut
Augsburg
Munich Zwettl
Passau
Hohenfurth
Klosterneuberg
Friedersbach
Raudnitz
Kefermarkt
Salzburg
Heiligenkreuz
Cologne
Dortmund
Kalkar
Mainz
Worms
Frankfurt
Erfurt
Münster
München-Gladbach
Halle
Speyer
Heilbronn
HeidelbergTrier
Aachen
Maastricht
St Wolfgang
Mondsee
Innsbruck
Bolzano
Wiener Neustadt
Saint-Omer
Tournai
Brussels
Bruges Antwerp
Ghent
Utrecht
Gouda
Amiens
Dôle
Tours
Blois
Chinon
Saumur
St Romain-le-Puy
Cléry-
Saint-André
Orléans
Nantes Auxerre
Mussy-
sur-Seine
Ecouis
StrasbourgAngers
ÉvronRennes
Louviers
Laval
Solesmes
Reims
Châlons-sur-Marne
ParisMantes
Évreux
Metz
Nancy
Sens Ulm
Ravensburg
Blaubeuren
Constance
Fribourg
ZurichBasle
Memmingen
Bern
Esslingen
Tübingen
Nuremberg
Regensburg
Würzburg
Oppenheim
Coburg
Lübeck
Hamburg
Roskilde
Kongsted
Ringsted
Ågerup
Malmö
Lund
Visby
Helsingor/
Meissen
Dresden
Rothenburg
Prague
Tabor
Karlstejn
Houbice
Kuttenberg
Serowitz
Neuhaus
ˇ
Saar
Krumau
Pisek
Sazau Trebosice
Altpilsenetz
Blatna
Strakonitz
Mysenecˇ
ˇ
Brünn
Rimabánya
CsetnekCserény
Zseliz
Cracow
Breslau
Torun´
Danzig
Marienburg
Marienwerder
Pilsen
Nördlingen
Magdeburg
Freiburg
Langres
Besançon
Poligny
Colmar
Dijon
Toul
Troyes
Arras
Ypres
Lille
Cambrai
Valenciennes
London
St Albans
Long Melford
Chester
Ludlow
Elbe
M
oselle
Seine
M
arne
Loire
Ems
Rhine
Danube
Oder
FRISIAN IS
N O R T H
S E A
BA LT I C S E A
BAY
O F
B I S C AY
KATTEGAT
ENGLISH CHANNEL
A
L
P
S
H A R Z
M T S
FLANDERS
HOLLAND
BURGUNDY
BRABANT
NORMANDY
FRANCHE-COMTÉ
AUSTRIA
BOHEMIA
S
I L
E
S
I A
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE
POI
TOU
LORRAINE
LU
XEMBOURG
CHAMPAGNE
ARTOIS
PICARDY
S A X O N Y
SWABIA
F R A N C O N I A
C R O A T I A
CARINTHIA
MORAVIA
BAVARIA
STYRIA
HAINAUT
P O M E R
A
N
I
A
BRITTANY
ANJOU
B E R RY
ENGLAND
IRELAND
F R A N C E
P O L A N D
H U N G A R Y
S W E D E N
DENMARK
S C O T L A N D
from
Castile
Extent of English
possessions in
1429
to
S France, Spain,
Portugal,
Italy
to Iceland
to Norway
to Denmark,
Baltic Regions
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 Northern Europe, 1300-1500
English possessions, c.1430
border of Holy Roman Empire
export of oak for painted panels
area of limewood carving
area of ivory carving
wool imports to Flanders for
tapestry/cloth
area of alabaster sculpture
export of English alabasters
ecclesiastical centre with major building
projects and associated sculpture
major schemes of wall painting
major programmes of stained glass
castle/château with associated decoration
centre for wood sculpture
centre of printing/print-making
centre for panel painting/
manuscript illumination
goldsmiths
monumental brass engraving/
bronze work
1 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY arts
suitable for decorating
ecclesiastical structures
continued to flourish. Stained
glass, for example, remained
much in demand. Increasing
literacy led to demand for
illustrated books, especially
prayer-books which were
decorated by illuminators. The
development of printed
images (woodcuts and
engravings) during the later
fifteenth century also served
to increase opportunities for
artists and their audiences.
SOUTHERN EUROPE 1300–1500
119
the painter Enguerrand Quarton (d. after 1466),
who came from northern France, resided in
Avignon for most of his working career. Other
Provençal cities during the later fifteenth
century also attracted leading northern
(generally Netherlandish) painters at this time,
such as Nicolas Froment (d.1484) who was
active in Aix-en-Provence. This city was also the
frequent residence of one of the most active
patrons of the visual arts in the French royal
family, René of Anjou (d.1480), who himself
gained a reputation for practising as a painter.
As a claimant to the throne of Naples, René
occupied that city from 1438 to 1442,
accompanied by several French court artists.
Some Italians were subsequently encouraged
to follow him home. These circumstances may
account for stylistic connections – figure types,
similar details and colour range – between the
work of the leading Neapolitan painter of the
time, Niccolò Colantonio (d. after 1460), and
the painter of an important altarpiece made for
Aix Cathedral, attributable to René’s favourite
painter, Barthélemy d’Eyck (d.1469).
ARTISTIC INTERACTIONS
The rival who succeeded in ousting René from
Naples was Alfonso V of Aragon (d.1458),
among the leading advocates from the Iberian
Peninsula for artistic tastes stemming from the
Burgundian court. Alfonso acquired from
merchants a number of works by leading
Netherlandish painters, including Jan van Eyck,
and encouraged painters active in cities under
his authority to follow their example, clearly
fascinated (as indeed René was) by the
profusion of naturalistic detail included in
paintings created in Flanders. Later Spanish
monarchs and court officials furthered these
trends, partly for dynastic reasons, encouraging
such Netherlandish-trained painters as Juan de
Flandes and Michel Sittow to develop their
careers in Spain.
Alfonso’s combined rule in southern Italy
and in Aragon, one of the wealthiest regions of
Spain, facilitated other kinds of artistic
interaction. In 1447, for instance, the Spanish
architect and sculptor Guillem Sagrera was
summoned to Naples to participate in
reconstructing the royal residence, having
previously worked extensively in Catalonia,
southern France and Majorca. Most Spanish
10˚0˚10˚
40˚
50˚
Avignon
SienaPerpignan 1410
Elne
Gerona 1416
Palma
Naples
Toledo 1393 Cuença
Ciudad Real
Brussels
Bruges
Burgos
Palencia
Salamanca
Urbino
Paredes de Nava
Venice
Florence
Valencia
BarcelonaDaroca
Córdoba
Cologne
Dijon
Autun
Saragossa
Paris
La Chaise-Dieu
Laon
AixArles
Ghent
Madrid
Lisbon
Toulouse
Avigliana
Chambéry
Copenhagen
Reval
(Tallinn)
London
Seine
Rhine
Rhône
Loire
Garonne
Ebro
Tagus
Gu
adalquivir
Elbe
Vistula
Danube
N O R T H
S E A
BALTIC
SEA
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
PYRENEES
A L P S
B
ALEARIC IS
SARDINIA
CORSICA
SICILY
ENGLAND
IRELAND
FRANCE
PORTUGAL
C A S T I L E
ARAGON
GRANADA
HOLY
ROMAN
EMPIRE
POLAND
DENMARK
HUNGARY
PAPAL
STATES
NAPLES
WALES
SCOTLAND
1496
1492
1449
1428
14
62
1443
1313
1446
1349
1448
1454
1470-75
15
09
1505
-08
1433
1395
1468
1486
1474
1438
1447
1334-35
1387
1401
1486
1514
1447
1433
1427
424
1
1506
1397, 1422-45
1475-78
1444
1446
1466
1462
1431
1505?
1428
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
artists, however, were obliged to devote their
careers exclusively to devotional images. Iberia
was subjected to numerous conflicts that
meant concerted programmes of secular
patronage were harder to establish than in
northern Europe. In Spain, decoration of the
altar, and areas associated with it, became
increasingly imposing and eye-catching during
this period. Even after Netherlandish stylistic
traits became widely practised in Spain (by
c.1450), Spanish taste favoured increasingly
imposing retables, with many panels. This
conspicuous emphasis is perhaps one
outcome of large parts of Iberia remaining
Islamic during the later Middle Ages. The
Christian reconquest of Granada was only
completed in 1492.
In northern Spain, reconquered much
earlier, the new order was consolidated
through visual means. Catalonia in particular
developed an intense pictorial culture with a
significantly high proportion of ecclesiastical
foundations acquiring striking painted
decorations for their altars. The development
of pilgrimage sites across northern Spain
provided a further incentive for using images
and artefacts to guide, reassure and inspire the
faithful. The most popular pilgrimage was from
France to Santiago de Compostela, a major
channel for artistic exchange.
ST MICHAEL WITH A DONOR, central panel from a
painted retable (oil and gilt on panel), Bartolomé
Bermejo, 1468. Bermejo is a good example of a
very skilful Spanish artist who travelled widely.
This magnificent figure of St Michael, with its vivid
reflections in shining armour, may be paralleled in
works by leading Netherlandish painters such as
Rogier van der Weyden and Memling. Contracts
for later Spanish altarpieces often stipulate that
colours were to be worked in oil.
2 ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS often travelled
considerable distances to secure patronage during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
2 Artists’ Travels, 1300-1500
(routes are approximate only)
Simone Martini, painter
Guillem Sagrera, sculptor, architect
Hanequin de Bruselas, architect
Juan de Flandes, painter
Pedro Berruguete, painter
Dello di Niccolò Delli, painter
Gherardo Starnina, painter
Bartolomé Bermejo, painter
Juan de Colonia, architect
Juan de la Huerta, sculptor
Pierre Boye, sculptor
Enguerrand Quarton, painter
Lluís Dalmau, painter
Jan van Eyck, painter
Antoine de Lonhy, painter
Michel Sittow, painter
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
118
THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN world had
a well-established system of maritime trade
routes facilitating artistic contacts between
regions (including many Italian cities) by
c.1300. Several factors intensified these links
over the next two centuries, particularly in
Provence and Catalonia.
PROVENCE AND THE PAPACY
In 1307 the papacy, politically insecure in
Rome, moved to southern France, soon settling
in Avignon, where the imposing Papal Palace
(among the grandest structures of the
fourteenth century in Europe) still testifies to
the role the city played in acting temporarily as
the focus of Western Christianity. Although
France had earlier received leading artists from
Italy, the papal presence stimulated northern
European interest in issues that had first been
addressed by artists in Italy, such as concern
with pictorial perspective and expression.
Notable among the goldsmiths, sculptors,
weavers, masons and painters who were
attracted to Avignon was Simone Martini
(d.1344) who worked in fresco and panel
painting. The activities of prominent Italian
merchants, such as Francesco Datini (d.1410)
emphasize how the city played a crucial part in
introducing luxury Italian objects to the north.
But the wealth of ecclesiastic patronage
provided by southern France during this
period as a result of hosting the papal court
also drew artists from other countries,
including the English sculptors responsible
for the tomb of John XXII (d.1334).
Long after the papacy left, Avignon
remained a focus for artists from the north
seeking new sources of patronage. For example,
SOUTHERN EUROPE 1300-1500
0˚10˚
40˚
Melide
León
Frómista
Palencia
Avilés
Seville
Huelva
Niebla
Córdoba
Alcalá de Guadaira
Granada
(Generalife)
Murcia
Cartagena
Madrid
Illescas
Guadalajara
Segovia
Salamanca
EL Barco
de Avila
Medina del Campo
Ciudad Rodrigo
Sigüenza
Cuenca
Belmonte
Castrojeriz
Vallodolid
Coca
Peñafiel
San Juan
de Ortega
Burgos
Miraflores
Nájera
Logroño
Saragossa
Embid
Sangüesa
Olite
Pamplona
Oloron
Escalona
Pau Toulouse
Palma
(Bellver)
Conques
Saintes
Bordeaux
Périgeux
Angoulême
Luçon
Souvigny
St Léonard
Le Puy
Lausanne
Aigle
Montpellier
Marseille
Arles
Saluzzo
Geneva
Estella
Roncesvalles
Limoges
Béziers
Clermont
-Ferrand
Sahagún
OviedoLugo Laredo
Orduña
Valencia
Morella
Poblet Barcelona
Tarrasa
Manresa
Gerona
Puigcerdà
Lérida
Cardona
Vich
Tudela
Foix
Rodez
Cahors
Dax
Saint-Flour
St
Floret
Tarragona
Tortosa
Montalbán
Daroca
Carrión de
los Condes
Cebreiro
Toledo
Manzanares el Real
Montealegre
del Castillo
Alhambra
Carmona
Almodóvar del Río
Tarifa
Gibralfaro
Guadalupe
Barcience
Lisbon
Óbidos
Beja
Ponferrada
Valencia de Don Juan
Zamora
Astorga
Villafranca
del Bierzo
Santiago de
Compostela
Santo Domingo
de la Calzada
Lyon
Bourg-en-Bresse
Annecy
MâconMoulins
Riom
Mazerier
Ravel
Billom
Jenzat
Nîmes
Uzès
Chambéry
Aosta
Vienne
Valence
Turin
Perpignan
Carcassonne
Narbonne
Elne
Albi
Bayonne
Aix
Nice
Auch
Alcobaça
Batalha
Tomar
Estremoz
Coimbra
Leiria
Tentúgal
Agen
Poitiers
Avignon
OrangeMende
Garonne
Guadalquivir
EbroDuero
Rhône
Tagus
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
M
E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A
L
P
S
P Y R E N E E S
SIERRA NEVADA
SIERRA MORENA B A L E A R I C I S
DAUPHINÉ
PROVENCE
POITOU
L E Ó N
C A S T I L E
NAVARRE
GRANADA (to Castile 1492)
ARAGON
(to Castile
1479)
GALICIA
FRANCE
S P A I N
PORTUGAL
to England
to Low
Countries
to Paris
To Vézelay
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 THE ARTISTS OF SOUTHERN
Europe looked to the North
for inspiration. But in Spain,
Islamic forms of decoration
long remained popular. Some
northern European art forms,
such as extensive schemes of
stained glass, did not lend
themselves easily to the
hotter climate of the south,
where churches tended to
have smaller windows.
SCENES FROM THE LIFE of St
George, painted retable
(c.1410–20, tempera and gilt
on pine), attributed to
Maraal de Sas. This large
altar retable, painted for a
military confraternity in
Valencia, is typical of Spanish
altarpieces of this period in
consisting of several tiers and
many scenes, set within an
architectural frame. This
arrangement is a more
elaborate version of a type of
altarpiece design originating
in Tuscany. The style of this
example, however, shows
many features suggesting the
artist was trained in northern
Europe. Maraal de Sas is
documented working in
Valencia from 1396, when he
is described as German. His
style illustrates the success
talented foreign artists often
met with in establishing
careers in Spain.
Southern Europe,
1300-1500
border of the
Holy Roman Empire, c.1430
pilgrimage routes to
Santiago de Compostela
major trade routes
export of wool
export of enamel products
area of walnut-carving
distribution of
English alabasters
ecclesiastical centre with
major building projects and
associated sculpture
major programmes of
wall painting
major schemes of
stained glass
castle/château
centre for wood sculpture
centre of printing/
print-making
centre for panel painting/
manuscript illumination
goldsmiths
1
ITALY 1300–1400
121
10˚
40˚
R
R
R
R
R
R R
R
S
S
TP
TP
Bologna
Ferrara
Venice
Treviso
Padua
Verona
Milan Crema
Pavia
Monza
Como
Mantua
Bergamo
Turin
Genoa
Pisa
Lucca
Florence
Pistoia
Arezzo
Massa Marittima
Siena
San Gimignano
Orvieto
Perugia
Gubbio
Città di Castello
Assisi
Rome
Naples
Palermo
Po
Arno
T
iber
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
A
D
R
I
A
T
I
C
S
E
A
A
L
P
S
A
P
E
N
N
I
N
E
S
P A P A L
S T A T E S
N A P L E S
S I E N A
S A R D I N I A
CORSICA
FERRARA
F L O R E N C E
MODENA
M I L A N
P R O V E N C E
F R A N C E
S W I S S
C O N F E D .
S A V O Y
T Y R O L
B U R G U N D Y
V E N E T I A N
R E P U B L I C
LUCCA
MANTUA
S I C I L Y
O T T O M A N
E M P I R E
H U N G A R Y
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
2 Patrons and Projects
cathedrals
churches
town halls
castles
palace
sculptural programmes
tombs
equestrian monuments
sculpted altarpieces
painted altarpieces
painted cycles (religious)
painted cycles (secular)
mosaic cycles
town planning
manuscripts
patronage by princes (including popes)
patronage by individual merchants
patronage by government,
guilds and other civic institutions
patronage by religious orders
more than one project
four or more projects
project lost or destroyed
TP
R
S
2 TAXES ON TRADE provided the city-states with the
resources to finance a spectacular building boom. New
cathedrals and town halls gave visual expression to the
freedom and prosperity of the communes. Mercantile
profits also financed the decoration of churches for the
recently founded Dominican and Franciscan Orders,
which were embellished with lavish altarpieces, fresco
cycles and tombs, commissioned by merchants to
display their religious fervour.
GIOTTO, Birth of the Virgin (1304–13)
Padua, Arena Chapel. Built by the
banker, Enrico Scrovegni, to expiate
the sin of usury, the decoration of the
Arena Chapel illustrates the
new artistic developments in Italy,
inspired by the Franciscans and
pioneered by Giotto. In this scene
Giotto created a convincing
architectural space, filled with solid
figures and domestic objects, which
would have been easily recognizable
to viewers, making it possible for
them to identify with the event.
della Signoria in Florence (begun 1299) contrasted deliberately with the
costly imported marble facade of the Duomo. Town planners exploited
the value of architecture as propaganda: both the Palazzo Pubblico
(1298) in Siena and the Doge’s palace (1340) in Venice opened onto
enormous public spaces, deliberate contrasts to the narrow streets
behind. These town halls provided a forum for the display of local
history: Siena commissioned a portrait (c.1330) of Guidoriccio da
Fogliano, who led her armies to victory in southern Tuscany.
COURTLY DISPLAY
Italy’s courts had a different agenda. The Angevin rulers of Naples and
the Visconti of Milan cemented their power with strategic marriages into
the royal houses of northern Europe and gave visual expression to their
dynastic ambitions by adopting International Gothic, the elaborate style
of the powerful French monarchy. The Visconti library included several
Books of Hours, a type of devotional text rare in Italy, decorated with
miniatures influenced by French courtly art, while the ornate Gothic
structure of Milan Cathedral contrasted with the cathedrals in the city-states.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
120
ITALY’S CITY-STATES prospered from
international trade: by 1300 Milan and Venice
had populations of 120,000. Money had
challenged the traditional structure of feudal
power as rich merchants expelled aristocratic
rulers and set up their own elected governments.
The rise of this elite had a momentous impact on
society. The old canonical hours, which varied
according to the season were rejected – time was
now measured logically, dividing the day into
24 equal hours, which were made audible by
new mechanical clocks on public buildings.
Education, once the preserve of the clergy,
became widely accessible: merchants had a
real need to read and write. Intellectual debate
was encouraged, stimulating the foundation of
universities and the revival of the literature of
antiquity. Humanists found sources for their
republican governments in classical political
theory, while theologians sought to reconcile
Aristotle and Plato with Christian tradition.
Inevitably, the economic boom did not last.
Poor harvests contributed to a general decline
and the Black Death (1347–48) reduced Italy’s
population by a third. Widely perceived as a
display of divine wrath against corruption and
greed, this disaster benefitted the arts.
Donations to religious institutions rose
dramatically, notably to two influential new
orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans,
established in the early thirteenth century in
response to calls for Church reform.
FRANCISCAN ART
The Franciscans had a profound impact on
religious life, their ideas visible in artistic
innovations which changed the course of Western
art. Franciscan preachers exhorted their audience
to visualize the life of Christ in order to
understand the nature of Christian faith. Painters,
working on church walls, did the same. Starting
with the frescoes in S. Francesco in Assisi and
popularized by Giotto’s work in Florence and
Padua, artists rejected the ethereal frontality of
Byzantine art in favour of more prosaic scenes
with solid figures set in convincingly threedimensional
spaces. The image of the Virgin
enthroned as Queen of Heaven was increasingly
replaced by the Madonna seated on the ground,
or simply a mother suckling her child at her
breast. Perhaps Giotto’s major achievement
was the introduction of realistic gestures and
facial expressions to convey the range of
human emotions, giving human meaning to
the mysteries of religious belief.
Mercantile wealth produced a new type of
patron. Few merchants went as far as St Francis
and renounced their material goods to live in
holy poverty but most allocated part of their
profits to the Church. Extravagant chapels,
tombs and altars proclaimed their patrons’
wealth, their faith, but also their guilt. The
banker Enrico Scrovegni built the Arena Chapel
to expiate the sin of usury, which was banned
by the Church, commissioning Giotto to
decorate the interior. On the entrance wall, a
massive scene of the Last Judgement showed
Scrovegni offering his chapel to the Virgin in
the hope that she would intercede for him.
IMAGES OF CIVIC POWER
The new republican governments gave visual
expression to civic prosperity and religious
devotion in ostentatious cathedrals. Preferring
traditional Romanesque groin-vault construction,
they showed little interest in the structural
innovations that accompanied the emergence
of Gothic in northern Europe. Extravagant
decoration was justifiable in a religious
context. Costly multi-coloured marble facades
ornamented cathedrals in Florence, Pisa, Siena
and Orvieto. Competition encouraged increasing
elaboration, though the ambitious plans to
enlarge Siena Cathedral were abruptly halted by
the plague. Duccio’s Maestà (1308), commissioned
by the Sienese government for the high altar, was
lavish in its use of gold, detail and number of
ITALY 1300-1400
AMBROGIO LORENZETTI, WellGoverned
Town (1338–9)
Siena, Palazzo Pubblico.
As civic power grew, moral
government was promoted.
Wealthy revellers, industrious
tradesmen and children at
school show the ideal aspired
to by the Sienese state.
10˚
40˚
Bologna
Ferrara
Venice
Treviso
Brenner Pass
St Bernard Pass
Padua
Verona
Milan
Crema
Pavia
Monza
Como
Mantua
Bergamo
Turin
Genoa
Pisa
Lucca
Florence
Pistoia
Arezzo
Massa
Marittima
San Gimignano
Siena
Orvieto
Perugia
Gubbio
Urbino
Città di Castello
Assisi
Rome
Naples
Palermo
1329
1335
1361
1303
XIII cent
1359
XII cent
XIII cent
XIII cent
1324
1335
1354
1364
1356
1362
1344
13541353
1318
P o
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PA PA L
S TAT E S
N A P L E S
F R A N C E
A U S T R I A
H U N G A R Y
O T T O M A N
E M P I R E
P R O V E N C E
SIENA
FERRARA
FLORENCE
SAN MARINO
M I L A N
VENETIAN
REPUBLIC
LUCCA
MANTUA
MODENA
S I C I L Y
Papacy in
Avignon
1309-77
roniMaisAot
ro
ni
MaisAot
nia
pS,ecnarFaivcitnaltAot
1 Trade and Culture
population over 75,000
population 50-75,000
population 25-50,000
population under 25,000
population cut by half
by Black Death, 1348-49
elected government
subject town of town with
elected government
court
subject town of court
centre of international trade
centre of international banking
university, with date
of foundation
clocks striking 24 equal hours
centres of humanism and/or
vernacular literature
trade route
border of Holy Roman Empire
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 THE PROSPERITY OF the citystates
was based on trade.
Venetian merchants sailed to
markets in the eastern
Mediterranean, filling their
galleys with luxury goods.
Florence and Siena both had
thriving textile industries,
while Florentine bankers
dominated the European
credit market.
figures, all features that visibly displayed the cost
of a painting. And the Tuscan fashion for richly
carved marble pulpits offered Nicolò and
Giovanni Pisano the opportunity to adapt
classical pagan imagery to a Christian context,
such as the Venus used by Giovanni for his figure
of Prudence on the pulpit in Pisa (1302–10).
Political authority was manifest in new
town halls. Conspicuously cheaper than the
cathedrals, they were designed to convey an
image of moral government. Built of local
sandstone and austerely plain, the Palazzo
ITALY 1400–1500
123
10˚
40˚
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
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M
M
M
M
H
H
H
H
H
H
C
C
C
C
Cs Cs
Cs
Cs
Cs
Cs
Cs
Bologna
Ferrara
Venice
Padua
Verona
Milan
Pavia
Mantua
Bergamo
Turin
Genoa
Florence
Arezzo
Siena
Orvieto
Gubbio
Rome
Naples
Palermo
Vigevano
Savona
Cremona
Brescia
Pienza
Cortona
Loreto
Ostia
Cagli
San Leo
Urbino
Mondavio
Poggio
a Caiano Pesaro
Rimini
Brenner Pass
St Bernard Pass
Po
Arno
Tiber
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
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S
N A P L E S
PA PA L
S TAT E S
SIENAPIOMBINO
F R A N C E
S W I S S
C O N F E D .
HUNGARY
D. OF URBINO
LUCCA
MODENA
SAVOY
PARMA
MILAN
MANTUA
SAN MARINO
FERRARA
ECNEROL
F
REP. OF
GENOA
VENETIAN REP.
S I C I L Y
SARDINIA
CORSICA
2 Patrons and Projects
painted altarpieces
sculptural altarpieces
antique copies
collections of antiquities
castles and fortifications
chapels and cloisters
cathedrals and churches
classical style
painted cycles (court life/chivalry)
painted cycles (history)
painted cycles (mythological/classical)
painted cycles (religious)
equestrian monuments
revival of antique gardens
survival of Gothic styles
guildhalls
hospitals
libraries
mosaic cycles
palaces
portrait busts
portrait medals
painted portraits
sculptural programmes
studioli
town halls
tombs
town planning
villas
2 Patrons and Projects
patronage by princes (including popes)
patronage by courtiers and cardinals
patronage by individual merchants
patronage by governments,
guilds and other civic institutions
patronage by religious orders
more than one project
five or more projects
eight or more projects
project lost/destroyed
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
TP
R
M
H
C
Cs
2 THE STUDY OF THE CULTURE of the ancient world inspired
the emergence of new types of imagery, such as portrait
busts and medals, and a renewed interest
in established forms, such as equestrian monuments.
Antique statues unearthed in Rome were prized by
collectors. Painters produced works illustrating scenes
from mythology and classical history, while the use of
the classical orders radically altered architectural styles.
MANTEGNA, Ludovico Gonzaga and his
Court (1465–74), Mantua, Palazzo
Ducale, Camera degli Sposi. To assert
the power and prestige of his court,
Ludovico Gonzaga, Marquis of
Mantua, decorated a room in his
palace with portraits of himself, his
family, courtiers, and even his dwarf
and dog. Mantegna’s fictive
architectural framework, composed
of all’antica motifs, associated the
Gonzaga court with imperial Rome.
tiny hilltop fortress into one of the most
impressive courts of the period. Bramante’s
archaeological interest in antiquity was evident in
his drawings of S. Lorenzo, once the imperial
palace chapel in Milan, and provided inspiration
for the churches he designed for Ludovico
Sforza, who also commissioned Leonardo’s
experimental oil fresco, the Last Supper (1496–7).
In Rome the adoption of antique forms
posed particular problems for the Papacy. Pius II,
the first humanist pope, rebuilt the facade of St
Peter’s, underlining his links with pagan imperial
Rome with his use of columns from ancient ruins.
By contrast, the Franciscan Sixtus IV displayed no
interest in classical antiquity. Inside his austere
and defensive Sistine Chapel the decoration had
strong early Christian resonances while the
frescoes by Botticelli, Perugino and others
emphasized papal primacy and the superiority
of the Christian faith.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
122
EVIDENCE OF ROME’S mighty empire
survived in literary sources and ruins, and
stimulated innovation in fifteenth-century Italy.
Inspired by Vitruvius, Alberti wrote a treatise
(1452) outlining the rules of classical architecture,
while Francesco di Giorgio’s treatise included
drawings of ancient Roman ruins. Julius Caesar
had a seaside villa near Naples, and Pliny’s
description of his own country retreat encouraged
the fashion for patrician villas. Painters began
to investigate the structure of the human body:
Leonardo filled his notebooks with anatomical
drawings and novel ideas. The culture of
antiquity was exploited by artists to develop
new styles and themes. The pattern was not
uniform but reflected the differing economic,
social and political traditions of each centre.
FLORENCE AND VENICE
Wealthy merchants in Florence and Venice gave
visual expression to their prosperity in chapels,
altarpieces and palaces, and, as members of
elected governments, embellished the images of
state authority. In Florence humanists studied
Cicero to praise republican ideals and the virtue
of moral civic duty. Pride in the city’s achievement
was visibly evident when the cathedral was finally
crowned with its massive dome. It was also
evident in a boom in palace building. The
grandest of the Florentine palaces, crowned by
an all’antica cornice, belonged to the Medici
family, rich bankers who used their money to
create a powerful faction in government and
establish de facto control of Florence.
Patriotism was evident in new artistic
styles. The round arches of local Tuscan
Romanesque replaced Gothic while painters
used all’antica details such as capitals and
fluted pilasters to provide new settings for
traditional religious themes. Donatello and
Masaccio developed new figurative styles, solid
human figures that belonged to the real world,
while Brunelleschi and Masaccio pioneered the
use of perspective, a device based on the same
mathematical and spatial skills used daily by
merchants in commercial calculations.
Venice celebrated her unique achievements
in a different way. Showing little interest in
antiquity, her patricians built residences that
deliberately imitated the Doge’s Palace. The
Christian origins of the city were asserted in
church plans and decorative details derived
from the basilica of St Mark, built to imitate
Constantine’s church of the Apostles in
Constantinople. Venetian patriotism was also
evident in painting as artists like Giovanni Bellini
ITALY 1400-1500
MASACCIO, Trinity (c.1427), Florence, S. Maria
Novella. Masaccio’s solid figures and his use of
perspective were intended to create the illusion of
reality. Inspired by the architecture of ancient
Rome, the classical Ionic and Corinthian capitals,
fluted pilasters and a coffered barrel vault
provided an innovative setting for this traditional
theme and made a decisive break with
contemporary preferences for ornate and
decorative Gothic details.
10˚
40˚
Bologna
Ferrara
Venice
Brenner Pass
St Bernard Pass
Padua
Verona
Milan
Vigevano
Savona
Cremona
Pavia
Mantua
Bergamo Brescia
Turin
Genoa
Pisa
Florence Arezzo
Siena
Orvieto
Pienza
Gubbio
Cortona
Loreto
Ostia
Cagli
San Leo
Urbino
Mondavio
Poggio a Caiano
Pesaro
Rimini
Rome
Naples
Palermo
1428 1426
1447
1411
1435
1459
1445
1450
1450
1405
1405
1406
P o
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N A P L E S
PA PA L
S TAT E S
SIENA
PIOMBINO
D. OF URBINO
LUCCA
MODENA
PARMA
SAVOY
MILAN
MANTUA
SAN MARINO
F R A N C E
S W I S S
C O N F E D .
H U N G A RY
O T T O M A N
E M P I R E
FERRARA
V
E
N
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E
P
.
REP.OFGENO
A
ECNERO
LF
S I C I L Y
roniMaisAot
ro
ni
MaisAot
niapS,ecnarFaivcitnaltA
1 Trade and Culture
population over 75,000
population 50-75,000
population 25-50,000
population under 25,000
elected government
subject town of town with
elected government
court
subject town of court
change of dynasty, with date
major rebellion, with date
centre of international trade
centre of international banking
centre of humanism
centre of chivalry
treatises, sketchbooks, drawings
ruins of antiquity
trade route
border of Holy Roman Empire
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 RENAISSANCE CITIES varied enormously in history,
size and politics. Milan and Naples, both dynastic
courts and important centres in Roman times, were
two of Europe’s largest cities, as was Venice, a
mercantile republic boasting Christian origins.
Florence, also a republic, was much smaller, as were
the courts of Rimini, Mantua, Ferrara and Urbino.
Rome, once the capital of a mighty Empire, was
similar in size.
developed their own unique style, filling their
canvases with anecdotal detail to give a
convincing sense of reality to their scenes.
ANTIQUITY AT THE ITALIAN COURTS
The absolute rulers of dynastic courts
promoted themselves as heirs to the culture of
imperial Rome. Inspired by the coins of ancient
Roman emperors, Leonello d’Este, the Marquis
of Ferrara, pioneered the fashion for all’antica
portrait medals, which was widely adopted by
other dynastic rulers, such as Alfonso I of
Naples, to display their imperial associations.
The humanist intellectuals who surrounded
Alfonso justified his conquest of Naples by
drawing parallels with the Spanish-born
Emperor Trajan. Alfonso asserted his new
authority in a massive sculptured gate inspired
by the triumphal arches of Ancient Rome.
Alberti designed innovative churches for
Sigismondo Malatesta in Rimini, inspired by the
city’s Arch of Augustus, and in Mantua for
Ludovico Gonzaga (who also employed
Mantegna, whose all’antica painting style was
based on his study of antique reliefs). Both
rulers abandoned traditional Gothic in favour
of the language of imperial Rome to promote
the prestige of their relatively unimportant
states. Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino,
employed Piero della Francesca and Francesco di
Giorgio to exploit the new style and transform his
NORTH AFRICA 600–1500
125
applied to the region of North Africa and
Spain), the area initially shared a remarkable
cultural homogeneity with West Asia, as artistic
ideas from the Abbasid capitals in
Mesopotamia were enthusiastically adopted in
the Maghreb. For example, hypostyle and ninebay
mosques, architectural types developed in
the central Islamic lands, were carried to North
Africa and Spain, where they were realized with
the use of local materials and techniques of
construction, particularly stone masonry.
Lustre tiles and teakwood panels produced in
Iraq were installed in the mosque of Kairouan
(Tunisia), and the Mesopotamian technique of
carved plaster revetments became a hallmark
of Umayyad architecture in Spain. Scribes used
the same angular (‘Kufic’) scripts for copying
manuscripts of the Koran in brown ink on
parchment codices, produced from the skins of
for mosques and other buildings in the central
Islamic lands and even in Egypt, was rarely if
ever used in North Africa. The muqarnas, a
series of serried tiers of niches used for
architectural decoration and often likened to
stalactites, were introduced to the region from
the east by the twelfth century, but the system
underwent a distinctive development in the
Maghreb. While scribes in West Asia were
developing new rounded scripts in black ink on
paper, their contemporaries in North Africa
adhered for centuries to the old materials and
styles and developed a distinctive Maghrebi
script characterized by bowl-shaped
descenders and strokes of uniform thickness. In
the Maghreb, parchment remained the
preferred medium for copying manuscripts of
the Koran until the fourteenth century,
although paper had been introduced to the
region in the tenth century and papermaking
became an important industry of such cities as
Fez and Jativa in the eleventh. Artistic
conservatism in the production of Koran
manuscripts reflects the religious conservatism
of the region, which largely followed the Maliki
school of religious law.
The increased isolation of the Maghreb
from developments in West Asia led artists in
the region to look for inspiration in their own
artistic traditions, resulting in the creation of a
distinctly Maghrebi architectural style under
the Almoravids and Almohads. Often dubbed
‘Hispano-Moresque’, this style is characterized
by cusped arches, muqarnas cornices and vaults,
and colourful revetments of glazed tiles
arranged in geometric patterns. Typical walls
had a tiled dado, a carved plaster upper
surface, and an elaborate wooden cornice,
reflecting the perennial availability of timber
from the mountain forests of Spain and North
Africa. These techniques were used not only for
mosques but also for palaces (of which the
Alhambra in Granada is the only one to survive
in the region) and madrasas (theological
colleges, which spread across North Africa to
Spain in the thirteenth century). The city of Fez,
particularly under the Marinids, became
a centre of intellectual and artistic life,
remarkable for the many madrasas
commissioned by the sultans.
PAGE FROM THE ‘Blue
Koran’, copied in tenthcentury
Tunisia. As Arabic
replaced local languages
in religious, intellectual,
administrative and
commercial matters,
copies of the Koran
became the most
important type of
manuscript produced in
North Africa. This unique
Koran was written in gold
and silver ink on
parchment dyed blue to
imitate Byzantine
imperial purple-dyed
manuscripts.
20˚10˚0˚10˚40˚
30˚
Cu
Rabat 1150
Tinmal 1153
Marrakesh 1070
Meknès 11th c
Taza 11th c
Almería
Málaga
Granada
Algiers
Saragossa
Tunis
Córdoba
(destroyed)
Fez
Tlemcen
Nedroma
Qala of the Bani
Hammad
Bône
Palermo
Kairouan
Alicante
Seville
Játiva
Valencia
Salé
Jaén
Toledo
Ceuta
E
bro
Tagus
Guadalquivir
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A
N
S
E
A
A
DRIATIC
SEA
S A H A R A
A T L A S
M T S
H
A
F
S
I D
S
NASRIDS
M
A
R
IN
ID
S
SARDINIA
SICILY
CORSICA
SICIRAEL
A
B
A F R I C A
S P A I N I T
A
L
Y
to Marseille, Pisa,
Genoa, Venice
conquered by
Normans 1060
timber,
grain,
linen
1007
-08
1097
11361135
late 12th c
1172-76
post-1191
1158
1033
1249
1271
1349
1341
1310
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
2 Western Islam, 1000-1500
Almoravid Empire, c.1140
Almohad Empire, c.1220
dynasties
new city, with date founded
new mosque, with date founded
wooden minbar
madrasa (theological school)
paper-making centre
manuscript production
ceramic production
textile centre
silk production
copper/iron
metalwork and scientific instruments
shipyards
muqarnas (Islamic vault)
trade route
1097
Cu
HAFSIDS
1070
2 IN THE PERIOD AFTER 1000, distinct architectural and
artistic styles evolved in the western Maghreb.
Almohad mosques at Marrakesh, Rabat and Seville
were distinguished by monumental minarets.
Following the precedent of the Great Mosque at
Córdoba, inlaid wooden minbars (pulpits) were
installed in the major cities. A shared artistic
tradition continued in the second half of this
period, despite increasing political fragmentation.
the many sheep herded in the region. Textile
factories in North Africa supplied the courts of
the caliphates in West Asia with inscribed ‘tiraz’
fabrics and woollen carpets.
International trade and diplomacy between
Byzantium, Fatimid rulers in North Africa and
Umayyad rulers in Spain led to the exchange of
materials, artistic ideas and traditions. In
Tunisia Muslim scribes emulated the murexdyed
purple manuscripts made for the
Byzantine court. The Córdoban rulers hosted
Byzantine mosaicists to decorate their
congregational mosque with a re-creation of
the mosaics commissioned two centuries
earlier by their Umayyad forebears in Syria.
Trans-Saharan trade supplied the ivory tusks
carved in Tunisia, Córdoba and Byzantium, as
well as the gold minted into coins and made
into fine filigreed and granulated jewellery
popular throughout the region.
NORTH AFRICA APART
The rise of the heterodox Fatimid dynasty in
the tenth century created a wedge that began
to split North Africa from West Asia and – from
the eleventh century – delayed or interrupted
the east-west exchange of ideas. For example,
the four-iwan plan, which became ubiquitous
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
124
THE MAJOR FACTOR that affected the
production of art in this period was the
advent of Islam, which became the dominant
religion of North Africa, largely supplanting
Judaism, Christianity and indigenous cults.
Arabic, the language of Islam, replaced local
languages in religious, intellectual,
administrative and commercial matters. The
region’s distance from the centres of ArabIslamic
civilization in West Asia made it an
attractive destination for dissidents, who often
established their own principalities.
The new Muslim rulers occupied many of
the cities and towns established in antiquity,
but they also founded many new centres,
showing the extraordinary prosperity of this
agricultural region. These new foundations
were often located inland, rather than on the
coast as in Roman times. With the decline of
Mediterranean shipping in the early Middle
Ages, traders relied increasingly on caravans
for long-distance trade, particularly across the
Sahara to tropical West Africa. By the ninth
century Muslim fleets were raiding the
Mediterranean islands and northern coasts
from strongholds on the Tunisian coast. For
several centuries Sicily was dependent on
Tunisia, and the Arab-Islamic cultural legacy
lasted even after the Normans conquered the
island in the late eleventh century. The revival
of maritime trade in the tenth century had led
to the transformation of North African ports
into Mediterranean entrepôts. The central role
of North Africa in trade between Africa, Europe
and Asia funded a cultural florescence.
In the eleventh century invasions by Arab
nomads despatched from Egypt devastated the
countryside and destroyed the agricultural
basis on which much urban life depended. The
ensuing chaos led to the emergence of Berber
dynasties, first in the western Sahara and then
in the Atlas Mountains. These dynasties
included the Almoravids (1062–1147) and the
Almohads (1130–1269), who ruled in both
northwest Africa and Spain, and the Marinids
(1217–1465), who ruled in Morocco.
The ongoing Christian re-conquest of
Muslim principalities in Spain, which was
completed in 1492, and the opening up of
oceanic trade routes from European Atlantic
ports to the New World and around Africa, cut
North Africa out of the global economy. The
region became a backwater, exacerbating
inherent conservatism in the arts.
NORTH AFRICA TOGETHER
Despite political differences between the
Islamic rulers of West Asia and of the Maghreb
(the Arabic word for ‘west’ and the term
NORTH AFRICA 600-1500
THE COURTYARD OF THE ATTARIN MADRASA in Fez
(1323–5) shows the distinctive style of architecture
that developed in the Maghreb, with tiled walls
surmounted by carved stucco and a wooden
cornice. Rooms and cells behind these decorated
walls provided places for prayer, classrooms for
study, and accommodation for students.
20˚10˚0˚10˚
40˚
30˚
Salé
Rabat
Bizerta 661
Tozeur
Bône
Oran
Messila
TulmaithaGabès
Tébessa
Gafsa
Nafta
Almería
Arzeu late 7th c
Mostaganem
Dai
Azzammur
Marrakesh
Oujda
850 838-41
829
866
999
9th c
732 (864)
c.1000 796
821
(860-63)
857 (857, 859)
790
9th c955
9th c
1150 (1195)
Ceuta c. 700
Tétouan 628
Nakur 761
Fez 789
Aghmat 11th c
Sijilmasa 758
Tahert 761
Valencia 714
Toledo 714
Seville 713
Melilla
Granada 713
Gibraltar 711
Tunis 699
Monastir 796
Sedrata 908
Kairouan 670
Ashir
935-6
Tobna
early 8th c
Qala of the Bani
Hammad late 10th c
Ténes
Mahdia 912
Surt 640s
Ajdabiya 643
Tripoli 643
Hippo Regius
(Bijaya/Annaba) 705
Sufetula (Sbeitla) 640s
Hadrumetum (Sousse)647
Carthage 698 Syracuse 878
Taormina 902
Palermo 831
Enna (Castrogiovanni)
859
Barca 642
Taparura (Sfax) 640s
Tangier c. 700
Pomaria
(Tlemcen) 1082
Córdoba 711
Rhône
E
bro
Tagus
Guadalquivir
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
TYRRHENIAN
SEA
A
D
R
I A
T
I C
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
P
Y
R
E N E E S
A
T L A
S
M
T S
S A H A R A
UMAYYADS (756-1031)
R U S TA M I D S ( 7 7 8 - 9 0 9 )
I D R I S I D S
( 7 8 9 - 9 8 5 )
L
O
M
B
A
R
D
S
AGHLABID
EMIRATE
(800-909)
CORSICA
SARDINIA
SICILY
B
ALEA R I C I S
A F R I C A
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 Western Islam before 1000
Byzantine Empire
disputed by
Byzantines/Muslims
trade route
ivory route
salt trade
gold route
export of carpets
export of slaves
spread of merino sheep
pre-Islamic city, with date of conquest
Islamic city, with date founded
manuscript centre
ivory-working centre
643
congregational mosque,
with date founded,
(date remodelled)
nine-bay mosque,
with date founded
ribat, with date founded,
(date remodelled)
textile production
866
732
643
1 THE SOUTHERN SHORES of the Mediterranean basin
prospered under Islam as trade routes linked it to
tropical Africa, Europe and West Asia. Inland cities
became centres of commerce, scholarship and art
and were embellished with hypostyle mosques,
often built with debris taken from Roman and
Byzantine ruins. Kairouan was the centre of
religious learning, and its mosque has yielded an
important cache of early leather-bound parchment
codices of the Koran.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 600–1500
127
copper alloy and terracotta artefacts just
mentioned probably served elite people
and especially rulers, sometimes as part of
their identifying regalia, sometimes in
ceremonial and ritual contexts. Other more
democratic forms, such as pottery and
woodcarving, were undoubtedly made and
used by the people at large.
THREE ARTISTIC STREAMS
Traditional religions, cultural and political
structures, and domestic life account for the
great majority of art and architecture from this
period. Two other influential streams, Christian
and Muslim, are also important in certain
areas: across the Sudan from east to west
(Islam), and on the eastern coast, especially,
where they account for distinctive forms of
both visual art and architecture.
Both Christian churches and Muslim
mosques, for example, proliferated in this era,
in stone and in less durable materials. Many
Christian paintings are known from the later
centuries in Ethiopia, such as the fifteenthcentury
painting of Mary and Christ, which was
part of a socio-political cult promulgated by
the emperor Zara Yaqob (r.1434-68). Metal
vessels with Arabic inscriptions from
fourteenth-century Mamluk Egypt were traded
all the way to what is now central Ghana, where
some are still in service as shrines among Akan
peoples. These also served as prototypes for
10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
20˚
20˚
Ingombe Ilede
Chedzurgwe
Lekkerwater
Chipadze’s
Great Zimbabwe
elaborate stone enclosures,
numerous buildings,
soapstone carvings, c.1200-1450
Mwene Mutapa’s Court
toIndia
Mogadishu
Brava
Pate
LAMU
Gedi Malindi
Mombasa
Ile Ife
heads in terracotta and
copper alloy in naturalistic
styles from c.1100-1400
Esie
soapstone carvings of
human figures
c.12th-15th c
Lalibela
13th-century rock-cut
Christian churches
Axum
Jenne
terra cottas and
lost wax castings
from c.1000-1500
Takedda
Zanzibar
Kilwa Kisiwani
Mozambique
Angoche
Sofala
Nosy
Manja
PEMBA
MAFIA
SANJI
YA KATI
Marka
Manda
N
ile
BlueNile
W
hiteNile
Za
m
bezi
Orange
Save
Limpopo
Niger
Sene
gal
Gambia
Congo
Benue
L. Chad
L. Victoria
L. Tenganyika
L. Nyasa
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
MOZAMBIQUECHANNEL
R
E
D
S
E
A
KALAHARI
DESERT
S A H A R A
MALI
c.1350
SONGHAY
c.1500
KANEM-BORNU
c.11th-15th c
ETHIOPIA
c.1320
BUNYORO
c.1400
MARAVI
c.15th c
LUNDA c.15th cNDONGO
c.15th c
NGOYO
KAKONGO
LOANGO
c.1400
BENIN
c.1500
AKAN STATES
c.1400-1500
KONGO c.14th c
KUBA c.16th c
LUNDU c.16th c
LUBA c.16th c
MUTAPA c.15th-16th c
ZIMBABWE
c.11th-15th c
A R A B I A
MADAGASCAR
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
2 Africa, c.1400-1500
African states
Arab coastal settlements
Rhodesian stone ruins
copper deposits
gold deposits
exports of gold, copper,
iron, ivory and slaves
imports of arms,
beads and ceramics
2 AND 3 IN RESPONSE TO VISITS first of Portuguese, then
of other European merchants and travellers, a shift
occurs in West Africa – from its orientation to Islam
and the Saharan trade – towards the coast. Islam
continues its spread, especially on the Swahili
Coast, and Ethiopian Christianity became stronger.
Despite these incursions, native religions and values
hold sway over most of the continent.
DIPTYCH OF THE MADONNA AND CHILD, APOSTLES, ST
GEORGE AND THEODORE by Fere Seyou(?).
Tempera on gessoed wood, 44 x 31.5 cm
(172
⁄5 x 122
⁄5 ins). Institute of Ethiopian Studies,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is one of countless
works commissioned as part of the emperor
Zara Yaqob’s mandatory cult of Mary.
later Akan metalwork of local manufacture.
Merged Arab and Indian influences are also
detectable in the art and architecture of the
Swahili coast of eastern Africa.
3 Outside Influences
route of Ibn Battuta, 1353
route of Fernão Gomes, 1469-79
route of Diogo Cão, 1482-84
route of Bartolomeu Dias, 1487
route of Pêro da Covilhã, 1487-1525
route of Vasco da Gama, 1497-99
NaplesValenciaLisbon
Sala
Gao
Takedda
Ile Ife
Benin
Jenne
Oyo
Walata
Niani
Kangaba
Timbuktu
Adrar
In Salah
Taghaza
Sijilmassa
Cairo
Suakin
Zeila
Mecca
Elmina
Benguela
Walvis Bay
Ormuz
Aden
Malindi
Kilwa
Sofala
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
INDIAN
OCEAN
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
RED
SEA
Cape of
Good Hope Mossel Bay
Gold Coast
S A H A R A
CANARY
IS
A F R I C A
N
0
0
1200 miles
1600 kms
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
126
men. That of Ile-Ife shows an exceptionally
sensitive naturalism, including mimetic
portraiture on idealized, life-size human heads,
along with terracottas of several styles and
types. That of the Inland Delta involved rather
stylized human figures in many poses, and
animals, especially snakes, which appear to
have been sacred to the local people. Most of
the latter have come from illegal excavations.
Ile-Ife also contains some eleventh- and
twelfth-century granite sculpture and
decorative pavements, presumably for royal
precincts, made of inlaid potsherds.
ART AND SOCIETY
Socio-political organization for this era ranged
from small headless bands – the San in
southern Africa continued to paint on rock-wall
surfaces – to centralized kingdoms, empires,
and city-states, the arts of some of the latter
having been mentioned by medieval Muslim
travellers and chroniclers such as Al Bakri, Ibn
Battuta and Ibn Khaldun. Gold regalia and
horse trappings, for example, are reported at
the court of ancient Ghana, which also had a
divided capital city (Kumbi Saleh) part Muslim,
partly traditional believers. Many of the early
THE VARIED GEOGRAPHY of Africa south of
the Sahara includes the drainage systems
of three great rivers: the Niger, the Congo and
the Nile, which with their tributaries embrace
forest, savannah, and mountain zones
constituting a large percentage of the
continent. Most forest-region peoples and
some living in the savannah were
agriculturalists (apart from small huntergatherer
populations in central and southern
areas) while savannah and sahel dwellers were
often pastoral or semi-pastoral.
Major population movements during the
early centuries of this period included the
Bantu migrations from eastern West Africa
(present-day Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad) into
the vast Congo drainage and further south,
often displacing hunter-gatherers. European
maps of the continent were often very
inaccurate regarding interior regions. TransSaharan
trade was very active during this entire
period, and remains difficult to map accurately,
although oases were obvious stopping points
and trade centres.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Pottery (including some ceramic sculpture),
woodcarving, iron-smithing, leather-working
and basketry were surely practised by many,
perhaps most, agricultural peoples during this
entire period. Lost-wax casting and loomed
weavings, however, were introduced in the
ninth or tenth centuries, presumably across the
Sahara. They were probably transmitted by
Muslims, in the same era that Islam penetrated
areas just south of the Sahara and coastal
zones of east Africa. Christianity entered Egypt
and Ethiopia still earlier, by around the fourth
century. Stone architectural complexes are
known from the western Sudan and in southern
Africa.
Excavations in Kumbi Saleh in southern
Mauritania – probably the capital city of the
ancient Ghana empire (c.800–1100) – revealed
foundations of a stone mosque dating to the
tenth century and a fragment of a female terracotta
figure made several centuries earlier.
Great Zimbabwe and other sites in what is now
Zimbabwe dating from about 1000 to 1500
feature elaborate stone buildings and
enclosing walls. Churches hewn out of bedrock
in Lalibela, Ethiopia, date from the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Rock art, probably no
longer made in Sahara regions, was being
made in southern Africa during the whole
period, apparently mostly by San peoples.
Lost-wax castings in several styles were
made from about the ninth or tenth century
in what is now southern Nigeria (Igbo Ukwu),
from about 1000 in the inland Delta region of
the Niger River, and in Ile Ife from around 1100.
These are all distinctive, well-resolved
art styles. That of Igbo Ukwu is very refined,
with almost fussy decorative surfaces on
objects of many types associated with early
priest-leaders who conferred titles on worthy
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 600-1500
1 WEAVING AND LOST-WAX CASTING appear to have
entered West African savannah and forest regions
during this period. Presumably, they were brought
south across the Sahara by Muslims, who at the
same time were establishing their own trading and
learning centres in the western Sudan. Islam also
became a political presence in states located in the
savannah, but the majority of peoples south of this
zone (apart from Christianized Ethiopia)
worshipped local nature spirits and ancestors,
and were unaffected by Islam or Christianity.
10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚
30˚
20˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
20˚
30˚
Fez
Tlemcen
Marrakesh
Tunis
Tripoli
Cairo
Ghat
Gao
Tadmekka
Sijilmassa
Nok
Timbuktu
WalataAwdaghost
Kumbi Saleh
Jenne
Kairouan
Ghadamis
Bilma
Niani
Salaga
Oyo
Ouagadougou Niamey
Kufra
Barca
Awjilah
Siwa
Mecca
Medina
Meroë
El Fasher
Dongola
Mogadishu
Aden
Zeila
Agadez
Igbo Ukwu
earliest lost-wax
castings south of Sahara
Mali
Lydenburg
heads of terracotta found in
fragments, 500-700
Ile Ife
granite monolith,
granite figural sculpture
mosaic pavements 800-1000
Bura
terracotta heads
and figures found
widely in W Africa
200-1000
Nile
Blue
N
ile
Whit
e
Nile
Seneg
al
Niger
Benue
Congo
Gambia
Zam
bezi
Orange
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
INDIAN
OCEAN
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
R
ED
SEA
TIBESTI
TASSILI
KALAHARI
DESERT
A T L A S M T S
S A H A R A
ARABIA
GHANA
c.1000
SONGHAY KANEM
ETHIOPIA
HOGGAR
FEZZAN
AIR
YORUBA
IGBO
BAMBUK
MALI
c.1350
rock paintings and engravings
in S Africa by San and related
peoples produced in great
numbers
1 Africa, c.900-1100
southern limit of Sahara
northern limit of thick forest
Saharan trade routes
possible routes of introduction of narrow
strip weaving into W Sudan
possible routes of introduction of lost wax
casting, 9th-10th centuries
gold deposits
slaves
rock art sites
Empires African languages
Ghana Niger-Kordofanian
Mali Nilo-Saharan
Songhay Afro-Asiatic
Kanem Khoisan
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
saltivory
FIGURE OF A SACRED KING, the Oni of Ile-Ife, excavated
at Ita Yemoo, Nigeria, in 1957 (47 cm – 181
⁄2 ins –
high, cast copper alloy, eleventh or twelfth century,
Museum of Ife Antiquities). The king is shown in
bead-rich regalia. The fleshy naturalism is typical of
the finest of Ife works, and the ideologically
skewed proportions emphasize his sacred head.
WEST ASIA AND EGYPT 600–1000
129
Under the Abbasids, the congregational
mosque evolved from an early community
centre into a more strictly religious institution
under the control of the ulema, or religious
scholars. To signal this change, towers were
added to congregational mosques to advertise
their presence from afar. Small mosques were
erected to serve the needs of smaller
communities; one popular type was a square
structure with nine domed bays. This type,
which has been found from Spain to Central
Asia, was probably developed in the Abbasid
heartlands and disseminated by pilgrims
returning from Mecca.
Abbasid patrons were fabulously rich and
enjoyed imported luxuries, including
stonewares and porcelains from China. These
were imported either by sea, across the Indian
Ocean and up the Persian Gulf, or overland
along the Silk Road through Central Asia. The
taste for imported ceramics led Mesopotamian
potters to develop fine earthenwares covered
by a white opaque glaze imitating Chinese
porcelain. Other potters applied to ceramics
the Syrian technique of painting glass with
metallic oxides and firing it in a reducing
atmosphere. Thereby they created the
technique for lustreware. Abbasid four-colour
lustrewares represent the acme of the art.
The art of the book was also transformed in
this period. Parchment manuscripts were
supplanted by paper codices, and the
traditional angular script, often called kufic
after the city of Kufa in southern Iraq, gave way
to rounder, cursive styles of writing more
suitable for the smoother surface. Brown
tannin inks which stained the parchment
surface were replaced by carbon-based black
10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
Manbij
Samarra
Mosul
Erzurum
Amida
Raqqa
Tiflis
ArdabilTabriz
Constantinople
Rayy
Damghan
Nishapur
Merv
Herat
Termez
Balkh
Kabul
Ghazni
Kandahar
Zaranj
SamarkandBukhara
Susa
Shushtar
Basra
Urgench
Alexandria
Seville
Ashmunayn
Asyut
Aswan
Qus
Damietta
Siraf
Shibam
Sana
Zabid
Aden
Shiraz Bam
Hormuz
Banbhore
Istakhr
Isfahan
Yazd
Nayin
Baghdad
Jerusalem
Medina
Muscat
Mecca
Damascus
Fustat
Sus
Tunis
Kairouan
Tripoli
Toledo
Córdoba
Granada
Faiyum
Tinnis
Nil
e
Euphrates
Tig
ris
Indus
Danube
Syr Dary
a
A
m
u Darya
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
PERS
IAN
GULF
A R A B I A N
S E A
ARAL
SEA
CASPIAN
SEA
B L A C K S E A
ARABIAN
PENINSULA
HINDU KUSH
CAUCASUS
ZAGR
O
SMTS
UMAYYADS
(756-1031)
IDRISIDS
(789-926)
RUSTAMIDS
(776-906)
E G Y P T
SYRIA
PERSIA
ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
B Y Z A N T I N E
E M P I R E
TRANSOXANIA
FERGHANA
KHWARIZM
KHURASAN
FARS
SISTAN
MAKRAN
KIRMAN
O
MAN
HEJAZ
MESOPO
TAM
IA
YEMEN
gold,
slaves,
ivory
gold, slaves,
ivory, exotic woods
silver coins
to Vikings
furs, slaves
from Russia
slaves from
Turkestan
spices, teak
from India
porcelain
from China
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
2 The Abbasid Caliphate, c.950
Abbasid Caliphate at greatest extent, 786-809
other Muslim dynasties
Abbasid mosque
tiraz (textile inscription band) factories
ceramic centres
paper mills
nine-bay mosque
imports/exports
pilgrimage routes
main roads
2 THE ABBASID CAPITALS in Mesopotamia attracted
intellectual and artistic talent from all over their
enormous empire, particularly from the eastern
provinces that had helped the Abbasids seize
power. Following the conquest of Central Asia,
paper was introduced to fuel the enormous
Abbasid bureaucracy, and as its use and
manufacture spread, it led to fundamental changes
in styles of writing and the production and
distribution of manuscripts. Major cities had
hypostyle mosques with minarets and bevelled
style carving, showing the dissemination of
metropolitan Abbasid styles and taste. Fine textiles
of linen, cotton, silk and wool to be distributed to
courtiers were produced in state manufactories
established throughout the empire, but especially
in Egypt and lower Iraq. Luxury goods, such as
teak, carpets and porcelain, were imported from
India, Armenia and China.
STUCCO REVETMENT from the Balkuwara palace at
Samarra, c.850. The huge scale of the palaces at
the sprawling new Abbasid capital demanded
cheap and efficient techniques. The slanted or
bevelled technique of moulding was imitated in
other media, such as carved wood and rock-crystal,
and became a hallmark of the period.
ink, which did not degrade the paper.
Calligraphers specializing in the transcription
of the Koran were slow to adopt the new
medium of paper, perhaps because of the
sacredness of the text, but by the year 1000,
they, too, had realized its artistic potential.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
128
THE RISE OF ISLAM in seventh-century
Arabia and its rapid spread throughout
western Asia, Mesopotamia and Egypt (as well
as North Africa, Spain and Central Asia)
dramatically affected the nature and
production of art in this enormous region.
The new rulers initially adopted and adapted
indigenous artistic and architectural traditions,
only gradually creating a distinctly Islamic style
by the ninth century.
Following the death of the prophet
Muhammad in 632, Muslim armies crossed the
Arabian peninsula and neighbouring regions,
founding new cantonments for the troops at
Basra, Kufa (both 638), Fustat (641), Wasit
(702) and Ramla (715). Older buildings,
whether Persian audience halls or Christian
churches in established cities, were
transformed into mosques. They had to be
large enough to house the male population for
Friday noon worship and had to point in the
direction of Mecca, the centre of the faith.
Elsewhere Muslims built new mosques, usually
hypostyle (many-column) structures arranged
around an open courtyard.
In order to preserve the integrity of the
Koran, God’s revelation to Muhammad in
Arabic, Muslims soon began transcribing
onto parchment codices the message that the
Prophet had relayed orally. In doing this, they
transformed Arabic script into one of
extraordinary elegance and beauty.
THE CONTINUATION OF ANTIQUITY
The first dynasty of Muslim rulers was the
Umayyad line (r.661–750), who made Syria
their capital province. They continued to
Uncompromisingly monotheistic, Islam
strongly discouraged the use of figural imagery
in religious settings. Subsidiary themes of lateAntique
art, such as vine scrolls or geometric
patterns, thus became the major subjects of
decoration. The one new decorative element
was Arabic script, the language of Koranic
revelation. Its use soon became a hallmark of
Islamic art, as inscriptions became important
elements in the design of buildings, elegant
textiles and even humble ceramics. In private
settings, however, particularly on the country
estates erected by the Umayyad rulers in the
Syrian steppe, exuberant figural art remained
popular at such sites as Khirbat al Mafjar and
Qusayr Amra.
THE NEW ABBASID STYLE
With the destruction of the Umayyads by the
Abbasids (749–1258), the centre of art and
patronage shifted from Syria to Mesopotamia,
as the new rulers established a series of
capitals there, including Baghdad (762), Raqqa
(772) and Samarra (836). The Abbasids had
come to power with the help of disaffected
Iranians, many from the wealthy province of
Khurasan, and the eastern lands became
increasingly important in the evolution of
Abbasid art and society.
Brick rendered with plaster, the ubiquitous
building material of Mesopotamia and Iran,
replaced the stone and mosaics of the
Mediterranean coast. To render the walls of
their sprawling palaces – the Dar al Khilafa at
Samarra, for example, covers 125 hectares
(over 300 acres) – Abbasid artisans developed
a carved and moulded style of abstract vegetal
decoration with bevelled edges. This technique
allowed the plaster to be released easily from
the mould and was suitable for covering
extensive wall surfaces. The bevelled style was
also used in other architectural media, such as
carved teakwood doors and shutters and stone
capitals. It soon was applied to other arts, such
as carved rock-crystal, and was exported
throughout the empire, as far as Kairouan in
North Africa and Balkh in Central Asia.
WEST ASIA AND EGYPT 600-1000
1 THE HEARTLAND OF THE UMAYYAD EMPIRE was Syria,
for the founder of the dynasty, Mu`awiya, had
been governor of Damascus before he seized
power in 661. His successors, after consolidating
their power over the next three decades, turned
the region into an enormous public works project,
with the construction of cities, mosques, urban
palaces and enormous rural agricultural estates.
The major Islamic shrines at Mecca (centre of the
faith), Medina (burial place of the Prophet) and
Jerusalem were transformed into major
architectural ensembles. These projects were
funded by the enormous booty gained from the
continuing conquests of outlying areas – from
North Africa to Central Asia.
THE INTERIOR OF THE DOME OF THE ROCK in Jerusalem
shows how early Muslim patrons wholeheartedly
adopted the forms and decoration of late-Antique
and early Byzantine architecture. The only
distinctively Islamic feature is the Arabic inscription
beneath the ceiling.
30˚ 35˚ 40˚ 45˚ 50˚
35˚
30˚
25˚
Medina
Mecca
Jabal Says
Qusayr Amra
Mshatta
Khirbat al Minya
Khirbat al Mafjar
Qasr al Hayr East
Qasr al Hayr West
Jerusalem
Amman
Bosra
Antioch
Latakia
Homs Palmyra
Damascus
Hama
Rusafa
Raqqa
Hiraqla
Harran (Carrhe)
Ruha (Edessa)
Balis
Manbij
(Hierapolis)
Aleppo
‘Anjar (c.710)
Kufa (638)
Basra (638)
Wasit (702)
Ramla (715)
Fustat (641)
Alexandria
Tyre
Gaza
Mosul
Iconium
Hamadan
Rayy
Susa
Hafar
Ctesiphon
Qadisiya
Riyadh
Suez
Küs
Edfu
Aydhab
Suakin
Kom Ombo
Isfahan
Ardabil
Nile
Euphrate
sTigris
L.Van
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
R
E
D
S
E
A
PER
SIA
N
G
U
L F
E G Y P T
SYRIA
A R A B I A
H
E
JA
Z
P
E
R
S
I
A
M
E
S
O
P O
T A M I A
BAH
R
A
IN
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
develop the artistic traditions of late Antiquity in
such buildings as the Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem (begun 692) and the Great Mosque of
Damascus (705–15): classical structures of stone
with marble columns and veneers, decorated
with glittering glass mosaics.
1 Umayyad Syria and the Levant
extent of Islam
to 632
extent of Islam
to 750
pilgrimage routes
to Mecca
old cities
new cities,
with date of foundation
rural palaces/
agricultural estates
centres of manuscript
production
site with mosaic
site with stucco
Umayyad mosque
WEST ASIA 1000–1500
131
Turks arrived in Iran during the eleventh
century. Following the defeat of the Byzantines
at the battle of Manzikert (Malazgird) in 1071,
Anatolia was opened to Turkish settlement and
Islamization, creating a demand for new
buildings to serve the faith.
The Byzantine defeat led European
Crusaders to invade the region, capture
Jerusalem and carve out four principalities.
The Muslims were unable to mount effective
resistance until the rise of Saladin (r.1169–93),
who defeated the Crusaders under the banner
of a resurgent Islam. In these uncertain times
artists – whether builders, potters, or metalworkers
– were often forced to move, thus
further disseminating Iranian artistic forms
and techniques.
THE INTEGRATION OF OLD AND NEW
The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century
reconfigured the artistic map of western Asia,
as Iran became the entrepôt of an international
trading system linking Europe and China. The
Mongols adapted and refined the four-iwan
mosque, the brick dome, glazed tile and lustre
ceramics. Traditional mosques, minarets,
madrasas (theological colleges) and khanaqahs
(hospices for mystics) were combined into
multi-functional complexes, often arranged
around the tomb of the founder in order to
perpetuate his memory.
The major artistic innovation of the
fourteenth century was the new role played by
the illustrated book, which became a major
vehicle for the dissemination of Persian
literature and political ideologies. This was
made possible in part by papermakers’ new
capability to produce large sheets of fine white
paper, perhaps due to knowledge of Chinese
technology. The most able painters in western
Asia now turned from the ceramic surface to
paper, drawing upon the traditions of
Chinese landscape scrolls and Italian panel
painting alike.
Iranian artistic ideas were adopted by the
the Mamluks in Egypt – the four-iwan plan,
stucco decoration, Chinoiserie ornament –
testifying to the international prestige of
Ilkhanid art. Traditional rivalries obscured the
meteoric rise of the Ottoman Turks, who would,
by the end of the period, become the most
powerful force in western Asia and
southeastern Europe.
Drawing on the architectural and artistic
heritage of Seljuk Anatolia as well as
Byzantium and the Classical past, Ottoman
artists developed a new idiom of Islamic art in
the Mediterranean region. In the years before
and after the conquest of Constantinople in
1453, Ottoman builders refined a third type of
congregational mosque characterized by a
huge single dome surrounded by pencil-thin
minarets: a style that became the symbol of
Ottoman domination in the region.
15˚ 20˚ 25˚ 30˚ 35˚ 40˚ 45˚ 50˚ 55˚ 60˚ 65˚ 70˚ 75˚ 80˚
20˚
25˚
30˚
35˚
40˚
45˚
Baghdad
Najaf
Samarra
Kufa
Gaza
Bursa
Inegol
Isfahan
Linjan
KashanNatanzQuhrud
Aran
Zavara
Qumm
Sultanabad
Bastam
Sarvistan
Darab
Yazd
Abarquh
Hajiabad
Kuhpaya
Nayin
Shiraz
Mashiz
Kirman
Nigar
Khonj
Siraf
Tabriz
Salmas
Shahi
Marand Astara
BakuBerda'a
Nasmus
Nakhichevan
Ardabil Gurgan
Ziaret
Damghan Nishapur
Mashhad
Tus
Radkan Merv
SimnanRayy
Veramin
Herat
Qayin
Ghazna
Kandahar
Samarkand
Khiva
Balkh
Tashkent Kashgar
Mosul Sava
Qazvin
Sultaniya
SojasTakht-i-Sulayman
Sarcham
Bukhara
Hamadan
Quchan
Diyarbakir
Damascus
Tripoli
Palmyra
Jerusalem
Aqaba
Petra
Qus
Medina
Mecca
Basra
Shustar
Hormuz
Konya
Alanya
Tarsus
Manisa
Selcuk
Bilecek
Iznik
Mudurnu
Afyon
Gebze
Sivas
Rome
Venice
Genoa
Naples
Palermo
Amasya Trebizond
Tokat
Kaiseri
Kirsehir
Aleppo
Constantinople
Adrianople
Thessalonica
Cairo
Alexandria
N
ile
Euph
rates
Tigris
Indus
Amu Darya
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
ARAL
SEA
CASPIAN
SEA
R
ED
SEA
AEGEANSEA
B L A C K S E A
C A U C A S U S
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
ARABIAN
PENINSULA
H
I
N
D
U
K
U
S H
MAMLUK
SULTANATE
I L K H A N AT E
C H A G ATA I
K H A N AT E
D E L H I
S U LTA N AT E
G O L D E N H O R D E
(1326-1402)
(1402-53)
(1453 onwards)
A F R I C A
CYPRUS
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
3 West Asia, c.1325
Byzantine Empire, c.1300
Mamluk Sultanate
Ilkhanate and vassals
Chagatai Khanate
Ottomans/Turkish principalities
Armenian territory in the Levant
towns/sites where lustre ware found
Ilkhanid monuments
centres of manuscript production
textile centres
metalwork centres
shrine complexes
Mamluk monument
Ottoman mosques
Ottoman capitals
trade routes
3 IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY much of Eurasia was
ruled by various descendants of Genghis Khan, of
whom the Ilkhan rulers of Iran and Iraq controlled
the central region. The ensuing pax Mongolica
fostered overland trade and communication
between Italy and China. The arts created in Iran
under the patronage of the Ilkhanids, who had
converted to Islam by the late thirteenth century,
reflect this extraordinarily broad range of sources.
The Ilkhans wholeheartedly adopted Persian and
Islamic cultural traditions; their great rivals in the
west were the Mamluks, whose capital at Cairo
became the centre of Arab-Islamic civilization after
the Mongols conquered Baghdad in 1258.
COURTYARD OF THE CONGREGATIONAL MOSQUE in Isfahan,
Iran. The large open court with iwans, or vaulted
halls, in the middle of each side, epitomizes the
new mosque plan introduced and popularized by
the Seljuks from the early twelfth century. Much of
the present tile decoration was added later, as the
form remained standard until modern times.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
130
DURING THE ELEVENTH CENTURY the
unified Abbasid caliphate came apart at
the seams. Egypt, Syria and Arabia (as well as
most of North Africa) were controlled by
Fatimid caliphs from their capital at Cairo, but
the major threat came from the east, as groups
of Turkish nomads moved southwest from the
Central Asian steppe, converted to Islam, and
came to dominate political, intellectual and
artistic life.
THE DOMINATION OF IRANIAN IDEAS
Iranian techniques, themes and motifs began
to play a dominant role in all the arts of the
region, from architecture to ceramics and
metalwares. The old type of hypostyle
(many-column) congregational mosque was
supplanted by the four-iwan plan, in which
vaulted open rooms are arranged around the
four sides of a rectangular court and connected
by vaulted halls. The iwan, which had been used
in Iranian architecture since Parthian times,
was often combined with a great brick dome, as
the arched and vaulted techniques of the
Iranian plateau replaced the stone post-andbeam
system that Muslims had inherited from
the Mediterranean lands. The iwan was
inherently flexibile, being suitable for all types
of buildings, whether mosques, palaces,
schools or caravanserais (caravan motels).
Iranian ideas also dominated the decorative
arts. Paper became the ubiquitous support for
manuscripts produced in the region. These
included not only the illuminated manuscripts
of the Koran produced in earlier times but also
illustrated works of many types, from scientific
and technical manuals to epic and lyric poetry.
Potters exploited the artistic potential of the
fritted (or stone-paste) ceramic body that
emulated the fine white Chinese Song
porcelains imported in great quantity. New
shapes and techniques (including overglaze
lustre and enamel and underglaze painting)
resulted in a period of great ceramic innovation.
Weavers also exploited increasingly
sophisticated structures and designs. Colour
suffused all the arts, as monochrome
metalwares were inlaid with copper, silver and
gold, and buildings were enveloped in glittering
webs of glazed tile and painted plaster.
DISSEMINATION OF THE FAITH
The major work of conversion had been
accomplished by this time, but the ethnic
composition of western Asia changed
dramatically as Turko-Mongolian peoples
resettled and converted to Islam, adapting the
norms of Persian-Islamic culture. The Seljuk
WEST ASIA 1000-1500
1 AROUND THE YEAR 1100 much of western Asia came
under the control of the Seljuks, a Turkish tribe from
Central Asia, while Egypt remained under the
control of the Fatimid dynasty. Militant Muslims, the
Seljuks promulgated their version of Islam by
building monuments for the faith, such as mosques,
minarets and madrasas. A collateral branch, the
Seljuks of Rum, settled along with other Turkish
tribes in Anatolia. They too built mosques and
madrasas to promulgate the faith, as well as
caravanserais to foster trade, but the typical brick
and plaster forms of Iranian Seljuk architecture
were translated into stone. Seljuk patrons
commissioned splendid lustre ceramics and inlaid
metalwares to decorate their mosques and palaces.
2 CRUSADERS FROM EUROPE intent on rescuing
Jerusalem from the Muslims established
principalities in the eastern Mediterranean. These
invaders – and Muslim defenders – built some of
the finest medieval military architecture to survive.
Crusaders returned to Europe from western Asian
bazaars with fabulous souvenirs, including textiles
and metalwares.
20˚ 25˚ 30˚ 35˚ 40˚ 45˚ 50˚ 55˚ 60˚ 65˚ 70˚
35˚
30˚
25˚
20˚
Konya
Kubadabad
Beysehir
Sarajevo
Dubrovnik
Tirana
Skopje
Sofia
Tutrakan
Plovdiv
Varna
Izmit
Iznik
Manisa
Alasehir
Afyon
Eskisehir
Sögüt
Kutahya
Tire
Aydin
Constantinople
Adrianople
Uzunköprü
Balikesir
Canakkale
Bergama
Izmir
Bursa
Ruse
Thessalonica
Nigde
Kaiseri
Kirsehir
Ankara Sivas
Amasya
Kastamonu
Niksar
Sinope
Bolu
Zonguldak
Divrigiˇ
Malatya
Urfa
Aleppo
Damascus
Raqqa
Mardin
Baghdad
Mosul
Cairo
Bitlis
Ardabil
Damavand
Damghan
Nayin Zarand
Tabas
Sabzevar
Nishapur
Merv
Balkh
Sangbast
Kirat
Herat
Khusrawgird
Khargird
Nigar
Nayriz
Firuzabad Hormuz
Muscat
Ardistan
Zavara
Gulpaygan
Isfahan
Kermanshah
Bastam
Gurgan
Baku
Harput
Silvan
Siirt
Diyarbakir
Erzurum
Manzikert
Trebizond
Tiflis
¸
Z
A
G
R
O
S
M T S
C A U C A S U S
A n a t o l i a
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
A R A B I A N
P E N I N S U L A
Tekirdag
Simnan
Kashan
Kirman
Nile
Tigris
Am
u
Darya
Euphrat
es
Danube
L. Van
L. Urmia
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
B L A C K S E A
C
A
S
P
IA
N
SEA
P
E
R
S I A
N
G U L F
A R A B I A N
S E A
AEGEANSEA
R E D
S E A
HINDU
KU
S
H
CYPRUS
CRETE
GEORGIAN
STATES
SHIRWAN
ARMENIAN RULERS
1080-1137
PALESTINE
E G Y P T
SYRIA P E R S I A
M
ESO
POTAMIA
BYZANTINE
EMPIRE
F AT I M I D C A L I P H AT E
G R E A T S E L J U K E M P I R E
textiles, metalware, military architecture to Europe
1071
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 West Asia in the Twelfth Century
Byzantine frontier in Asia, c.1025
Byzantine Empire, 1095
Seljuk Empire, c.1095
Seljuk tributary states
Byzantine territory overrun by Seljuks by 1095
eastern frontier of area recovered
by Byzantine Empire by 1180
nomads
other Muslim
dynasty
mosque
minaret
madrasa
caravanserai
ceramic centre
metalworking centre
40˚35˚
35˚
30˚
Saone
Bourzey
Crac des Chevaliers
Beaufort
Belvoir
Ajlun
Bosra
Subeibe
Kerak
Chastel Rouge
Tripoli
Giblet
Sidon
Tyre
Acre
Caesarea
Montreal
Arima
Antioch
Beirut
Jaffa
Gaza
Jerusalem
Edessa
Aleppo
Baalbek
Homs
Damascus
Eilat
Tigris
Euphrates
Jordan
DEAD
SEA
MEDITERRANEANSEA
S E L J U K S O F R U M
CILICIAN ARMENIA
CYPRUS
PRINCIPALITY
OF ANTIOCH
COUNTY OF TRIPOLI
KINGDOM OF
JERUSALEM
COUNTY OF EDESSA
1098-1144
EGYPT
S Y R I A
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
2 Latin States of the Levant
Latin Christian territory
Armenian Christian territory
Greek Christian territory
Muslim territory
Crusader castle
Muslim castle
CENTRAL ASIA 600–1500
133
that the Yuan rulers of China moved weavers
from Samarkand to Beshbalik and Daidu
(Beijing) in north China where they introduced
the silk tapestry technique.
Little if any stone was available for
building, but earth – whether as rammed earth,
sun-dried brick, baked brick, or glazed tile –
and a surprising quantity of timber (from the
forested mountains) were readily exploited for
construction. Columns and beams were used
for hypostyle mosques, as at Khiva, and for the
ubiquitous columned verandas found on
houses and other buildings. Baked bricks and
tiles were exploited for their decorative
potential: the early tenth-century Samanid
mausoleum at Bukhara is the earliest surviving
example of the decorative brick style that later
40˚
30˚
20˚
40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚ 80˚
90˚
Merv
Ziyaragah
Shiraz
Tiflis
Damascus
1400
Sarai 1395
Tabriz 1385
Isfahan
Lahore
Samarkand
Bukhara
Anau
Khargird
Nishapur
Ribat-i Qelli
Ribat-i Qarabil
Ribat-i Eshq
Ribat-i Safid
Turbat-i Jam
Kaffa
Tana
Yelets
Kandahar
Ghazni
Otrar
Khotan
Kabul
Herat
Balkh Termez
Mazar-i Sharif
Shahrisabz
Gizhduvan
Turkestan
Gazurgah
Khiva
Astrakhan
Maragheh
Baghdad
1396
Urgench
Meshed
1380
Sangbast
Delhi 1398
Tashkent
1387
L. Balkhash
Euph
rates
Tigris
A
m
u Dary
a
Syr Darya
V
olga
Dnieper
Don
Indus
Ural
Ganges
M E D.
S E A
ARAL
SEA
CASPIANSEA
PERSIA
N
GULF
R
ED
SEA
B L A C K S E A
K H A N AT E O F T H E G O L D E N H O R D E
D E L H I
S U LTA N AT E
C H A G ATA I
K H A N AT E
O T T O M A N
E M P I R E
A R A B I A
MAMLUKEMPIRE
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
A R A B I A N
D E S E R T
T H A R
D E S E R T
T I E N
S H A N
HINDU KUSH
Z
A
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O
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M
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500 miles
700 kms
THOUSANDS OF SLIP-DECORATED
earthenwares have been
unearthed at the sites of medieval
Nishapur and Afrasiyab (Old
Samarkand). Many are decorated
with phrases or aphorisms in
Arabic, such as ‘Blessings to its
owner’, while others are
decorated with vegetal, geometric
and figural motifs. These
aphorisms are written in a stylized
script, which is often difficult to
decipher. Nevertheless, the
inscriptions are carefully planned
and deserve to be called
calligraphy, literally ‘beautiful
writing’ and one of the hallmarks
of Islamic art. The texts reflect the
literate society of the time, in
which Arabic, the language of the
faith, co-existed with the
vernacular Persian. The latter soon
came to the fore as a literary
language, and the first surviving
manuscript in Persian, which dates
from the mid-eleventh century,
uses a similar stylized script for
headings.
2 TIMUR AND HIS SUCCESSORS used the
arts to enhance prestige. The scale
of his constructions – at his capital
Samarkand, his birthplace
Shahrisabz, or the grave site of
the Sufi sheikh Ahmad Yasavi in
Turkestan – matched his
ambitions. These mammoth works
were created by artisans who
came – often involuntarily – from
afar to the court to make intricate
plaster vaults and glittering tile
revetments. Timur’s successors had
fewer resources, but they still
commissioned fine manuscripts,
metalwares, and carved jades.
integrated its people into a vast zone that
stretched from North Africa to the Tien-Shan
mountains. The importance of trade is reflected
in the superb caravanserais set up
by officials along major trade routes.
Another constant was the unusually harsh
climate, ranging from torrid summers to frigid
winters. Despite little rainfall, water is available
from subterranean aqueducts or the few great
rivers flowing from distant mountains into
landlocked seas and lakes. The settled
population was concentrated in oasis towns,
while the deserts and steppes were inhabited
by the nomads. Despite the constant tension
between nomads and settled peoples over the
sparse resources, the two groups were
interdependent: the nomads’ sheep supplied
wool, meat and fertilizer for the settled
peoples, who in turn supplied the nomads with
grain, metals, fibres and ceramics.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
The vast number of sheep raised on the
steppes made woollen textiles pre-eminent,
although cotton and silk were cultivated by
settled populations. The knotted carpet came
to the fore as the ancient nomadic craft was
transformed, especially in West Asia, into a
village and urban industry. The earliest
examples, small carpets showing stylized
animals were exported as luxury goods and
have been found as far apart as Sweden, Italy
and Tibet; they are also depicted in Persian
manuscripts and Italian panel paintings of the
early fourteenth century. Village and urban
weavers were also known for their fine silk
textiles. Zandaniji textiles made in the village
of Zandane near Bukhara for several centuries
after the Islamic conquest were exported as far
as Europe and China. By the thirteenth century,
Central Asian textiles, particularly the silks
woven with gold-wrapped threads known in
Europe as panni tartarici, were so appreciated
became pre-eminent throughout the region. In
addition to mosques, found everywhere in the
Islamic lands, tombs became popular in this
region. These were typically domed cubic
structures, many of which honoured the local
saints and mystics who had been responsible
for converting the steppe nomads to Islam.
The earth also provided the raw materials
for other arts, including metalwares and
ceramics. Tenth-century potters in Samarkand
and Nishapur covered earthenwares with
colourful slip decoration, whether abstract,
figural or epigraphic, and glazed wares soon
followed. The epigraphic wares, calligraphed
with moralizing aphorisms in Arabic, show how
quickly the region had been integrated into the
Arabophone world of Islam.
2 Central Asia under the
Timurids, 1370-1506
Timurid Empire
conquests of Timur, with date
movement of metalworkers,
builders, ceramicists
movement of weavers
mosque
tomb/shrine
madrasa
caravanserai
jade sources
ceramics
manuscript production
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
132
and he was preparing to conquer China on his
deathbed. Although the Timurid empire shrank
as fast as it had grown, its artistic impact was
long-lived: the architects and craftsmen who
had been forcibly brought to Central Asia
created an international Timurid style which
became the common language for virtually all
Islamic art produced between Istanbul and
Delhi after 1500. Timurid artists refined the
Persian art of the book, which combined paper,
calligraphy, illumination, illustration and
binding in a brilliant and colourful whole.
THE IMPACT OF THE LANDSCAPE
Geography continued to play a pivotal role in
the evolution of artistic life. The region’s
accessibility and location put it at the
intersection of transcontinental routes and
CENTRAL ASIA CHANGED dramatically as it
was transformed from an independent
centre under the Turkic Khanates to a
peripheral border region which lay between the
great empires of the Abbasids in southwest
Asia and the Tang in China. From the late
seventh century, Arab armies brought Islam
and the Arabic language to this region where
many religions, including Zoroastrianism,
Manichaeism, Buddhism, Judaism, and
Nestorian Christianity, had been practised for
centuries and where Iranian and Turkic
languages were spoken. The Arabs knew the
region as ‘The Land Beyond the River’, or
Transoxiana. The Islamic conquest increased
the region’s prosperity, as it was integrated
into the nexus of trans-Asian trade along the
ancient Silk Road.
Far from the capitals of Arab-Islamic
civilization in Syria and Mesopotamia, moreor-less
independent dynasties of Persian and
Turkish governors and rulers emerged,
including the Saffarids, Samanids,
Karakhanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids and
Khwarazmshahs. They enlarged old cities or
created new capitals such as Merv, Bukhara,
Nishapur, Balkh, Shash (Tashkent), Kabul and
Delhi. In the period after 1000 many Central
Asian Turks migrated westward to Anatolia and
southeast into the Indian subcontinent,
integrating Central Asia further into the
Eurasian network.
A second great migration of TurkoMongolian
peoples in the late twelfth and
early thirteenth centuries devastated the
region, destroying the hydraulic infrastructure,
particularly the subterranean aqueducts (qanat)
which supplied cities, towns, villages and
farms with water from distant mountain
ranges. The region flowered again under the
patronage of the Timurids, who made
Samarkand and Herat sparkling centres of
intellectual and artistic life. The conquests of
Timur (r.1370–1405), known in the West as
Tamerlane, were rapid and ephemeral; at its
height his empire stretched to Syria and
Anatolia on the west and India on the east,
CENTRAL ASIA 600-1500
THE GRAVE SITE OF the Sufi sheikh
Ahmad Yasavi (d.1166) had long
been venerated by the Turks of
Central Asia and the Volga. In
1397–9 Timur used the vast
booty amassed from his victory
over the Golden Horde to
transform his modest brick tomb
at Yasi (now Turkestan City) into
one of the most spectacular
buildings in the region. Built
of brick and glazed tile, the
rectangular complex looms
above the steppe and projects
the presence of Islam from afar.
A giant iwan leads to a domed
central hall with an enormous
basin holding water for pilgrims,
and a smaller ribbed dome in the
back corner marks the site of the
sheikh’s grave.
40˚
30˚
20˚
40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚ 80˚ 90˚
Merv
Mecca
Sana
Sohar
Shiraz
Tiflis
Konya
Isfahan
Tyre
Damascus
Siraf
Jam
Multan
Lahore
Leh
Medina
Samarkand
Ribat-i Malik
Dayakhatyn
Vabkent
Bukhara
Nishapur
Ribat Sharaf
Sarakhs
Talkhaytan Baba Amol
Ghazni
Basra
Hamadan
Baghdad
Mosul
Talas
Uzgend
Tim
Otrar
Kashgar
Yarkand
Khotan
Turfan
Burana
Kumul (Hami)
DunhuangLoulan
Miran
Kusha
Beshbalik
Kabul
Herat
Balkh
Termez
Khiva
Urgench
Delhi
Srinagar
Panjikent
Tashkent
L. Balkhash
Eup
hrates
Tigris
A
m
u
Darya
HariRud
Murgab
Syr Darya
V
olga
Indus
B L A C K
S E A
ARABIAN
SEA
ARAL
SEA
CASPIANSEA
PERSIA
N
GULF
R
ED
SEA
H
I
M
A
L A Y A S
TA K L A M A K A N
P L A T E A U
O F T I B E T
I R A N I A N
P L A T E A U
A R A B I A N
D E S E R T
T H A R
D E S E R T
T I E N
S H A N
HINDU KUSH
Z
A
G
R
O
S
M
TS
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
1 Before the Mongols: Central Asia, c.1090
Seljuk Empire
Karakhanids
Ghaznavids
Fatimids
Qarmatians
Byzantine Empire, 1090
territory contested by
Seljuks/Byzantines
Silk Road
spread of silk weaving,
paper-making
spread of Islam,Arabic
caravanserai
manuscript and paper production
ceramic production
metal production
textiles
congregational
mosque
nine-bay mosque
tomb
minaret
1 THE CONSTRUCTION of new types of buildings
associated with Islam, particularly mosques,
minarets and tombs, reflects the spread of the
faith. Congregational mosques were an essential
feature of urban life, but minarets and tombs over
the graves of local saints were erected in rural
areas as well, particularly along the trade routes
that spanned the region, probably because they
came to symbolize the presence of Islam.
Vitthala Temple
Narasimha Temple
Virupaksha
Temple
Krsna
Temple
Monolithic
Narasimha and
Linga Shrine
Siva Temple
Tiruvengalanatha Temple
Vishnu Temple
Elephant Stables
Jain Temple
Madhava Temple
Hundred-Columned Audience Hall
Siva Temple
Square Water
Pavilion
Ruined
Palaces
Nine-Domed
Pavilion
Multi-Domed
Watchtower
Domed
Gate
Ganagitti
Jain Temple
Lotus
Mahal
Hazara
Ramachandra
Temple
Hanmatha
Tank
Tungabhadra River
SACRED
CENTRE
ROYAL
CENTRE
N
0
0
0.5 miles
0.75 kms
2 Vijayanagara: Temples and Courtly Monuments, c.1500
N
0
0
0.5 miles
0.75 kms
2 Vijayanagara: Temples and Courtly Monuments, c.1500
SOUTH ASIA 600–1500
135
consumption and exchange for various luxury
goods, and in a sense represented not only the
spiritual but material aspirations of the age.
From the thirteenth century a Turkish
Muslim empire, known as the Delhi Sultanate,
was founded in northern India, an event which
was to have a dramatic impact on Indian life as
well as exerting more subtle, long-term cultural
and economic influences. In one sense at least,
the Delhi Sultanate succumbed to the
centrifugal rhythms of Indian history. By 1400
regional sultanates had emerged in the west,
east and south, each of which exhibited a
distinctive regional identity. Islamic rulers
introduced new forms of monumental
architecture such as the mosque and tomb, as
well as providing a conduit for Central Asian
craft techniques and fashions to enter into the
subcontinent.
Despite destroying a number of politically
important temples in northern India and
interrupting traditional Hindu structures of
patronage, Muslim rulers did not attempt to
convert the large mass of their subjects to
Islam. Instead, the two cultures interacted with
one another. Beyond the southern borders of
the Delhi Sultanate flourished both the
Sultanates of the Deccan and the kingdom of
Vijayanagara, the last great Hindu empire,
which loosely united much of southern India
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Vijayanagara and Delhi were among the most
cosmopolitan and dynamic cities of their day,
importing materials and men of culture from as
far away as Portugal and China.
Luxury goods at court typically had both
economic as well as ceremonial or ritual value
and were transacted as emblems of political
and moral rank and authority. These objects
(robes, tunics, turbans, crowns, necklaces,
armbands and rings), along with a host of less
permanent substances such as betelnut and
sandalwood paste, were the object of great
concern in medieval sumptuary manuals
designed for the king and his nobility.
MATERIALS, TECHNIQUES AND EVIDENCE
In India climate has had a significant influence
on the development of material culture and,
unfortunately, on its survival. High levels of
heat and moisture have made the survival of
ephemeral materials, such as palm leaf, paper,
wood, textiles and plasters, sporadic from
periods before the sixteenth century. For this
reason many art forms, which we know to have
existed from other sources, cannot be
reconstructed with a satisfactory degree of
precision. Since the surviving record is only
partial, stone, terracotta monuments and
sculpture and durable decorative arts must
therefore remain our chief artefacts.
The most palpable legacy of the past
has been stone architecture, which flourished
during this period in both Hindu and Muslim
kingdoms. Temple architecture was based on
the combination of vertical and horizontal
stonework held together by weight. Large
monoliths were transported from quarries
using elephants or water and, having been
worked, were either hoisted or rolled into place
via earthen ramps. The arrival of Islamic
architecture in the subcontinent brought with it
new architectural styles such as the true arch,
the dome and the vault, built with the
extensive use of lime-mortar as a cementing
material. The emphasis in Islamic architecture
was primarily on the manipulation of line,
space and movement, though decorative
techniques were also developed in calligraphy
and mosaic.
THE TIRUVENGALANATHA TEMPLE at
Vijayanagara, dedicated to
Vishnu in 1534, is set in the
rugged terrain of the land
immediately south of the
Tungabhadra River. This temple
was sponsored by a prominent
courtier (a brother-in-law and
minister) of the Vijayanagar king
Achyutaraya (r.1529–42).
While few specimens have survived, other
sources suggest that the production of silk and
cotton textiles formed an important industry
during this period. Sources provide scores of
names of fabric styles which remain only dimly
understood by historians today.
The quality of cotton production was
improved by the introduction of the spinningwheel
and carder’s bow in the eleventh century,
probably from Central Asia, which must have
significantly cheapened the cost
of spun yarn. Weaving techniques during this
period are not very well understood, but the
expansion of the profession, as reflected in the
2 WHILE LARGE NUMBERS of temples
survive throughout India from
the sixth century, the empire of
Vijayanagara is unique among
Hindu dyanstic realms in
preserving a copious amount of
both secular and religious
architecture. The city of
Vijayanagara may be divided
into distinct zones. Immediately
south of the Tungabhadra River,
within the urban area but
outside the city walls, are a large
number of temples, which
scholars have designated the
sacred centre of the city. Further
south, surrounded by massive
outer fortifications, is the urban
core, where most of the
population lived. In the southeast
corner of the fortified city is
the royal centre, a complex of
many buildings, surrounded by
another tier of fortifications. It is
here where the king, his family,
and a large retinue of courtiers,
ritualists and palace servants
lived together.
increased prominence of weaver castes
in the historical record, suggests the
retention of traditional methods. Printing
and dyeing techniques are also unclear,
although some methods, like the famous
tie-dye technique, are mentioned as early
as the seventh century. Carpet-making also
seems to have been introduced into the
subcontinent between the eleventh and
thirteenth centuries, again from Central
Asia. In addition to textiles, there were rich
traditions of regionally differentiated,
decorative arts, but centres of production
and regional styles still remain elusive.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
134
THE DEVELOPMENT OF art and material
culture in India from 600 to1500 is
impressive. As an increasingly integrated
economy, society and culture emerged in the
Indian subcontinent, regional styles and
identities emerged which often formed the
precursors to later cultural developments.
KINGDOMS AND EMPIRES
At the beginning of this period numerous
Hindu temple-kingdoms spread throughout key
regions in the subcontinent and struggled for
local and pan-regional supremacy. A highly
refined and complex court culture flourished
upon a largely agrarian economy and feudal
social order. With the rise and triumph of the
theistic cults of Saivism (Siva) and Vaisnavis
(Vishnu), Hindu temples, which were often
endowed with massive landholdings by secular
lords, dominated the landscape from about
the sixth century AD. Heavily decorated with
sumptuous and ornate sculpture, their spires
rose dramatically from the surrounding
countryside. Temples functioned as points of
SOUTH ASIA 600-1500
70˚ 80˚
60˚
20˚
10˚
30˚
40˚
Mathura
Bayana
Ghazni
Kanauj
Badayun
Amrol
Delhi
Sthanvisvara
Varanasi
Jaunpur
Ayodhya
Madurai
Vanci
Ramesvaram
Kalahasti
Kanchipuram
Vengi
Mallikarjuna
Tiruvannamalai
Mamallapuram
Tanjavur
Nagapattinam
Anuradhapura
Pulatthinagara
Tiruvarur
Kumbakonam
Gangaikondacolapuram
Chidambaram
Nuggihalli
Srirangam
Tirumalai
Jambukesvara
Ajmer
Chanderi
Udayapura
Gyaraspur
Batesar
Gopagiri (Gwalior)
Harsagiri (Harsha)
Puri
Kathmandu
Svayambhunatha
Bhojapura
Citrakuta
Ujjain
Khajuravahaka
Kosambi
Kiratakupa (Kiradu)
Vidisha
Kalanjar
Dhar
Satgaon
Arbuda
(Abu)
Prabhasa
Mangrol
Girinagara (Girnar)
Mudhera (Modhera)
Sarkhej
Patan
Mahmudabad (Champaner)
Dholka
Anlar
Thatta
Khambayat
Mulasthana
(Multan)
Pakpattan
Avantipura
Martanda
Parihasapura
Hisar
Herat
Qala Bist
Kandahar
Lahore
Warangal
HaidarabadGolkonda
Palampet
Kalinganagara
Ekamra (Bhubaneshwar)
Konarka
Draksharama
Gaya
Pataliputra
Monghyr (Mongir)
Nalanda
Vikramasila
Gaur
Pandua
Pundravardhana
Tamralipti
Seunapura (Sinnar)
Ambaranatha
Elapura
Bharuch
Satrunjaya Thalner
Mahkar
Burhanpur
Mandu
Batwa
Lonar
Daulatabad
Ahmadnagar
Ahmadabad
Roda
Bijapur
Bidar
Gulbarga
Hampi
Ittagi
Belur
Sringeri
Dvarasamudra
(Halebid)
Sravana Belgola
Somnathapura
Anumakonda
Vijayanagara
Lokkigundi (Lakhundi)
Dambal
Arsikere Penukonda
Hemavati
Srisailam
Kanyakumari
Srinagar
Campavati
Brahmapura
Chhatrarhi
Ratnagiri
Indus
Narmada
Ganges
Penner
Godav
ari
Krishna
Kaveri
Yamuna
A R A B I A N
S E A
B A Y O F
B E N G A L
I N D I A N
O C E A N
WESTERNGHATS
H
I
M
A
L A Y A S
CEYLON
(SRI LANKA)
D E C C A N
S I N D
KALINGA
N E PA L
KASH
M
IR
R A S T R A K U T A S ( 7 5 4 - 9 7 2 )
PALAS
(750-1120)
HOYSALAS
(1126-1347)
COLAS
(906-1279)
SOLANKIS
(974-1241)
D E L H I S U L T A N A T E
(1206-1526)
VIJAYANAGARA
(1336-1565)
G U R J A R A P R A T I H A R A S ( 7 2 5 - 9 3 1 )
PARAMARAS (945-1235)
CANDELLAS (925-1308)
PALLAVAS
(550-870)
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 Monumental Art, 600-1500
dynastic empire (with dates)
major Hindu temple/monastery
major Jain temple/monastery
Buddhist stupa
Buddhist university
Buddhist monastery
major Muslim mosque/tomb
probable trade route
copper mine
diamond mine
gold mine
precious stones
pearls
conch shells
silk weaving
teak
sandalwood
pepper
cinnamon
COLAS
1a Trade Goods
trade route
exports:
cloth
glass
incense
metal
wine
coin
spices
imports:
cloth
dye
incense
ivory
precious stones
rice/wheat
silk
slaves
timber
tortoise shell
spices
1 THE PERIOD BETWEEN 600 AND 1500 saw the
proliferation of a bewildering number of small
kingdoms and larger pan-regional empires
throughout the subcontinent. While many major
towns known from ancient India declined, a
subsequent phase of urban development saw new
networks of towns, more closely integrated with
the expanding agrarian economy, spread
throughout the landscape. Larger urban centres
were integrated into the world economy through
the export of luxury goods to the Middle East and
China. Through this trade India developed its
reputation for finely wrought metal objects (like
swords), jewellery textiles and precious stones.
KORANIC VERSES are carved in relief on the massive
Qutb Minar in Delhi, begun by Qutb-ud-din
Aibak on a Ghaznavid model in 1199 and
completed in 1369 by Firuz Shah Tughluq. The
magnificent minaret, which rises some 73 metres
(240 ft), functioned as both a victory tower and
lookout tower.
I N D I A N
O C E A N
Lahore
Pataliputra
Tamralipti
Machilipatnam
Barygaza
Cane
Barbaricum
Pattala
Harmozia
Omana
Charax
Sopatma
Muziris
Pegu
Taxila
1a
CHINA 600–1300
137
THE NEW MOBILITY
Modern institutions require the ability to move
consumers, materials or commodities rapidly.
Mobility of ideas and human resources is even
more important. Song China was able to move
commodities rapidly because of better nautical
technology (the compass and movable rudder),
better roads, and a more rational
administration. Ideas circulated rapidly
because of paper, printing and private
publishers. Talent was valued above birth in
the assignment of social roles, ensuring greater
social mobility. All these developments laid the
foundation for more modern forms of social
practice, first in China and later in the West as
Europeans learned of China’s pioneering
innovations.
One product of enhanced mobility was a
lively art market offering a range of styles and
genres for buyers from different walks of life,
including women. This made it possible for
ordinary people to fashion an individual
persona by displaying personal art – decorated
silk or paper fans, calligraphy, paintings,
ceramics or antiques – reflecting the values
they embraced. Art histories of the period
reveal how men of plebeian background gained
social access by acquiring fine-art collections.
Private scholars, such as the poetess Li
Qingzhao and her husband, built collections of
national renown. The imperial collection
became but one among many, with private
collections influencing the taste of the court.
Eventually, in deference to scholarly values, the
royal academy, formerly under the Privy
Treasury, was placed under the state, with its
own faculty, curriculum and academic degrees.
Critics of the period distinguished
mainstream work by court and professional
artists from the art of nonconformist painters.
The former worked in naturalistic styles
permitting artists to portray bamboo, insect
bodies or the technology of ships in
135˚
30˚
120˚105˚
Laizhou
Qingzhou
Weizhou
Haizhou
Hangzhou
Zhendingfu
Dingzhou
Kaifeng
Ruzhou
DamingfuTaiyuan
YingtianfuChenliu
Jiangningfu
Chuzhou
Jingzhaofu
Qinzhou
Kuizhou
Xiangzhou
Shouzhou
Zizhou
Jianglingfu
Ezhou
Guangzhou
Mingzhou
Shaoxingfu
Yangzhou
Xingyuanfu
Chengdu
Tanzhou
Hongzhou
Fuzhou
Dunhuang Yulin
Maijishan
Yan’an
Tong’an Quanzhou
Dengzhou
Mizhou
Yizhou
Zibo
Jinan
Bazhou
Shanzhou
Yunzhou
Dizhou
Cizhou
Junzhou
Wuji
Shucheng
Hanzhou
Meizhou
Shuzhou
Fuzhou
Liulichang
Ningzhou
Fengzhou
Shanzhou
Hezhongfu
Caizhou
Shangjing
Gangwayao
Xicun
Tengxian
Yongfu
Qiongzhou
Chaozhou
Dehua
Anxi
Nan’an
Putian
Wuzhou
Jingdezhen Longquan
Yuezhou
Shaoxin
Wenzhou
Lishui
Lianjiang
Meizhou
Yaozhou
Luoyang
Jiexiu
Dazu
Mekong
Salween
Xi Jiang
Yangtze
Yellow River
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
E A S T
C H I N A
S E A
Y E L L O W
S E A
BO
HAI
GULF OF
TONGKING
HIMALAYAS
K U N L U N M T S
QILIAN SHAN
ALTUN SHAN
X I A
D A L I
T I B E TA N S
HAINAN
TAIWAN
C H I N A
K O R Y O
J A PA N
silk
quality printing, silk, ceramics,
currency, books, lacquerware
quality printing,
silk, ceramics,
currency, books,
lacquerware
fans, pearls, gold,
mercury, chemicals,
medicine
silk, ceramics,
currency, books,
lacquerware
aromatics,
luxury goods,
medicine
silk, ceramics,
paper
education
silk and paper
silk and paper
silkandpaper
education
students
precious
metals
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 Art, Publishing and Trade in Song China, 960-1268
border of Song China
boundary between Southern Song and Jin, post-1127
Grand Canal
major roads
capital city
provincial city
centre for religious art
silk production
major kilns
paper production
commercial print centre
high-quality printing centre
large-scale government publishing
important private art collection
exports
imports
peoplesXIA
2 THE RISE OF PRINT CULTURE in the eleventh century
made paper a major commodity, but it was also the
preferred medium for works by literati masters. An
active market for porcelain encouraged a great
variety of wares for display and ordinary uses. Art
collecting spread to the broader populace, and
regional styles evolved
that were independent of courtly taste. In general,
naturalistic styles were favoured, to the extent that
even Buddhist images appear more human and
worldly than their Tang predecessors.
astonishing detail. The latter set themselves in
opposition to established styles, either
adopting a wild, bohemian approach or an
intellectualized rebellion against courtly taste.
Among the latter, the most influential were
known as wenren or ‘literati’. Some literati
championed greater recognition for women
artists, and so women first appear in formal art
MONK MENDING CLOTHING. Near life-sized clay
sculpture, c. twelfth century, Lingyansi Temple,
Shandong. One of 40 clay statues of famous monks,
this work exemplifies Song naturalism.
The monk is shown as fully human, mending his
clothing with a look of puzzlement and wonder.
His parted lips and expression of deep thought
suggest he may be undergoing enlightenment
while pursuing ordinary tasks, as is described in
Chan (Zen) anecdotes of the period.
historical writings at this time. The literatus Su
Shi (1036–1101) exemplifies the new styles of
social practice. Son of a clerk, Su won first
place in the national examinations, after which
his answers were printed and sold as models.
His published poems criticized unjust policies,
and he was framed and exiled by political
enemies. Although formally a criminal, public
opinion treated him as a hero, and Su’s
publications continued to influence political
sentiment and artistic taste. While in exile he
remained a social activist, organizing trust
funds for the needy. As an artist and critic he
laid the foundations for literati criticism with
its stress on personal expression, originality
and integrity over naturalism and finish.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
136
THE TRANSITION FROM Tang society
(618–907) to Song society (960–1268) was a
watershed in world history. Tang China shared
much in common with late Medieval and early
Renaissance Europe. Political authority was
dominated by a hereditary, military aristocracy
and serfdom was common. The Buddhist
authorities bolstered the power of the nobility
and assumed charge of education, hospitals
and charity. There was no clear distinction
between the royal budget and the state budget,
and formal checks on central authority were
weak. Many artists worked in the service of the
religious authorities or nobility on large
architectural projects such as palace and
temple sculpture or murals, with the nobility
competing for the services of the greatest
masters. An artistic canon was evolving and the
notion of ‘genius’ was well-developed, but it
was the courts and their intellectuals which
determined standards of taste.
THE NEW EGALITARIANISM
By the eleventh century, however, educated
men of almost any background could acquire
positions of authority through egalitarian
examinations and performance in office. The
nobility had lost most of its fiscal and political
privileges, while private and public schools
overtook monastic schools as centres of
education. The state assumed responsibility for
welfare, and most farmers were either
freeholders or tenants. The state was separate
sold their work through restaurants or painting
galleries, while others sold out of their studios.
Private publishers provided outlets for nonestablishment
views, while the state supported
major publishing projects such as the
ambitious, 1000-chapter Taiping Yulan
encyclopedia (published in 982). Printing also
encouraged a lively literature on art, with critics
aiming to influence public opinion (gonglun). In
other words, Song social practice incorporated
many phenomena associated with more
modern times.
CHINA 600-1300
135˚120˚105˚
30˚
Chang’an
JizhouYouzhou
Cangzhou
Dengzhou
QingzhouXiangzhou
Taiyuan
Puzhou
Liangzhou
Luoyang
Songzhou
Yangzhou
Runzhou
Suzhou
Xuanzhou
Hangzhou
Wuzhou
Hongzhou
Changsha
Yizhou
Qianzhou
Guangzhou
Fuzhou
Bianzhou
Wutaishan
Binxian
Tianlongshan
Longmen
Guangyuan
Dunhuang
Shazhou
Huaizhou
Caozhou
Bozhou
Sizhou
Yuezhou
Mianzhou
Shouzhou
Dingzhou
Weizhou
Hunyuan Xingzhou
Tongchuan
Gongxian
Shanzhou
Shuzhou
Qiongzhou
Xiangzhou
Tanzhou
Yellow River
Yangtze
Xi Jiang
Mekong
Salween
S O U T H
C H I N A
S E A
E A S T
C H I N A
S E A
Y E L L O W
S E A
BO
HAI
GULF OF
TONGKING
QILIAN SHAN
ALTUN SHAN
HIMALAYAS
K U N L U N M T S
TA R I M BA S I N
TAKLA MAKAN DESERT T U R K S (to 744)
T I B E TA N S
U I G H U R S
(replace Turks from 745)
HAINAN
TAIWAN
PA R H A E
S I L L A
P Y U
A N X I
P R O T E C T O R AT E
N A N Z H A O
C H I N A
J A PA Neducation,
ceramics,
sculpture,
silk
aromatics,
turtle shells, skins,
bamboo,
wood, rattan,
precious metals
ceramics, silk,
administrative
expertise
precious metals
silk
ceramics
aromatics, medicines,
wood
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
Major Art Production Sites in
Tang China, 618-907
borders of the Tang Empire, 618-907
Grand Canal
major roads
capital city
provincial city
centre for religious art
silk production
major kilns
exports
imports
peoples
1
Turks
1 DURING THE TANG DYNASTY it was common for
the nobility to donate monumental sculpture and
murals for newly constructed Buddhist temples.
Many such testaments to devotion exist even today
at cave temple sites throughout China. Ceramics
and porcelain enriched the daily lives of nobility
and officials, and adorned their tombs as well. The
upper classes collected paintings and calligraphy,
but most paintings from the period have not
survived.
ATTRIBUTED TO QIAO ZHONGCHANG (after Su Shi), Latter
Prose-poem on the Red Cliff, handscroll, ink on
paper, detail showing a pond and rocks. Critics said
of Su Shi’s painting that ‘the texture strokes on
rocks were... original and bizarre, just like the
pent-up twistings in his heart’. Qiao’s painting, a
homage to Su’s poetry, echoes these values,
rejecting the deep space and subtle shading of
courtly painting in favour of a style that flattens
and distorts for expressive effect, with every stroke
of the brush visible.
from the court in budget and administration,
and major resources were invested in providing
checks on abuses of power.
Paper production had become big
business. By 1000 Hunan paper-makers were
producing 1.78 million sheets for official use
annually, while Huizhou produced 500,000
sheets for paper money, all this in addition to
commercial products, ranging from toilet paper
and fans to paper for books, painting and
calligraphy. Artists produced for an open
market – some accepted commissions, some
CHINA AND TIBET 1300–1500
139
The decorative arts produced in China
under Mongol rule reflect the variety of
influences available to artisans through a
nearly global range of cultural contacts.
Ceramics and lacquerware began to include a
number of Islamic ornaments, including the
mihrab shape; ceramic production began to rely
heavily on the use of cobalt, mined in Persia,
for underglaze and overglaze decoration. The
export of ceramics and silk was also a major
source of revenue for individuals and for the
government; finds of ceramics and textiles from
sunken cargo ships extend through much of
Southeast Asia. Sculpture was influenced by
Mongol patronage of Tibetan Buddhism, which
led to the production of Tibetan Buddhist
images in many parts of China.
COURTLY ART
The Yuan court patronized a great diversity of
pictorial objects, from portrait tapestry of
Mongol origin to Chinese-style painting. Unlike
the Chinese, who restricted the role and
visibility of women, Mongol princesses were
given income-earning fiefs. One of the greatest
painting collectors of the era was the Mongol
princess Sengge Ragi (c.1283–1331), who
collected canonical masterpieces of Chinese
painting. Her approximate contemporary Guan
Daosheng (1262–1319), a renowned painter of
bamboo and the wife of the prime minister, the
painter and painting theorist Zhao Mengfu
(1254–1322), was less sequestered than most
women of the gentry at this time, consorting
with her husband’s coterie of artist friends.
Although a wide variety of pictorial practices
existed under Mongol rule, the best-known,
documented practitioners of painting were
men from southeastern China like Zhao
Mengfu, many of whom painted works that they
2 ARTISTIC PRODUCTION IN CHINA during the Yuan and
early Ming dynasties was permeated by global
contacts, including those made during the
expeditions of Zheng He. Influences ranged from
people and objects as diverse as Franciscan
missionaries and their paintings on cloth, Inner
Asian Buddhist monks and their devotional objects,
and animal and material specimens brought from
as far away as the East African coast.
150˚135˚120˚105˚90˚75˚60˚45˚30˚15˚
0˚
15˚
30˚
60˚
15˚
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N O C E A N
Java
Borneo
Sicily
Japan
Sumatra
A F R I C A
A S I A
EUROPE
I N D I A
A U S T R A L I A
C H I N A
Mogadishu
Rome
Alexandria
Venice
Jedda
Hormuz
Rostov
Baghdad
Bukhara Samarkand
Mathura
Bombay
Istanbul
Muscat
Calicut
Chittagong
Dunhuang
Xi’an
Luoyang
Pusan
Osaka
Beijing
Shenyang
Guangzhou
Quanzhou
N
0
0
1200 miles
1800 kms
2 China’s Global Contacts, 1300-1500
land routes
maritime routes
Zheng He’s main fleets, 1405-33
Zheng He’s subsidiary fleet, 1405-33
and their associates inscribed with antiMongol
texts. Painting theory of the period
stressed the importance of historical models.
THE INDIGENOUS REVIVAL
During the Yuan and Ming dynasties the visual
arts were practised throughout China’s
provinces and localities, especially in and near
provincial and county seats. Archaeological
evidence suggests that everyday ceramics were
manufactured in local kilns throughout China;
these wares differed qualitatively from those of
empire-wide reputation and distribution.
During the early Ming period the practice of
painting based on the indigenous Chinese
models of the Southern Song court underwent
a widespread revival in southeastern China as
part of a broader rediscovery of native cultural
practices. However, the production of painting
and printing were undertaken throughout
China, with only the highest-quality products
drum tower
Twin Pagodas
of Kaiyuan Si,
founded mid-
8th century,
rebuilt
c.1225-50
administrative
offices/school
JinJiang
to stone Siva
Lingam site
East Gate
to Huabiao Si,
Manichaean
temple
to Lingshan
Muslim tombs
Shengyou Si
960-1279
Muhanmode Si
1279-1368
Qingjing Si
built 1131, rebuilt 1350
Yemenjia Si
Yemenite mosque 1322
Yemenjiao Si
Yemenite
mosque 960-1279
to Wenling,
Song imperial
ancestral temple
Shengyou Si
mosque built
c.960-1279
N
0
0
0.5 miles
1 km
having an empire-wide audience. Under early
Ming rule, the decoration of porcelain
emphasized native Chinese cultural emblems,
rather than imported Islamic ones; sculpture
focused on both indigenous and imported
Tibetan deities.
The period 1300–1500 has been termed a
Tibetan renaissance, during which the Tibetan
Buddhist canon was compiled, edited and
revised; it was subsequently printed in Beijing.
The Muslim conquest of northern India sent
scholars and artists into Nepal as refugees,
reinvigorating Nepalese painting and
sculpture. The transmission of Indo-Nepalese
work to Tibet expanded the stylistic repertoire
of Tibetan art at this time. Tibetan religious
leaders were invited to the Ming court
generating both an exchange of Buddhist
images and texts, as well as of monks,
especially under the auspices of the Yongle
emperor (r.1403–1424).
3 THE MULTI-ETHNIC AND MULTICULTURAL city of
Quanzhou was among the largest port cities of
the world in the fourteenth century. Although
originally rectangularly shaped, with residence
limited to ethnic Chinese, the city walls grew
beyond this plan to include the non-ethnic
Chinese formerly required to live outside the
walls, resulting in its unusual shape.
THE TIBETAN DEITY MAHAKALA was revered by the Mongols,
who believed him to give assistance in battle. This image,
attributed to the school of the Nepalese artist Arniko
(Anige, c.1244–c.1306), is thought to be like those of
Mahakala carried onto the battlefield during the Mongol
conquest of 1279.
3 Quanzhou, 1300-1500
city boundaries:
c.711
c.906
c.964
c.893
c.1352
pre-1937
commercial district
Buddhist temple
mosque
Catholic church
Confucian/Daoist temple
Manichaean temple
Hindu site
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
138
BETWEEN 1300 AND 1500 the significant
political and geographic transformation of
the Chinese empire, including the extension of
its relationship to Tibet, created a tumultuous
but vibrant environment for artistic production.
MONGOL CHINA
The Mongol conquest of China resulted in the
founding of the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368),
which had close links to Mongol polities across
northern and inner Asia. The Yuan Dynasty
acknowledged its northern origins by building a
new imperial capital, Dadu, in northern China,
at modern Beijing. Although the capital at
Dadu was based on canonical principles of
Chinese urban planning, two other Mongol
capitals at Karakorum
(c.1229–1241) and at Shangdu (begun 1256)
reflect both nomadic and Chinese traditions.
The former capital of Hangzhou continued to
flourish and grow beyond its walls, as did
Quanzhou, China’s pre-eminent port for
maritime trade. Resistance to the Mongols
resulted in their overthrow in 1368 by forces led
by Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–98), a peasant who
became the founding emperor of the Ming
(‘Bright’) Dynasty. The Ming established its first
capital in southern China, at Nanjing, to
reaffirm its ties to native Chinese culture; in
1420 Beijing was proclaimed the sole capital.
CHINA AND TIBET 1300-1500
90˚ 100˚ 110˚ 120˚ 130˚ 140˚ 150˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
Dadu (Beijing)
Badaling
Shangdu
(Xanadu)
Shanhaiguan
Liaoyang
Ürümqi
Helin (Karakorum)
Lijiang
Chengdu
Qionglai Xian
Jianyang
Shexian
Lhasa
Shigatse
Shalu
Samye
Grathang
Densatil
Dali
Hanoi
Sukhothai
Nanning
Yunnanfu (Kunming)
Yuxi xian
Wuxing
Linru
Mixian
Bianliang
(Kaifeng)
Yu xian
Yaozhou
Fengyuan
(Xi’an)
Ding
Cixian
Jiayuguan
Ganzhou
Dunhuang
Hangzhou
JingdezhenWuchang
Chaozhou
Longxing
(Nanchang)
Longquan
Suzhou
Yangzhou
Nanjing - first Ming capital
Ningbo
Jinhua
Jizhou
Jian
Dehua
Fuzhou
Tong’an
Canton
(Guangzhou)
Quanzhou
Gyantse
Kathmandu
Narthang
Sakya
Lhatse
(Lhazê)
Mustang
Ngor
Tashi Lhunpo
(Zhaxilhüno)
Yalu
YellowRiver
Xi Jiang
Lop Nor
YELLOW
SEA
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
S E A
O F
J A PA N
EAST
CHINA
SEA
G
O
B
I
TAKLA MAKAN DESERT
P L A T E A U
O F T I B E T
H
I
M
A
L
A
Y
A
S
A
L
T
A
I
M
T S
QILIAN SHAN
TIEN
SHAN
TAIWAN
ZHONGSHU
H E N A N
SHAANXI
Y U N N A N
JIANGZHES I C H U A N
C H A H E TA I
JIANGXI
H U G U A N G
XUANZHENGYUAN
G A N S U
HAMILI, BEITING,
AND
HALAHUOZHOU
L I N G B E I
L I A O Y A N G
HAINAN
K
O
R
E
A
M O N G O L I A
C H I N A
T I B E T
K A S H M I R
I N D I A
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Visual Production, 1300-1500
border of China under Mongol rule,
1279-1368
provincial boundary, c.1300
border of China under the Ming,
1368-1500
successive capitals
provincial capitals in
Yuan China, c.1330
capitals of lu with more than
100,000 inhabitants
Mongol imperial capitals
Great Wall, 15th century
Grand Canal
important kiln site
major centre of textile production
major painting centre
major printing centre
important Tibetan art centre
AFTER THE FALL OF MONGOL RULE
in 1368, the Ming imperium
articulated new aesthetic
preferences in ceramic
production, the effect of which
was felt beyond the court.
While the Ming imperial family
patronized wares with red glazes
and with red underglaze
painting, their patronage of
underglaze blue and white
ceramics, such as the Xuande era
(1426–35) flask from Jingdezhen
shown here, promoted native
Chinese traditions of pictorial
representation as ceramic
decoration.
1 UNDER MONGOL RULE, China
became more politically and
culturally integrated with North
and Central Asia. Although this
period has traditionally been
viewed as one in which the
Chinese literary elite retreated
from the advance of Mongol
culture, this was, in fact, a vibrant
and multicultural era. For the
Chinese literati, whose records
dominate our knowledge of the
period, the southeast remained
the cultural centre of the empire,
as evidenced by the concentration
of famous kilns and painting
centres in that part of China.
JAPAN AND KOREA 600–1500
141
TALE OF GENJI SCROLL, ink and
colours on paper, by court
artists in Kyoto, Japan,
twelfth century. The
monumental narrative of the
‘Tale of Genji’, written by the
court lady Murasaki Shikibu
(c.1000) is often described as
the world’s first novel. The
54 chapters describing three
generations of Kyoto
aritoscrats have been
illustrated by painters,
printmakers, fabric designers
and other artists for over
1000 years, including
twentieth-century manga
and anime (comic strip)
illustrators. This example is
taken from the earliest
extant handscroll depiciting
Genji scenes.
129˚ 132˚ 135˚
34˚
Yamaguchi
Okayama
Nara
Kyoto
Horyu-ji
Negoroji
Ise
Hakata
(Fukuoka)
L.BiwaE A S T
S E A
E A S T
C H I N A
S E A
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
K Y U S H U
S H I K O K U
H O N S H U
J A P A N
K O R E A
Mt
Koya
Mt Hiei
10th-16th c
7th-10th
c
N
0
0
80 miles
120 kms
2 The Japanese Heartland, 600-1500
Chinese culture and Buddhist arts,
7th-9th c/trade with China 8th-15th c
artists fleeing civil war in Kyoto, 15th c
religious pilgrimages
movement of Korean culture
lacquerware
kiln sites
paintings, Buddhist and secular
sculpture, Buddhist and secular
calligraphy
papermaking
textiles
furniture
metalwork
armour
and in the fifteenth century white porcelain ware
became widespread in the peninsula. Lacquered
objects included ritual vessels and statuary as
well as daily utensils, since neither Korea nor
Japan produced glass during this period. Most
metalwork was small in scale and was used for
religious objects, swords or horse trappings.
ART AND SOCIETY
The political consolidations of the seventh
century led to the development of urban centres.
Kyongju became the capital of the Korean state
of Unified Silla in the seventh century; in Japan.
Nara (called Heijokyo) was founded in the
eighth century, and Kyoto (called Heiankyo) in
the ninth century. These cities followed the
pattern of Tang China’s imperial capital,
Chang’an. They were laid out in a grid pattern of
streets and densely populated residential areas.
Large Buddhist temples, government buildings
and imperial palaces and gardens were closely
modelled on Chinese examples and furnished
with imported goods or locally produced artwork
that copied Chinese-style paintings, sculpture,
metalwork, textiles and ceramics. The Shosoin
imperial repository in Nara has survived as a
time-capsule containing luxury goods from the
time of Emperor Shomu (r.724–49), with items
from Persia, Central Asia and China clearly
demonstrating the extent of international trade
along the Silk Road. By the tenth century,
however, Korea and Japan had begun to change
these imported traditions, establishing
distinctive styles and artistic production lineages.
In 918 the Koryo Dynasty replaced
declining Silla leadership in Korea and
relocated the capital to Kaesong, which
became the new cultural centre for the
peninsula until 1394. Buddhism continued to
flourish in Korea, with the construction of
extensive temple compounds and the
production of printed and illustrated sutras. A
new sect of distinctly Korean Buddhism was
established by the monk Chinul (1158–1210),
and in 1234 movable metal type was first used
to print Buddhist texts.
During the tenth century, the Japanese
aristocracy developed an elaborate court
culture (now considered a ‘classic’ age) with
new aesthetic concepts that would influence
2 MOST OF JAPAN’S TRADE with China and Korea
flowed through the Inland Sea to the urban centres
of Kyoto and Nara. These imperial capitals
imported continental arts and also produced
objects for use by aristocrats, as well as the
Buddhist temples which were located in, and near,
these cultural centres.
Japanese arts for the next 1000 years. While
Kyoto remained the imperial capital from 794 to
1868, Kamakura and Hiraizumi emerged in the
late twelfth century as political and cultural
centres in the eastern provinces of Japan.
INDEPENDENT TRADITIONS
Due to political unrest in China, Korea and
Japan both reduced their contacts with the
mainland from the eleventh century, resulting
in artistic developments that were independent
of Chinese traditions. Distinctive ceramic
techniques and forms, for example twelfthcentury
inlaid celadons, evolved in Korea. New
calligraphy and painting styles were created in
Japan. While temple and palace architecture in
both countries continued to follow Chinese
prototypes, different types of secular residential
buildings were constructed that better suited
their climates and lifestyles. Sculptural
production in both countries was still closely
associated with Buddhism, but now hereditary
workshops independent of the temples
developed in Japan with particular artistic
styles maintained over many generations.
In 1392 the Yi (Choson) Dynasty was
established in Korea, and the capital was
moved to Seoul two years later. A gradual shift
of artistic patronage from Buddhist temples to
imperial court and Neo-Confucian institutions
followed. Also in 1392, recent political turmoil
in Japan was resolved with Kyoto resuming its
place as the political and cultural centre under
the Ashikaga military dictatorship.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries China again influenced artistic
production in Korea and Japan, especially in
architecture and painting. Trade missions
carried goods among various ports in East
Asia, with both raw materials and finished
artworks being imported and exported. Japan
sent gold and gold-leafed paintings to China
and Korea, while Korea traded gold, silver,
paper, ink sticks and fan paintings to China for
textiles, porcelains, books and musical
instruments. Japanese Zen temples were
sending monks to study in China and to bring
back Chinese paintings, ceramics and lacquerware,
much of which became associated with
the social rituals of the tea ceremony.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
140
with either thin fine lines or thicker modulated
brushwork. Calligraphy was considered a major
art form, and a close relationship between
image and text is found in both religious and
secular paintings.
Buddhist sculptures, executed in a variety
of media, followed Chinese models. Extant
examples of non-Buddhist sculpture are rare,
although in Japan some Shinto deities were
depicted as court figures and some portrait
statues were made for memorial services. Some
stylized images of deer, dogs, or ‘Chinese lions’
in wood or stone have also survived.
Furniture was primarily low tables and
cabinets, for both Koreans and Japanese sat on
the floor in private and public buildings.
Textiles included both cotton and silk, used for
clothing and interior decorations in residential
and government buildings. Glazed and
unglazed ceramics were locally produced;
imported Chinese ceramics were highly prized
and copied. In the eleventh century distinctive
pale green celadon wares were first produced
in Korea for court and Buddhist temple use,
plastered walls and raised flooring (often
surfaced with tile, dressed stone or polished
wood), were used for government-sponsored
structures, such as palaces and Buddhist
temples. Less important buildings were also
post and beam structures, built to withstand
earthquakes, although roofed with lighterweight
materials like reeds or thatch.
Paintings followed Chinese prototypes,
using ink and/or mineral pigments on silk or
paper, which was then mounted in album, hand
scroll or hanging-scroll formats. Within
compositions, images were commonly outlined
JAPAN AND KOREA 600-1500
140˚
30˚
130˚
40˚
AINU HUNTERGATHERER
CULTURE
AINU
HUNTER-
GATHERER
CULTURE
AINU
HUNTER-
GATHERER
CULTURESeoul
(14th-16th c)
Kaesong
(10th-14th c)
Kyongju
Hakata
Nara
Kamakura
Hiraizumi
Ise
Kyoto
Echizen
Seto
Waifu
Yamaguchi
Okayama
Gifu
Wakamatsu
SanageBizen
Kanazawa
Inuyama
Odawara
Tokoname
Shigaraki
Iga
Matsumoto
Tamba
Sakai
Negoroji
Nam-gang
Han-g
ang
Posong-gang
Yello
w
Rive
r
Tu
men
Ya
lu
Amur
C h’ongch’on-gang
L.Biwa
E A S T
S E A
S E A O F
O K H O T S K
E A S T
C H I N A
S E A
Y E L L O W
S E A
KOREA
BAY
BO HAI
P
A
C
I
F
I
C
O
C
E
A
N
KOREA
STRAIT
Mt
Fuji
Mt Koya
Y E Z O
KYUSHU
SHIKOKU
H O N S H U
RY
U
K
YU
IS
O S U
M
I
IS
C H I N A
JAPAN
K O R E A
M A N C H U R I A
Silla 668-918
Koryo 918-1392
Choson 1392-1910
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 Japan and Korea, 600-1500
frontier of Japan, c.600
frontier of Japan, c.800
frontier of Japan, c.1000
Chinese culture and Buddhist arts, 7th-9th c
Chinese culture and Buddhist arts, 8th-15th c
Indian Buddhist arts, 8th c
pottery kilns
Koryo kiln sites
lacquerware
papermaking
furniture, fine textiles
metalwork
paintings, Buddhist and secular
Buddhist sculpture
calligraphy
book-printing centres
major surviving castles, pre-Edo period
BY THE EIGHTH CENTURY both Korea and
Japan had direct, though limited, contacts
with China and India. All art forms were
influenced by continental models, but from
the ninth to twelfth centuries Japan developed
distinctly different art forms (kana calligraphy,
yamato-e scroll painting, and Shinto arts), while
Korea created a culture that refined and altered
Chinese prototypes.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
In architecture, Chinese-style post-and-beam
wooden structures, with clay tile roofs,
1 FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY onwards, both Japan
and Korea absorbed artistic influences from China,
Central Asia and India, especially in Buddhist arts.
Court culture in both countries was modelled on
Chinese examples, although distinctive regional
tastes and styles evolved. During periods of
political unrest, such as the eleventh century, there
was a tendency for more independent traditions to
evolve in both Japan and Korea. Artistic
production and patronage in Japan centered on
the Kansai area (Nara and Kyoto) of the main
island, while Korean cities developed along the
coasts (Kyongju and Seoul).
SEATED BUDDHA, with
Bodhisattvas and guardian
figures, Sokkuram Cave, near
Kyongju, Korea, c.751–74.
Buddhist sculpture in Korea and
Japan was modelled after
Chinese and Indian examples,
which were either imported
statues or iconographic
drawings, reflecting
international artistic styles.
Images were created
in a variety of media – carved
stone (as in this example) or
wood, polychromed clay or
lacquer on wood structures, or
cast bronze and iron. The
idealized forms of these deities
followed a strict iconography,
but the facial features and
clothing often reflected
regional styles.
SOUTHEAST ASIA 600–1500
143
130˚
0˚
10˚
120˚110˚100˚
Pasai
Aceh
Trengganu
Pattani
Perlak (Marco Polo, 1292)
Samudra
(Ibn Battuta, 1341)
Tomb of Sultan Malik Al-Saleh (1297)
(Chen Ho, 1490,
Don Afonse de
Albuquerque, 1510)
Pedir
(Ludovico di
Varthema, c. 1506)
Malacca
Cirebon
Kutai
Demak
Great Mosque of
Demak (1477)
Tomb of Sunan
Kalijaga
(c. 1460)
(1549)
Sunan Muria
Sunan Ampel
Tomb of Sunan
Bayat (1530s)
Sunan Gunungiati
Aceh Sultan
(1421)
Tomb of Sunan Giri
Syekh Maghribi (1419)
Sunan Kudus
Sunan Bonang
(1525)
(c. 1525)
Sunan Giri
Sunan Drajat
First Mosque
on Ambon
(1405?)
Macassar
Buton
Brunei
Sulu
Tidore
Banjarmasin
Gresik
Banten
(1479)
(1550)
B O R N E O
S
U
M
A
T
R
A
P H I L I P P I N E S
I N D O N E S I A
MALAY
PENINSULA
JAVA BALI
LOMBOK
SUMBAWA
SULAWESI
SUMBA
FLORES
TIM
O
R
BURU
SERAM
SULU ARCHIPELAGO
HALMAHERA
TIDORE
BACAN
TERNATE
BANJARMASIN
ARU
ACEH
KUTAI
JAILOLO
BA N DA
S E A
T
IM
O
R
S
E
A
M
OLUCCASSEA
ANDAMAN
SEA
STRAITOFMALACC
A
JAVA SEA
C E L E B E S
S E A
From
India
earliest evidence of Islam on Java, 11021410
1480
1530
1530
1580
1605
1525
1525
1460
1460
1460
1500
1303?
1410
1290
1520
1400 (14th century)
(16th century)
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
2 ISLAM BEGAN TO MAKE INROADS in coastal Southeast
Asia in the thirteenth century. Court art preserved
many Hindu influences, but in the coastal trading
cities figurative art forms were displaced by
geometric and calligraphic decorative principles. By
1500 Malacca had become the most important of
these trading polities in the entire Malay
Archipelago, controlling the trade with China,
Vietnam, the Islamic sultanates in the Spice Islands,
Siam, India and the Arab world. It dominated Asian
commerce and rivalled, and perhaps surpassed, the
supremacy of Venice and other European ports.
WAYANG KULIT SHADOW PUPPET from Java, in leather,
wood and paint, thought to be the hero Aruna.
The wayang kulit style of puppetry was at its peak
in the northern coastal region of Java in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Performances
based on the Hindu epic Mahabharata lasted
through the night.
state. Srivijaya therefore left few architectural
monuments to its past greatness in Sumatra,
although numerous inscriptions and smaller
monuments have been identified that
demonstrate both the Indian character of the
state and its economic might.
In the eighth century the Sailendra dynasty
established itself as a ruling class and
expanded the kingdom’s influence into central
Java. Here a succession of rulers established
their courts and built temples that served
simultaneously as Hindu temples and as cult
shrines to the king’s ancestors. With their rich
agrarian base in central Java, the Sailendras
initiated an ambitious building programme
that involved construction of dozens of Hindu
temples, or candi. For example, from about 680
to 780 they built a complex of some 40
towering stone candi on the Dieng plateau.
Most temples had statues of Shiva or other
Hindu gods.
In about 775 some of the Sailendra rulers
accepted Buddhism, which became the state
religion. They transformed several earlier
stone or brick Hindu temples into Buddhist
shrines. The best-known of these is
Borobudur, which consists of a series of
ascending galleries and stupas, capped by a
hollow temple symbolizing nirvana. This
cosmological model of Buddhist religion was
adopted for other Southeast Asian stupas –
for example at Pagan in Burma.
During the Hindu renaissance after 832,
Javanese rulers moved their capital to another
site in central Java and continued to pursue an
active temple-building programme. The largest
and most important of these was the
Prambanan temple complex. In the tenth
century the Javanese monarchs moved their
seat of power to eastern Java. This kingdom
became known as Majapahit and established
its royal palace, or kraton, on the Brantas River
delta. This location offered Majapahit an
opportunity to control both its agrarian base as
well as inter-island trade, which it expanded
from the tenth century.
The late eighth century saw the florescence
of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia, with its
political, economic and religious centre at
Angkor. Khmer religion became a blend of an
indigenous cult of ancestor worship and Hindu
religious forms that bestowed magical and
divine power on the monarch. The most
important of the Khmer temple complexes was
at Angkor Wat, started in the ninth century by
Yasovarman, but periodically expanded by
subsequent kings. Some rulers accepted
Buddhism and built a Buddhist shrine, but
many of these were reconfigured as Hindu
shrines when a Hindu leader came to power.
The arts flourished under successful leadership,
2 The Rise of Islam in the
Malay Archipelago,
1100-1550
extent of Majapahit’s
control in 1400
Malacca at its greatest
territorial extent, 1488
sphere of Ternate’s
influence, 16th century
areas converted to Islam
by 1450
areas converted to Islam
by 1550
main routes for the
spread of Islam
Dates of conversion to Islam
important mosques
important Muslim tombs
important foreign visitors who
witnessed process of
Islamization
1297
a fact that is nowhere as visible as with the
kingdom’s grandiose architecture. But after
1400 the Angkor empire disintegrated and the
temple complex at Angkor Wat was abandoned.
THE RISE OF ISLAM
By the thirteenth century Islam had made
inroads in many coastal commercial centres in
the Malay Archipelago, including Malacca on
the Malay Peninsula, and a series of port
communities on the north coast of Java. In the
next two centuries, Islam expanded as far east
as the two competing sultanates of Ternate
and Tidore in the Moluccas. These eastern
sultanates could mount fleets of more than
200 ships, which they used to control their own
part of the lucrative inter-island trade. The
Hindu empire of Majapahit ultimately
collapsed under the economic competition
with the Islamic communities on the north
coast of Java, and with this power-shift both art
and architecture in Java changed. Art at the
kraton would once again become a syncretic
blend that represented a mix of the new
religion and the old, while in the coastal cities
art took on much more Islamic forms.
In 1509 the Portuguese fleet reached
Malacca, immediately recognizing the city’s
wealth and economic potential. Portuguese
influence expanded into India and Southeast
Asia; Malacca was seized in 1511. This shift of
power in Malacca would have a gradual but
profound impact on economics, religion and
art throughout the Malay Archipelago.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
142
IN THE MILLENNIUM after 600 Southeast
Asia was transformed by the rise of Hindu
and Buddhist kingdoms, as well as by the rise
of Islam, which found its first converts at the
north end of Sumatra during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. From this humble beginning
Islam gradually moved through the archipelago
and the Malay peninsula, transforming the
highly figurative art tradition whose inspiration
was from India into much more geometric
forms that blended indigenous themes
syncretically with Muslim ones.
THE HINDU STATES
In the early seventh century the maritime
empire of Srivijaya emerged as a major
economic and political force in insular
Southeast Asia. In many respects it was an
Indic state that used Sanskrit, Hindu forms of
ritual, and an Indian style of government.
Originally, the centre of Srivijaya’s political and
economic power was in Sumatra, but this
kingdom had no single capital city. It operated
more as a federation of trading ports on the
fringes of large forests rather than a centralized
SOUTHEAST ASIA 600-1500
10°
120°
120˚110˚100˚90˚80˚30˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
Pagan (849) (post-1287)
Pegu
(825)
Chiengmai
Sukhothai (13th century)
Palembang
(Srivijaya)
Jambi (Malayu)
Singhasari
Kutai
Nakhon
Pathom
Angkor
Gua Gajah (11th century)
Gunung Kawi (late 11th century)
Mauro Takus (11th-12th century)
Angkor Wat (12th century)
Preah Koh (9th century)
Mison
Yasodharapura (9th century)
Kulen (8th century)
Phimai (11th century)
Phra Prang Sam Yot
Indrapura
I N D I A
C H I N A
SUMATRA
B O R N E O
E A S T I N D I E S
PH
ILIPPIN
ES
CEYLON
M
ALAY
PENINSULA
PAGAN
CHAMPA
N A M V I E T
FORMOSA
LUZON
M
O
LU
CCA
S
SULAWESI
(CELEBES)
FLORES
SUMBAWA
SUMBA
KHMER EMPIRE
BALI
LOMBOK
HAINAN
PALAWAN
TIMOR
NORTH
SUMATRA
WEST
SUMATRA
WEST
JAVA EAST
JAVA
CENTRAL
JAVA
Irrawaddy
Salween
Red
River
Mek
ong
ChaoPhraya
I N D I A N
O C E A N
GULF
OF
THAILAND
J AVA S E A F L O R E S S E A
C E L E B E S
S E A
S U L U
S E A
S O U T H
C H I NA
S E A
GULFOF
TONGKING
BA N DA
S E A
T I M O R
S E A
ARAFURA
SEA
BAY O F
B E N G A L
STRAIT
O
F M
ALACCA
ANDAMAN
SEA
To India
To China
To China
To eastern Indonesia
To India
To Europe
To Thailand
Muslim traders from
India and Arabia
(11th century onwards)
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 The Rise of Indianized
States, 700-1400
eastern limits of HinduBuddhist
state formation
eastern limits of HinduBuddhist
cultural influence
centres for the dissemination
of Hindu-Buddhist art,
religion and culture
Hindu temple sites
Buddhist temple sites
main centres of power
extent of Srivijaya‘s influence
in the 8th century
Khmer Empire
Pagan
areas under Majapahit‘s
dominance, c.1350
areas under Majapahit naval
control, c.1350
international trade networks,
7th century
trade routes active during the
Majapahit period
(10th-14th centuries)
INSET
Kalasan Sukuh
(1430)
Ceta
Ngawen
(900)
Piaosan (9th century)
Gedong Songo
Prambanan
(9th century)
(1470)
(778)
Borobudur
Yogyakarta
(790)
(850) Medut
(850) Pawon
Dieng Complex (8th century)(8th century)
Pantaran
(1369)
Selamangleng (11th century)
Singhasari (12th century)
Kedaton (14th century)
Jago (13th century)
Kidal
(13th century)
J A V A
1 FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY the highly figurative arts
of the state of Srivijaya, based in Sumatra,
reflected a blend of Hinduism and local ancestor
cults. Rulers in the Sailendra dynasty shifted the
focus of Srivijaya to Java after 700, where in the
latter part of the century they made Buddhism
the state religion and transformed earlier
Hindu temples into Buddhist shrines, including
Borobudur. A Hindu renaissance after 832 was
centred on Prambanan in central Java, then in the
tenth century on the eastern Javan kingdom that
became known as Majapahit. The Khmer Empire of
Cambodia saw a parallel blend of ancestor cult and
Hinduism in competition with Buddhism.
BOROBUDUR IN JAVA IS STILL THE LARGEST Buddhist stupa ever built. This colossal
mountain of stone contains 1500 bas-reliefs and niches for more than 400 statues
of the Buddha arranged in six ascending tiers. These panels depict the progression
of the Buddha from depravity to enlightenment. Each gallery is faced with
exterior and interior reliefs. The base is more than 120 metres (390 ft) along each
side and the structure stands about 35 metres (115 ft) above the base.
THE PACIFIC 600–1500
145
hierarchies, with hereditary chiefs and a system
of ranked clans. Micronesian elites sponsored
elaborate architectural projects, fortification
and religious centres. Many of these contained
carved stone statues and other megaliths.
In Palau, construction of elaborate terraces
began in many sites starting around 500 and
continued until 1400. Great carved faces and
other megaliths are poorly dated in Palau, but
probably belong to this period. On Yap in the
western Carolines, local elites extended their
political control around 1400 to form an empire
that extracted tribute from islanders on the
smaller atolls under their control. Local elites
competed over the ownership of the most
remarkable stone money in the world – huge
stone disks with holes at their centre. On Guam
and several of the other Mariana Islands clans
erected houses on stone columns (latte).
POLYNESIAN HIERARCHIES
But while Melanesia was diversifying into many
hundreds of distinctive cultural traditions,
Polynesians were developing stratified
societies headed by hereditary chiefs, nobles
and priests. Before 1500, none of the larger
islands had a single chief, king or other
centralized political authority. As a result, on
most of the larger island groups, artistic
traditions typically celebrated local deities and
ancestors. During this period art became more
dramatic, with larger stone and wood
sculpture. These sculptures and the temple
complexes in which they were erected generally
provide a cosmological map that
metaphorically paralleled the sociopolitical
structure of individual societies.
Social stratification brought competition
among chiefly families, which often broke out
into warfare between districts. Stratification
also brought with it major building projects for
temples (heiau) in the Hawaiian Islands, with
large wooden sculptures representing local
deities. Each of the main islands seems to have
developed its own local style of carving, most
examples of which were destroyed by
A
A
A
A A
A
A
A
A
Ahu 'Akivi
1300
Rano Raraku 1200
Ahu Naunau 1200
'Orongo Ahu Vinapu
Ahu Akahanga
Ahu Tongariki
Ahu Te Pito Kura
Ana o Keke
Poike Ditch
Puna Pau
Ahu Tepeu
Ahu Tahai
Ma'unga Orito
'Orongo 1400
S O U T H
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
RANO
KAO
POIKE
RANO AROI
Ma'unga
Terevaka
Ma'unga Pui
MOTU NUI
MOTU ITI
HANGA ROA
HANGA OETO
OVAHE
MOTU
MAROTIRI
Ceremonial village
Topknot quarry
Statue quarry
N
0
0
2 miles
3 kms
The Megalithic Sculptures
of Easter Island, 1100-1500
quarry
archaeological site
temple platforms (ahu)
2
A
2 THE STATUE CULT that
emerged on Easter
Island about 1100
began with small
statues quarried from
the soft tufa of the
volcano Rano Raraku.
These were transported
to ahu platforms. Over
time, these platforms
became larger and
more elaborate, often
incorporating dressed
basalt and red scoria in
their facings. More
than 324 moai were
completed before
competition between
chiefdoms depleted the
resources of the island,
leading to a social and
economic collapse.
missionaries and Hawaiian converts to
Christianity in the early nineteenth century.
As in the Hawaiian archipelago, the seven
mid-sized islands that make up the Marquesas
were never politically unified. By about 1100
Marquesans began a period of expansion. New
architectural features emerged, including
house platforms of stone, temple foundations,
and rectangular courts that served as dance or
feast centers. It was during this period that
inter-group rivalries intensified. From about
1400 megalithic-style house platforms
frequently incorporated large anthropomorphic
statues. These stone figures had developed
independently from similar carvings in Hawaii,
Easter Island, or New Zealand.
On Rapa Nui (Easter Island) chiefs carved
and erected huge stone figures (moai) set on
temple platforms (ahu). More than 245 ahu
platforms were constructed and 324 moai
were completed before chiefly competition
overtaxed and degraded the environmental
resources of the island leading to the gradual
socio-economic collapse of the society during
the decadent period from about 1500 to 1722 .
Nearly all of the 200 or so unfinished statues
still in the quarries or on the slopes nearby
date to the period around 1500.
In New Zealand, warfare was more
common and chiefly hierarchies were never as
powerful as on most of the other Polynesian
islands. Competition among clans led to the
efflorescence of wood carving. Most Maori
carvings were figurative representations of clan
ancestors that were important in the local
religious traditions, which elsewere in
Polynesia reflected and supported the
intertwined political, social and religious
hierarchies. The beginning of small carved
greenstone figures and pendants (called hei tiki)
dates to this period, largely using greenstone
quarried on the South Island.
MONOLITHIC STATUES
(moai), three of 70
erected at Rano Raraku
Quarry, Easter Island
between about 1000
and 1600. Excavation
reveals that some of
these figures, of which
the heads only are visible
here, stand on paved
platforms, suggesting
that they were to remain
beside the quarry. Others
were intended for
removal to one of about
100 ahu temple
platforms. On each ahu
stood 1–15 moai, facing
inland to a ceremonial
courtyard used in
ancestor worship. The
average height of the
moai, including head
and torso, was 4–5
metres (13–16 ft). The
moai statues became
larger and changed style
over the centuries. Some
had simple, sleek lines;
others were complex
representations of the
ancestors. One style of
moai was capped by
a large, red topknot,
made of a cylinder of red
volcanic tufa.
ART, RELIGION AND THE RULER
144
IN THE MILLENNIUM following 600, while
Aboriginal art continued in isolation in
Australia, societies throughout the Pacific
continued to diversify, developing their own
distinctive local cultural and artistic traditions.
Archaeologists, anthropologists and
linguists continue to debate whether the
remarkable Polynesian expansion into
peripheral Polynesia during this period was by
accident or design. Recent interpretations
suggest that, rather than intentionally setting
off to discover new worlds, settlement was by a
complex pattern of drift voyaging. Sophisticated
navigational skills allowed the early Polynesians
to be flexible voyagers, even enabling them to
make occasional contacts between such distant
places as Hawaii and Tahiti that would have
facilitated artistic and cultural interaction.
DIVERSE CULTURES
In Melanesia, more than a thousand different
ethnic groups developed, each speaking a
distinct, mutually unintelligible language.
Little is known of the diverse art traditions that
emerged in Melanesia at this time, but they
reflected the egalitarian nature of these
communities and their political independence.
Everywhere Melanesian art was closely
intertwined with diverse local rituals, dances
and ceremonies, nearly all of which were aimed
at placating ancestral ghosts, local spirits and
minor deities.
In Micronesia cultural and artistic
diversification was less pronounced, in large
part because these tiny coral atolls and small
raised islands established extensive interisland
exchange relations. Throughout
Micronesia communities developed social
THE PACIFIC 600-1500
135˚150˚165˚180˚165˚150˚135˚120˚
45˚
30˚
15˚
0˚
15˚
30˚
45˚
Aitape
Mussua 1000
Palau 500
Palau
Lamotrek
1000
Yap
Nukuoro 800
Kosrae
500
Kapingamarangi
1300
Nan Madol
900
Tuvalu 1100
Tinian Stone columns
Guam Stone columns
Uki 1100
Nendo 1500
Mateone 1400
Vuda Point 900
Wakaya 1350
Mt.Camel 1200
Papatowai 1150
Shag River 1000
Washpool 1200
Wairau Bar
1150 Burial ground
Mauke 1000
Mangaia 1000
Moorea AD 600
Tahuata 750
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) 1000
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) 1100
Henderson I. 900
CHATHAM I.
Mangareva
Ua Huka 100
Hiva Oa 100
Waiahukini 800
Lapakahi
1000
Puako
Petroglyphs
Fanning Island
(Tabuaeran) 660
Anahula 1200
Moloka‘i 600 Pi’ilanihale Heiau
1300 Temple
Kahikinui 1400
Nuku Hiva 700
Nuku Hiva 1500
Huahine 800Maupiti
900
Burial
Rarotonga
1500
Aitutaki 950
Anatom
(Aneityum) 1050
Lakeba 1100
Collingwood Bay
Roviana
Motupore
1200
1000
S O U T H P A C I F I C O C E A N
C O R A L
S E A
ARAFURA SEA
SOLOMON
ISLANDS
TONGA
SAMOA
COOK
ISLANDS
SOCIETY
ISLANDS
H
AW
AIIAN ISLANDS
CAROLINE ISLANDS
MARSHALL
ISLANDS
GILBERT
ISLANDS
KERMADEC
ISLANDS
MARIANAS
ISLANDS
M E L A N
E
S
I
A
M
I
C
R
O
N
E
S
I
A
NEW
HEBREDES
(VANUATU)
EASTER ISLAND
(RAPA NUI)
MARQUESAS
ISLANDS
A U S T R A L I A
NEW
GUINEA
NEW
BRITAIN
NEW ZEALAND
NEW
CALEDONIA
FIJI
c.1000
c.1000 c.1000
c.1000
c.1000
c.1200
N
0
0
1000 miles
1500 kms
1 The Polynesian Expansion
Polynesian triangle
Yapese Empire
expansion of human settlement,
c.1000-1200
Archaeological sites, with
earliest dates where available:
village or settlement
cave site or rockshelter
fortified site
midden
megaliths
cultivation
other important sites
important sources of
New Zealand greenstone
1 AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS PERIOD Polynesian
communities were well-established only in the
central archipelagos of Tonga and Samoa, with
relatively young communities in the Marquesas,
the Society Islands, Hawaii and Easter Island. In
southern areas new settlements began to appear
around 1000, as Polynesians from the Society and
northern Cook Islands established themselves on
the uninhabited islands of Mangareva and
Mangaia and in New Zealand and the Kermadec
group. Later, settlers from New Zealand would
establish themselves on the Chatham Islands.
KUKAILIMOKU, the
Hawaiian god of
war. Carved in wood,
probably towards
the end of the
eighteenth century,
this monumental
figure comes from the
Kona coast of Hawaii
Island. It stood 2.36
metres
(91 ins) tall, facing
the altar in a temple
composed of walled
stone platforms.
It was a focus of ritual
activities.
Its expressive face
projects a sense of
contained energy, as
do its flexed knees
and elbows, slightly
turned rather than
presenting a full
frontal torso.
the Pacific. Beads, buttons and silken threads had the same appeal
for them as coral and mother-of-pearl did for Chinese and
Europeans. The eyes of all involved in the worldwide trade, whether
buyers or sellers, consumers or producers, were sharpened by
growing rivalry in the pursuit of quality products, and in this climate
of heightened sensual alertness all the visual arts took on a new
prominence globally.
SIGHT ITSELF WAS A RESOURCE THAT WAS EXPLOITED to a new degree.
The Italians showed how a knowledge of optics could help architects,
sculptors and especially painters with their tasks, from simply
describing reality to amazing the viewer with trompe l’oeil deceptions.
The same knowledge was used to develop new aids to vision. Glass
lenses made by the Dutch and fitted to telescopes and microscopes
brought a new understanding, both of the minutiae of nature on
earth and the grand order of the universe, while in England Newton
could use the prism to break light down into a spectrum of colours.
These discoveries were immediately recognized far to the East, where
the Chinese emperor welcomed both European knowledge and
European artists.
EYES WERE OPENING EVERYWHERE, and the growth of larger and larger
towns meant greater numbers of potential viewers and a greater
concentration of visual attention. By the eighteenth century cities
such as Naples, Paris and London set new standards for size and
splendour, as did the capitals of the Ottoman and Safavid
dominions, Istanbul and Isfahan, and the Chinese cities of Beijing
and Nanjing. But the largest of all was Edo, modern Tokyo. In the
Japanese capital large numbers of refined craftsmen and artists fed
the privileged elite’s passion for display, while printmakers, as in
China and western Europe, met the needs of the less well-off. These
and other cities also provided the labour for the increasing massproduction
of often highly ornamented ceramics and textiles. In Asia
these products were often sent for sale in Europe. China exported
pottery, India cotton, and the Ottoman Empire carpets, setting
examples soon to be followed, and surpassed, by Britain. There, by
1800, the combined impact of the inflow of wealth generated by the
use of slave labour in Caribbean colonies, the rapid growth of
population supported by improved agriculture at home, and
industrial mechanization made possible by the exploitation of local
coal and iron, brought the beginning of the large-scale production of
what had previously been luxury goods for a greatly enlarged market.
OUTSIDE EUROPE AND ASIA the patterns of mutual influence were
more complex. In the vast Spanish and Portuguese colonies of
Central and South America in the western hemisphere, and smaller
colonies such as Goa and the Philipines in the East, wealth was
invested in the building of churches, which were decorated by
indigenous craftsmen with a combination of European and local
forms and techniques. In West Africa and elsewhere the influence of
taste was reversed as local rulers, enriched by the trade in slaves and
other commodities, expanded their use of cast bronze and carved
wood, often based on European models. The new phenomenon with
the deepest long-term impact, however, was the arrival, even in the
remotest communities, of cheaper and more effective new tools from
the factories of Britain.
INLAID DECORATION on the Taj Mahal, Agra, India, 1631-48.
T
HE MAKING OF ART HAD ALWAYS BEGUN with the exploitation of
resources, and its use involved display, but after 1500 both took
on a new importance. This was largely as a result of the
expansion of global exchange networks. If trade overland and via
coastal shipping had been dominant before 1500, especially in and
around the land mass of Asia and Europe, new developments in
shipbuilding and navigation for the first time allowed commerce
across the oceans. Magellan’s expedition around the world in
1519–22, linking Europe to the Americas, the islands of the Pacific,
Asia and Africa, showed what could be done. The volume of goods
carried increased, speeds of transport accelerated, and movement
could be in any direction permitted by wind and current. Possession
of superior firearms meant that trading privileges and rights of
settlement that previously would have had to be negotiated could
now be forcibly imposed. Those countries and individuals that were
in a position to exploit the new situation – first the Portuguese and
Spanish and later the Dutch, French and English – could gain access
to an unprecedented range of natural resources, from slaves and
animals to plants and minerals. They, and those they traded with,
could also learn from each other how to use the art and artefacts
they made from these materials in a competitive display. Such
competitive displays had developed earlier in evolution as a
desirable substitute for physical conflict, and now that wars between
humans had become so destructive, as the Thirty Years’ War in
Germany most tragically demonstrated, they became a particularly
wise investment. Competitive displays took place among the Ming
and Qing emperors of China, the Mughal rulers of India, the
Ottoman sultans, the tsars of Russia and the monarchs and
ecclesiastics, princes and merchants of the rest of Europe. They all
vied with each other in the collection and display both of precious
materials, such as gold and silver from South America, gems from
India, hard timbers from Southeast Asia, ivory from Africa and furs
from North America and Siberia, and of art in which these and other
materials were used, from ‘cabinets of curiosities’ and buildings to
sculptures and clothes. Also involved were the princes, chiefs and
other members of the smaller communities with which they dealt,
first in areas such as Indonesia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and then, in
the eighteenth century, in more remote places, such as the islands of
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
1500-1800
NORTH AMERICA 1500–1800
149
and loosely organized hunting tribes of the
Inuit (Eskimo) and the Subarctic; organized
confederacies such as the Iroquois in the
Woodlands; ranked hierarchies on the
Northwest Coast; family bands and very
localized groups in California; nomadic and
highly democratic hunting bands and tribes on
the Plains; and kiva (ceremonial) organizations
of the Southwestern Pueblos.
EUROPEAN EXPANSION
Aggressive expansionist and trade policies of
Europeans began, however, to undermine the
material culture and beliefs of many of these
groups. Also, in some areas tribes had become
dependent on the supply of trade goods such
as weapons and ammunition, the withdrawal of
which left these groups without the means for
hunting or defence. The effect that European
policy had on the tribes was largely dependent
on which European power happened to be
dominant in the area.
English policy was one of both
colonization and trade. The growth of the
English colonies and shifting politics and
aggression between Britain and France led to
the decimation of the Algonquian tribes of the
Woodlands by the mid-1600s. Other tribes of
the region, especially the Creeks who were
already adept agriculturalists, adapted to the
changing conditions by adopting English
farming techniques and livestock, items of
English dress, and even used English names. In
fact, so successful were they at these
adaptations that the English married into their
leading families and during the eighteenth
BROWN BEAR CLAN COAT, CHILKAT. Split-representation,
in which a figure is depicted as if split and laid out
so all its features can be seen simultaneously, was a
characteristic element in Northwest Coast art. The
animal featured on this Chilkat shirt is the Brown
Bear, an important clan crest of the Tlingit tribes,
which also appeared in carved form on crest
helmets and on totem poles and house posts. Such
an elaborate costume would have been reserved
for socially significant occasions and worn by a
member of a prestigious household.
2 THE FIRST EXPEDITIONS TO NORTH AMERICA were ones
of discovery and a search for knowledge. The
uncharted regions of the continent offered
unparalleled scope for the advancement of
scientific knowledge as well as promising
opportunities for trade. Following first contacts,
numerous European nations vied with each other
for control of North America’s resources. Although
the fur trade dominated the central and northern
regions and the north Pacific coast, interest on the
eastern seaboard was in land for settlement while
the Spanish in the Southwest sought silver.
60˚70˚80˚90˚
20˚
30˚
40˚
50˚
Annapolis
Jamestown
Roanoke
Cotachiqui
Plymouth
L’Anse aux
Meadows
Brattahlid
Mississippi
StLa
wrence
Missouri
Colorado
Mackenzie
RioGrande
Arkansas
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
O C E A N HUDSON
BAY
BAFFIN
BAY
L A B R A D O R
S E A
B E R I N G
S E A
G U L F O F
M E X I C O
ROCKYMOUNTAINS
A
PPALACHIAN
M
TS
CUBA
SAN SALVADOR
N
0
0
400 miles
500 kms
European explorers:
Norse expeditions, 1000-1013
Columbus, 1492
Cabot, 1497
Verrazzano, 1524
Narváez, Cabeza de Vaca, 1529-36
de Soto, 1539-43
Coronado, 1540-42
2 European Exploration and Contacts
European penetration:
English
Spanish
French
Dutch
Swedish
Russian
British seeking Northwest Passage
British fur trade
Spanish trading posts, 1598-1821
French trading posts, 1604-1760
Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670-1869
Montreal fur trade, 1763-84
Northwest Company, 1784-1821
Russian trading posts, 1784-1867
century Alexander McGillivray, the son of a
Scots trader and a half-French Creek mother,
became the undisputed leader of the Creek
Confederacy.
Spanish incursions into the Southwest and
California were driven by religious zeal and a
search for wealth, leading to the establishment
of missions and military governments in the
area during the 1770s and the virtual loss of a
Californian cultural identity. Although the
Pueblo groups of the Southwest had nominally
converted to Catholicism, they retained more of
their beliefs and arts than groups in the other
regions. They continued to conduct secret
ceremonies in their underground kivas that
featured elaborately masked and costumed
kachina dancers.
In other regions influence was expressed
primarily through trade. The Hudson’s Bay
Company agents, although dominating the fur
trade in the north, were too widely scattered to
alter the nomadic hunting life of the Subarctic
groups, even though these tribes had become
dependent on European weapons and other
trade goods. Some changes, such as the
replacement of birchbark containers by trade
kettles, did occur but these were insufficient to
cause massive upheaval. In fact, among the
Athapascan tribes in the western reaches of the
Subarctic material culture and beliefs
underwent no significant change at all, while
the tribes of the far north of the area, including
the Inuit, were virtually unknown during this
period and obtained trade items only through
native intermediaries.
Curiously, the area that most typifies the
general perception of Native American culture
and art was almost entirely a consequence of
the late introduction of European trade items.
This was the Great Plains, where mounted,
nomadic buffalo hunting and warrior elites
developed in the early 1700s after the
introduction of guns from the east and Spanish
horses from the south.
Few of these tribes were original to the
area. They came from all directions and formed
a complex mix of culture traits. Flowing eagle
feather war bonnets, for instance, came
originally from the eastern Sioux, some
decorative techniques such as quillwork were
from the Woodlands, other ideas came from
the south. They met on the Great Plains in a
brilliant and spectacular, but short-lived,
explosion of colour and motion.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
148
MOST OF THE EARLY North American
cultures had evolved into the historic
tribes by the time of European arrival and, for
convenience, are generally grouped according
to culture area. These culture areas are
environmental niches that shaped the material
arts and social organizations of the regions. For
the most part these were developments of
earlier cultural trends, and traditional materials
and techniques were being practised well into
the early historic period.
There had, however, been some major
population shifts immediately prior to 1500.
In particular, the Mississippian groups of the
Eastern Woodlands had waned and been replaced
by the Algonquian tribes and the Iroquois
Confederacy. Although these new occupants
maintained Mississippian trade routes and
farming traditions, they were more democratic
and usually had elected leaders rather than
hierarchical systems. In the Southwest, earlier
groups had abandoned large settlements,
possibly as a consequence of prolonged droughts,
and coalesced into the more compact, modern
Pueblo tribes of the Rio Grande Valley: the Hopi
and Zuni.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Traditional materials such as skins and furs,
feathers and quillwork, basketry, pottery and
weaving continued to be utilized throughout this
period, although these began to be supplemented
by new trade materials and techniques introduced
by Europeans. In most cases these changes were
positive ones. Northwest Coast woodcarving
reached new heights after the introduction of
metal bladed tools replaced the earlier use of
stone and shell blades. The new ease of carving
led to a rapid increase in the production of
ceremonial and clan items, and former carved
house posts evolved into much larger free
standing totem poles. Trade beads, copper cones,
and small bells were important trade items, often
used to supplement rather than replace earlier
quill embroidery. Ribbon appliqué was a new
technique introduced to the Woodland areas,
while the ready availability of commercial dyes
introduced vibrant colour. The Navajo of the
Southwest obtained sheep and silver that started
the jewellery and blanket traditions for which they
are renowned, and at the same time began a
change from nomadic hunting to pastoral herding.
All of these introductions and changes saw a
floresence of Native American arts.
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
While the European presence remained small and
dependent on favourable trade, the native cultures
and beliefs remained stable and largely intact.
There was a wide variety of native cultures: coastal
NORTH AMERICA 1500-1800
BUFFALO HORN SOCIETY HEADDRESS. Blackfoot
Feathers were used by Plains tribes as symbolic
links with the forces of nature and were
frequently given sacred meaning. This buffalo
horn and feather headdress was worn by a
shaman in the Buffalo Horn Society.
20˚
30˚
40˚
50˚
60˚
60˚70˚80˚90˚100˚110˚
Beothuk
Micmac
Abnaki
OnondagaErie
Sauk Mohawk
Delaware
Nanticoke
Calusa
Cherokee
Apalachee
Timucua
Chitimacha
Washa
Ute
Zuni
Navajo
HopiYuma
13
4
5
2
12
13 15
16
17 18
20
21
Seri
Biloxi
Tunica
Missouri
Osage Quapaw
Chickasaw
Wichita
Susquehanna
Oneida
Algonquian
Seneca
Cayuga
Abitibi
Tutelo
Natchez
Menominee
Potawatomi
Winnebago
Illinois
Miami
Shawnee
Fox
Kickapoo
Atakapa
Karankawa
Yaqui
Papago W Apache
6
8
9
14
19
Mimbreño
Tonto
Havasupai
Tarahumara
Chiricahua
Pericu
Tonkawa
Tawakoni
Comanche
Lipan
Apache
Waco
Montagnais
Tete de
Boule Cree
Naskapi
Inuit
Mistassini Cree
East
Greenland
Eskimo
Polar
Eskimo
Baffinland
Eskimo
Labrador Eskimo
Southampton
Eskimo
Iglulik
Eskimo
Hare
Mountain
SaschutkenneHan
Yellowknife
Chipewyan
Saulteaux Ojibwa
Sekani
Beaver
Klickitat
7
10
Pend d’Oreille
Flathead
Coeur d’Alene
Blackfoot
Sarsi
Bannock
Spokan
Wind
River
Shoshone
Crow
Piegan Hidatsa
Assiniboin
Mandan
Yankton Dakota
Santee
Dakota
Arikara
Omaha
Cheyenne
Arapaho
Pawnee Oto
Kansa
Kiowa
Ponca
Netsilik
Eskimo
Caribou
Eskimo
Dogrib
Kaska
Tahltan
Tsimshian
Tlingit
Haida
Tagish
Carrier
Gabrieleño
Luiseño
Mojave
Diegueño
Paipai
Mono
S Paiute
N Paiute
Gosiute
Walapai
Modoc
Washo
Maidu
Slave
Cree
Swampy Cree
Western Wood Cree
Plains Cree
Copper
Eskimo
Mackenzie Eskimo
Pacific
Eskimo
Nunivak Eskimo
Koyukon
Ahtena
Ingalik
Tanana
Kutchin
Tanaina
Tutchone
St Lawrence Island Eskimo Kotzebue
Sound
Eskimo
Aleut
Aleut
West
Greenland
Eskimo
Passamaquoddy
Malecite
Penobscot
Pennacook
Mohican
Nipmuc
Massachuset
Powhatan
Catawba
Chilcotin
Bella Coola
Bella Bella
Kwakiutl
Coast Salish
Nisqually
Nootka
Makah
Quinault
Chehalis
Chinook
Tillamook
Klamath
Shasta
Karok
Yurok
Hupa
Wiyot
Wintun
Pamlico
Tuscarora
Cape Fear
Miwok
Pomo
Chumash
Chemehuevi
Guaycura
Cochimi
Cusabo
Great Lakes
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
ARCTIC
OCEAN
HUDSON
BAY
BAFFIN
BAY
LABRADOR
SEA
GULF OF
MEXICO
GREENLAND
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
- Pima
- Yavapai
- Maricopa
- Western Shoshone
- Nez Percé
- Mescalero Apache
- Umatilla,Wailatpu
- Acoma
- Jicarilla Apache
- Atsina
- Rio Grande Pueblos
- Caddo
- Kichai
- Oglala Sioux
- Upper Creek
- Choctaw
- Mobile
- Pensacola
- Teton Dekota
- Lower Creek
- Huron
N
0
0
400 miles
500 kms
1a Weaving
suspended warp weaving
true loom weaving
1b Carving
wood and ivory carving
stone carving
clay modelling
1c Basketry
coiled baskets
twined baskets
plaited baskets
1 THIS MAP SHOWS LOCATIONS OF TRIBES when they were
first contacted, although this occurred much earlier
in the east and Southwest than in central and
northern regions. Following contact with
Europeans, a number of the tribes were displaced
and moved to new areas or became extinct.
1 Tribal North America
clothing materials:
mainly hide and fur
mainly cotton
hide, fur and various plant materials
tribeHopi
CENTRAL AMERICA 1500–1800
151
CHURCH OF SAN SEBASTIÁN AND SANTA PRISCA, TAXCO,
built between 1748 and 1758 with money donated
by José de la Borda, the owner of Taxco’s silver
mine. It is one of the finest examples of Mexican
Baroque with a façade that combines finely
worked pink stone with plaster decoration that has
detail picked out in gold.
10˚
20˚
Acámbaro
Tlalpujahua de Rayón
Tepeapulco
Tlaxcala
San Martin Texmelucan
Guanajuato
Zacatecas
León
Irapuato
(date?)
Ajijic
Guadalajara
Querétaro
San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel Huautla
Cartagena
Coro
Santo
Domingo
Isabella
Erongaricuaro
Uruapan
Atlixco
Huejotzingo
Acapulco de
Juárez
(1523) 13
Jolalpan
Tzicatlán
Cholula
San Martín Tepotzotlán
Santa Casa de Loreto (Jesuit, 1584)
Church of San Francisco Javier (1762)
Tzintzuntzan
Pátzcuaro
San Luis Acatlán
Quecholac
Tecamachalco
Oaxaca de Juárez
Chapultenango
Tecpatán
Copainalá
Chamula-Huistán
Zinacantan
Teopisca
Amatenango
Comayagua
Tegucigalpa
Portobelo
Taboga
Gracias
León
Antigua
Guatemala City
San Vicente
Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan
Axochiapan
Cuernavaca
Taxco
Oaxtepec
Chalcatzingo
Chilapa
Tepalcingo de Hidalgo
(1532) Church of
Jesús Nazareno
Tlapa de Comonfort
Jacona
Cuitzeo
Yuriria
Morelia
Ixmiquilpan
Acolman de Nezahualcóyotl
Actopan
Ocotlan
Atotonilco
Santa Cruz
San Pedro Tlaquepaque (date?)
Tlayacapan
Tepotzlán
Santa Maria Tultepec
Azcapotzalco
Mexico City
Zinacantepec
Acapulco
Zacatula
Bogotá
Tlalmanalco
Texcoco de Mora
Santo Tomás Xochimilco
Puebla
Izamal
Mérida
Motul de Carrillo Puerto
Ticul
Mani
Hopelchén
Havana
Valladolid
Santa Cruz Acatepec
Veracruz
Granada
Panama City
Atlixtac
Zempoala
Mississippi
G U L F O F
M E X I C O
PA C I F I C O C E A N
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
BAY OF
CAMPECHE
C A R I B B E A N
S E AGULF OF HONDURAS
GULF
OF
PANAMA
SIERRA
M
ADRE
CO
RDILL
ERA
DE
TALA
M
A
N
CA
CORDILLERA
ISABELIA
HI S PA N I O L A
B
A
H
A M
A S
JAMAICA
C U B A
(1531)
(1542)
(1540)
(1533)
(1617) Cathedral
(1496)
(1496) 29
28
(16th c)1
3
32
Church of Santo Domingo
Chapel of the
Holy Sacrament
Convent of San Gabriel
6
7
12
4
Convent of San Francisco
Convent of San Miguel Arcángel (1550)
Monastery of San Agustín
25
26
Monastery of San Francisco
8
14
16
22
21
Convent of San
Pablo Apóstol
11
10
(1529)
(16th c)
(1533)
(1534)
(1555)
(16th c)
(1570)
(16th c)
(1555)
(1539)
(1547)
(1580)
23 (1528)
(16th c)9
(16th c)
(1510)15
(16th c)
(17th c)
(1538)
(16th c)
(16th c)
(1521)
2 (1558) (1577)
(1546)
24
(16th c)
(1532)27
(1542)
(1531)
(16th c)
(1540)20
(1550)18
(16th c)
5 (1533)
(16th c)
(16th c)
(16th c)
(16th c)
17
Church of San Lucas
(16th c)
(16th c)
(16th c)(1522)
(16th c)
(16th c)
(16th c)
(1590)
(1614)
(16th c)Church of San Miguel
(16th c)Church of San Juan(16th c)
(16th c)Church of San Agustín(16th c)
(1537)
(1539)
(1544)
(1632)
Cathedral (1669)
(1549)
(18th c)
(1524)
Church and Convent
of San Francisco
El Pilar
Cathedral (1703)
Cathedral (1756)
(1502)
(1516)
Customs House (1630)
(1519)31
(1541)
(16th c)
(1524)
(1596)
(16th c)
(1527)
(1558)
Cathedral
Convent of San Miguel Arcángel
(17th c)Mission of San Antonio
(1542)Palace of the Governors
Cathedral of San Ildefonso (1556)
(1519)30
(1537)
Virgin of Izamal Monastery
Convent of San Bernardino
(1519)
19(1570)
SOUTH
AMERICA
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
2 Spanish Colonial Architecture, 1500-1800
principal missions and monasteries:
Franciscan
Dominican
Augustinian
Spanish trade and colonial administrative centres
gold mines
silver mines
1- Palace of Cortés (1530)
Cathedral of San Francisco (1529)
Convent of La Asunción de María (1529)
Chapel of San José
2 - Church of San Diego (1663)
La Compañía (Jesuit, 1747)
Church of San Cayetano (1765)
La Valencia Silver Mine (1765)
3 - Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (1562)
Church of San Francisco (1550)
4 - Church of San Francisco
Santa Rosa y Santa Clara
Aqueduct (1726)
5 - Convent of San Francisco
Chapel of La Magdalena (16th c)
6 - Cathedral of Our Lady of Asunción (16th c)
Fortress of San Juan de Ulúa
7 - Basilica of La Magdalena
Church of La Merced
8 - Chapel Real de Indias
Convent of San Francisco
9 - Church of San Antonio
Church of San Martín
Convent of St John the Baptist (Augustinian)
10 - Cathedral (1560)
Governor’s Palace (1643)
Church of San Juan de Dios
11 - Church of Santa María Natívitas
12 - Cathedral (1535)
El Carmen de Abajo (Carmelite, 1554)
Priory of Santo Domingo (1570)
Church of San Francisco (1575)
Convent of Carmen (1596)
Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (1644)
Basilica of the Virgin (1682)
Hermitage of Santa Veracruz (Carmelite, 1696)
13 - Cathedral
Fort San Diego (1617)
14 - Church and Monastery of San Francisco
15 - Church of San Sebastián
and Santa Prisca (1758)
16 - Convent of Our Lady
of Asunción
17 - Church of Santa María
Convent of Las Rosas
18 - Metropolitan Cathedral (1563)
Palacio Nacional
Sagrario Chapel (1749)
19 - Convent of All Saints
Aqueduct
20 - College of San Nicolás (1540)
La Compañía (1546)
Basilica Nuestra Señora de la Salud (1550)
21 - Convent of Santa María Magdalena
22 - Convent of Santo Domingo
23 - Church of Jesús Nazareno (1740)
24 - Mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (1707)
Cathedral (1761)
25 - Church and Convent of La Concepción
Church of San Francisco (1779)
26 - College of San Nicolás (1580)
Convent of San Agustín (1580)
Cathedral of the Divine Saviour (1640)
Church of La Merced (18th c)
27 - Church of Los Zapateros (1765)
Church of San Pedro and San Pablo (18th c)
28 - Cathedral of San Pedro
Palace of the Inquisition
29 - Monastery of Las Mercedes (1510)
Santa María La Menor Cathedral (1519)
Palace of the Real Audiencia (1520)
Palace of the Governors (1520)
University (1538)
Hospital of San Nicolás de Bari (1522)
30 - La Fuerza Real Castle (1577)
El Morro Castle (1630)
San Cristóbal Cathedral (1787)
Church of San Francisco de Asís (1738)
31 - Cathedral of Our Lady of La Asunción (1519)
Convent of Santo Domingo (1570)
Metropolitan Cathedral (1690)
Casco Viejo
32 - Church of San Francisco (1650)
Inset 1
Inset 1
2 PART OF SPANISH PHILOSOPHY was that the people
they conquered should become subjects of Spain.
This, however, was not possible unless they
embraced the Catholic faith. Missionaries of
various Catholic denominations travelled with the
conquistadores, and Spanish military garrisons
were often part of the fabric of the church. Much
of Spanish colonial architecture therefore consists
of monasteries, churches, and cathedrals, although
there were also imposing buildings erected for the
governors of the provinces.
primarily to European diseases against which
they had little or no natural resistance. Second
was the arrival of increasing numbers of
Europeans, many of them with better
architectural skill and artistic ability than the
early conquistadores and missionaries.
At the same time there was a considerable
increase in the numbers of people who were of
Spanish descent but who had been born in the
New World, as well as offspring of mixed
marriages. While welcoming the ideas and
inspiration of the new arrivals, these people
did not claim the same cultural and family ties
to Spain. Thus new art forms began to emerge
that were based on a European tradition but
which incorporated elements of a Central
American national identity. This gave rise to
distinctive arts in furniture, metalwork,
ceramics, mural painting and votive offerings,
as well as in building, that were no longer
confined to the religious sphere but were also
seen in the domestic environment. For
example, carved figures placed at street corners
and even house fronts with elaborate murals
were used as a means of identifying districts in
the absence of names and numbers.
CENTRAL AMERICAN BAROQUE
Central American Baroque reached its climax in
Mexico during the eighteenth century, although
there are also good examples in Guatemala and
Cuba, where the ornate Churrigueresque style
imported from Spain is combined with the
exaggerated ornamentation of the Mayans and
Aztecs. The resemblance between the façade
decorations of Mayan buildings and Mexican
Baroque churches is so striking that there has
to be a direct relationship.
In Baroque architecture there was a
deliberate play of light and shade through the
application of raised plasterwork, further
enriched with polychrome decoration and,
often, glazed tiles. Scrolls and arabesques, lines
and geometric interlocking forms, and other
decorative motifs were twined and twisted
around figures in niches of Mexicanized saints.
No part of the surface was left untouched by
carving, plaster or paint.
The interior of the Cathedral of Mexico City
contains a retable that was completed in 1737,
and which is so massive and ornate that it has
been referred to as ‘Ultra-Baroque’. Other
extreme examples of Mexican Baroque can be
seen in the vault of the Rosary Chapel in the
Church of Santo Domingo, Oaxaca (1729) and
at the Cathedral of Zacatecas (1761).
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
150
missionaries. The inevitable fusion resulted in
a mix of European and indigenous styles
during the sixteenth century. There is, for
instance, a post-Conquest Aztec frieze in the
church at Cholula, and a carving of the Virgin at
the Augustinian monastery of Acolman that is
derived from Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess of
life and death. Similarly, angels carved at the
Franciscan monastery at Tlalmanalco are
depicted with monkey faces in reference to
Ozomatli, the Aztec god of writing and sacred
knowledge. The style of colonial buildings
also had to change in response to local
circumstances and environments; for instance,
open chapels (capilla abierta) were included to
accommodate the large native populations.
Some elaborate European filigree work is
noticeable from the early sixteenth century,
and this is generally referred to as Plateresque:
from the phrase Plasteros de yeso (silversmiths in
plaster), referring to the fine detailing of plaster
over stonework. The Santo Domingo Cathedral
(1519, the oldest cathedral in the Americas)
and the Hospital of San Nicolás de Bari (1522)
are outstanding examples of Plateresque work
by Spanish artists.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
The late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
saw two changes in population demographics
that affected the arts. First was a dramatic
decline in the indigenous populations, due
THE BEGINNING OF THIS PERIOD saw a
collision between two vastly different
cultures: the Aztec and the Spanish. Neither of
these cultures had any real understanding of
the beliefs and artistic expression of the other,
leading to the confrontation in which the Aztec
Empire was effectively dismantled by Hernán
Cortés between 1519 and 1521.
A CLASH OF CULTURES
That this clash occurred so suddenly and
irrevocably changed the artistic production of
the region can be understood by considering
the ideologies that were involved. The Spanish
came from a European background of powerful
and wealthy state and religious institutions
based on a belief in one true god. Spanish
ideals were to convert and Christianize the
people they came into contact with, and to use
wealth to establish the state and religious
buildings that supported this. The Aztec ideal
also had an architectural base that combined
state and religion, but leadership was vested in
the Tlatoani (Great Speaker) and Cihuacoatl
(Female Serpent), who were considered deities.
The Aztecs did not impose their beliefs on
subjugated groups but instead exacted
punitive taxes to maintain the Aztec centres.
Thus Cortés encountered many disaffected
groups to support him, and with the killing of
the Tlatoani and Cihuacoatl, effectively
destroyed the entire Aztec state and religious
foundation, leading to an immediate collapse.
EARLY COLONIAL ARTS
The first acts of the Spanish were to destroy the
religious symbols of the old culture and
replace them with their own. Temples built on
the tops of imposing pyramids were
dismantled, their elaborate frescoed surfaces
studded with gold, silver and mosaic defaced,
and the images of their gods destroyed.
Materials from these were re-used to erect the
buildings of the new religion, using indigenous
labour under the guidance of Spanish
CENTRAL AMERICA 1500-1800
1 THE SPANISH DOMINATED both exploration and trade
in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
After the conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, most of
the region was declared a province of Spain and
placed under the control of Spanish governors.
Silver from this region financed Spain’s colonial
ambitions and, indirectly through the looting of
Spanish treasure ships, the ambitions of other
European nations as well. Silver was a trade
mainstay, but other goods such as gold, sugar,
tobacco and cochineal were also important.
SANTO DOMINGO CATHEDRAL, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
The Cathedral of Santa María la Menor in Santo
Domingo is the oldest cathedral in the Americas.
Founded in 1519, when the Spanish used Santo
Domingo as a staging post for their incursions into
Mexico and Central America, it was from here that
Cortés launched his attacks against the Aztecs.
A marble sarcophagus in the cathedral is said,
controversially, to contain the bones of Christopher
Columbus. There is also a Madonna
by Murillo (1617–82).
60˚ 30˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
70˚80˚90˚100˚110˚
C
C
olorado
Orinoco
Magdalena
RioGrande
Mississippi
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
G U L F O F
M E X I C O
C A R I B B E A N
S E A
GULFOFCALIFORNIA
ISTHMUS
OF
PANAMA
YUCA
TÁN
SIERRAMADREOCCIDENTALSIERRAMADREORIENTAL
SI
ERRA
MADRE DEL SUR
CORDILLERA
DE MÉRIDA
C U B A
PUERTO
RICO
HISPANIOLA
B
AHAMAS
S O U T H
A M E R I C A
N O R T H
A M E R I C A
Acapulco to
Manila
Seville to
Veracruz
Seville to
Nombre de Dios
Havana to
Seville
Manila to
Acapulco (silk)
Urdaneta
1565
Saavedra
1527
Pineda
1519
Grijalva
1517
Columbus
1492-93
Columbus
1493-94
Columbus
1498
Columbus
1502-04
Pinzón & Solís
1508
Hernández de Córdoba
1516 Ojeda & Vespucci
1499-1500
Bastidas
1501-02
Ponce de León
1512-13
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Exploration and Trade, 1500-1800
European voyages of discovery
Spanish trade routes
Spanish routes of colonization
exports:
gold
silver
sugar and tobacco
cochinealC
SOUTH AMERICA 1500–1800
153
eventually exported art.
The search for precious metals also
affected economic, and consequently cultural,
developments. The discovery of silver near
Potosí in the mid-sixteenth century created a
boom town whose population in the
seventeenth century exceeded that of most
European cities. New wealth paid for the
explosion of buildings and furnishing in Potosí
– it was to do the same in the cities that
became Sucre and La Paz in Bolivia.
Some gold was also found in what is now
Colombia, where the Spanish had settled at an
early date, creating cities (Tunja) with a
European aspect and even with Renaissance
wall paintings. Towns on the coast such as
Cartagena, with extensive fortifications and
churches in stone, originated as points of
embarkation for the treasure fleets.
THE DISSEMINATION OF ART
The Jesuits played a special role in the
dissemination of art, especially by Europeans
who were not of Iberian origin. In the sixteenth
century the Jesuit Bernardo Bitti, from
Camerino in Italy, made paintings and
sculpture while en route from Ecuador to Bolivia.
In the eighteenth century, German Jesuits
established workshops in what is now Chile to
supply works to that Captaincy General. The
Jesuits also established several new sorts of
institutions, notably estancias (ranches) in what
is now Argentina, which were often designed by
Italian or Germanic architects. Even more
remarkable are the European-style art and
architecture produced on Jesuit missions by
rainforest people like the Guaraní in Paraguay.
The Jesuits left some of the first surviving
monuments in Portuguese America as well, but
because of the unsettled and long-contested
political situation, most early surviving
monuments in Brazil are of a later,
seventeenth-century date. In fact, some of the
most noteworthy works made in Brazil during
the seventeenth century were produced by
Dutch artists during the period of the
Netherlandish incursion, especially in the
region around Pernambuco (Recife). Frans Post
painted some of the first landscapes of the
continent, and Albert Eckhout recorded its
inhabitants and fauna. While Benedictines,
Jesuits and other religious orders played an
important role along the coast, their activities
were forbidden in the interior province of
Minas Gerais, where diamonds and gold were
found in the eighteenth century.
In the mining regions several boom towns
90˚ 80˚ 70˚ 60˚
50˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
0˚
10˚
1523
1523
1529
1519
1534
1526
1532
1548
1537
1540
1535
1533
1545
1538
1630
1550
1573
1532
1637
1525
1674
1616
1535
1616
Córdoba
Copacabana
Valdivia
Potosí
Sucre
La Paz
Arequipa
Callao
Trujillo
Maracaibo
CaracasCartagena
Santa Marta
Chinquiquita
Manáos
Lima
Cajamarca
Tumbes
Quito
Belém do Pará
Pernambuco
(Recife)
Bahía (Salvador)
Pôrto Alegre
GUAIRÁ
c.1630-32
GUARANÍ
1630-1767
CHACO
1732-67
CHIQUITOS
1691
MAYNAS
1638-1767
CASANARE AND
LOS LLANOS 1659
MOJOS
1659-1767
Ciudad Real
Concepción
Valparaíso
La Calera
Arica
Tiahuanaco
Panama
Cuzco
Machu Picchu
São Paulo
Ouro Prêto
Pôrto Seguro
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Rio de Janeiro
Buenos Aires
1536
ITATÍN
1609-70
A
m
azon
Río Negro
SãoFr
ancisco
M
a
deir
a
Orinoco
Uruguay
Colorado
L. Titicaca
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
C A R I B B E A N S E A
Amazon
Basin
Gran Chaco
Pampas
FALKLAND
IS
WINDWARD IS
ISTHMUS
OF
PANAMA
GUIANA
HIGHLANDS
A
N
DE
S
CHILOÉ I
VICEROYALTY OF
NEW GRANADA
V I C E R O YA LT Y
O F
B R A Z I L
VICEROYALTY
OF LA PLATA
GUIANA
PERU
VICEROYA
LTY
OF
1565, capital from 1763
Dutch artists to Brazil:
Post (1608-69)
Eckhout (1610-65)
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
2 Centres of Artistic Activity
Spanish territory by c.1650
Portuguese territory by c.1650
date of colonial foundation
administrative centre
Jesuit missions
Jesuit workshops
pilgrimage centres
centre of indigenous art
carved wood
other art and production centres
school of painting
school of sculpture
visited by Bernardo Bitti, 1571-1610
surviving indigenous cultures
1565
THE SILVER MOUNTAIN (the cerro rico) outside Potosí
was a source of enormous wealth. It is depicted by
an unknown artist (c.1740) as the mantle of the
Virgin, who is crowned by the Trinity – the Father
and Son represented as priests. The possible
conflation with pre-conquest indigenous beliefs, in
which mountains, rocks, and a mother goddess
were venerated, is striking.
2 ARTISTIC CENTRES CRYSTALLIZED in several colonial
sites. Aside from the schools established by the
Franciscans (Quito), and Jesuit ateliers (Chile and
Argentina), cities such as Cuzco, Quito and Lima
housed many artists, who produced vast quantities
of painting and sculpture. Brazil was home to
numerous regional centres: most conspicuous were
the architects, sculptors and painters in Minas
Gerais (Ouro Prêto).
grew up in mountain valleys: the most
remarkable of them is Ouro Prêto, whose name
means ‘black gold’. The monuments of this
region were built by peoples of African as well
as European origin, and draw on many different
European artistic sources – they even reveal
elements of chinoiserie. Such details provide
more evidence for the multicultural aspects of
art and architecture in colonial South America.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
152
(massive walls were a common feature): Europeans adapted
wattle-and-daub thatching for roofing construction.
Two of the most important artistic sites during the period
were located in what had been the Inca capitals, the present
cities of Cuzco and Quito. Paintings were exported throughout
the region of the vice-royalty of Peru from Cuzco. The first art
school on the continent was already established in Quito in the
sixteenth century, and the first South American art treatise was
written there in the eighteenth; Quito was also home to an
important school of sculptors. The Spanish, however,
established their vice-regal capital at the new city of Lima, a
more accessible site near the sea. Lima had buildings designed
by Europeans, and a grid plan, which was a standard model for
new foundations throughout Spanish America. Lima itself
SOUTH AMERICA 1500-1800
THE CHURCH OF SÃO FRANCISCO in
Ouro Prêto was built for lay
brethren of the Franciscan order,
as Franciscan regulars were not
allowed into the mining
province of Minas Gerais. The
artist Aleijandinho, the child of
European and African parents,
carved the sculpture on the
façade, but the building’s design
echoes Italian and central
European prototypes.
1 SOUTH AMERICAN architecture is
notable for its use local materials,
including different kinds of
metamorphic stones in the Andes,
and, where stone was not at
hand, other building materials,
such as adobe. However, materials
used were also often brought
from great distances (limestone
from Portugal), and new solutions
(quincha roofs) were devised to
deal with specia, for example,
seismic circumstances.
THE CONQUEST OF SOUTH AMERICA by Europeans largely
eradicated the cultures of the indigenous peoples with whom they
came in contact. Although Europeans did not actually take over the
whole continent until the nineteenth century – the southernmost
regions, and Amazonian interior were not occupied until then, and
some sites such as Machu Pichu in Peru actually may postdate the
subjugation of the Inca Empire – the Spanish levelled previously
existing sites and built on top of them; the indigenous populations of
the Brazilian coast were largely eradicated. European forms thus often
literally supplanted or stood on top of indigenous architecture. Native
American and African artists and artisans worked mainly in the service
of the hegemonic culture, and traces of their artistic input can be seen
at best only in elements of iconography, construction and forms of
manufacture.
ARTISTIC CENTRES
Because of the vast distances, formidable terrain, including high
mountain ranges and jungles, and the forbidding (and ever changing)
climates, architectural forms in particular depended on local materials,
and many independent artistic centres also came into existence. Since
stone was largely lacking on the Brazilian littoral, building techniques
utilizing mud, earth, or clay were often employed there, although
limestone (sometimes imported) and soapstone were used for
ornament on façades, and for sculpture. In contrast, many local stones,
with varying degrees of hardness, hence difficulty for carving, were used
in the Andean regions: Andesite in what is central Peru, varieties of
granite around La Paz, volcanic tufa in Arequipa. Earthquakes, which
are frequent in this region, also affected construction techniques
90˚ 80˚ 70˚ 60˚
50˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
Cu
Córdoba
Valdivia
La Plata
Potosí
La Paz
Rio de Janeiro
Saô Bento
monastery
(in pedra de
limoz, 1640s)
Callao
Trujillo
MaracaiboCartagena
Santa Marta
Manáos
Lima
Cajamarca
Tumbes
Quito
Belém do Pará
Pernambuco
(Recife)
Olinda
Bahía
(Salvador)
São Paulo
Ouro Prêto
Pôrto Seguro
Ciudad Real
Sabara
Pôrto Alegre
Montevideo
Concepción
Arica
Panama
Amaz
on
Río Negro
SãoFranci
sco
Paraguay
Pa
ra
ná
M
a
deir
a
Orinoco
Uruguay
Colorado
ATLANTIC OCEAN
PA C I F I C
O C E A N
C A R I B B E A N S E A
Amazon
Basin
Mato
Grosso
Gran
Chaco
Pampas
FALKLAND
IS
WINDWARD IS
ISTHMUS
OF
PANAMA
GUIANA
HIGHLANDS
A
N
D
ES
Patagonia
VICEROYALTY OF
NEW GRANADA
V I C E R O YA LT Y
O F
B R A Z I L
VICEROYALTY
OF LA PLATA
GUIANA
PERU
VICEROYA
LTY
OF
taipa de mão
(hand-worked mud and clay),
taipo de pelao (mud and straw)
pau-a-pique
pau-a-
pique
(mud and
clay)
Church of San
Francisco (in
granite, c.1700)
Cuzco
Cathedral and
Jesuit church
(in andesite, c. 1660)
Arequipa
Jesuit church
(in tufa, c. 1700)
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
resources:
gold
silver
copper
diamonds
dyes
hidesCu
1 Materials and Means
building materials:
andesite
tufa
granite
quincha (mud and straw) roofs
spread of quincha techniques
adobe
mud and clay
limestone (pedra de cal)
import of Portuguese
limestone (pedra de limoz)
major mining regions
EUROPE 1500–1600
155
ST BASIL’S CATHEDRAL, 1555–60, Moscow, Russia, was
built following Ivan IV’s conquest of Kazan. This
dynamic structure consists of eight churches
grouped around a ninth. Despite trends in Moscow
towards the employment of Italian architects and
adoption of Renaissance architectural idioms, St
Basil’s is the product of native architects. Here,
traditional Russian forms dominate and make the
cathedral an enduring national symbol.
1 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION in the sixteenth
century had a profound impact on religious art.
Catholics maintained their worship traditions and
patronage patterns, but Calvinists, Anglicans and
others rejected the role of images in worship and
cleansed their sanctuaries of art. Lutherans
believed Christian art was inherently neither good
nor bad; religious art was destroyed, modified, and
even commissioned in Lutheran churches.
architects and patrons to select, mix and adapt
from a palette of concepts and styles.
The Italians set new standards by creating
paradigmatic High Renaissance, Mannerist and
then early Baroque works. If stylistic diversity
ultimately dominated at the international and
regional levels, the pervasive effect of Italy and
the Italianate linked all of Europe. This often
first involved an update of native or current
architectural traditions, a transition that might
then follow in other arts. Outside Italy, a purer
expression of Renaissance architectural ideals
was also made in places like Granada, Munich,
Landshut, Cracow, Esztergom and Alba Iulia.
Punctuated by the 1541 capture of Budapest,
once a Renaissance cultural centre, the Ottoman
surge into southeastern Europe essentially
halted that area’s classicizing tendencies.
THE WORLDLY COURT
Artists and architects benefited immensely from
Church patronage in Catholic territories and
that of prosperous merchants in commercial
centres, but princely courts of all ranks,
confessions and locations remained their most
consistent employers. Two special, somewhat
reciprocal phenomena contributed to this
arrangement: the formation of ‘art chambers’
(Kunstkammern) and the staging of festivals,
triumphal entries and other spectacles.
In his private Kunstkammer, a prince distilled
the spectrum of divine and human creation down
to displayable highlights. Mineral samples, flora
and fauna specimens and nature’s abnormalities
found a place in the Kunstkammer next to fine
tools, intricate mechanisms and classical,
scientific or architectural texts. A Kunstkammer’s
inventory also included works of art such as
paintings, prints, statuettes, medals or
meticulously crafted works of goldsmithery. The
proprietor of such an assemblage symbolically
possessed and ruled over the known world, albeit
in miniature. The Kunstkammer also projected its
keeper’s magnificence, intellect, worldliness, and
tastes to whomever viewed it. The Kunstkammern
of the Central European courts were the most
impressive; the Prague Kunstkammer of Emperor
Rudolf II surpassed all others.
A more public form of court expression
matured during the sixteenth century. On special
occasions, European courts frequently sponsored
ostentatious productions for audiences. These
varied spectacles could last for days, and
incorporated everything from costumes, scenery,
floats and music to fireworks, automata, parades
and competitions. Triumphal entries were
especially important. Organized around the
arrival of a regent or distinguished guest into a
town or city, some ceremonial entries were
isolated events, others preludes to extended
festivities. Entries often dotted the path of a
territorial or international progress. Multiple
grand entries were included, for example, in
the journeys of Charles V through Italy
following his conquest of Tunis. Leading artists
and artisans provided the many temporary
props and backdrops that lent such events
their pomp. Imagery invariably referred to the
virtues, achievements, authority, and territorial
possessions of the arriving dignitary using
classical, mythological and biblical iconography.
Just as the Kunstkammer brought the outside
world to a prince’s court, these spectacles
brought a prince’s court to the outside world.
The gradual advance of European seafaring
powers into the Americas, Africa, India, South
Pacific, China and Japan had important
consequences. The fortunes created through
intercontinental commercial ventures and
military conquests translated into copious
artistic commissions. The extensive artistic and
architectural patronage of the royal courts and
Catholic institutions in both Portugal and Spain
speaks to their successes overseas. Artefacts
from faraway cultures also arrived in Europe
and were often absorbed into Kunstkammern.
royalty. Many cities participated in the network,
but as a hub for the production and distribution
of art objects none equalled Antwerp in variety,
scale and geographic reach. Working with
personal agents or art dealers, major collectors
supported the art and artistic trades through
their eclectic acquisitions. Philip II of Spain, for
example, favoured works by Bosch and Titian,
but had little interest in El Greco. Knowledge
gained through such interaction allowed artists,
BENVENUTO CELLINI, Salt Cellar,
1540–43. During his second
trip to France, the great
Florentine goldsmith created
this masterpiece for King
Francis I. The salt cellar
exemplifies contemporary
European courts’ interest in
both artistic virtuosity and
microcosmic collections of
art, antiquities, naturalia,
scientific instruments and
artefacts from around the
world. In 1570 King Charles
IX gave the salt cellar to
Archduke Ferdinand II of
Austria, who added it to his
Innsbruck Kunstkammer.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
154
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE experienced
an unprecedented intermingling of its various
artistic and architectural traditions. Of these,
the Italian tradition had the broadest impact,
extending from Portugal to Scandinavia, France
to Russia, and Scotland to the Balkans. Even as
the influence of Italy spread, other exchanges
between different regions took place, creating
an era of artistic cross-fertilization.
ARTISTIC CROSS-CURRENTS
Untold numbers of artists and craftsmen
traversed the continent in search of patronage or
training. Foreigners flocked to Italy to study its
monuments and learn from Italian masters.
Relocated or new court centres, including those
at Fontainebleau, Dresden, Madrid and Prague,
attracted fresh mixtures of international artists.
Through their personal travels, patrons, too,
became important conduits for ideas about art.
Finally, events like the sack of Rome (1527), the
French Wars of Religion (1562–98), and the
Spanish conquest of Antwerp (1585) prompted
many artists to flee these areas and seek their
livelihoods elsewhere.
Prints and printed books played a key role in
the artistic interchange. Mass-produced, easily
transportable prints from Italy, Germany, France
EUROPE 1500-1600
0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚10˚20˚
50˚
40˚
Edinburgh
Bergen
Borgholm
Kaliningrad
Szczecin
Gdansk
Plock
Lublin
Zamosc
Pinczów
Kezmarok
Poznan
Wroclaw
Lwow
Bardejov
Levoca
Riga
Moscow
Zagorsk
Vologda
Solvychegodsk
Smolensk
Novgorod
Vilnius
Mariefred
Vadstena
Stockholm
Uppsala
Turku
Kalmar
Copenhagen
Hillerod
Roskilde
Helsingor
Svartsjö
London
Epsom
Lille
Angers
Lyon
Valence
Florence
Genoa
Milan
Como
Verona
Mantua
Parma
Lucca
Cremona
Felletin
Avignon
Narbonne
Bordeaux
Bayonne
Toulouse
Viseu
Valladolid
Toledo
Madrid
Guadalajara
SegoviaSalamanca
Ávila
El Escorial
Medina del Campo
Seville
Córdoba
Cádiz
Málaga
Granada
Lorca
Murcia
Valencia
Tortosa
Saragossa
Tudela
Barcelona
Ubeda
Chincilla
Palencia
Burgos
Oviedo
Èvora
Portalegre
Porto
León
Coimbra
Tomar
Leiria
Lisbon
Valverde
Guimarães
Aubusson
Moulins
Angoulême
La Rochelle
Rouen
Chantilly
Tonnerre
Dijon
Bern Lucerne
Zurich
Basle
Geneva
Strasbourg
Stuttgart
Augsburg
Kranjska Gora
Prague
Pilsen
Kratochvile
Landshut
Munich
Salzburg
Jindrichuv Hradec
Litomysl
Pernstejn
Linz
Cesky Krumlov
Vienna
Cluj-Napoca
Prostejov
Pardubice
Bratislava
Budapest
Esztergom
Bucharest
Tirgoviste
Alba Iulia
Bistrita
Suceava
Graz
Naples
Palermo
Trapani
Messina
Tunis
Rome
Siena
Urbino
Ferrara
Venice
Vicenza
Trent
Bologna
Klagenfurt
Slovenske Gorice
Innsbruck
Heidelberg Nuremberg
Orléans
Chenonceaux
Chambord
Calais
Bruges
Ghent
Amsterdam
Utrecht
Münster
Langres
Wolfenbüttel
Wittenberg
Dresden
Berlin
Cracow
HamburgDelft
Haarlem
Lüneburg
Kassel
Halle
Leiden
Binche
Brussels
Mariemont
Antwerp
Liège
Paris
Troyes
Bar-le-Duc
BloisNantes
Fontainebleau
Stirling
Exeter
Falkland
´
´
´ ´
˘
´
Loire
Rhône
Elbe
W
eser
Danube
Tagus
Ga
ronne
E
bro
Seine
Tham
es
Meuse
Po
Tiber
Vistula
Ne
m
an
Oder
Rhi
ne
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
N O R T H
S E A
BALTICSEA
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
P Y R E N
E E
S
A L P S
Östergötland
SARDINIA
SICILY
CORSICA
IRELAND
SCOTLAND
ENGLAND
HOLY ROMAN
EMPIRE
DENMARK-NORWAY
S W
E D E N
FINLAND
PRUSSIA
HUNGARY
SWISS
CONFED
BOHEMIA
S P A I N
A F R I C A
F R A N C E
PORTUGAL
(to Spain 1580)
POLAND-LITHUANIA
(United 1569)
R U S S I A
TRANSYLVANIA
I TA
LY
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
N
E
T
H
E
R
L
A
N
D
S
to/from S America,
Africa, India,
West Indies, Asia
Italians to Portugal,
Spain, France, Low Countries,
England, Scandinavia,
Germany, Poland-Lithuania,
Russia, Bohemia, Austria,
Balkan States
to/from Brazil,
Africa, Asia
to/from N America,
C America, S America
Portuguese and Spanish to
Low Countries, England,
Italy, C & S America,
India, W Indies, Asia
Belgians and Dutch to
England, Scotland, Scandinavia,
Germany, Poland-Lithuania,
Bohemia, Austria, Italy,
Portugal, Spain, France Germans to Poland-Lithuania,
Bohemia, Austria, Italy, France,
England, Scandinavia
French to England,
Scotland, Low Countries,
Germany, Portugal, Spain
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 Artistic Cross-currents in
16th-century Europe
borders c. 1560
attitude towards Christian art:
Roman Catholic (positive)
Lutheran (indifferent)
Calvinist,Anabaptist/
Anglican/Hussite (negative)
Eastern Orthodox (positive)
Muslim (negative)
emigration/travel of architects
/artists/craftsmen
centre of patronage and/or
art production
architecture
painting
sculpture
printmaking
gold/silversmithery
tapestry manufacture
Kunstkammer and/or major art collection
significant acts of iconoclasm, with date
triumphal state/ceremonial entry, with date
spectacle/festival/tournament, with date
paths of exemplary imperial/royal progress:
Emperor Charles V,Aug 1535-May 1536
Prince Philip of Spain, Oct 1548-Sept 1549
King Charles IX of France and his mother,
Queen Catherine de’ Medici,
April 1564-Jan 1566
major international trade routes (export of
European artistic and architectural styles;
import of gold, silver, spices, cultural
artefacts etc).
(1547/48)
(1561)
(1522, 33, 59)
(annually, 1559-1602)
(1520)
(1549)
(1558) (1547, 48, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58,
62, 70, 76/77, 78/79, 85, 97)
(1563)
(1500)
(1539)
(1572, 81)
(1580)
(1521-22)
(1525)
(1590)
(1534-35)
(1524, 34-37)
(1566-67)
(1524)
(1557)
(1592/93)
(1566-67)
(1566)
(1566-68, 78)
(1562-63)
(1562)
(1524-30)
(1529)
(1528)
(1534-35)
(1520-24, 87)
(1566-67, 81)
(1515, 48, 95)
(1518, 48, 51)
(1515, 30, 40, 49, 71, 73)
(1550, 96)
(1582)
(1563, 77)
(1586)
(1586)
(1586)
(1577)
(1563)
(1558, 62)
(1515)
(1585)
(1570)
(1517)
(1528, 86)
(1570)
(1560)
(1543)
(1506, 15, 29)
(1506)
(1507, 38)
(1515, 39, 89)
(1513, 18, 36, 39,
45, 86, 89)
(1502, 07, 29)
(1507, 09, 12,
15, 34, 41) (1528, 43)
(1530, 32, 49)
(1549, 74)
(1518, 25)
(1560, 63, 71)
(1572)
(1533)
(1559)
(1585)
(1526)
(1500, 01, 13, 49, 50)
(1530)
(1502, 65)
(1502, 30)
and the Low Countries circulated throughout
Europe. Leading print publishers joined
printmakers to reproduce the treasures of
antiquity and works of Raphael, Michelangelo,
Heemskerck and Bruegel, among others. The
writings of Vitruvius and Sebastiano Serlio had
immense bearing on architectural developments.
Others in western Europe authored vernacular,
sometimes nationalistic, theoretical texts
which typically responded to Italian ideas.
The burgeoning art market and formation of
multi-faceted art collections propagated styles
and trends. Artists sold their wares to local
merchants, at regional fairs, and to foreign
SCANDINAVIA AND THE BALTIC 1500–1800
157
these regions were not necessarily derivative or
inferior to those of the capital. Arent Passer
(c.1560–1637), perhaps the finest sculptor in
the region, worked exclusively for the Swedish
governor in Estonia.
Sweden remained the great Baltic power
into the eighteenth century, by which time the
artistic orientation of the state had shifted
from the Netherlands and Germany to France.
The architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger
(1654–1728) was an ambassador at the court of
Versailles, and arranged for a permanent agent
there to inform him of all developments in
French arts and culture. The loss of territories
and stature following the Great Northern War
(1700–21), led to a sharp drop in resources for
artistic production. Thus Tessin represents the
culmination of the arts in Sweden; after his
death, most of the finest Swedish artists lived
and worked in other European capitals,
Alexander Roslin (1718–93) in Paris, Martin van
Meytens the Younger (1695–1770) in Vienna,
Michael Dahl (1659–1743) in London, and
Georg Desmarées (1697–1776) in Munich.
FREDERIKSBORG CASTLE AT HILLERØD, DENMARK, represents
the international importance of Christian IV’s work
particularly well. The sculptural Neptune fountain
was designed and cast by the imperial sculptor
Adriaen de Vries in Prague. Hendrick de Keyser, an
Amsterdam sculptor and builder who pioneered
Dutch classical architecture, provided a number of
decorative sculptures and reliefs. The palace was built
between 1602 and 1623 as an enlargement of a much
smaller sixteenth-century hunting lodge. The
architect is unknown, but it may have been the
Netherlandish Hans van Steenwinckel.
60˚
50˚
30˚20˚10˚
Gothenburg
Kalmar
Roskilde
Hillerod
Helsingor
Jönköping
Norrköping
Lübeck
Bremen
Amsterdam
Hamburg
Uppsala
Stockholm
Trondheim
Christiania
(Oslo)
Bergen
Copenhagen
Berlin
Stralsund
Stettin
Königsberg
Gdansk
(Danzig)
Riga
Wilno (Vilnius)
Elbing
Reväl (Tallinn)
Åbo
(Turku)
Novgorod
Pskov
Kexholm
Narva
Dorpat
(Tartu)
Helsingfors
Viborg
’
Lake Peipus
L. Ladoga
L. Vänern
L. Vättern
Klarälven
Umeälven
Torneälven
Dvina
VistulaElbe
N O R T H
S E A
WHITE
SEA
GULF
OF RIGA
GULF OF
FINLAND
N O R W E G I A N
S E A
BA
LTIC
SEA
GULFOFBOTHNIA
R U S S I A
FYN
ZEALAND
BORNHOLM
GOTLAND
ÖSEL
ÅLAND
POMERANIA
BREMEN-VERDEN
P R U S S I A
P O L A N D
LIVONIA
DENMARK-NORWAY
K
I
N
G
D
O
M
O
F
S W
E D E N
F I N L A N D
L A P L A N D
L I T H U A N I A
Established 1735
Royal Palace (1697)
Drottningholm Palace (1662)
(1660)
Established 1754
Rosenborg Palace
Frederiksborg Castle (from 1560)
Kronborg Castle
(c. 1574-1585)
Established
1696
Primarily
after 1650
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
N
2 THE ARTS IN THE BALTIC
region in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were
an eclectic mix of imported
talent, primarily from
Germany and the
Netherlands. Some of these
artists travelled from court
to court throughout the
region, fostering the
transfer of artistic ideas.
Few local artists were of
any significance until the
eighteenth century. By
then, however, economic
circumstances reduced
major patronage. Fewer
foreign artists came to
Scandinavia, and many of
the best talents left to seek
work elsewhere.
NEOCLASSICISM
French Rococo surrendered to Neoclassicism
throughout the Baltic in the later eighteenth
century. In Sweden this is associated with King
Gustav III and the sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel
(1740–1814). Denmark experienced similar
developments under the leadership of the
painter Nicolai Abildgaard (1743–1809), the
architect Christian Frederik Hansen
(1756–1845), and especially the sculptor Bertel
Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), who worked primarily
in Rome, but was the greatest Scandinavian
Neoclassical artist. While Sweden and Denmark
both sent their leading students to Rome to
train, Danish artists also established ties with
the pioneering theorist Johann Joachim
Winckelmann and with the Prussian architect
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841), and thus
drew on the whole spectrum of European
Neoclassicism.
2 Artistic Movement in
16th- and 17th-century
Scandinavia
Swedish empire, c.1660
artistic academy, with date
of establishment
Artistic influences:
from the Netherlands
from Germany, primarily
17th century
from France, after 1650
from Sweden
from Rome
castle
cathedral
palace
1 Scandinavia and the
Baltic, c. 1500
international
borders, c.1500
semi-independent
territories
Swedish-speaking
areas of Finland
Saami region of Finland
trade routes
Raw materials:
grain
timber
copper
iron
flax
hemp
hides
tallow
leather
potash
Natural resources:
copper mines
iron mines
silver mines
gold mines
limestone quarries
sandstone
Cu
L
S
Cu
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
156
SCANDINAVIA IN 1500 was dominated by
Denmark politically and artistically, but
the entire Baltic region was connected with
northern European culture through the trade
routes of the Hansa (a series of trading
alliances linking the cities of northern Europe).
Sweden-Finland gained independence from
Denmark in 1523. The Protestant Reformation
was fundamental to the establishment of the
Swedish state, for King Gustav Vasa (r.1523–60)
seized church lands and wealth, which he used
to pay state debts. Denmark converted to
Lutheranism soon after. Thus by the 1530s
Denmark ruled Norway, and Sweden ruled the
duchy of Finland; all were Protestant lands.
THE DOMINANCE OF DENMARK
Although there was a certain artistic unity
throughout the Baltic region, Denmark
provided the artistic leadership for Scandinavia
until the seventeenth century. The high point of
the Danish Renaissance was the reign of
Christian IV (r.1588–1648). Most of the artists
he patronized were of Netherlandish origin.
Pieter Isaacz (1569–1625) and Karel van Mander
III (1610–70) were resident at the court, but
Christian commissioned significant works from
Gerrit van Honthorst (1592–1656), Abraham
Bloemaert (1566–1651), Jacob Jordaens
(1593–1678) and Adriaen de Vries (1545–1626),
among others, which adorned Kronborg,
Rosenborg and Frederiksborg palaces. These
were built in the Netherlandish tradition of
brick with stone decoration.
THE RISE OF SWEDEN
Denmark and Sweden both took part in the
Thirty Years War (1618–48), which crippled
the former and greatly enriched the latter.
Under Gustav II Adolf (r.1611–32) Sweden
expanded its territories to include the eastern
Baltic lands and parts of northern Germany.
Accordingly, many German artists moved to
Stockholm, a new centre of patronage.
Among them were the painter David Klöcker
Ehrenstrahl (1629–98) and the architect
Nicodemus Tessin the Elder (1615–81).
Tessin used locally available materials
(particularly wood), but he and his patrons
willfully disregarded traditional, provincial
building practices as they sought international
recognition.
In the mid-seventeenth century, Queen
Christina became a cultural patron, bringing
René Descartes and other intellectuals to the
court. She also encouraged the seizure of the
remains of Emperor Rudolf II’s collection at
Prague, which brought many first-rate Italian
paintings to Stockholm. She took most of
these with her to Rome when she abdicated in
1654, but the larger works remained in
Sweden. In Rome she remained an important
patron for Swedish artists, commissioning
works from them and using her contacts to
introduce them to leading Italian artists.
The influence of the Stockholm court was
felt as far away as the eastern Baltic lands.
Classicizing buildings, similar to those built by
Tessin, may be found in Tallinn. The artists in
SCANDINAVIA AND THE BALTIC 1500-1800
JOHAN TOBIAS SERGEL, CUPID AND PSYCHE. Sergel
studied in Paris and received a medal from the
Académie Royale. He worked in Rome for a
number of years before returning in 1779 to
Stockholm, where he became head of the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts. He was highly regarded and
sought by internationally important patrons. This
sculpture was commissioned around 1772 by Louis
XV for his mistress, Madame du Barry. When the
French king died two years later, King Gustav III of
Sweden took over the commission.
50˚40˚30˚20˚10˚0˚
70˚
60˚
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
L
L
L
L
S
S
S
Stockholm
Älvsborg
Jönköping
Norrköping
Lübeck
Bremen
Hamburg
Uppsala
Nidaros
(Trondheim)
Oslo
Bergen
Copenhagen
Stralsund
Stettin
Königsberg
Gdansk
(Danzig)
Riga
Wilno (Vilnius)
Elbing
Reväl
(Tallinn)
Åbo
(Turku)
Novgorod
Narva
Dorpat (Tartu)
Helsingfors
Viborg
Archangel
’
L. Ladoga
Lake Peipus
Elbe
Vistula
Dvina
Um
eälven
Torneälven
Klarälven
L. Vättern
L. Vänern
N O RW E G I A N
S E A
N O R T H
S E A
GULFOFBOTHNIA
GULF OF FINLAND
G
U
LF OF RIG
A
WHITE
SEA
BALTIC
SEA
T E U T O N I C
O R D E R
BORNHOLM
FYN
ÅLAND
ÖSEL
ZEALAND
ÖLAND
GOTLAND
R U S S I A
F I N L A N D
ESTONIA
P O L A N D - L I T H U A N I A
INGRIA
L A P L A N D
DENMARK-NORWAY
S
W
E
D
E
N
KAR
ELIA
COURLAND
BREMEN-
VERDEN
POMERANIA
BRANDENBURG
borders
uncertain
to Amsterdam
and London
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
1 THE BALTIC REGION’S rich
natural resources brought
income and international
contacts. Sweden’s copper
and iron, for example, were
exported all over Europe.
Wealthy foreign merchants
moved to Scandinavia,
bringing artistic
contacts and building
influential residences.
30˚20˚
50˚
TP
TP
TP
Polock
Wilno
Grodno
Tykocin
Snów
Miedzyrzecz Korecki
Kamieniec Podolski
Buczacz
Lancut
Brzezany
Krystynopol
Zamosc
Labunie
Lublin
Czemierniki
Radzyn Podlaski
Koden
Drohiczyn
Gdansk´
Plock
Warsaw
Brochów
Walewice
Gostyn
Biala Radziwillowska
Bialystok
Siedlce
Nieborów
Lubartów
Kock
Wegrów
Swieta Lipka
Stanislawów
Zbaraz
Lezajsk
Klimontów
Sandomierz
Baranów
Pulawy
Podhorce
Brody
Tarnopol
Korsun
Zofiówka
Tulczyn
Winnica
Tywrów
Sluck
Lwów
Zólkiew
Krasiczyn
Rzeszów
Rytwiany
Ksiaz Wielki
Tarnów
Nowy
Wisnicz
Niepolomice
UjazdKielce
Bialaczów
Lad
Smielów
Poznan
Sierniki
Lubostron
Sieraków
Leszno
Debnik
Checiny
Pinczow
Grodzisk
Wielkopolski
Rogalin
Cracow
Koscielec
Kalisz
Pawlowice
Rydzyna
Nieswiez
Chelmno
´ ˙
Lowicz
´
˙
˙
´ ´
´
˙
´
´
´
´
´
´
˛
˛
˛
˛
˛
´
˛
˛
´
˙
˙
´
´
BA LT I C
S E A
Gulf of
Danzig
EAST PRUSS
IA
Gulf
of
Riga
Vis
tula
Warta
Oder
Pripet
Berezina
Dvina
Neman
Volga
Dniester
Prut
Bug
D
nieper
CARPATHIAN
M
TS
P O L A N D
L I T H U A N I A
R U S S I A N
E M P I R E
O T T O M A N E M P I R E
H A B S B U
R
G
E
M
P
I R
E
P R U S S I A
2 Sarmatism, Occidentalism and Orientalism
major church
palazzo a fortezza
quadrilateral
castle/square palazzo
villa suburbana
Renaissance town hall
Palladian baroque building
Neo-Palladian classical building
18th- century replica
of Villa Rotonda
entre cour et jardin palaces
English gardens
art collection
Gothic Revival building
manufacture of Polish sashes
marble quarry
sandstone quarry
modern town planning
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
TP
POLAND AND LITHUANIA 1500 –1800
159
Polish lesser gentry and for churches of all
denominations, including Lutheran, Roman
Catholic, Uniate and Orthodox, as well as
mosques, and elaborate wooden synagogues.
The majority of these places of worship have
been destroyed. Sculpted plaster decor was
another architectural feature. Italian-inspired
and initiated by the Lublin guild of master
masons, it embellished townhouses in
Kazimierz and Zamo´s´c, and church vaults all
over Poland. Its fantastical plaster ornaments
of somewhat blunted, pudding-like texture
displayed an untamed richness of detail.
Orientalization went hand in hand with
Latinization. The ‘Polish attica’, a decorative
parapet at the top of buildings in Venetian
style, surmounted sturdy synagogues.
Paintings by Western artists were covered with
‘Orthodox’ silver robes, icons dovetailing with
northern-European prints and Bohemian
rococo dressed the façades of Uniate churches.
Perhaps the most Polish art-form of this period
was the Sarmatian portrait. A Western-style
full-length likeness was used as a frame to
WOODEN SYNAGOGUE in Wolpa near Grodno, early
eighteenth century. Timber was used in Polish
manor houses and village churches of all
denominations and occasionally also in large
and complex religious structures, with domes
and high pitched, multi-tiered roofs.
2–3 SOUTHEAST EXPANSION introduced oriental styles,
including dress and manners used by the PolishLithuanian
nobility to underline their claim of
descent from the legendary Sarmatians. However,
dynastic alliances of the royalty and the fabulous
buying power of the elite promoted a rapid
absorption of ‘high’ forms of Western art.
20˚
50˚
Póznan´
Zamosc´ ´
Tarnów
Gdansk´
Cracow
Krasiczyn
Lwów
Olesko
Bejsce
Miechów
Staszów
Turobin Uchanie
Lublin
Kazimierz
Dolny
Wilno
Radlin
Gniezno
Koszuty
Wloclawek
Pinczów´
Lezajsk˙
Brzezany´
Sroda
Wielkopolska
´
Lowicz
Wroclaw
Grodzisk
Tarlów
Rzeszów
Ujazd
Warsaw
Krosno
Koscielec´
Rabka
Klementowice
Debno˛
Lopuszna
Paplin Sucha
Romanów
Mereczowszczyzna
Ozarów˙
´Koden
´Koden
Stara Wies´
Sokule
Tykocin
BA LT I C
S E A
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
enunciate the ‘defining features’ of PolishLithuanian
nobility, which were visualized by
the details of Orientalized attire, complete with
zhupan, kontusz, delia and the Armenian silk sash
belt, Turkish haircut and Morocco leather
boots. These served as an adopted skin, the
exteriorization of the Sarmatian identity. The
form was also significant: the decorativeness
of these portraits’ two-dimensionality and the
flat patches of local colour pronounced a
disregard for Western chiaroscuro and linear
perspective.
Domed Sepulchral Chapels and
Vernacular Architecture
border of Poland, late 17th century
domed sepulchral chapel
tomb/sculpture
stucco decor
wooden church
Polish manor house built of wood
3
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
158
MULTI-ETHNIC AND MULTICONFESSIONAL,
the Polish Commonwealth of Two
Nations united the Catholic Kingdom of Poland
and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The long
process of unification, begun in 1385, was
finalized in 1569 by annexation of the western
Ukraine, mainly Orthodox and bordering the
Ottoman empire and Persia. The commonwealth
lasted almost two and a half centuries
more, until swallowed by the expanding
empires of Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795.
The union dislodged Poland’s alignments
with the Latin west, redirecting them to the
east and south-east. This outpost of Latin
Christendom saw a confrontation between an
emerging Eurocentrist modernity, with its
paradigms of the modern territorial state and
of the rational western self, and, on the other
hand, the nomadic values of Crimean Tartars
and Ottoman Turks, and oriental fluidity and
excess. A primary identification with the
Occidental merged with an experience of and
desire for the Oriental. The myth of Poland as
the bulwark of Christendom intertwined itself
with a contradictory ethos of Sarmatism – of
the nobility’s descendance from the
Sarmatians, a legendary tribe of horsemen
from the Black Sea steppe.
WESTERN IMPORTS
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries fabulous wealth from landholding
enabled the nobility to acquire foreign
consumer goods and artefacts, as well as
commission builders, artists and craftsmen
from all over Europe. Mainly from Italy, artists
were also summoned from Nuremberg and the
Netherlands, France, Saxony and Habsburgian
countries. At this stage the union was a society
of consumers, rather than producers, of
POLAND AND LITHUANIA 1500-1800
ZBIGNIEW OSSOLINSKI WITH HIS SONS, c.1654, oil on
canvas, 210 x 110 cm (82 x 43 ins), Castle Museum,
Liw. A forceful Sarmatian portrait showing details
of the ‘Polish dress’, which reserves its most lavish
display for male progenitors.
20˚ 30˚
50˚
Gniezno
Reszel
Drohiczyn
Grodno Nowogródek
Piotrków
Raków
Braniewo
Königsberg
Kiejdany
Kowno
Prowosze
Lwów
Mysz Nowa Bobrujsk
Chernigov
Mohylów
Warsaw
KrasnystawSandomierz
Tarnów
RawaKalisz
Tykocin
Cracow
Przedbórz
Kazimierz
Dolny
Wolpa
Gwozdziec´
Chodorów
Narowla
Pohrebyszcze
Lublin
Kamieniec Podolski
Bar
Winnica
Owrucz
Ostróg
Kiev
Wilno
Troki
Wornie
Smolensk
Mohylów
Orsza
Witebsk
Malbork
(Marienburg)
Leszno
Rozdót
Plock
Wroclaw
Wloclawek
Gdansk´
Torun´
Minsk
Przemysl´
Chelmno
Nieswiez´ ˙
Kroze˙
Pinsk´
Brzesc Litewski´ ´
Birze˙
Swieta Lipka´ ˛
Grudziadz˛
Elblag˛
Poznan´
Pinczów´
Zamosc´ ´ Zytomierz˙
Zydaczów˙
Polock
Illukszta
Zabludów
Chelm
Wlodzimierz
˙Lomza
Pultusk
Jaroslaw
Lancut´
Luck
VistulaWarta
Oder
Pripet
Berezina
Dvina
Neman
Volga
Dniester
Prut
Bug
Dnieper
Gulf of
Danzig
Gulf of
Riga
B A L T I C
S
E
A
CARPATHIAN
M
TS
GREAT
POLAND
LITTLE POLAND
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
HOLY
ROMAN
EMPIRE
MOLDAVIA
HUNGARY
U K R A I N E
R U S S I A
RUTHENIA
C
O
URLAND
LIVONIA
VOLHYNIA
POMERANIA
EAST
PRUSSIA
G R A N D
D U C H Y
O F
L I T H U A N I A
1579
1544
1594
1661
1364
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 Multi-ethnicity and Multiconfessionality
border Poland/Lithuania, pre-1569
border Poland/Lithuania post 1569
Poland, 1582
to Poland, 1616-67
lost in war 1621-26
SE border of Poland, 1667-1793
Roman Catholic archbishopric
Roman Catholic bishopric
Uniate archbishopric
Uniate bishopric
Orthodox metropolitan sees
Orthodox eparchy
Armenian archbishopric
Armenian church
Jewish synagogue/centre of learning
wooden synagogue
centre of Karaite faith
centre of Islamic faith
centre of Reformation
university, with date of foundation
academy of higher education
Jesuit convent/college
Lutheran church
major centre for the grain trade
Vistula river port
artefacts. In the aftermath of disasters in the
mid-seventeenth century and the Great
Northern War (1700–21) – which ruined towns
and halted the grain trade – kings and nobility
established various manufactories.
Renaissance ‘high art’ was imported
directly from Italy by Poland’s kings of the
Jagiellonian dynasty redeveloping the Wawel
Castle in Cracow. The Sigismundus chapel in
the Wawel Cathedral, by Florentine Bartolomeo
Berrecci (1519–31), provided a model of a
central funerary chapel and tomb with
recumbent figures, widely reproduced by the
nobility and even the bourgeoisie. Another new
type of building was the suburban villa, erected
for the nobility by Italian builders on the
outskirts of Cracow. Royal patronage, extensive
building by the Catholic Church, and, above all,
the spending power of the high nobility
changed the cultural landscape. They built new
towns on an ‘ideal city’ plan, such as Zamo´s´c,
designed for the Lord Chancellor Jan Zamoyski
by Bernardo Morando of Venice; they gave
funds for Baroque churches following the
models of Il Gesù (Cracow, Nieswiez) and Santa
Maria della Salute (Gosty´n); they multiplied
their country residences and palaces in
Warsaw, designed by fashionable architects
such as Andrea del’Aqua (Podhorce), the
Polonized Dutchman, Tylman van Gameren
(Pulawy, Stary Otwock, Warsaw, Wegrów),
Johann Sigmund Deybel of Dresden (Warsaw,
Bialystok), and Juste-Aurèle Meissonier
(interiors in Warsaw and Pulawy).
LOCAL AND ORIENTAL INFLUENCES
Elitist architecture was of brick, decorated with
sandstone masonry and furnished in local
marble. A dominant building material was
timber, used for the abundant manor houses of
11 AT ITS PEAK the Commonwealth was Europe’s
granary and second largest state. Its minorities
included Ruthenians, Byelorussians, Jews,
Karaites, Armenians, Tartars, Germans, Italians,
Greeks and Scots. Prosperity and tolerance
made it an asylum for Jews, Lutherans,
Calvinists, Bohemian Brethren, and Aryans, all
of whom established centres of learning and
printing presses. The Uniate Church (following
Orthodox rites under Papist supremacy)
dominated in the east. Roman Catholic
mendicant and teaching orders, in particular
Jesuits, waged Counter-Reformation by
inculcating militant forms of Roman baroque
art and ritual.
RUSSIA 1500–1800
161
development of resources; establishment of
Russian porcelain, lapidary, metalwork and
tapestry factories; creation of a university and
academy of arts; art collecting on a grand scale
and major building projects. St Petersburg
became a microcosm of architectural evolution
from Peter’s northern European Baroque (for
example, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and
Paul by Domenico Tressini) to Elizabeth’s
French-Italian Rococo (Bartollomeo Rastrelli’s
Catherine Palace, Winter Palace and Smolny
Cathedral), and Catherine’s international
classicism (Charles Cameron’s Pavolvsk Palace
and Giacomo Quarenghi’s Hermitage Theatre).
The Academy of Fine Arts, housed in an
imposing classical edifice in 1772, fulfilled
Peter’s goal of creating a cohort of Russianborn
artists trained in European traditions.
Among the early graduates were Anton
Losenko (honoured as the first Russian
historical painter), portraitists Dmitry Levitsky
and Vladimir Borovikovsky, and sculptors
Mikhail Kozlovsky and Ivan Martos.
Meanwhile, outside the cities, in the
northern regions of Arkhangel’sk and Vologda
provinces settled by merchants from Novgorod,
distinctive folk arts flourished. Along the Volga
and the other rivers that served as trade
arteries, local decorative traditions crossfertilized
with forms and motifs adapted from
western models. In the central agricultural
lands, vast and productive estates were worked
largely by serfs: peasants tied to the land. Folk
customs and traditions
in music and the arts enriched all levels of
culture.
This period witnessed Russia’s transformation
from a regional principality to a multiethnic
empire bridging east and west, and saw
a corresponding change in the role of the arts.
Initially serving the church, the arts expanded
their secular functions as Russia’s rulers and
the nobility began collecting art. The transfer
from Moscow to St Petersburg replaced older
Russian values with a new, European-oriented,
rational and bureaucratic culture, initiating the
dilemma of eastern or western identification
that would trouble Russian thinkers of the
following centuries. By the end of Catherine’s
reign, Russian elite culture, especially in St
Petersburg, embodied the themes of expansion
and display.
eastern point of the Gulf of Finland in 1703.
Moving his capital to the new city in 1712, he
inaugurated an unprecedented era of grand
architecture and city planning that lasted well
into the next century.
CULTURAL EXPANSION
Peter I’s efforts to modernize Russia brought
the country into the cultural orbit of Europe.
He invited European architects and artists to St
Petersburg and provided training and study
abroad for Russian-born artists. It fell to his
successors, Elizabeth I and Catherine II (‘The
Grea’t, r.1762–96) to consolidate Peter’s
European model for the Russian empire. Their
reigns were marked by exploration and
CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION (1714), Kizhi, Lake
Onega. Traditional carpenters used no plans, only
simple hand tools, and no metal nails, but they
inventively combined pine, ash, and other woods
for pleasing effects. The ash ‘fish-scale’ shingles on
the twenty-two domes glisten with gold or silver
tones, depending on the light.
70˚
55˚
40˚
30˚ 45˚ 60˚ 75˚ 90˚ 105˚ 120˚ 135˚ 150˚ 165˚ 180˚
M
M
Moscow
Astrakhan
Kazan’
St Petersburg
(1703)
Novgorod
Velikiy Ustyug
Yaroslavl’
Solikamsk
Pskov
Smolensk
Nizhniy Novgorod
Vyatka
Vologda
Kiev
Ufa (1586)
Tobol’sk
(1587)
Tyumen’
(1586)
Tara (1594)
Sibir’ (1581)
Omsk (1716)
Archangel
(Arkhangel’sk)
(1589)
Samara (1586)
Tsaritsyn (1589)
Saratov
(1590)
Voronezh
(1586)
Yakutsk (1632)
Nizhne-Kolymsk (1644)
Petropavlosk
(1752)Irkutsk (1652)
Krasnoyarsk (1628)
Yeniseysk (1619)
Tomsk
(1604)
Kuznetsk
(1618)
Semipalatinsk
(1718)
L. Balkhash
L. Baikal
Ko
lyma
Lena
Lena
A
m
ur
Yenisey
Ob
Irtysh
N.D
vina
Ural
Oka
Kam
aViatka
D
on
Volga
Dnieper
Syr-
Darya
Am
u-D
arya
BA R E N T S
S E A
WHITE
SEA
KARA
SEA
EAST SIBERIAN
SEA
CHUKCHI
SEA
BALTICSEA
BLACK SEA
CASPIAN
SEA
ARAL
SEA
BERI
N
G
STRAIT
URALMTS
ALTAI MTS
TIEN SHANKALMYKS
BASHKIR
S
TAT A R S
K A Z A K H S
BU RYAT S
YA K U T S
COSSACKS
UKRAINIANS
NOVAY
A
ZEMLYA N O V O S I B I R SK
S I B E R I A
MANCHUR
IA
OUTER MONGOLIA
KAMCHATKA
R U S S I A N E M P I R E
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
2 The Expansion of Russia,
1500-1800
Russia c. 1550
expansion to 1598
annexed to c. 1700
acquired 1700-c. 1800
route of Yermak, 1580s
cities (with date of
foundation/conquest)
minerals
furs
ivory/bone
(1652)
M
2 RUSSIA EXPANDED through military conquests. Ivan
IV victory conquered Kazan in 1555. The Cossack
Yermak pushed into Siberia in quest of furs in the
1580s. Peter I and Catherine II campaigned in the
west and the south in the eighteenth century.
Cities were both fortresses and trade outposts for
gold, and precious stones that enriched the
decorative arts.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
160
RUSSIA ACHIEVED a distinctive cultural
identity in this period, separate from but
at times rivalling those of the Renaissance,
Baroque and Enlightenment in western
Europe. Traditionally, the arts had served
religion, with architecture and icon painting
controlled by rigorous orthodoxy, but the
sixteenth century introduced some
secularization.
THE RISE OF MOSCOW
At the end of the fourteenth century, Muscovite
princes began driving back the Mongols who
had occupied Russian territories for 250 years.
The city of Novgorod, in the northwest, maintained
trading contacts with the Hanseatic
League, but most of Russia was virtually
isolated. Reforging ties with both Orthodox
east and the Latin west, Ivan III was the first
Russian ruler to take the title Tsar or Czar
(derived from Caesar). Ivan and his successors
brought architects from Italy to build the great
stone cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin,
Dormition, the Annunciation and St Michael
the Archangel, the Faceted Palace and the
crenellated walls around the citadel, combining
Russian and European architectural forms.
Ivan IV (‘The Terrible’) initiated major building
and reconstruction projects after a fire
destroyed much of Moscow. He annexed
Novgorod and Tver’, brought both loot and
artists to the Kremlin, and established workshops
of icon painters and metalsmiths in the
Armoury Palace. Ivan’s conquest of Kazan (1555)
brought the plains east of the Volga River and
their pagan and Islamic inhabitants under his
control. Later campaigns pushed Russia’s
boundaries south to Astrakhan and east into
Siberia. To commemorate his victory, Ivan
commissioned St Basil’s Cathedral on Red
Square, just outside the Kremlin walls (see
p.155). It was based on the central ‘tent-roof’
design of wooden churches and contained eight
separate churches, each set off by multiple
domes embellished with polychrome tiles and
paint. This cathedral, with its inventive use of
both Russian and Asian features, marked a new
stage in Russia’s political and cultural identity.
Ivan IV’s reign ended in violence and
confusion in 1584. In the following ‘Time of
Troubles’, Moscow’s authority diminished as
Poland conquered much of western Russia.
While central control declined, new centres of
icon painting, metalwork and enamel developed
in the northeastern regions, around Veliky
Ustyug, Sol’vychegodsk and Perm’. These towns
were settled by merchant clans from Novgorod,
notably the Stroganov family, who established a
renowned school of icon painting. The election
of Mikhail Romanov as tsar in 1613 began a
period of political retrenchment and
ecclesiastical reform lasting two generations.
Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich encouraged
foreign traders to settle in an eastern suburb of
Moscow known as the ‘German Suburb’ and
opened new routes north of Moscow to the
White Sea. The port of Arkhangel’sk on the
Northern Dvina River became the major hub of
commerce during the summer months when it
was free of ice. Alexey’s son Peter I, known as
Peter the Great (r.1696–1725), recognized that
only a permanent commercial and naval port
would allow Russia to interact fully with
western nations, and after winning the region
from Sweden, he founded St Petersburg at the
RUSSIA 1500-1800
DMITRY LEVITSKY, Princess
Khovanskaia and Mlle
Khrushcheva (1773), State Russian
Museum, St Petersburg. Acclaimed
for imposing portraits of
Catherine II, Levitsky introduced
an informal style in seven
paintings of Catherine’s favourite
pupils in the school she founded
for well-born girls, the Smolny
Institute. Shown in a performance
at the school for the Empress, the
girls display an engaging
concentration, in contrast to the
stilted poses of earlier portraiture.
70˚
60˚
50˚
20˚ 30˚ 40˚
Moscow
Kostroma Kazan’
Samara
Orenburg
Gorodets
Archangel (Arkhangel’sk)
Sol’vychegodsk
Perm’
Chelyabinsk
Ufa
Vyatka
Solikamsk Nizhniy Tagil
Yekaterinburg
Tobol’sk
Vorkuta
Velikiy Ustyug
Vladimir
SaratovTula
Ryazan’
Orël
Yaroslavl’
Kholmogory
Nizhniy Novgorod
Tsaritsyn
Astrakhan
Vologda
Kargopol’
Sergiyev-Posad
Smolensk
Vitebsk
Kiev
Chernigov
Poltava
Odessa
Zaporozh’ye
Rostov
Kharkov
Kursk
Novgorod
Pskov
Revel’
Riga
Vilna
Warsaw
Tver’
Helsinki
St Petersburg
Tikhvin
L. Onega
L. Ladoga
Vistula
Dnieste
r
Danube
Dnieper
Don
Donets
Volga
U
r
al
Kama
Pechora
Mezen’
Onega
Sukhona
Vycheg
da
Oka
N
orthern Dvina
Western Dvina
B A
LTIC
SEA
GULF OF FINLAND
WHITE SEA
B L A C K S E A
SEA OF
AZOV
KARA SEA
CASPI
A
N
SEA
C A U C A S U S
U
R
A
L
M
T
S
KALMYKS
BASHKIRS
SAM O Y E D S
LAP P S
KAZAKHS
TA
TA
RS
F I N L A N D
P R U S S I A
H A B S B U R G
P O S S E S S I O N S
R U S S I A N
E M P I R E
SWEDEN
O T T O M A N E M P I R E
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 European Western Russia
in the 18th century
concentration of serfdom
area of ‘Old Believers’ settlements
site of major architectural landmarks,
16th-18th centuries
centre of court-sponsored art
metalwork
stonework and gems
ceramic and porcelain
bone carving
wood carving and painting
textiles
printing
regional market/fair
shipbuilding
1 THE FOUNDING OF ST PETERSBURG in 1703 signalled a
shift to the West, but efforts to modernize the
country confronted the beliefs and practices of
many nationalities and religious groups, including
the Old Believers, who rejected reforms and
settled in northern forests. Serfdom was the
economic base of the central ‘black soil’ farming
regions. Bound to the land, serfs endured harsh
conditions, but some received training in the arts.
St. Petersburg and Moscow were the centers of
culture, but other cities were famed for special
resources and crafts.
5˚
50˚
St Columb‘s Cathedral
Tintern Abbey
Byland
Abbey
Dryburgh Abbey
Cleeve Abbey
Canterbury Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral
Ely
Cathedral
Durham
Cathedral
York Minster
Carlisle Cathedral
St Patrick’s
Cathedral
Salisbury
Cathedral
Winchester
Cathedral
Fountains
Abbey
Bolton Abbey & Priory
Woburn
Abbey
Fore
Abbey
Timoleague Abbey
Melrose Abbey
Bury St Edmunds
Waverley
Abbey
Rievaulx
Abbey
St Andrews
Dunblane Cathedral
Arundel
Castle
York House
Whitehall - (Charles I)
St James’s - (Charles I)
Stirling Castle
Falkland Palace
Nonsuch Palace
Knole HouseHampton Court Palace
(Charles I)
Oatlands
Palace
Queen’s House
Worksop ManorPlas Teg Hall
Castle Menzies
Rufford Old Hall
Beaulieu
Dundalk
Carrickfergus
Londonderry
Powis Castle
Little Moreton Hall
Blickling Hall
Burghley House
Wollaton Hall
Hardwick Hall
Aston Hall
Audley End
Hatfield House
Charlton House
Parham Park
Longleat
Montacute House
London
Deptford
Cambridge
Yarmouth
York
Newcastle
Blackburn
Rochdale
Bury
Liverpool
Chester
ConwayBeaumaris
Caernarvon
Birmingham
Nottingham
Hull
Kidderminster Coventry
Gloucester
Tewkesbury
Worcester
Chepstow
Teignmouth
Milford Haven
Tenby
Carmarthen
Bristol
Bridgewater
Southampton
Portsmouth
Shoreham
Pevensey
Winchelsea
Romney
Sandwich
Haverfordwest
Exeter
Otterton
Exmouth
Lyme Regis
Weymouth
Kingswear
St Helens
Melcombe Regis
Poole
Wareham
Plymouth
Fowey
Dartmouth
Sidmouth
St Ives
Edinburgh
Dumfries
Glasgow
Dumbarton
Inverary
Dundee
Perth
Leith
Aberdeen
Inverness
Dublin
WexfordWaterford
Cork
Baltimore
Drogheda
Oxford
Tyne
Trent
Severn
Thames
N O R T H
S E A
I R I S H
S E A
E N G L I S H C H A N N E L
BRISTOL CHANNEL
E N G L A N D
I R E L A N D
S C O T L A N D
W A L E S
1570s
timber from
West Indies
timber from
Baltic
Caen stone
from France
tapestries
from
Belgium
furniture, leather goods
from Low Countries
skilled labourers from
Low Countries, France, Italy
alabaster
searoutetransportingcoal
1
19
18
2
5
3
4
16
9
8
7
10
11
12
20
23
21
25
26
24
22
13
14
6
17
15
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 The English Renaissance, 1500-1666
country house
country house no longer standing
palace
outstanding interior
art collection (with collector)
cathedral
cathedral stripped
abbey dissolved
monastery destroyed
monastery converted to private house
sacred art destroyed
toolmakers
nails
metal goods
glass
stone
cloth
wool
cotton
important port
main route/road
imports
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 -
12 -
13 -
14 -
15 -
16 -
17 -
18 -
19 -
20 -
21 -
22 -
23 -
24 -
25 -
26 -
1577, seat of Clan Menzies
16th c, timber-framed
1591, for Elizabeth Shrewsbury
1580-88, by Robert Smythson, extensive windows
early 16th c, timber-framed, moated
medieval, 1587-96 modernized by Sir Edward
Herbert, only long gallery remains
1618-35, for Sir Thomas Holte, by John Thorp
1565-87, for William Cecil
early 17th c
1603-16, for 1st Earl of Suffolk, 1699 made royal
palace by Charles II
1611, expansion of royal palace at Hatfield
1607-12, for Sir James Newton, attributed to
James Thorpe
1572-80, by Sir John Thynne
finished 1599, for Edward Philips, early
use of H-shaped plan
1660‘s, rare surviving example of pre-18th c
Irish country house
1761 destroyed by fire
early 17th c
mid-16th c, for James V of Scotland
early 16th c, country house of Stuart monarchs
from 1538, for Henry VIII, 1556 completed by
Earl of Arundel, 1682 demolished
1538 ceded to Henry VIII, rebuilt, home to
Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, 1650 destroyed
remodelled for Cardinal Wolsey, 1514-28,
home to Tudor monarchs in 16th c
1540s acquired and enlarged by Henry VIII,
1566 granted to Thomas Sackville
from 1616, for Anne of Denmark, by Inigo Jones,
completed by Charles I, pure classical style
Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel 1586-1646
demolished 1670s, George Villiers,
1st Duke of Buckingham 1592-1628
BRITAIN 1500–1666
163
1 THE ARTISTIC AND INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT of the
Renaissance blossomed at the court of Henry VIII
(r.1509–47). Renaissance humanism can be discerned
in the writings of Thomas More (1478–1535). In
1512–18 the Italian sculptor Pietro Torrigiano
(1472–1522) created monuments for Henry’s
parents at Westminster Abbey in the latest Italian
idiom. The newly cosmopolitan court attracted the
German portraitist Hans Holbein (1497–1543) in
1526. Hampton Court Palace was begun in 1515
under the patronage of Cardinal Wolsey (1475–
1530). Terracotta roundels by Giovanni da Maiano
added an Italianate element to the inner courtyard.
The interiors, with superbly decorated
ceilings, imported and domestic tapestries, were by
English and Continental craftsmen. England’s
growing mercantile prowess during the sixteenth
century, gradually securing dominance over key
trade routes, underpinned artistic production.
NICHOLAS HILLIARD’S Young man leaning against a tree
among roses (c.1587). Miniature painting (limning) was
probably introduced from the Low Countries. By the
Elizabethan period, Hilliard (1547–1619) was leading an
indigenous tradition. His young man wears Elizabeth I’s
heraldic colours – black and white – and holds an
eglantine rose, also Elizabeth’s chosen symbol. Hand
on heart, and wandering in the forest like the lovers
of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the young man
declares his devotion for his queen.
painted at the court of Charles I while serving as a
diplomat. In this work can be seen the full glory
and extravagance of the European baroque.
The extravagance of Charles’s patronage, and
his absolutist claims, precipitated a disastrous
Civil War (1642–6), Charles’s execution in 1649,
and the iconoclastic and Puritan government of
Oliver Cromwell (r.1649–58). The word, as
exemplified in the works of John Milton
(1608–74), was preferred to the image, though
the portrait of Cromwell himself by Peter Lely
(1618–80) – straightforward, dour, and unflattering
– presents an ideal of Protestant art. The
restoration of the monarchy in 1660 saw a blaze
of Baroque ceremonial, such as the lavishly
orchestrated state entry of Charles II to London
in 1661. Disgraced Puritans saw in the Great
Fire of 1666, which decimated London, divine
retribution for the return to courtly decadence.
St Paul’s
Cathedral
St Bride’s
St Sepulchre
St EdmundSt Michael
Paternoster
St Stephen
Walbrook
St Lawrence Jewry
St Mary-le-Bow
Horse
Ferry
London
Bridge
Tottenham Court
Queen’s House,
Greenwich
Tower of London
Hampton Court
Palace
Mile End Road
Ratcliff Highway
Thames
NewRiver
W
albrook
Fleet
Ditch
LAMBETH
MARSH
Spital Fields
St Giles’s
Fields
Lincoln’s
Inn
Fields
Smithfield
Cornhill
Leicester Fields
MARY-LE-BONE
VAUXHALL
LAMBETH
WESTMINSTER
SOUTHWARK
WHITECHAPEL
ROTHERHITHE
BERMONDSEY
WAPPING
BETHNAL
GREEN
STEPNEY
SHADWELL
MILE
ENDCLERKENWELL
ISLINGTON
HOXTON
built by Romans,
renovated 1586, 1608, 1610
site of bridge
since Roman
times
1509 converted from
palace to prison
1 2
3
4
5
6
7
N
0
0
1 mile
1.5 kms
2 London c.1600
built-up area
London Wall
extent of fire damage Sept. 1666
(destroys 13,000 houses, 87 churches)
road
palace
theatre
Wren church rebuilt 1670s
after fire of 1666
CONTINENTAL ARTISTS IN LONDON
Hans Holbein Hans
Eworth Antonis
Mor Marcus
Gheeraerts Sir
Peter Paul Rubens Sir
Anthony Van Dyck Wenceslaus
Hollar (1497/8-1543)
From Augsburg. Portrait painter
at court of Henry VIII.
(fl.1540-1573) From Antwerp. In England by 1545.
Portraits of nobility and gentry.
(c.1516-76) From Utrecht. In England 1554-55 as
painter to Philip II of Spain.
(c.1520-90) From Antwerp. In England by 1570.
Worked at court of Elizabeth I.
(1577-1640) Flemish painter sent to England as a
diplomat of Philip II of Spain. Commissioned by
Charles I to paint ceilings of Banqueting House,
Whitehall
(1599-1641) From Antwerp. Worked in England
during reign of Charles I.
(1607-77) From Prague. Brought to England by
Earl of Arundel. Worked primarily as an engraver.
built 1598-99, destroyed by fire 1613, closed 1642 by Puritans
built 1613-14, closed 1656
built 1587, closed 1606
residence of Archbishop of Canterbury since 1200, Great Hall rebuilt 1600
designed by Inigo Jones for James I 1603-25, decorated by Rubens 1629-34
built 1532-40 by Henry VIII
piazza and market square developed 1556 after designs by Inigo Jones
1 Globe Theatre -
2 Hope Theatre -
3 Rose Theatre -
4 Lambeth Palace -
5 Whitehall Palace -
6 St James’s Palace -
7 Covent Garden ART,
EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
162
THE STUART ASCENDANCY
Scotland and England were united when James VI
of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603. During
the previous century Scottish architecture had
absorbed Renaissance influences, seen in the
portrait medallions and buttresses at Falkland
Palace, Fife. Little survives of the sacred arts of
medieval Scotland as a result of the extreme
iconoclasm of the sixteenth century.
A unified Britain, renowned for its maritime
expertise, began to trade with the East and West
Indies. Exotic imports – silk and spices from the
East, timber from the Caribbean – became
available. This period saw the founding of the
earliest British colonies, and international
trade greatly increased the country’s wealth.
THE ENGLISH BAROQUE
After the Act of Union, the Stuart dynasty, under
James I (r.1603–25) and his son Charles I
(r.1625–49), gradually assumed the cultural
trappings of an absolute monarchy. Vernacular
architectural traditions were abandoned. The
work of Inigo Jones (1573–1652), such as the
Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619–22), brought
Classical and Palladian influences to England.
The Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
IN 1500 MANY ASPECTS of life and culture in
the British Isles continued much as they had
throughout the medieval era. The period
covered here, concluding with the Great Fire of
London in 1666, was one of remarkable
achievement and innovation in architecture
and the visual arts, coupled with social,
economic, political and religious convulsions.
REFORMATION ICONOCLASM
For the first three decades of the sixteenth
century, the Church, and especially the great
monastic foundations across Britain, remained
centres of wealth and artistic excellence. The
richness of late-medieval sacred visual culture
was abruptly terminated by the Reformation.
Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy of 1534 was
aimed primarily at securing him a divorce. It
was followed swiftly by the dissolution of the
monasteries, ending a major source of
patronage for the arts, and a wave of
iconoclasm which swept away many of the
glories of Gothic stained glass, ceramics,
metalwork, textiles and wall-paintings.
In many cases (such as Rievaulx in Yorkshire,
and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk), the monastic
buildings themselves were left as ruins. Monastic
wealth was distributed to Henry’s supporters
among the aristocracy, resulting in an
expansion in the building of country houses.
THE COURT OF THE VIRGIN QUEEN
The age of Elizabeth I (r.1558–1603) revealed the
full possibilities for the arts under a Protestant
regime. The rich literary and musical culture of
the period found counterparts in the secular
decorative arts, and miniature painting
attained the highest levels of excellence.
The growing wealth and confidence of the
aristocracy and gentry found cultural
expression in the design and decoration of
country houses, which became the defining
architectural form of the period. Fortifications
were no longer necessary, and the availability
of glass, as well as the influence of classicizing
styles, produced new architectural forms.
Noblemen who occupied the highest ranks
of government received large financial rewards,
and were able to create grandiose country
houses. Elizabeth’s chief minister, William Cecil
(1520–98), built Burghley House. Edward
Seymour (c.1506–1552), ruler (‘Protector’)
during the reign of the boy king Edward VI
(r.1547–53) created Longleat House, Wiltshire.
BRITAIN 1500-1666
HARDWICK HALL, built of local Derbyshire sandstone,
impresses upon the viewer a sense of the dynastic
ambitions of Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury
(‘Bess of Hardwick’), by whom it was built between
1591 and 1597. The architect, Robert Smythson,
incorporated medieval elements, such as the tall,
encircling towers, as well as the Renaissance loggia
and balustrade. The interiors feature rich
tapestries, portraits in oils and elaborate
decorative plasterwork.
2 TUDOR AND STUART LONDON. London was by far the
largest city in Britain in 1500 and has remained so
ever since. The centre of court and government
and a major mercantile and financial centre,
London was home to the finest practitioners of the
arts, from silversmiths and silk-weavers to
plasterers and painters. Continental artists from
Holbein to Van Dyck, Rubens and Lely found
patronage at the English court. The theatre,
though considered suspect by Puritans, thrived
during this period, the age of Marlowe,
Shakespeare and Jonson.
BRITAIN 1666–1800
165
10˚ 5˚ 0˚
55˚
Sl
Sl
Sl
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
M
M
M
L
L
L
L
L L
L
L
L L
L
L
L
L
L L
L
G
G
G
G
G
London
Colchester
Brighton 14
Dover 27
Cambridge 24
York 84
Newcastle 132
84 Liverpool
Bolton
Preston
Bradford
Chester
36 Birmingham
Stourbridge
63 Hereford
Nottingham
36 NorwichDerby
Hull
Whitby
Leeds 84
Manchester 80
Sheffield 60
Stafford
24 Ipswich
Swansea
Kilkenny
Newry
Cookstown
75 Shrewsbury
Stoke-on-Trent
Coventry
Gloucester 39
40 Bristol
Bath 30
Southampton
40 Exeter
Plymouth
Edinburgh 230Glasgow
Dublin
Belfast
Oxford 13
Wedgwood factory
founded 1759
Ty
ne
Dee
T
hames
N O R T H
S E A
IRISH SEA
E N G L I S H C H A N N E L
BRISTOL CHANNEL
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
ENGLANDIRELAND
SCOTLAND
WALES
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
2 Industrial Britain, c.1800
source of granite
source of limestone
source of marble
source of sandstone
source of slate
iron works
shipbuilding
major dock development
booming city
glass
pottery
cutlery
woollens/cloth/cotton
silk
coalfields
turnpike road
network, 1750
journey time from
London, in hours
L
G
M
S
Sl
Bath 30
3 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON was a recognizably
modern city, as seen in Hogarth’s lively ‘modern
moral subjects’. Coffee houses provided meeting
places for artists and literary figures, patronized by
wealthy merchants as well as the aristocracy whose
Palladian townhouses dignified the city. Elegant
West End developments, such as Hanover Square,
provided an ideal backdrop for polite society.
amateur draughtsmen of the leisured classes
would be accompanied by a drawing teacher.
The artists Paul Sandby and Thomas Hearne
were among their number. After the beginning of
the French Revolution in 1789, travel in Europe
became more difficult, sometimes impossible,
focusing even greater attention on the beauties
of the local landscape. Landscape painting,
however, was a precarious profession. Thomas
Gainsborough (1727–88), a native of Suffolk,
sustained his fashionable lifestyle by selling
portraits of exceptional elegance; but his letters
reveal a preference for the creation of idyllic rustic
landscapes. Richard Wilson, a Welsh landscape
painter deeply influenced by Claude
(1604/5–1682), pioneered a classical landscape
style in Britain, painting subjects such as the
Cader Idris and Dinas Bran mountains in
Wales, but received scant patronage.
BIRTH OF A MODERN ART WORLD
The organization of artistic life in London
underwent profound changes during this
period. The court painters Godfrey Kneller and
James Thornhill had led small academies in the
early eighteenth century, which were succeeded
by William Hogarth’s St Martin’s Lane Academy
(active 1735–67). None of the many attempts to
organize the profession, however, had a fraction
of the impact made by the Royal Academy of Arts.
Founded in 1768, with Joshua Reynolds (1723–92)
as its first President, the Academy assured its
forty members of social and intellectual status,
BEGUN IN 1699, Castle Howard is a magnificent
country house set in the Yorkshire countryside.
Various members of the Howard family financed its
construction and decoration, which was completed
only in 1811. Its dramatic outline and spectacular
detailing belie the fact that it was the first building
designed by the dramatist John Vanburgh.
T h a m e s
Lam
beth
M
a
r s h
Tuthill Fields
Cavendish Square
Soho Square
Bloomsbury
Square
Charing
Cross
Covent Garden
Piccadilly
St James’s
Square
Westminster
Abbey
Westminster
Bridge
St James’s
Palace
St James’s Park
Hyde
Park
19
20
21
22
23
40
41
42
43
4849
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
44
4546
47
24
33
37
39
38
35
1,4,5,6
36
34
27
28
29
30
31
32
25
26
12
12
9
11
3
1
8
10
14
13
7
2,3,6
3
5
18
15
16
17
N
0
0
500 yards
500 metres
3 London
area of late 17th-century development
development c.1710-50
development c.1750-1800
structure now destroyed
Studios and homes of artists
1 - Hogarth
2 - Hayman
3 - Reynolds
4 - Lely
5 - Kneller
6 - Thornhill
7 - Hudson
8 - Wilson
9 - Zoffany
10 - Gravelot
11 - Roubiliac, Read
12 - Paul Sandby
Meeting places
13 - Old Slaughter’s Coffee House
14 - Tom’s Coffee House
Art schools and academies
15 - St Martin’s Lane Academy
16 - Society of Arts
17 - Royal Academy Schools
18 - Great Queen Street Academy
Churches, with architect and date
19 - St Clement Danes, Wren 1680-82
20 - St James, Wren 1676-84
21 - St Anne, Wren 1686-1717
22 - St George, James 1721-24
23 - St Mary-le-Strand, Gibbs 1714-17
24 - St George, Hawksmoor 1720-30
25 - St Peter, Gibbs 1721-24
26 - St Martin-in-the-Fields, Gibbs 1722-26
Theatres, with architect and date
27 - Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Davenant 1658-1794
28 - Theatre Royal, Wren 1764; remodelled by Adam, 1775;
remodelled by Holland, 1794
29 - Opera House, Vanbrugh 1704
30 - Theatre Royal, Shephard 1792; remodelled by Holland, 1792
31 - Little Theatre (Theatre Royal from 1767), Potter 1720
32 - The Pantheon, Wyatt 1722
Academies and exhibition rooms
33 - Sir Godfrey Kneller’s Academy, 1711-23
34 - Sir James Thornhill’s Academy, 1724-34
35 - St Martin’s Lane Academy, 1735-67
36 - Great Exhibition Room from 1757
37 - British Museum, Montagu House, from 1759
38 - Royal Academy, Old Somerset House, 1771
39 - Society of Arts, 1754
Palladian mansions, with architect and date
40 - Burlington House, 1665; additions by Gibbs, 1715, 1719
41 - Queensbury House, Leoni 1721-23
42 - General Wade’s House, Burlington 1723
43 - Pembroke House, Campbell 1723
44 - Devonshire House, Kent 1730s
45 - 44 Berkeley Square, Kent 1742-47
46 - Chesterfield House, Ware 1747-52
47 - Spencer House, Vardy 1766
Adam-style mansions, with architect and date
48 - Lichfield House, Stuart 1764-66
49 - Londonderry House, Stuart 1774-82
50 - Melbourne House, Chambers 1771-76
51 - Landsdown House, Robert Adam 1761-68
52 - 20 St James’s Square, Robert Adam 1775-89
53 - Derby House, 1773-75; remodelled by Robert Adam
54 - The Adelphi, Adam brothers 1768-74
Other important monuments, with architect and date
55 - Somerset House, Chambers 1776-86
56 - The Admiralty, Ripley 1723-26
57 - The Horse Guards, Kent 1750-58
58 - Dover House, Paine 1755-58
59 - Paymaster General’s Office, Lane 1753
60 - The Treasury Building, Kent 1734-37
61 - Home of Sir John Soane (now Sir John Soane’s Museum), 1792
62 - Hanover Square, post 1714
2 BETWEEN 1760–80
industrial production
burgeoned, benefitting
from the availability of
fast-flowing water, coal
and iron. The
Staffordshire pottery
of Josiah Wedgwood
cutlery and silverware
from Sheffield or
woollen cloth from
Leeds achieved
growing renown.
while offering an annual juried exhibition for the
sale of work. It also provided a thorough artistic
education to generations of aspiring artists and,
in Reynolds’s Discourses (1769–90) it was underpinned
by a fully articulated body of theory. The
Academy was housed in William Chambers’s
grandiose Somerset House, where densely
hung exhibitions became fashionable events. It
signalled a new status for the arts, which
Reynolds considered to be commensurate with
the status of Britain as a major imperial power
and a centre of scientific innovation.
The Royal Academy of Arts successfully
established a professional elite, and its members
included two women artists, Mary Moser and
Angelica Kauffman. Art education was placed
on a professional footing. The middle-class
public who flocked to the Academy’s exhibitions
were, however, more enthusiastic as patrons of
landscape and portraiture than for the history
paintings which Reynolds aimed to promote.
The stage was set for the triumph of English
landscape painting in the Romantic decades
from the 1790s to the 1840s.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
164
Priory in Yorkshire. Great collections of classical
antiquities, particularly sculpture, were acquired
by the British aristocracy and gentry – the ‘milordi’
– on the European Grand Tour. This was also the
age of the landscape garden. At Stowe, temples
designed by John Vanburgh, William Kent and
James Gibbs are situated in an informal garden
designed in its evolving forms by Charles
Bridgeman and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. The
Gothic ‘folly’ became a favourite adornment, for
example at Harewood House in Yorkshire, and
Horace Walpole, author of The Castle of Otranto
(1765) transformed a Twickenham farmhouse,
Strawberry Hill, into an early masterpiece of
‘Gothick’, whose style contrasts with the Palladian
villas of Alexander Pope and David Garrick nearby.
TRAVEL, TOURISM AND LANDSCAPE
Towards the end of the eighteenth century,
educated tourists and artists alike began to turn
their attention to the natural scenery of the
British Isles. Guided by Rev. William Gilpin’s
picturesque tours of areas such as the Western
Highlands, the Lake District and the Wye Valley,
THE GREAT FIRE of London (1666) destroyed
much of the medieval city, including the great
Gothic structure of St Paul’s Cathedral. Despite
various proposals, one by Christopher Wren, the
capital was not transformed into a great Baroque
city, but largely retained its medieval street
plan. The lavish culture of the Restoration court
was epitomized by Sir Peter Lely’s portraits of
the King Charles II’s courtiers and mistresses.
THE AESTHETICS OF THE GREAT ESTATE
This was the great age of country-house building,
as profits from landed estates burgeoned, owing
to new farming techniques, and the aristocracy
invested in profitable mercantile and industrial
ventures. Country seats of the aristocracy
included such palatial structures as
Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Blenheim
Palace in Oxfordshire and Powerscourt House
near Dublin in Ireland. Distinguished not only
by their sophisticated adaptation of Palladian
architecture, these ‘stately homes’ contain
superlative examples of a wide range of
decorative arts, from the work of the wood
carver Grinling Gibbons at Petworth in Sussex
to furnitute by Thomas Chippendale at Nostell
BRITAIN 1666-1800
1 DESPITE THE increasing
influence of the
bourgeoisie, the eighteenth
century was dominated
culturally, politically and
socially by the aristocracy
and gentry. A large number
of great country houses
from this period have
survived intact, revealing
the extremely high quality
of decorative art production
in this period, as well as the
lavish collections acquired at
home and abroad.
5˚ 0˚
50˚
Au
Ag
en
Pb
Ag
London
Cambridge
Norwich
Lowestoft
Ipswich
York
Whitby
Grasmere
Kendal
Penrith
Liverpool
Betws-
y-coed
Bangor
Caernarfon
Keswick
Birmingham
Stoke-on-Trent
New Hall
Swinton
Derby
Loughborough
Pinxton
Sheffield
Leeds
Lancaster
Kidderminster
Worcester
ChepstowSwansea
Killarney
Bristol
Caughley
Bath
Aberystwyth
Exeter Wilton
Woodstock
Monmouth
Nantgarw
Axminster
Plymouth
Edinburgh
Kenmore Dunkeld
Kinross
Bothwell
Lanark
DumbartonTarbert
Inverary
Perth
Stirling
Glasgow
Dublin
Limerick
Cork
Oxford
Longton
Hall
Chatsworth
Taymouth Castle
Blarney Castle
Tintern Abbey
Goodrich Castle
Dolbadarn
Castle
Dinas BranValle Crucis Abbey
Drumlanrig
Seaton Delaval
Castle Howard
Erddig
Beaulieu
Dyrham
Park
Blenheim
Palace
Chatsworth House
Petworth
House
Moor Park
Royal Naval Hospital
Florence Court
Floors Castle
Yester House
Thirlestaine Castle
Mellerstain
Dalkeith
Park
Inverary Castle
Powerscourt
House
Attingham Park
Hagley Hall
Nostell Priory
Holkham Hall
Stowe
House
Woburn Abbey
Mereworth
Clandon Park
Chiswick House
Stourhead House
Rousham
Houghton Hall
Russborough House
Culzean Castle
Mount Stewart
Kenwood
House
Garrick’s Villa
Syon House
Osterley
Park
The Casino
Castletown House
Castle Coole
Belvedere
Westport House
Castle Ward
Kedleston Hall
Heaton
Park
Harewood House
Plas Newydd
Charlemont House
Gosford House
Dumfries House
Castle House
Slane Castle
Strawberry Hill
Headfort House
The Leasowes
Pope’s Villa
Kew Gardens
Tyne
Tees
Trent
Sev
ern
Mersey
Shanno
n
Lee
Thames
Loch Lomond
Falls of
the Clyde
Dargle
Forest of Dean
Coldwell
Rocks
Liffey
Belle Isle
Swallow
Falls
Avon
Wye
Dee
NORTH
SEA
A T L A N T I C O C E A N
I R I S H
S E A
E N G L I S H C H A N N E L
BRISTOL CHANNEL
Ben
Lomond
Snowdon
Skiddaw
Scafell Pike
Cadair Idris
Great
Sugarloaf
Saddleback/
Blencathra
Helvellyn
Latrigg
WICKLOW
MTS
E N G L A N DI R E L A N D
S C O T L A N D
WALES
Devil’s Bridge
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 The Age of Aristocracy, 1666-1800
major artistic and architectural centres
areas of artistic activity
regions important in the picturesque discovery
of Britain and the rise of landscape painting
artists touring the area
castle/fort/abbey
mountain
other physical feature
major country houses:
Baroque
Palladian
Neoclassical
Gothic
important interior
important garden/parkland
important art collection
carpet manufacturer
centre of furniture and cabinet-making
centres of ceramics:
creamware
earthenware
porcelain
stoneware
tin-glazed earthenware
centres of production of
metalwork and jewellery:
pewter
jet
wrought iron
electroplate
silver
iron and steel jewellery
pearl shell
ormulu
bronze
enamels
lead
brass
gold and silver
Pb
Ag
Au
Ag
en
Southwest
Ireland:
Carver
Barrett
Delane
Mullins
Roberts
Ashford
Fisher
Wheatley
Barry
Dublin and the
Wicklow Mts:
Carver
Barrett
Delane
Mullins
Roberts
Ashford
Fisher
Wheatley
Barry
North Wales:
Buck
Boydell
Wilson
P. Sandby
Gilpin
Ibbetson
Warwick Smith
Rowlandson
Turner
Western
Highlands:
Norie
P. Sandby
T. Sandby
A. Runciman
J. Runciman
More
Gilpin
Hearne
Naysmyth
Allan
Farington
Ibbetson
Lake District:
Gilpin
Beaumont
Hearne
Farington
Gainsborough
de Loutherbourg
Wheatley
Tourne
Dayes
Abbot
P. Sandby
Warwick Smith
Wright of Derby
Turner
Wye Valley:
Gilpin
Hearne
Turner
Girtin
WILLIAM HOGARTH’S Beer
Street epitomizes the robust
humour of this most
profound satirist. Published
in 1749 with a pendant Gin
Lane, the plate extolls the
wholesome virtues of beer:
everyone except the
pawnbroker thrives under its
influence.
Trade with the North
Netherlands, c.1600
political boundary, c.1550
navigable waterway
Imports
From Germany: wine and stone
From Russia: talcum, fish oil,
hides and furs
From Norway: stockfish
and timber
From Sweden: iron and weapons
From Prussia and Poland: grain,
rye, wax, flax, ash, tar and wood
From Scotland: wool, lead,
sheepskins and candles
From England: beer, fine cloth,
tin and baize
From Americas: gold and silver,
salt, timber, pearls, hides
From Caribbean: tortoiseshell
and ebony
From East Indies: pepper, nutmeg,
cloves and silk
From Italy: marble, recent art,
antiquities and luxury goods
From France: sail cloth,
salt and wines
From Spain: oil, salt, raisins,
wine, figs, sugar, cork,
semi-precious stone and spices
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
THE NORTH NETHERLANDS 1500–1800
167
Baltic and later by extensive global exploits.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century
Amsterdam, with little more than 10,000
inhabitants, still lagged behind her local
competitors; a century later she had overtaken
all, not only in size, but also in wealth, which
was increasingly related to the import of
precious commodities and raw materials often
from halfway around the globe. Iron from
Sweden was forged into arms, which
guaranteed the hegemony of the trading
classes in their worldwide ventures.
Amsterdam’s sudden riches, the envy of
Europe, forced her ‘upstart’ rulers to present
visual apologies in the shape of small oil
paintings with internationally recognizable,
moral stories. This genre of predominantly
Biblical history painting was the most popular
in Amsterdam until the second half of the
century, and was made famous by the city’s
most celebrated immigrant, Rembrandt.
THE DUTCH ART MARKET
Rembrandt first left Leiden for Amsterdam
soon after the concentric canal expansion
(1612–20) had created thousands of
prosperous homes which were seeking visual
aggrandizement and display. Besides history
paintings, many landscapes and portraits were
produced and an active art market developed.
The print industry also expanded, developing a
particular specialization in map-making. With a
second town expansion in the 1660s up to 300
more painters arrived, their work exported by
an increasing number of art dealers.
The clientele, boasting by then three or
more generations of established wealth, was
increasingly seeking refined opulence. This was
introduced in all genres, but best expressed in
exquisite still-lifes, full of allusions to exotic
imports. In the first half of the century
Amsterdam had asserted her power through
militia paintings, culminating in Rembrandt’s
Nightwatch (1642, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum).
During the second half of the century marine
painting reflected the Anglo-Dutch conflicts,
fought out in a series of spectacular sea battles.
Other cities like Amsterdam profited
from immigration and overseas exploits, but
JAN VERMEER, THE ART OF PAINTING, 1662–5. Probably
made in connection with a new building for the Delft
painters' guild, this large work not only documents
the city's refinement, but celebrates
the art of painting in general. The painter, dressed
according to a much earlier fashion, portrays an
introverted young woman, elegantly attired as the
muse of history. In an interior richly decorated with
marble and aristocratic Delft tapestry, she poses
against a wall map of the Northern and Southern
Netherlands. The values represented in the painting
include an interest in the long pedigree of local
painting, in secretive female beauty, in learning, in
spacious, high-class environments and patriotism.
1
2
5
6
7
8
9
10
43
111213
Haarlem Amsterdam
Alkmaar
Enkhuizen
Utrecht
Middelburg
Dordrecht
Leeuwarden
Zwolle
Arnhem
Zutphen
Nijmegen
Breda
Antwerp
Maastricht
’s Hertogenbosch
Kampen
Deventer
Groningen
Rotterdam
Delft Gouda
The Hague
Leiden
Rhine
Vecht
Kr
om
m e Rijn
Scheldt
Waal
M
euse
Amst
el
Vl
iet
ZUIDER
ZEE
N O R T H
S E A
UTRECHT
DRENTHE
GRONINGEN
BRABANT
GELDERS
LIMBURG
LIÈGE JÜLICH
(GULLIK)
EAST
FRIESLAND
CLEVES
OVERIJSSEL
FRIESLAND
FLANDERS
HOLLAND
ZEELAND
COLOGNE
M
Ü
N
STER
N
0
0
80 miles
50 kms
2 THE FOUNDATION of the East Indies Company in
1602 followed by that of the West Indies Company
in 1621, fortified single enterprises through
unification. Some individual merchant families
continued within established trades such as grain.
variations in these and other factors may
explain the striking differences in the type of
painting produced in each of them. For
example, Delft allowed only a limited import
of skilled labour mainly for her new, capitalintensive,
tapestry industry. It remained a
small, clean, conservative community in which
Jan Vermeer could create his genteel, light and
spacious interiors, draped with tapestries and
peopled with dreamy, dignified citizens.
Leiden, in contrast, needed a large workforce to
ensure that her labour-intensive wool industry
flourished. Immigrants filled all available living
space, providing the context
for the small paintings of shallow and dark
interiors by Leiden’s most famous painter
Gerrit Dou. The elite of Utrecht, on the other
hand, continued the traditions of the former
bishopric and its landed aristocracy and
patronized painters who travelled as a matter
of course to Rome. They became the major
importers of Italian style and subject matter.
THE END OF AN ERA
The eighteenth century was a reaction to the
previous period of aggressive wealth and art
accumulation. Capital was invested, and art
collections were passed on from generation to
generation, meaning that fewer painters found
a market. If they succeeded, it was often with
decorative work, such as painted ceilings and
wall hangings with pastoral landscapes and
classical allegories (De Lairesse) or with
flower paintings (Ruysch). Genre painting
concentrated on refined interiors (Ochtervelt,
Schalcken, Van der Werff). Cornelis Troost
(1696–1750) in Amsterdam was the only painter
who satirized this establishment satisfied with
living off its former glory.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
166
SINCE THEIR ORIGINS in around the
twelfth century the cities in the fertile
delta of the two great northern European
rivers, the Rhine and Meuse, had enjoyed
growing prosperity mainly due to
agriculture and trade. At first, they
concentrated on architecture – religious,
feudal and civic. But, by 1500, at the end
of the Burgundian period, towns such as
Haarlem and Leiden had started to
support other artistic activities as well.
The Church and the governing classes
patronized expensive art, for example
painted or sculpted altarpieces, silver
vessels, portraits and illuminated
manuscripts. Simultaneously the young
print industry satisfied a new bourgeoisie with
images of a more varied subject-matter, distributed
more widely at lower cost.
THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
Yet artistic production came to a virtual halt in 1568
when different, discontented groups brought about a
revolt against the ‘foreign’ Roman Catholic Church
and the centralized government of the equally
‘foreign’ Spanish Habsburgs, who in 1515 had
inherited the feudal titles to the Netherlands.
Although this conflict was to continue for 80 years,
in 1579 the Seven Northern Provinces succeeded in
establishing a new state, a federal republic.
The young republic’s fate was strongly influenced
by her embargo of Antwerp after this formidable
trading and banking centre
had come under control of the Spanish enemy
(1585). The exodus of Protestant merchants and
craftspeople, including artists, benefited the
northern cities, above all Amsterdam. The character
of Amsterdam’s citizens was shaped by the
disadvantages of their original landless, waterlogged
situation, which spurred them on to take advantage
of their geographical position, first by trading on the
THE NORTH NETHERLANDS 1500-1800
AMSTERDAM’S NEW TOWN HALL
(1648), the largest secular
structure in Europe before
Louis XIV erected his palace
in Versailles, was constructed
from German Bentheim
stone, with the grandiose
citizen’s hall entirely clad in
white Italian marble. With its
floor inlaid with maps of the
earth and the heavens, the
building epitomized in its
use of materials and
decoration the city’s prime
position in world trade.
Haarlem
1245
Amsterdam 1304
Utrecht
1122
Middelburg
1217
Dordrecht 1150
Rotterdam 1340
Delft 1246
The Hague
Leiden 1206
Rhine
Gouwe
Scheldt
Schie
V
liet
Am
stel
N O R T H
S E A
ZUIDER
ZEE
U T R E C H THOLLAND
Z E E L A N D
Dunes
D
u
n
e
s
N
0
0
40 miles
25 kms
2 2019
1 431
210
1 5
212
2
3 421
1 222
Year Population
1500 - 12,000
1560 - 14,000
1622 - 40,000
1700 - 50,000
1800 - 19,000
Town hall, Doelen
Weighhouse, Meat Hall
16th C: M. van Heemskert, H. Goltzius
17th C: H.Vroom, P. Saenzedam, C.W. Heda
F. Hals, J. Leyster, M. Molenaar,A. van Ostade
S. Ruisdael, L. de Key, J. van Campen, P. Post
16th C: M. van Heemskert, H. Goltzius
17th C: J. van der Velde; H. Segers
Year Population
1501 - 12,000
1561 - 27,000
1623 - 105,000
1701 - 140,000
1801 - 205,000
Town hall,Weighhouse, Doelen
Houses of Corrections, Stock Exchange,
Offices of E.I. & W.I. Co, Doelen,Arsenal, Orphanages
Theatre,Town Hall, Hospitals,Almhouses,Admiralty
Warehouse,Wharf, Inns
16th C: J. Cornelisz, D. Jacobsz, D. Bazendsz
17th C: P. Lastman, Rembrandt, H.Avercamp,
G. van Coninxloo, H. Segers, E van der Velde,
Ph. Koninck, B. van der Helst, F. Bol, G. Flinck, G. Metsu,
A van Everdingen, J. van Ruisdael, M. Hobbema,
A van der Neer, P. de Hooch, E de Witte,
W. van de Velde I,II, H. de Keyser, J. van Campen
Vingboons Bros
16th C: C.Anthonisz, D. Barendsz
17th C: Rembrandt van Rijn, H. Segers
Year Population
1502 - 15,000
1560 - 26,000
1624 - 35,000
1702 - 41,000
Citadel,Town hall, Bishop's Palace
Mint, University
16th C: J. Gossaert,A. Mor, J van Scorel
17th C: J.Wttewael,A. Bloemaert,
P. Moreelse, C. van Poelemburg,
H.Terbruggen, G. Honthorst,
D. van Baburen, J. van Biljert,
R. Savery
Year Population
1504 - 14,000
1564 - 16,000
1626 - 44,000
1704 - 72,000
1800 - 63,000
Burch, Count's prison,
Town hall
Town Hall, Dike reeve,
University, Botanical garden,
Theatre,Weighhouse, Serge hall
16th C: C. Engelbrechtsz, L. van Leyden
17th C: J. van Goyen, G. Dou,
Jan Steen, F. van Mieris
16th C: Lucas van Leyden
Year Population
1500 - 15,000
1560 - 16,000
1622 - 18,000
1700 - 22,000
1800 - 18,000
Town hall, Doelen
Mint
16th C: J.J. Doudijn
17th C: G. and A. Cuyp,
S. van Hoogstraten,
J. de Bischop, N. Maes,
A. de Gelder
Year Population
1501 - 3,000
1561 - 8,000
1623 - 45,000
1701 - 50,000
1800 - 58,000
Stock Exchange,Town hall, Doelen,
E.I. Co Building, Dike reeve office,
Admiralty building, statue of Erasmus
17th C: J. Porcellis, S. de Vlieger,
W. Buytenwech, H. Sorgh,
Saftleven Bros, L. de Jong,
E. van der Neer,A. van der Werff
Year Population
1502 - 10,000
1562 - 14,000
1624 - 23,000
1702 - 19,000
1800 - 13,000
Town hall
New Town Hall, Meat Hall
E.I. Co building,Arsenal,
Artillery house
17th C: M.Van Mierevelt,
C. Fabritius, J.Vermeer
P. de Hoogh
Year Population
1503 - 3,000
1563 - 7,000
1625 - 16,000
1703 - 30,000
1800 - 38,000
Castle, Government offices,Town hall,
Doelen
Doelen, Princely palaces
17th C: J. van Ravensteyn, J. van Goyen,
A. Hanneman,A. van Beyeren
18th C: D. Marot, J. de Wit, C.Troost
17th C: E. van de Velde
2 78
Year Population
1500 - 8,000
1562 - 15,000
1622 - 28,000
1702 - 30,000
1800 - 15,000
Town hall
E.I. Co warehouse
17th C: A. Bosschaert, B. van der Ast,
A. van der Venne
1 THE DIFFERENT SOIL and water
conditions that influenced
the first siting of the Dutch
cities resulted in their
acquiring different civic
characters, experiencing
different historical
developments and ultimately
creating different types of
art. After 1500 the medieval
towns grew phenomenally,
some supported by newly
drained polderland. The
most decisive change in civic
life took place between 1590
and 1630, when Protestants
fleeing persecution in
Catholic countries took
advantage of new
possibilities for world trade.
Commerce was fed by
imports from all parts of the
globe. Earlier established
industries, such as dairy and
textile production and
brewing, were turned into
more capitalist and
specialized enterprises,
profiting from fresh export
opportunities. Painting and
printmaking enjoyed a
similar expansion, becoming
part of a prestigious luxury
trade. Sculpture, by contrast,
became a rare art form used
for civic display – for
example within the
Amsterdam townhall or for
tombs of naval heroes.
1 Dutch Cities: Art and Commerce, 1500-1800
Major city, with date of first city privilege
Number of monastic buildings
Number of churches before Alteration
Number of churches after Alteration
Civic architecture before Alteration (c.1570-80)
Purpose-built civic institutions after Alteration
Administrative centre
Well-known artists and architects
Well-known printmakers
Major economic resources:
brewing
earthenware
fishing
flower bulbs
harbour
linen
2
19
20
light manufacturing
shipbuilding
silk
trade
woollen cloth
tapestry making
THE SOUTH NETHERLANDS 1500–1800
169
industrial production of art by anonymous
masters. Purchased speculatively by merchants,
goods were marketed along the trade networks.
Examples are sizable oak altarpieces with painted
wings and sculpture-filled interiors; oak and
walnut polychromed statuettes of Jesus and
Mary, whose nurturant appeal explains
Magellan’s gift of a Jesus ‘poupée’ to a Philippine
princess; and devotional reliefs carved in
Mechelen from English (Nottingham) alabaster.
THE CROSSROADS OF THE NORTH
Antwerp’s commercial supremacy was established
after the Portuguese spice staple moved there in
1501. Merchants poured in, making Antwerp the
pivot of global trade networks and Europe’s most
cosmopolitan metropolis. Many of its notable
sixteenth-century buildings were commercial: the
Beurs, the world’s first stock exchange, with 100
stalls reserved for art; the German merchants’
warehouse; shops publishing quality copper
engravings; the Plantin Press, which
monopolized the sale of religious texts in Spain
and its colonies; and a tapestry sales hall.
Tapestry, the most sumptuous commodity,
woven in Brabantine and Flemish cities, required
Spanish wool and Italian silk thread. By the
THE COLLECTION pictured in
this painting, The
Allegory of Sight (1617)
by Jan Brueghel the Elder
and Peter Paul Rubens,
reflects the eminence of
the South Netherlands as
an art centre. When
hostilities ceased in the
early seventeenth
century, money which
had previously been used
for warfare was now
redirected to peacetime
concerns, notably the arts
and sciences. The
Archdukes gave their
enthusiastic support to
these pursuits. In this
painting, Flemish art
predominates, but
classical sculpture,
scientific instruments and
rarities are also well
represented, evidence of
the cultivated milieu of
this Habsburg court.
20˚10˚0˚
40˚
50˚
I
C
E
E
St
Ma
St
Ma
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
L
L
L
L
L
L
Verona
Hamburg
Amsterdam
Delft
Venice
Seville
Pavia
Genoa
Cologne
Rubens
Rubens
Van Dyck
Van Dyck
Brueghel
Snyders
Brueghel
Rubens
Snyders
Rubens
van Dyck
Snyders
Rubens
Snyders
Rubens
Van Dyck
Snyders
and many others
Rubens
Rubens
Rubens
Snyders
Seine
Loir
e
Rhône
E
bro
Tagus
Od
er
Rhine
Elbe
N O R T H
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
BALTIC
SEA
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
PYRENEES
A L P S
G R E AT
B R I TA I N
PAPAL
STATES
MILAN
BAVARIA
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
DENMARK
O T T O M A N
E M P I R E
K.DOM
OF
NORWAY
S W E D E N
BOHEMIA
SOUTHERN
NETHERLANDS
TUSCANY
P O L A N D
KINGD
O
M
OFNAPLES
A
N
D
SICILY
SARDINIA
SICILY
NETHERL
ANDS
SAXONY
S P A I N
PORTUGAL
F R A N C E
to the Americas
from Caribbean and E. Indies
from
India
from Africa, India
New Spain
to the West Indies
from Guatemala
from the Americas
from Caribbean and E. Indies
N
0
0 450 kms
300 miles
Artists who returned
to the Netherlands
de Vriendt
Coebergher
Francart
Rubens
Huyssens
Duquesnoy
Quellinus I
2 The South Netherlands in an International Context, 1500-1800
border of Holy Roman Empire, 1721
exports from the Southern Netherlands:
tapestry
paintings
prints and books
sculpture
carved Brabantine oak altarpieces, 1500-1550s
art cabinets, 17th century
lace
silk
diamonds
export of tapestry expertise, 17th century
countries playing host to
17th-century painters
imports/local production centres:
copper
stone/marble
ebony
ivory
tortoise shell
gold and silver
diamonds
cochineal
indigo
Cu
St
Ma
L
E
C
I
2 STRATEGICALLY SITUATED, the South Netherlands in
the sixteenth century was an art emporium where
mass-produced goods were distributed to all
compass points along extensive trade networks. In
the seventeenth century trendsetting artists, such
as Rubens and Van Dyck, personally transmitted
their style abroad, as well as absorbing cultural
influences from far-flung places.
seventeenth century, Flemish expertise was in
such demand that princely patrons lured
weavers to foreign cities to found competitive
shops. Another wall covering, cordwain (made
of leather), was a Mechelen specialty.
With the arrival of the Archdukes, the region
became the northernmost Habsburg bulwark
against Protestantism. To this end, ecclesiastical
institutions assumed a formidable propagandistic
role. Substantial sums were expended on
pilgrimage centres, such as Scherpenheuvel, new
churches were styled in the Roman Baroque
manner, old churches were repaired, and up-todate
decor – windows, choirscreens, altarpieces –
was incorporated. Antwerp gives some indication
of this intense activity: ten cloisters were
founded between 1607 and 1621 and, at roughly
the same time, Rubens’s shop turned out some
60 altarpieces. Court culture offered Flemish
painters international opportunities to fashion
political imagery, court portraits and paintings for
picture galleries, a new symbol of princely or
aristocratic status. Flemish painters had always
travelled south; in the seventeenth century
many, such as Rubens and Van Dyck, embarked
on lengthy Italian sojourns. Their reputations
spread south of the Alps, and the international
Baroque idiom was widely diffused.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
168
THE SOUTH NETHERLANDS, a sovereignty
only during the reign of Albert and Isabella
(1598–1621), was a Habsburg territory governed
from afar. Still, it profited from its integration
within the Empire, as three examples illustrate.
The art cabinet originated in Antwerp c.1620,
when collecting rarities became fashionable. Its
fabrication required ebony and tortoiseshell
from the Indies and ivory from Ceylon and west
Africa; these arrived in Antwerp via Lisbon and
Cádiz. Another instance is diamonds, carried by
Portuguese merchants from India for cutting in
Antwerp. Antwerp’s dyeing industry depended
on American cochineal and indigo.
The Iberian peninsula was a primary market
for products from the South Netherlands.
Numerous art cabinets were exported there, as
well as oil paintings on copper and inexpensive
watercolours on linen. Thousands of pictures
were sent on to New Spain and the West Indies.
Markets outside the Empire were tapped too.
One estimate claims that one-third of the
sixteenth-century pictures collected in Florence,
Genoa and Venice were of Netherlandish origin,
with landscape the preferred subject.
AN ABUNDANT LAND
Natural resources abounded for architecture,
sculpture and church furnishings: clay (for brick),
sandstone, limestone, bluestone and marble. The
latter included touchstone from Dinant and
Namur, Tournai blue-black, and red and
variegated colours from Rance. A brownish-ochre
marble from Hainault was used at St Peter’s in
Rome. Only white marble was unavailable locally
and had to be imported from Italy. Coal and iron
from the Ardennnes and Liège supported small
arms and armour industries in Antwerp and
Liège, but other manufactures – engraving plates,
picture supports and scientific instruments –
depended on copper imported via Hamburg.
Extensive oak and walnut stands furnished
wood for sculpture, picture supports and
timber. Flax from Flanders was used to make
thread for damask, linen, canvas and lace.
Two periods are remarkable. The years
between 1500 and the 1560s were characterized
by entrepreneurial innovations. The period from
1600 to 1650 was distinguished by the CounterRefomation
and court culture. The most notable
sixteenth-century innovation is the quasiTHE
SOUTH NETHERLANDS 1500-1800
THE ANTWERP JESUIT CHURCH
(as depicted by William
Schubart von Ehrenberg,
oil on canvas, 1667) was
completed in 1621. The
church was built in
anticipation of the
canonization of the
order’s founder Ignatius
of Loyola, and in
recognition of the Jesuits
as Catholicism’s most
militant defenders. The
edifice symbolized the
triumph of the CounterReformation
in the
Habsburg Netherlands.
No expense was spared:
Italian marble dressed
the severe interior, while
Rubens, the foremost
Netherlandish master,
furnished paintings and
sculptural designs, and
advised the Jesuit
architect Huyssens.
8˚
52˚
51˚
7˚6˚5˚4˚3˚2˚
R
R
R
R
B
B
B
B
LL
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
T
T
Middelburg
The Hague
Rotterdam
Utrecht
Zutphen
’s-Hertongenbosch
Maastricht
Saint Truiden
Asse
Diegem
Vilvoorde
Scherpenheuvel
Antwerp
Ghent
Basècles
Namur
Floreffe
Fontaine-
l‘Évêque
Moulin
Dinant
Agimont
Merlemont
Senzeille
Rance
Rochefort La Roche-en-Ardenne
Bouillon
Stavelot
Trier
Luxembourg
Liège
Cambrai
Oudenaarde
(Audenarde)
Bruges
Ypres
Lille
Dilbeek
Tournai
(Doornik)
Mons
Bouvignes
Soulme
Cerfontaine
Solre-Saint-Géry
Dunkirk
Artois
Courtrai (Kortrijk)
Louvain
Brussels
Enghien (Edingen)
Avesnes
Saint-Rémy
Écausinnes-Lalaing
Écausinnes-d’Enghien
Mechelen
(Malines)
Munster
Cologne
Scheldt
Rhine
O
u
rthe
Lesse
Meuse/M
aas
Sambre
Leie
N O R T H
S E A
FLANDERS
A R T O I S H A I N A U LT
TOURNAI
WALLOON
FLANDERS
C A M B R A I
L U X E M B O U R G
L I M B U R G
UPPER
GELDERLAND
B
R
A
B
A
N
T
F R A N C E
HOLY
ROMAN
EMPIRE
16th-18th C
Our Lady (Coebergher) 1609
Jesuit Church of St Michael (Hesius) 1650-71
16th C
Jesuit Church (Huyssens) 1615-21
16th-17th C: Cathedral of Sts Michael & Gudule
Carmelite Church (Coebergher) 1607-11
17th-18th C
17th C: DuQuesnoy
17th C: cordwain
16th-17th C: Coudenberg Palace (Coebergher)
1607-11, Grande Place, 1696-1700,
Palace of Charles Lorraine 1756
cordwain
1500-1685
until 1530s
16th-18th C
16th C: alabaster sculptures and reliefs, brass
lecterns, baptismal fonts, 17th C: Quellinus,
art cabinets 16th-17th C; gold and silver tableware;
and liturgical objects, keyboard instruments
16th-17th C: Cathedral of Our Lady; 17th C:
Church of St James
Print publisher J. Cock establishes shop;
Plantin Press established 1555
16th-17th C
to 1530s
16th C
17th C
16th-17th C watercolour
paintings on linen
16th C; Hieronymous Bosch
16th-18th C: 746 registered painters 1600-50
17th C: dyeing, lace, linen, silk, embroidered
trimmings; diamond cutting, pearls
Stock Exchange 1531-33, Tapestry Hall,
Town Hall 1561-65, Hansa Warehouse 1564-69,
Militia Company Hall 1631-33
mid-16th-18th C
to mid-16th C
damask linen
wooden devotional sculptures
(beeldjes/poupées de Malines)
16th-18th C, cordwain
16th C
N
0
0
30 miles
40 kms
1 South Netherlands, 1500-1800
frontier, 1609
Netherlands, 1609
Principality of Liège
tapestry
paintings on panel, copper, cloth
painting on glass
prints and books
carved altarpieces, to 1530s
sculpture
furnishings
fashion and fabrics
secular/residential architecture/civic structures
religious architecture
scientific instruments
armour
mining centres/quarries:
bluestone
limestone
marble
sandstone
touchstone
S
T
M
L
B
R
1 THE TERRAIN of the South Netherlands was
conducive to the transport of raw
materials and manufactures, thanks to its
mainly flat or undulating topography and
extensive network of rivers and roadways.
During the course of the sixteenth century,
deep-sea harbours were lost through
warfare, and Antwerp’s river port
blockaded, leaving only Dunkirk with
direct ocean access.
2 Swiss Diversity
Swiss languages:
French
German
Italian
Romansh
typical architectural style
GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND 1500–1650
171
sculptor Hubert Gerhard (1540/50–before 1621),
who may also have trained in Florence, worked
in Munich, Augsburg and Innsbruck. More
broadly, Counter-Reformation patronage by the
Jesuit order provided many opportunities for
artists in the second half of the sixteenth
century. Roman Catholics were not the only
ecclesiastical patrons in Germany. Martin
Luther himself dedicated the palace chapel at
Torgau, which has significant classicizing
decoration. It is considered the first chapel
conceived specifically for Protestant worship.
The German lands suffered terribly in the
Thirty Years’ War, and it is often thought that
artistic production stopped in these years. This
view comes largely from the painter and writer
Joachim von Sandrart (1606–88). But while
mid-fifteenth century, almost simultaneously in
Italy and Germany. Although many early prints
were either cheap devotional images or
propaganda, those made by the best masters in
Augsburg and Nuremberg were art objects of
the highest standard. Dürer’s engravings and
woodcuts were prized throughout Europe.
Dürer was fundamental to the artistic
culture of this period, for he embodied the
ideal ‘Renaissance man’ more completely than
any of his contemporaries. He was interested in
classical antiquity, and, unlike his peers, he
studied in Italy (1494–5 and 1505–7). He was a
close friend of humanists and intellectuals and
wrote a treatise on human proportion. All of
this influenced his work profoundly. More than
any other German painter, he approached art
as an intellectual.
RENAISSANCE ART IN SWITZERLAND
Dürer’s younger contemporary, Hans Holbein
the Younger (1497/8–1543), was born and
trained in Augsburg, but moved to Basle in
1515. Basle was a thriving intellectual and
artistic centre in the early sixteenth century,
drawing Dürer (as a student) and the humanist
Erasmus of Rotterdam, as well as Swiss artists
such as the goldsmith and draftsman Urs Graf
(c.1485–1527/29). There was a long tradition of
artistic contacts between Germany and
Switzerland. In the fifteenth century, the
German Konrad Witz (1400/10–1445/46) was the
most important painter working in Basle and
Geneva. Likewise, Italian-speaking parts of
Switzerland profited from close contacts with
northern Italy; the prominent Milanese painter
Bernardino Luini (c.1480/85–1532) provided a
number of works for the Catholic city of Lugano.
Many other Swiss cities, including Basle,
Geneva and Zurich, converted to Protestantism
in the 1520s. Religious painting, the most
attractive work for a painter, was banished in
the ensuing iconoclasm. Frustrated with this
artistic climate, Holbein left Basle in 1526 for
the court of Henry VIII (r.1509–47) in England.
Although the Catholic regions continued to
support devotional art, and there was still a
market for graphic works, portraits, and other
non-religious art in other regions, few
internationally important artists settled in
Switzerland after the 1520s.
REFORMATION GERMANY
It is often assumed that the arts in Germany
declined precipitously after the deaths of
Cranach and Dürer. The Reformation initiated
in Saxony by Martin Luther (1483–1546), and
the devastating Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), are
supposed to have crippled the artistic life of
the region. Significant projects were
undertaken throughout this period, however.
The Ottheinrichsbau of Heidelberg Castle was
begun around 1556, and the Friedrichsbau of
the same complex in 1601, both with rich
sculptural decoration. Munich prospered in the
same period. The ornate Antiquarium (begun
1563), which housed the Duke of Bavaria’s
collection of antique sculpture, was designed
by the Italian architect and antiquarian Jacopo
Strada (1515–88).
Strada, who was trained by Giulio Romano
(c.1499–1546), was crucial for the transmission
of Italian and classical forms and ideas to
northern Europe, but he was not alone. The
imperial sculptor Adriaen de Vries (1556–1626)
was trained in Florence by Giambologna
(1529–1608). He worked primarily in Prague,
but completed significant commissions for
German patrons, including two monumental
fountains for the city of Augsburg. The Dutch
2 THE EXTREME DIVERSITY of
the mountainous Swiss
landscape fosters an
extraordinary variety of
provincial building types.
This map shows only
a few of the many
traditional forms.
The variations can be
attributed to many
factors, including
practical limitations on
building sites, locally
available building
materials, and traditional
building techniques in a
given region. These
considerations are
directly related to
Switzerland’s tremendous
topographical and
climatic range.
8˚6˚
46˚
48˚
10˚
Konstanz
Zurich
Freiburg
Basle
Geneva
Lausanne
Bern
Lugano
L. Geneva
Rhine
L. Constance
L. Neuchâtel
L. Maggiore
A L P
S
FRANCHE-COMTÉ
DUCHY OF SAVOY
DUCHY
OF MILAN REPUBLIC OF
VENICE
H O L Y R O M A N E M P I R E
T Y R O L
N
0
0
50 miles
75 kms
PETER FLÖTNER, APOLLO FOUNTAIN (1532).
This fountain, which stood in the house of
the Nuremberg archers’ company, reveals the
sophisticated Renaissance interests of patricians in
that city. Its classical subject, form and proportions
were inspired by prints by Albrecht Dürer and the
Venetian Jacopo de’ Barbari (1460/70–1516), the
first Italian to work extensively in Germany.
Magdeburg and Heidelberg were destroyed
(including Heidelberg Castle, which survives
as a ruin), many other centres survived largely
unharmed, including Augsburg and
Nuremberg. Although there is some truth to
Sandrart’s comments, the German artistic
tradition survived this period, and was thus
poised for renewed growth at the end of the
seventeenth century.
Germanic Art in the
16th Century
Holy Roman Empire
borders of Swiss Confederation
modern borders of Germany
region of brick construction
region of oak and walnut sculpture
region of limewood sculpture
important painting workshops
important sculpture workshops
centres of large-scale bronze casting
terracotta decorative sculpture
centres of fine metalwork
centres of printmaking
and distribution
centres of book production
Natural resources:
marble quarries
limestone quarries
alabaster quarries
copper and silver mines
P
A
1
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
170
THE FIRST HALF of the sixteenth century
marks a high point in the art of the German
lands, which were a collection of principalities
grouped under the rule of the elected Holy
Roman Emperor. The painters Albrecht Dürer
(1471–1528), Matthias Nithart, called Grünewald
(1475/80–1528), and Lucas Cranach (1472–1553)
are the most familiar artists of the period, but
the artistic flowering extended far beyond their
works. Limewood, abundant in
the southern German lands, was ideal for
delicately sculpted figures and altarpieces, and
was exploited to its limits by Tilman
Riemenschneider (c.1460–1531) and others of
his generation. Masters in the north worked in
oak and walnut, harder woods that tend to yield
somewhat more blocky figures. Especially in
Augsburg and Nuremberg, where Italian
Renaissance principles were accepted almost
unconditionally, cast bronze sculpture was
produced at a very high level by Peter Vischer
(c.1460–1529), Peter Flötner (1485/96–1546),
and others. Printmaking was developed in the
GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND 1500-1650
LUCAS CRANACH THE YOUNGER, Last
Supper of the Protestants and the
Pope’s Descent to Hell
(c.1546). Cheap to produce and
distribute, prints were used
widely in the bitter religious
struggles of the Reformation.
Here Martin Luther stands in the
pulpit, blessing the Protestants
receiving the host on the left. On
the right, flaming hell consumes
monks, bishops, cardinals
and a pope.
14˚6˚
46˚
50˚
54˚
10˚
P
P
P
A
A
Geneva
Bern
Basle
Zurich
Salzburg
Innsbruck
Vienna
Freiburg
Strassburg
(Strasbourg)
Hamburg
Schwerin
Lüneburg
Wismar
Cologne
Güstrow
Wittenberg
Lübeck
Bremen
Münster
Lemgo
Magdeburg
Würzburg
Aschaffenburg
Heidelberg
Marburg
Leipzig
Erfurt
Mainz
Prague
Dresden
Stettin
Berlin
Brunswick
Torgau
Munich
Eichstätt
Passau
Augsburg
Ulm
Solnhofen
Nuremberg
Bamberg
Regensburg
Frankfurt
am Main
Rhine
Meuse
Elbe
Oder
Danube
BA LT I C S E A
A
L P S
N E TH
ER
L
A
N
D
S
LORRAINE
W E S T P H A L I A
BRUNSWICK-
LÜNEBURG
H O L S T E I N
MECKLENBURG
PRUSSIA
B R A N D E N B U R G
P
O
M
E
R
A
N
I
A
S A X O N Y
T H U R I N G I A
H O L Y R O M A N E M P I R E
BAYREUTH
HESSE
BADEN
LO
W
ER
PALATINATE
F R A N C O N I A
K I N G D O M O F
B O H E M I A
K I N G D O M
O F
P O L A N D
BAVARIA
S I L E S I A
WÜRTTEMBERG
SALZBURG
TYROL
A R C H D U C H Y O F
A U S T R I A
S W I S S C O N F E D E R AT I O N
1
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
16
17
14
15
2
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
Important artistic workshops
1 - Albrecht Dürer; Hans Süss von
Kulmbach: George Pencz
2 - Lucas Cranach I; Lucas Cranach II
3 - Hans Holbein the Elder; Jörg Breu;
Hans Burgkmair
4 - Hans Holbein the Younger
5 - Bartholomäus Spranger
6 - Albrecht Altdorfer
7 - Hans Baldung Grien
8 - Matthias Grünewald
9 - Bernt Notke
10 - Tilman Riemenschneider
11 - Veit Stross; Peter Vischer;
Peter Flötner
12 - Daucher family; Gregor Erhart
13 - Loy Hering
14 - Adriaen de Vries
15 - Philipp Brandin
16 - Hubert Gerhard
17 - Alexander Colin
1 DIFFERENT REGIONS of Germany
provided different materials used
in artistic production, helping to
define distinct local styles. While
many German and Swiss cities
specialized in the production of
certain goods, other centres,
including Augsburg and
Nuremberg, produced a variety
of arts at a high level for patrons
throughout Europe.
GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND 1650–1800
173
by Roman fresco painting, but other aspects of
their work come from Vienna and elsewhere.
A distinctive, highly decorative Rococo
architecture is found throughout southern
Germany, the legacy of the Asams, Johann
Baptist and Dominikus Zimmermann
(1680–1758 and 1685–1766), and others.
But if Roman and French styles were
prevalent in Germany, one need not look far to
discover other international influences. The
architecture of Johann Conrad Schlaun
(1695–1773) in Westphalia, for example, shows
the influence of nearby Holland, which is also
visible in Brandenburg. Balthasar Neumann
(1687–1753), perhaps the greatest German
architect of the eighteenth century, drew freely
on the work of Guarino Guarini (1624–1683) in
Turin. His best-known building, the residence of
the Prince-Bishop at Würzburg, demonstrates
the international interests of patrons and
artists. The fresco on the vault above the
monumental staircase is a masterpiece by the
Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo
(1696–1770).
SWISS ARTISTS ABROAD
Switzerland has four official languages, twentysix
cantons (confederate regions) and a variety
of religious confessions, all of which conspire
against artistic unity. Moreover, Switzerland has
always been strongly influenced by its larger
neighbours, and the reception of these
influences is to a large degree determined by
linguistic region. Thus when French-speaking
Geneva became a major financial centre in the
DRESDEN FROM THE RIGHT BANK OF
THE ELBE (1748) by Bernardo
Bellotto (1721–80), born in
Venice and trained by his uncle,
the famous Venetian painter
Canaletto (1697–1768). He made
a career as a view painter in
Central Europe, working in
Dresden, Vienna, Munich and
Warsaw. A number of artists
travelled from centre to centre
in this manner, carrying artistic
ideas with them from one
region to another.
10˚
50˚
60˚
Paris
Amsterdam
Stockholm
St Petersburg
Copenhagen
Berlin
Dresden
Breslau
Prague
Vienna
Salzburg
Munich
Augsburg
Würzburg
Hamburg
Münster
Cologne
Stralsund
Warsaw
Rome
Turin
Venice
Geneva
Versailles
S
eine
Rhine
Elbe
Oder
Vistula
Danube
A D R I A T I C
S E A
BA LT I C
S E A
N O R T H
S E A
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
H O LY R O M A N E M P I R E
SAVOY
F R A N C E
UNITED PROV
INCES
DENMARK-NORWAY
S W E D E N
R U S S I A
P O L A N D
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
major artist or architect associated with
main cities (and date of death)
1 - Guarino Guarini (d.1683);
Filippo Juvarra (d.1736)
2 - Giambattista Tiepolo (d.1770)
3 - Cosmas Damian Asam (d.1739);
Egid Quirin Asam (d.1750);
François Cuvilliés (d.1768)
4 - Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (d.1723);
Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt (d.1745)
5 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (d.1736);
Balthasar Permöser (d.1732)
6 - Andreas Schlüter (d.1714);
Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff (d.1753);
Antoine Pesne (d.1757)
7 - Balthasar Neumann (d.1753)
8 - Johann Conrad Schlaun (d.1773)
9 - Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (d.1728)
10 - Jules Hardouin-Mansart (d.1708);
Antoine Watteau (d.1721)
11 - Gianlorenzo Bernini (d.1680);
Francesco Borromini (d.1667)
2 THE POSITION OF GERMANY AND
SWITZERLAND at the heart of
Europe guaranteed the
reception of artistic ideas from
all sides. Paris and Rome were
most important, but
Amsterdam, Turin, Stockholm,
Venice, and other centres also
exerted more limited influences.
International and regional ideas
mixed, creating a remarkable
variety of artistic forms. Some
German centres were artistically
strong enough to exert their
own influence on other regions,
particularly to the east.
eighteenth century, its residents built Parisianstyle
apartments. Despite religious differences,
this region maintained close cultural ties with
France – Rousseau and Voltaire both lived in
Geneva. The German-speaking parts identified
more closely with Germany, and artistic
developments and exchange generally reflect
this. Likewise, the arts of the Roman Catholic,
Italian-speaking canton of Ticino were more
dependent on northern Italy.
After the Swiss Reformation, still lifes,
landscapes, portraits and civic paintings were
always in demand, and there were significant
religious commissions in Ticino. Nonetheless,
most of the finest Swiss artists pursued careers
elsewhere. Among many others, Angelica
Kauffman (1741–1807) worked in London and
Rome, Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli,
1741–1825) in London, and Anton Graff
(1736–1813) in Dresden.
Kauffman was an internationally important
proponent of Neoclassicism. Neoclassicism
dominated Europe and North America, but
German theorists and artists were central to its
formation. The writer and historian Johann
Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68) and his
acquaintance, the painter Anton Raphael
Mengs (1728–79), were essential to the rise of
historicism. Winckelmann and Mengs were
Saxon, but both worked in Rome (Mengs also
worked in Madrid). Their principles were
practised at the highest level by the architects
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) in Berlin
and Leo von Klenze (1784–1864) in Munich.
Germany at the Crossroads
of Europe, 1680-1750
Holy Roman Empire
borders, c.1721
Papal States
Brandenburg-Prussia
Poland and Electorate of Saxony
(united under same ruler
1697-1763)
Lands of the House of Habsburg
Hanover (united with
Great Britain since 1714)
Venetian lands
Bavaria
spread of artistic influences
2
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
172
GERMANY’ WAS A LARGE GROUP of semiindependent
principalities until unified in
1871. Until 1806, these were grouped together
in the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the
Austrian Habsburg dynasty. Some of these
territories were Roman Catholic, others
(particularly in the north) were fiercely
Protestant. The German lands are at the heart
of Europe, and have always been influenced by
the arts and culture of neighbouring countries.
In the Baroque period, the dominant influences
came from France and Rome, but variants were
found in each region.
COURTLY SPLENDOUR
Frederick II of Prussia (r.1740–86) commented
that every German prince considered his court
a reflection of Louis XIV’s Versailles, and
indeed a number of magnificent courts
emerged in the early eighteenth century, many
with a distinct French character. Brandenburg,
for example, had been a minor provincial
region, but Berlin emerged as an important
artistic centre at the end of the century when
the court patronized the work of the sculptor
and architect Andreas Schlüter (1659?–1714). In
Dresden, the Saxon Electors commissioned
new works and collected old-master paintings
on a grand scale beginning in this period. The
Palais im Grossen Garten (destroyed 1945) was
built in a French manner, but other influences
were at play as well. The architect Matthäus
Daniel Pöppelmann (1662–1736) and sculptor
Balthasar Permöser (1651–1732) developed a
flamboyant and distinctive baroque that
recalls the Roman tradition, which is best seen
in the Zwinger pavilion. This dichotomy of
French and Roman influences characterizes
much of German artistic production in this
period, and indeed much of central European
art as well. They were synthesized particularly
successfully in Vienna by the imperial architect
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach
(1656–1723).
A different resolution of these influences
was achieved in southern Germany. François
Cuvilliés (1695–1768), who was trained in
France, brought a glittery French Rococo to
Bavaria. In the same region the brothers
Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin Asam
(1686–1739 and 1692–1750) developed an
almost seamless blend of architecture and
decoration that is often described as ‘total
artwork’. The Asams were strongly influenced
GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND 1650-1800
EINSIEDELN ABBEY. The German architect Caspar
Moosbrugger (1656–1723) began work in 1702 on
the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, which was
completed in 1735. Moosbrugger, who became a
monk there, was involved in the design of a
number of other monasteries in Switzerland and
southern Germany. The church was decorated by
the Asam brothers, showing the
close cultural contact between
German-speaking Switzerland and
Germany. The monastery is
southeast of Zurich.
14˚6˚
46˚
50˚
54˚
10˚
Geneva
Bern
Basle
Mühlhausen
Zurich
ViennaLinz
Hamburg
Lübeck
Bremen
Würzburg
Heidelberg
Karlsruhe
Zweibrücken
Stuttgart
Mannheim
Hagenau
(Haguenau)
Kolmar
(Colmar)
Leipzig
Magdeburg
Quedlinburg
Halle
NaumburgWeimar
Berlin
Neubrandenburg
Pasewalk
Frankfurt
an der Oder
Mainz
Prague
Bautzen
Dresden
Munich
Augsburg
Kaufbeuren
Kempten
Nuremberg
Bamberg
Frankfurt
am Main
Paderborn
Kassel
Düsseldorf
Minden
Meuse
Rhine
Elbe
Oder
Danube
BALTIC SEA
A
L
P
S
UNITED
PRO
VINCES
NETHERLA
NDS
SPANISH
WESTPHALIA
BRUNSWICK-
LÜNEBURG
SCHLESWIG-
HOLSTEIN
MECKLENBURG
B R A N D E N B U R G
P
O
M
E
R
A
N
IA
SAXONY
THURINGIA
HESSE
T R I E R
LOW
ER PALATINATE
WÜRZBURG
UPPER
PALATINATE
B O H E M I A
B AVA R I AWÜRTTEMBERG
SALZBURG
A U S T R I A
SWISS CONFEDERATION
TICINO
1777 1764
1697
1774
c.1680 (re-established 1705 and 1764)
1752
1674
1766
post-1674
(re-established 1710)
1692
(re-established 1705)
1781
1773
1753
1786
1773
1751
1767
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 AFTER THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR, the
Académie Royale in Paris, founded
in 1648, and the academies in
Rome, Florence and Bologna
provided a model for artistic
education that was eagerly
absorbed in the German lands.
Often supported by the courts,
these academies provided training
in artistic theory and practice. Many
of the earliest German academies
were little more than informal
meetings to draw from nature. In
the eighteenth century most
northern European academies were
reorganized with a more formal
curriculum.
Recovery and Transformation
after the Thirty Years’ War
Holy Roman Empire
borders of Swiss Confederation
regions that suffered greatly during
the Thirty Years’ War
major art collections
pre-Thirty Years’ War
major art collections
post-Thirty Years’ War
centres destroyed in
the Thirty Years’ War
art collections plundered in
the Thirty Years’ War
academies and dates of foundation
major regional academies, post 1750
1
‘
Porte St Denis
Porte St Martin
Pont Marie
Le Palais
Seine
Seine
rueStJacques
rue de Vaugirard
rue St Honoré
rueStDenis
rueStMartin
elp
meTudeur
1
2
11
28
19
18
23
29
20
21
22
10
13
12
27 30
26
3
7
8
4
9
25
15
14
16 17
6
5
24
0 1 mile
FRANCE 1500–1650
175
THE RISE OF PARIS
After the French defeat at Pavia in 1525, Francis
was captured by Emperor Charles V and
detained in Madrid. In 1528 Francis announced
he was to make Paris his customary residence.
As a result, the Loire rapidly faded as the
‘locus’ of royal and court patronage. This was a
watershed for the centres of arts and
manufactures of the Loire, above all Tours and,
to a lesser extent, Orléans, long-established
centres for painters, book illuminators,
sculptors, luxury fabric manufacture,
enamellers, and tapestry makers.
From the 1520s Francis strove to make
Fontainebleau and its gardens a European
centre for the arts. He nurtured a school of
etchers and engravers at Fontainebleau, which
consisted of Italians, Frenchmen and Flemings.
He used his Venetian ambassador and agents
to acquire a fine collection of Greek and Latin
manuscripts. After the Sack of Rome in 1527 he
procured Rosso to paint frescoes and design
stucco frames in his gallery, and Scibec da
Carpi for woodwork inlay. Later, from Mantua
he lured Giulio Romano’s chief assistant,
Francesco Primaticcio. Benvenuto Cellini was
Francis’s star recruit in sculpture.
NICOLAS POUSSIN: The
Kingdom of Flora, 1631.
This picture for long has
been held to be the first
full refinement in the
synthesis of literary
symbolism and the
painter’s poetry. It is based
on the world of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, but
consciously does not depict
a scene or episode lifted
from the text. Poussin’s
patrons were the
‘cognoscenti’ of Rome and
Paris, and every history of
art casts him as the father
of Neoclassicism of the next
century.
The second half of the sixteenth century
was dominated by three ruinous civil wars of
religion, spanning the reigns of the last of the
kings of the House of Valois, Francis II, Charles
IX and Henry III, who was assassinated in 1589.
A subsidiary cause of dissent and bloodshed
was the considerable number of Italians in and
around the French court, presided over by the
queen mother, Catherine de Medici. Because of
the crisis, a succession of grand royal
architectural projects, planned for the Tuileries
and elsewhere, foundered. Sporadic
destruction of church artefacts and Calvinist
iconoclasm occurred across France.
THE BOURBON DYNASTY
In 1592 the last of the wars ended with the siege
and taking of Paris by Henri de Navarre, the first
of the House of Bourbon. As Henry IV, he
pursued a series of ambitious building projects
with indefatigable energy, all cut short or put on
ice by his assassination in 1610. The lengthy
and colossal ‘Grande Galerie’ linking the Louvre
to the Tuileries was, however, begun and
completed. The repopulation and rebuilding of
the capital was Henry IV’s key political and
economic priority, leading to two urban
initiatives, the Place Royale (now Vosges) and
the Place Dauphine, which were designed to
settle and root the elite and their attendant
trades and services in the capital. Henry even
tried to establish mulberry bushes for silk works
adjacent to the Place Royale, a failed attempt to
expand the industry north from Lyon.
Henry’s queen, who acted as regent for the
Dauphin Louis (XIII), was Marie de’ Medici. The
Luxembourg Palace was built for her on the
southern perimeter of Paris in a style
reminiscent of the Pitti Palace in Florence.
Between 1622 and 1625 Rubens produced 24
allegorical panels for one of the galleries of the
Luxembourg evoking events of 1620–21, for
which he was paid the immense sum of 20,000
crowns. Otherwise, patronage of foreign artists
was minimal. In the third quarter of the
century, many leading figures of the French
school, including Poussin and Claude, were
centred at Rome.
Louis XIII’s first ministers, the cardinals
Richelieu (d.1642) and his successor Mazarin
(d.1661), were both avid builders of enormous
town houses and of châteaux, and were eager
to fill them with artistic acquisitions.
Richelieu’s country palace at the model town of
Richelieu in Poitou was destined for the
display of works by Mantegna, Perugino and
Michelangelo, as well as those of French
contemporaries such as Poussin, patronized
by Richelieu himself. In 1652–3 Cardinal
Mazarin acquired the art collection of King
Charles I of England. A high proportion of the
most famous works, including Caravaggio’s
Death of the Virgin and Van Dyck’s full-length
portrait of Charles I, can now be found in the
Louvre.
2 THE RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL area of
Paris did not grow to any significant extent beyond
the fourteenth-century circuit of walls and
fortifications built by Charles V. In 1500, over a
third of the city within the walls consisted of
market gardens belonging to religious houses. By
1650, half of all these had been subdivided and
developed for upper and middle class houses. The
reclaiming and development of the Île-Saint-Louis
from 1612 onwards required immensely costly
bridges and embankments.
2 Central Paris, c.1650
- Quartier St Honoré
- Quartier St Denis
- Quartier St Antoine (the Marais)
- L’Université/Montagne St Geneviève
- Quartier St Michel/Quartier Latin
- Quartier St Germain-des-Prés
- Hôtel de Sens; begun 1498, completed c.1521
- Hôtel de Cluny; begun c.1485, completed c. 1519
- Hôtel de Ligneris/Carnavalet; begun 1548
- Hôtel d'Angoulême/Lemoignon; begun c. 1580
- Church of St Eustache; built 1532-1640
- Hotel de Sully; built 1624-29
- Place Royale (later Place des Vosges); begun 1605
- The Louvre; square court begun 1551, enlarged 1578, 1624. Grande
Galérie along the Seine begun 1603
- Tuileries Palace; first building begun 1566, extended from 1603
- Pont Neuf; begun 1578, completed 1607
- Place Dauphine; begun 1607
- Luxembourg Palace; begun 1615
- Sorbonne College and Church; begun 1635
- Church of Val-de-Grâce; begun 1645
- Hôtel Lambert; begun 1640
- Salpêtrière; gunpowder factory from 1634, hospital from 1656
- Fosses Jaunes; new ramparts built 1630s, 1640s
- Palais Richelieu (later Royal); built 1625-39
- Palais Mazarin; begun 1634
- Île Saint-Louis; developments begun 1612
- Jesuit Church of St Paul and St Louis; begun 1627
- Hôtel de Ville; begun 1533
- Port Royal; built 1628-53
- Church of the Visitation; built 1632-34
bookselling
publishing and printmaking
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
174
THE REIGN OF FRANCIS I, from 1515 to 1547,
was a time of remarkable artistic
florescence in France. Unprecedented building
initiatives were undertaken by the crown in the
Loire Valley and the Île-de-France, and works
by Leonardo (who died in France), Raphael,
Andrea del Sarto and other Italian High
Renaissance masters were acquired for
Fontainebleau. In the Loire Valley at Blois a
new wing in an imperfectly Italianate manner
was begun within two years of the accession of
Francis I. The focus of the court on the Loire
engendered a proliferation of houses built for
senior royal servants, such as Bury and
Beauregard, largely known from drawings and
engravings. The king’s most ambitious
undertaking was Chambord.
FRANCE 1500-1650
0˚
50˚
Paris
Troyes
Amboise
Tours
Fontainebleau
Chambord
Villandry
Orléans
Ancy-le Franc
Blois
Chantilly
Blérancourt (Aisne)
Bury
Anet
Maisons
Balleroy
Chenonceaux
Rennes
Lille
Charleville
Henrichemont
Arras
Brussels
begun 1519
major works
1528-40, 1568,
1606-09
north wing begun 1515;
west wing 1635-38
built 1511-24
1514-22, 1560s
begun1612
Écouen 1538
1514-22, 1560s
1626
1548-54
1546
1642-46
Parlement 1618
Bourse 1651
Vitry-le-François 1545
1608
1608
Richelieu
Bourges
1631
Limoges
Lyon
Dijon
M
eu
se
M
osell
e
Seine
Loire
Garonne
Rhône
Dordogne
E N G L I S H
C H A N N E L
B A Y O F
B I S C A Y
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
P
Y
R
E
N
E
E S
A
R
A G O N
O R A N G E
C H A R O L A I S
A N D O R R A
F R A N C E
H O L Y
R O M A N
E M P I R E
Jean Clouet, portrait painter,
from Brussels 1516
Philippe de Champagne,
religious and portrait painter,
from Brussels 1621
Leonardo da Vinci
from Milan 1517
Domenico el Barbiere,
sculptor, from Florence 1530
Nicolas Poussin, mythological,
religious landscape painter, to Rome 1624
Sebastiano Serlio,
architect, from
Venice 1541
Giambattista di
Jacopo (Rosso),
painter, from
Italy 1530
Claude Gellée (Lorrain),
landscape painter,
to Rome 1612
Benvenuto Cellini,
sculptor, from Rome
1537, 1540-45
Nicolò dell' Abate,
painter, from Modena 1532
Francesco Primaticcio, painter and architect,
from Mantua 1532
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 France, 1500-1600
borders, c.1530
royal château by known
architects/documented masons
aristocratic château by known
architects/documented masons
public building
urbanism (planned new town)
tapestry
inlayed enamel
publishing and bookselling
artists from abroad settling/working in France
emigration of French artists
1 THE REUNIFICATION OF FRANCE was substantially
completed between 1500 and the conclusion of
the last religious civil war in 1594. In 1528 Francis I
announced he was to make Paris his customary
residence, and the royal wardrobe of the most
valuable royal possessions became a central
depository adjacent to the Louvre.
THE CHÂTEAU AT CHAMBORD.
Begun in 1519, Chambord is
the most sensational and
spectacular fusion of
medieval and romantic castle
with its round, bastion-like
angle pavilions with FrancoItalian
decorative detail. Its
purpose was solely for the
reception of a select few, for
entertainment and for the
recreations of country blood
sports. It was a deliberate
expression of the king’s cult
of magnificence, which makes
it all the more surprising to
learn that Francis I spent no
more than eight nights there
after 1528, when the focus of
court and government life
shifted permanently to Paris.
FRANCE 1650–1800
177
0˚
50˚
Paris
Beauvais
Maupertuis
Valenciennes
Rouen
Bénouville
St Malo
Bourges
Tours
Chartres
Aubusson
Limoges
Versailles
Vaux-le Vicomte
Compiègne
Strasbourg
Metz
Reims
Châlons-sur-Marne
Verdun
Troyes
Chantilly
Fontainebleau
Rennes
Quimper
Brest
La Rochelle
Blois
Bordeaux
Nantes
Lyon
Besançon
Montmusard
Dijon
Nancy
Toulouse
Montpellier
Aix-en-Provence
Arles
Sète
Valence
Sèvres
Marseille
Toulon
1768
1657-61
1764
Town Hall 1673
Place
Royale 1758
Avignon
M
euse
Mose
lle
Seine
Loi
re
Garonne
Seine
Rhône
Loire
Dordogne
BAY
O F
B I S C AY
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
E N G L I S H C H A N N E L
P Y R E N E E S
ANDORRA
F R A N C E
S P A I N
H O LY R O M A N E M P I R E
Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Papal sculptor and architect,
from Rome 1665
‘Prix de Rome’ winners from
the Academies of Painting,
Sculpture and of Architecture
to Rome 1671 onwards
to North America
after 1710
to Dresden/Berlinto Amsterdam/
London/Stockholm
to St Petersburg
Jean-Antoine Watteau,
fête-gallante painter, 1702
1750-54
1664 onwards
1736-88
stables 1721
1762
Town Hall 1736-44
Grand Théâtre 1784
Bourse 1762
Place Royale 1735-55;
Grand Théâtre 1772-88
Town Hall/‘Capitole’ 1750 Place Peyrou 1767
Palais de Justice, Prison,
Palais de Parcement 1786
Hôtel Dieu 1741-48;
Grand Théâtre 1754
Placedes États 1724
Grand Théâtre 1775,
Intendance completed 1776
Archbishop’s
Palace 1731
Bishop’s
Palace
Place des Armes 1763
Place Stanislas (Place Royale)
Place de la Carrière 1752-65
Intendance 1759-70
Bishop’s Palace 1700
N
0
0
2 France, 1650-1800
borders, c.1530
royal château
aristocratic château
major public building/urbanism
tapestry/carpets
faience
cloth
glass
iron
madder dye
paper
pottery
porcelain
printing
silk
Canal du Midi
commercial harbours/military dockyards
artists settling/working in France
French artists to Italy
mass emigration of Huguenot
masters and tradesmen in luxury trades
(cabinet-makers, silk workers, goldsmiths,
clock and watch-makers etc) after the
Revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes
100 miles
150 kms
2 THE ARTISTIC ACADEMIES founded by Louis XIV,
especially the French Academy in Rome,
continued to be of primary importance for
official artistic policy. But after the death of Louis
XIV their significance remained only in the spheres
of history painting, sculpture and architecture.
Their influence waned as a proliferation of new
genres and tastes began to flourish amongst major
private patrons.
JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU,
L’Enseigne de Gersaint, 1720.
Gersaint’s little gallery was
in an arcade on the Pont
Notre-Dame in Paris. Young
men and women in their
finery loll about, while only
one periwigged man and a
priest scrutinize a painting.
On the left a portrait of Louis
XIV is being loaded into a
crate, suggesting
the passing of an age of
glory to one of fashionabe
slothfulness. Everything
is merchandise.
particularly porcelain. The Gobelins workshops
produced not only popular pastoral and
hunting scenes after drawings by leading
painters, but also door curtains and upholstery
covers. Ready markets were found in almost all
European capitals. In the provinces the most
successful porcelain manufacturer was
Moustiers, based at Marseille from the 1740s.
The most prestigious porcelain producer was,
however, Sèvres, founded in 1753 by the
Marquis de Marigny to quench the thirst for
modish imports. Deep blue was, and is, the
trademark colour. Novel combinations drawn
from a variety of decorative arts kept their everchanging
wares in demand nationally and
internationally. In 1768 the discovery of kaolin
at Limoges created ideal conditions for
manufacturing hard-paste porcelain.
The newly crowned Louis XVI (r.1774–92)
subscribed to a philosophy that saw art as an
essential element in man’s moral formation.
Thus, moral and historical subjects in painting
and sculpture mattered most, and Neoclassicism
of the school of painters led by Jacques-Louis
David was the future.
By the mid-eighteenth century French, the
language of diplomacy, was spoken in courts in
the Rhineland, Parma and St Petersburg. All
over Europe, French art, culture, luxury goods
and fashions were emulated. However, the
proliferation of the newer order of French
art around Europe was destined to be stalled
by the revolution of 1789 and the Napoleonic
era. The French Academy in Rome, established
in 1666, was to play a vital role in the artistic
developments of the later eighteenth
century and beyond.
Le Palais
Place Dauphine
Porte St Denis
Fosses Jaunes
St Sulpice
Sorbonne
Luxembourg
Place
Vendôme
Palais
Royal
Porte St Martin
Pont Neuf
Châtelet
Hôtel de Ville
Notre
Dame
Les Halles
Bastille
Temple
Pont Marie
Hôtel de Sully
Tuileries
Gardens
Port Royal
Seine
Seine rue St Honoré
rueStDenis
rue du Faubourg du Temple
rueMontmartre
ruedeRichelieu
rueStMartin
rueStJacques
ruedelaHa
rpe
rue de Vaugirard
boulevarddel’Hopital
Champs Élysées
Cours or Boulevard Cours or Boulevard
CoursorBoulevard
Cours la Reine
elp
meTudeur
rue de Grenelle
rue St
Dominique
étisrevinU’ledeurFaubourg
St Germain
Faubourg St Honoré
1
2
11
19
18
23
20
21
22
10
13
13
12
3
7
8
4
9
15
14
17
16
6
5
24
0 1 mile
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
176
LOUIS XIV ASSUMED his right to power in
1661, but it was not until May 1682 that a
great symbolic event for the arts took place,
when he took possession of the Palace of
Versailles. The huge complex was designed to
accommodate both government and the court.
It was also intended to be an overwhelming
showcase of French art and manufactures, the
pre-eminent symbol of State mercantalism. The
ideology of mercantilism focused on long-term
planning for industry and agriculture, as well as
those fine arts which might best be enlisted to
broadcast the glory of the monarchy, and the
manufactures and decorative arts that could
satisfy demand at home and create demand
abroad. The architect of it all was Louis XIV’s
first minister, Colbert.
This policy of state centralization had an
impact on the artistic academies in Paris. The
academy for painting and sculpture, founded in
1648, was reorganized in 1663 to focus on
official subject-matters. The academy for
architecture was set up in 1671 under royal
auspices. The French Academy in Rome was
founded in 1666, to serve as a training school
for French-born artists.
State initiatives and investments focused
on famous French manufacturers. In 1663
the Gobelins tapestry workshop in the southern
suburbs of Paris was reformed; a high- and lowweave
tapestry workshop was set up to produce
furnishings for royal palaces. The Savonnerie
factory for premier-quality carpets, based in the
southeastern suburbs of Paris, achieved both
national and international recognition. Another
initiative focused on the development of
processes to make mirror glass in considerably
larger sheets than could be furnished by
Venice, the European centre of mirror
manufacture. The glorification of this
development is the Galerie des Glaces, the
pivot and climax of Versailles.
THE HUGUENOT EXPULSION
After Colbert’s death in 1683, the king’s
obsession with his absolute authority led, in
1689, to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The Edict of Nantes of 1599 had established
criteria for conditional toleration of Protestants
(Huguenots) within the realm, resolving the
crises perpetrated by the French civil wars of
religion of the second half of the sixteenth
century. Its revocation was a disaster for French
manufacturers, especially those working in
FRANCE 1650-1800
LOUIS XIV visiting the
Gobelins. Tapestry after
Charles Le Brun, c.1670. This
image evokes the army of
painters, sculptors, engravers,
weavers, dyers, goldsmiths,
embroiderers, cabinetmakers,
woodcarvers, marble
workers, mosaicists and many
more, who worked under
and to the designs of Charles
Le Brun. The diversity of the
luxury objects produced for
the king’s inspection and
approval is a symbol of his
munificence, omnipotence
and glory, but more subtly
might be read as as allegory
of the fruits and abundance
of peace.
specialized crafts and luxury goods, such as
precious metalwork or fashion fabrics and
tailoring. Poor Huguenots had no choice but to
abjure their religion, but the affluent urban
class moved in their tens of thousands. Within
a year of the Revocation, communities of
French Huguenots had been established in
Amsterdam, Frankfurt and, above all, London.
Significant numbers were able to escape
sequestration of their moveable assets of light
machinery, tools, materials and money, which
allowed for quite rapid re-establishment of
their businesses, many of which had preexisting
agents or connections outside France.
Refugees they may have been, but very few
were destitute.
A LUXURIOUS ERA
The two most significant luxury commodities
produced in the mid- and late eighteenth
century, in terms of immediate export and
volume produced, were tapestry and
1 DURING THE REIGNS of the last three Bourbon kings
Versailles became an integral part of the history
of the capital. With the death of Louis XIV in
1715, however, there was an inexorable drift of
aristocrats wishing to live in the metropolis and
commute to Versailles when required, resulting in
the wholesale development of the Faubourg St
Honoré on the Right bank and the Faubourg St
Germain on the Left.
1 Paris, c.1700
- Louvre; east wing 1667-70
- Saint Roch; begun 1653
- Place Louis-le-Grand (Vendôme); begun 1685
- Place des Victoires; begun 1685
- Hôtel des Invalides; hospital built 1670-77, church built 1679-91
- Collège des Quatre Nations; begun 1662
- Pont Royal; built 1685-87
- Porte St Denis; built 1672
- Porte St Martin; built 1674
- Porte St Antoine; remodelled c.1670
- Porte St Bernard; built 1670
- Hôtel de Lauzun; built 1656-57
- Grands Boulevards; replace walls of Charles V, begun early 1670s,
completed 1705
- Salpêtrière; hospital buildings begun 1658
- Hôtel de Beauvais; built 1652-55
- Gobelins; tapestry factory, reformed as the Manufacture Royal 1687
- Hôtel de Soubise; built 1705-09
- Hôtel de Rohan; built 1705-08
- Hôtel Aubert de Fontenay dit Sale; begun 1656
- Tuileries Palace; extensions to the north 1659-66
- Tuileries Gardens; redesigned 1664 onwards
- Val de Grâce; conventual buildings 1655-63,
church completed 1669
- St Joseph des Carmes; completion of conventual buildings 1674
- Church of the Assumption; built 1670-76
1
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SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 1500–1800
179
0˚
40˚
La Coruña
Santander
Burgos
Madrid
Valladolid
Seville
Granada
Lisbon
Córdoba
Toledo
El Escorial
Valencia
Duero
Tagus
Guadalquivir
Eb
ro
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
B A Y
O F
B I S C A Y
M E D I T E R R A N E A N
S E A
P Y R E N E E S
B
A
L E A R I C I SS P A I N
F R A N C E
P
O
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T
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works by Titian, Tintoretto to Spanish
court from 1533; Leoni, Tibaldi, Zuccaro
commissioned for mural, sculptural
decorations at El Escorial, 1563; El Greco
settles in Toledo, 1582; works by Titian,
Bassano, Palma to El Escorial, 1593;
Velázquez acquires works in Rome for
palaces in Madrid, 1630-31, 1649-51;
Tiepolo in Madrid from 1761
Bourbon dynasty
installs French fashions
and artists (Honasse,
Ranc, van Loo)
from 1700
de Ribera to Naples, 1616;
founds Neapolitan School
Velázquez supervises
painting cycle in Palacio
del Buen Retiro celebrating
imperial victories (1633-35);
equestrian statue of Philip IV
(1634-40) by Tacca
Macip, Ribalta
Mor, Zurbaran,
Murillo, Mengs,
Tiepolo, Goya
Navarrete
Kempeneer, Zurbarán,
Velázquez, Murillo
Kempeneer (Flemish) in Seville from 1540;
Mor (Dutch) in Spain 1551, 1574, in Portugal, 1552;
van der Wynegaerde (Flemish) commissioned for views
of Spanish cities, 1563-70; paintings by Bosch and
Flemish artists to El Escorial, 1593; Rubens (Flemish)
in Madrid, 1628-29, Valladolid, 1603; works from
Charles V’s collection to Philip IV from 1649;
Mengs (German) in Madrid from 1761
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
Painting and Sculpture,
1500-1800
foreign artistic influences
schools of painting
major art collections
2
2 A WORLDWIDE EMPIRE and the wealthiest European
nation, Spain became a magnet for foreign
artworks and artists. Madrid, the imperial capital
since 1561, became the beachhead for the artistic
invasion. The initial stylistic influences were
Netherlandish, providing a pious, late-medieval
realism suited to ecclesiastical commissions.
However, imperial taste increasingly focused upon
the prestige associated with Italian Renaissance art,
expanding the artistic canon to include pagan
subjects and idealizing form.
1541–1614) was not willing to do so, he was
rejected as a court painter. Later Habsburg
rulers, especially Philip IV, actively worked to
create a native school of artists who would
surpass the Italians; these uniquely Spanish
luminaries include the likes of Francisco de
Zurburán (1598–1664), Jusepe de Ribera
(1591–1652), Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
(1617–82), and the greatest of them all: Diego
Velázquez (1599–1660).
THE BOURBON IMPACT
In 1700 Philip of Anjou was proclaimed King
Philip V (reigning to 1746), and the Spanish
throne passed from the Habsburgs to the
French house of Bourbon. The next year saw
the beginning of the War of the Spanish
Succession, lasting until 1715, in which Spain
lost most of her European possessions,
including Gibraltar. Even while the rest of
Europe was experiencing an ‘Age of
Enlightenment’, south of the Pyrenees the
eighteenth century began as a period of
political humiliation, waning military power,
and material and intellectual privation. It was
also seen as a period of decline in the arts, as
many of the familiar attributes of native culture
gave way under foreign influences. Palomino
made Velázquez, long dead, the hero of his
pioneering history of Spanish art. This was an
era of academicism: an Escuela Nacional for
architects was founded in 1744 and the Real
Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
opened in 1752. Artists were strictly controlled:
a royal decree prohibited the construction of
any public building, the plans of which had not
been previously approved by the Academy. The
many foreign artists invited to Spain by the
Bourbon court – Mengs, Tiepolo, Juvarra,
Houasse, Van Loo, Ranc and so on – forced
native talent either to conform or go
PEDRO MACHUCA, GRANADA, PALACE OF CHARLES V,
begun 1533 (unfinished). When the Emperor
visited Granada in 1526, he ordered the Islamic
arcropolis of the Alhambra transformed into a
visual symbol of triumphant Universal
Christendom. The result was the most
severely classical structure of the European
Renaissance. The ground-plan is a
purely geometrical abstraction: a circle
inscribed within a square, as in Leonardo's
famous drawing of 'The Vitruvian Man'.
underground. An exception was Francisco de
Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), appointed a
court artist in 1786, though his most
characteristic work only appears in the next
century. In the courtly culture created under
Bourbon sponsorship the motivating idea was a
reform of a perceived ‘decadence’ suffered
under the last Habsburgs. The ‘national style’,
with its traits of austere simplicity and iconic
veracity, was often superseded by Rococo
complexity and artifice, even frivolity.
The architectural embodiment of the new
regal taste is Philip’s reformed summer palace,
La Granja (‘The Grange’, 1735–64), seemingly
the very antithesis of the Escorial. Even though
La Granja nostalgically evokes Versailles,
particularly its strict axial alignment between a
regal residence and a series of formal gardens,
the plan of the palace itself adheres to the
traditional layout of Spanish Alcázares reales
(royal palaces). This comprises a rectangular
grid plan with towers at the corners. The
gardens include (as at Versailles) a
mythological-allegorical sculptural theme,
including Psyche, symbol of the soul, and
Apollo, a poet-musician embodying the Sun
and surrounded by adoring Muses, just as the
enlightened patron-king surrounded himself
with court artists. The two architects
responsible, Felipe Juvarra and Juan Bautista
Sachetti, later designed the Palacio Nuevo in
Madrid (1738–64), also conforming to the
rectangle-with-courtyards scheme. The ‘New
Palace’, as befits a monument set within a
capital city, is more conspicuously ‘Roman’ in
style, its regal and theatrical sculptures draw on
national history. Its political agenda is
demonstrated in the fact that inscriptions
appear in Castilian and not in Latin.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
178
IN THE MID-FOURTEENTH CENTURY,
Portugal had initiated what was to become
an ever-expanding European conquest of all
the rest of the known world. The initial impetus
for the momentous European shift from a
Mediterranean to an Atlantic focus was spices,
necessary to make palatable the meat-based
diets of Europeans before the invention of
refrigeration. With land-routes to the Spice
Islands blocked by Islam, Portugal went to sea,
sailing to India via Africa, in order to secure the
coveted goods. With that sea-route co-opted by
the Portuguese, Spain instead went west
towards India, finding its way blocked by a
wholly unknown ‘New World’, one rich in gold
and advanced, pagan civilizations. All this the
Spanish appropriated with dazzling alacrity –
including, in 1581, the Kingdom of Portugal.
WEALTH ATTRACTS ART
The gold of the Indies paid for an eruption of
ecclesiastical monuments and transfiguring
artworks throughout Iberia. In Portugal, the
‘Manueline’ style of architecture was briefly
established, a curious blend of flamboyant late
Gothic and Hindu sensuality that died out after
1530.
Both as a worldwide empire and the
wealthiest European nation, Spain became a
magnet for foreign artworks and artists. Initially
the stylistic influences were from the Spanish
dependency of the Netherlands, providing a
pious, late-medieval realism suited to
ecclesiastical commissions. In Madrid, the
imperial capital since 1561, imperial taste
increasingly focused upon the prestige
associated with Italian Renaissance art. The
artworks aquired by Habsburg imperial agents
today provide the basis for the collection of the
Museo del Prado.
HABSBURG INFLUENCE AND PATRONAGE
The classicistic mould was set by Charles V,
who ruled from 1519 until 1555. Regarding
himself as the personal champion of a
Universal Christendom, this monarch was to
become the most determined sponsor in Spain
of an antiquarian Classical style which he
encountered in Italy during his various state
visits and triumphal entries. Contemporary
Italian classicism represented to Charles V a
timely recreation of the content of ancient
‘Imperial’ Roman art, the concrete expression
of absolute temporal power. Pure Classicism,
at odds with the traditional medieval
expressionism still attached to religious
commissions, was to become the preferred
iconographic language of the imperial court.
This idiom was best expressed in architecture,
long since made an ideological vehicle by
Spanish rulers. The Palace of Charles V in
Granada and the Escorial built outside Madrid
by Philip II served these purposes.
Beside importing Italian painters (mostly
mediocre) to decorate the Escorial, Philip II
also patronized native painters, especially
Juan Fernández de Navarrete (‘el Mudo’,
c.1520–1579), for he was most able to work
in the manner of his favourite Titian. Since
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos,
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 1500-1800
0˚
40˚
Seville
Salamanca
Segovia
Valladolid (1600-06)
Málaga
Oran
Spanish
from 1509
Melilla
Spanish
from 1497
Algiers
Spanish
from 1510-41
Bougie
Spanish
from 1510-55
Granada
Toledo (to 1561)
El Escorial
Aranjuez
Talavera
la Reina
Alcalá de Henares
Madrid (1561-1600, 1606-)
Royal Tapestry Factory (1720)
National School of Architects (1744)
Academia de Bellas Artes (1752)
Barcelona
ROUSSILLON
to France 1659
Tarragona
Alicante
Valencia
Saragossa
(Zaragoza)
Pamplona
San Sebastián
Laredo
Bilbao
La Coruña
Santander
Burgos
Medina
del Campo
Lisbon
Braga
Oporto
Batalha
Coimbra
Tomar
Santiago de Compostela
Córdoba
Faro
Tangier
Portuguese 1471-1580
Spanish 1580-1656
English 1662-1684
Mafra
Tagus
Duero
E
bro
Guadalquivir
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
B A Y
O F
B I S C A Y
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
P
Y
R
E N E E S
B
A
L
E
A
R I C I S
A
RA
G
O
N
A N D A L U S I A
EST
REM
ADURA
N AVA R R E
L E Ó N
G A L I C I A
C
A
S T I L E
GRANADA
to Spain
1492
S P A I N
PO
RTUGAL
F R A N C E
ANDORRA
(toSpain1581-1640)
royal tombs in the
Capilla Real (1519-20)
Cathedral (1528-61)
Cathedral façade (1667)
Palace of Charles V
(begun 1533)
Pavilion of Charles V
(1543-46)
Renaissance
Cathedral
wthin Great
Mosque (1523)
Cathedral (1680)
Cathedral (c. 1585)
Obradoiro of the Cathedral(1738-49)
Cathedral portal (1702-20)
wealth from
wool pays for
Burgos Cathedral
Convent of
Christ (1510-14)
Church of São
Lourenço
(1614-22)
Church of the
Clérigos
(1731-63)
Church of Santa María
de Belém (1502-20)
Palacio Nacional
Basilica (1717-30)
Tower of Belém: built in
Manueline style, with Flemish,
German influences (1515-20)
University Library: Plateresque style
with humanist motifs (1525-53)
Portal-façade of university (c. 1525)
Plaza Mayor (1728)
University: facade
in Renaissance style
(1537-53)
Palacio Real Nuevo (1738-64)
Palacio del Buen Retiro, with royal porcelain factory (1633-40)
El Escorial church and
Monastery (1563-84)
reconstruction of
16th-c garden palaces
(from 1748)
El Alcázar (begun 1085)
La Granja Palace
(1719-64)
El Prado: Neoclassical style, designed to house royal art collection (1788)
Plaza Mayor (1617-19)
Chapelhas
Imperfeitas
(1509-33)
colonies of Genoese bankers;
merchants from France and
Netherlands (from 1503)
Spanish wool monopoly
displaces farmers and
native industry (1502-20)
Spanish wool and silk
to England, Netherlands,
France until 1550s;
New World silver to
Antwerp, Bruges
from 1552; Dutch
prints and court
art by Flemish
artists to Spain
Spainish trade with New
World from 1503; ’Treasure
of Montezuma‘ from Cortés,
1519; Chinese silks and
porcelain across Pacific through
New World to Seville from
1565. Spain exports wine. olive
oil, devotional sculptures,
ceramic tiles, ironware, mercury
Catalonia allowed access to
New World trade from 1778
trade with England, Netherlands, France,
exporting spices, sugar, coffee
trade with Africa, East Indies,
New World; Chinese
and Japanese porcelain
to Lisbon, 1550-1640
textile
industry
collapses,
1590
silver from New World to Genoa from 1552
N
0
0
150 miles
200 kms
1 THE NEWLY-DISCOVERED
wealth of the New World
paid for ecclesiastical
monuments and artworks
throughout Iberia. Spain
exported wool, silk and
wine to the Spanish
Netherlands, and imported
influential Dutch and
Flemish artworks. The
religious revolt in the
Netherlands involved Spain
in endless wars which
eventually ruined the local
economy.
JOSÉ BENITO CHURRIGUERA, ‘RETABLO MAYOR’ in San
Esteban, Salamanca, 1692. Besides providing the
English word ‘churrigueresque’, this altarpiece
defines the Baroque look of both Spain and Latin
America. This is a gilded, highly elaborate piece of
‘micro-architecture’ which focuses on the centrally
placed ‘custodia’ containing the eucharistic wafer.
Glittering and theatrical, populist and emotionstirring,
structures like this example provided the
stylistic model for hundreds of altarpieces in
Spanish America.
Church, State and
International Trade,
1500-1800
Spanish trade routes
Portuguese trade routes
New World emigration,
690,000 emigrants,
1503-1700
expulsion of Muslims
(1492, Jews (1586),
moriscos (1609-14)
imperial capital
major church
Habsburg palace
Bourbon palace
other major architecture
metalwork
textiles
ceramics
painted tiles
leatherwork
1
ITALY 1500–1600
181
10˚
40˚
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
TP
R R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
Bologna
Ferrara
Venice
Padua
Verona
Milan
Pavia
Mantua
Turin
Genoa
Pisa
Florence
Pistoia
Arezzo
Siena Perugia
Città di Castello
Rome
Naples
Loreto
Urbino
Poggio a Caiano
Pesaro
Ancona
Bagnaia
Bagnolo
Barletta
Bomarzo
Bosco
Marengo
Bracciano
Brindisi
Caprarola
Castelfranco Veneto
Castello
Castiglione del Lago
Castro
Civitavecchia
Cuneo
Fanzolo
Gallipoli
Ghedi
Guastalla
Livorno
Maser
Mira
Monreale
Montepulciano
Otranto
Parma
Petraia
Piacenza
Pratolino
Reggio Calabria
Sabbioneta
Sansepolcro
Tivoli
Frascati
Trani
Trent
Todi
Varallo
Vicenza
Vicoforte di Mondovi
Volterra
Po
Arno
Tiber
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
A
D
R
I A
T I C
S E A
A
L
P
S
A
P
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N
N
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N A P L E S
TUSCANY
PAPAL STATES
PARMA
V
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N
E
T
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R
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P
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REP. OF GENOA
FERRARA
MILAN
S I C I L Y
2 Patrons and Projects
town planning/urban renewal
more than one project
five or more projects
eight or more projects
project lost/destroyed
altarpieces
altarpieces associated
with the Eucharist
cathedrals and churches
cathedrals and churches
built/remodelled for reform
use of multi-coloured
marble decoration
patronage by princes
(including popes), governors
patronage by cardinals,
courtiers, non-ruling nobles
patronage by merchants
patronage by governments,
guilds and other civic institutions
patronage by religious orders
patronage by new orders
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
TP
2 Patrons and Projects
population over 75,000
population 50-75,000
population 25-50,000
population under 25,000
antique copies
collections of Flemish art
collections of modern art
collections of antiquities
chapels and cloisters
college for training Catholic priests
revival style of Early Christian art
painted/sculpted cycles (ancestors)
painted/sculpted cycles (history)
painted/sculpted cycles (mythology)
painted/sculpted cycles (religious)
astrological vaults
revival of antique gardens
guildhalls
hospitals
library
mosaic cycles
palaces
monumental sculpture
studioli
theatre
town halls
works by Titian
tombs
villas
R
M
H
A
2 WHILE SECULAR RULERS promoted themselves as heirs to
imperial Rome, the Catholic Church countered
Protestantism, and encouraged new orders like the
Jesuits and Oratorians. Martyrdom and conversion
became popular themes for altarpieces, as did the
Eucharist, the sacrament that saw the miraculous
conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood
of Christ, a doctrine rejected by Protestants.
TITIAN, Paul III & his
Grandsons (1545), Naples,
Museo Capodimonte. The
Farnese family rose from
minor Roman nobility to
become major European
rulers in the space of just 50
years, and owed their success
largely to the political
acumen of Alessandro
Farnese, Pope Paul III
(1534–49). Titian’s skilful
portrayal of this wily ruler
underlined the Pope’s
dynastic ambitions for his
family by including his
grandsons: Alessandro,
whom he made a cardinal
aged 14, and Ottavio, whom
he married to Emperor
Charles V’s daughter.
origins: Vasari’s frescoes praised them as
enlightened patrons, a theme he underlined in
his famous biographies of artists.
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION
The Protestant Reformation finally forced the
Papacy to reform. The Council of Trent (1545–63)
set new standards for religious life, art and
music. The proliferation of new confraternities
encouraged piety. Cardinal Borromeo, working
with the Jesuits and other new orders in Milan,
promoted Christian renewal in a series of
churches, their open naves testifying to his belief
that all should see the altar. New churches
transformed the city of Rome. Above all, the
papacy rejected links with pagan antiquity,
reviving the styles of early Christian art to
promote Rome as the capital of Christendom.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
180
THIS WAS A period of great political
upheaval in Italy, during which there were
extraordinary levels of artistic expenditure.
Rulers exploited the culture of antiquity to
promote their authority. Classical mythology
provided new decorative imagery and new
fashions emerged, such as the revival of classical
theatre, villas, gardens and art collections.
HIGH RENAISSANCE IN ROME
Early sixteenth-century popes promoted Rome
as the capital of a new empire. Inspired by
descriptions of the palaces of Roman emperors,
Julius II massively enlarged the Vatican: his
impressive collection of antique sculpture was
reached via a staircase designed by Bramante
that incorporated all the Classical orders. His
major projects, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
ceiling, Raphael’s Vatican frescoes and
Bramante’s radical design for rebuilding
St Peter’s, established the High Renaissance.
His successors continued the pattern of
extravagance and the style soon spread
throughout Italy. Leo X built the Villa Madama,
with its theatre and gardens, and embellished
the Sistine Chapel with priceless tapestries,
designed by Raphael. Paul III exploited the
talents of Michelangelo, commissioning his
Last Judgement, the decoration of the Sala Regia,
the dome of St Peter’s and the remodelling of
the Capitol. The papal court further embellished
the city, building lavish palaces and villas, set
in gardens inspired by descriptions in Roman
literature, filled with grottoes, fountains and
mythological sculptures.
INDEPENDENT VENICE
Venice remained neutral and celebrated her
independence in a building boom that radically
transformed the city. Abandoning tradition, the
Venetian government voted to adopt the
language of ancient Rome to remodel the focus
of political power, adding a new library, mint and
loggetta, all designed by the Roman-trained
Sansovino, to the government buildings around
St Mark’s. Inside the Doge’s Palace artists
recorded Venetian triumphs and celebrated the
doges in votive portraits, many painted by Titian,
the official state artist. Mythological themes were
exploited to provide allegories to replace the
religious imagery that had traditionally promoted
state authority. Rich patricians also adopted the
new language, advertising their rank in palaces
and chapels, and all’antica villas designed by
Palladio on their mainland estates.
THE ITALIAN COURTS
The rulers of Italy’s courts were also conspicuous
spenders. New streets and piazzas ornamented
with allegorical fountains testified to their
authority. They built fortifications to resist
modern artillery, and provide protection against
Turkish navies. Above all, they built palaces,
villas and gardens, expensively decorated with
tapestries, paintings and antique sculpture.
Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, commissioned
Titian to paint mythological scenes for his studiolo,
where he kept his antiques and curios. Federigo
Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, employed the Romantrained
Giulio Romano as his court artist,
commissioning him to build and decorate his
palaces, villas and churches. His art collection
contained Flemish landscapes as well as over
30 paintings by Titian, including his portrait.
Titian’s portraits were fashionable among allies
of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V: Federigo
Gonzaga had himself portrayed with his lapdog,
while his brother-in-law, the Duke of Urbino,
sent his armour to Venice for Titian to copy.
ITALY 1500-1600
RAPHAEL, School of Athens
(1509–12), Vatican, Stanza
della Segnatura. Individual
portraits of famous men
were traditional decoration
for libraries, but their
representation within the
same pictorial space was
new. Portrayed in groups
with Plato and Aristototle in
the centre, these
philosophers involved in
animated discussion gave
visual expression to the
intellectual freedom of preCounter-Reformation
Rome.
Italy’s nobility expanded as Charles V
rewarded his generals with titles and as popes
established their families as rulers of their own
states. New dynasties, like the Medici and the
Farnese, had a particularly pressing need to
justify their claims to power. Determined to
impose his authority, Duke Cosimo transformed
Florence with new palaces and churches. He
also converted the old town hall into the ducal
palace, commissioning an ancestor cycle which
conveniently ignored the Medicis’ commercial
10˚
40˚
watchtow
ersbuilt1567
313 fortif
ied
watchtower
M
M
M
M
M
M
P
P
P
V
V
V
V
F
F
F
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
Bologna
Ferrara
Venice
Brenner
Pass
St Bernard Pass
PaduaVerona
Milan
Pavia
Mantua
Turin
Genoa
Pisa
Florence
Ancona
Barletta
Brindisi
CaprarolaCastro
Città di
Castello
Civitavecchia
Cuneo
Gallipoli
Ghedi
Guastalla
Monreale
Otranto
Parma
Perugia
Petraia
Pistoia
Portoferraio
Reggio Calabria
Sabbioneta
Trani
Trento
Vicenza
Siena Loreto
Urbino
Pesaro
Rome
Naples
1547
1527
1537
1547
1557
1534-6 1545
1580
1527-30
1530
1512
1513
1537
Po
Arn o
Tiber
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
A
D
R
I
A
T
I
C
S
E
A
A
L
P
S
A
P
E
N
N
I N
E S
N A P L E S
TUSCANY
LUCCA
FERRARA
FRANCE
PARMA
MILAN
V
E
N
E
T
IA
N
R
E
P .REP. OF GENOA
S I C I L Y
roniMaisAot
ro
ni
MaisAot
nia
pS,ecnarFaivcitnaltAot
13
7
fortified watchtowers built
1535-43
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 Trade and Culture
court
court ruled by papal
family, with date
subject town of court
change of dynasty
rulers loyal to Charles V
major rebellion, with date
Habsburg-Valois wars
centres of Protestantism
centre of international trade
major centres of Counter-Reformation
elected government
subject town of town with elected government
artists trained in Rome working for patrons elsewhere
artists trained in Florence working for patrons elsewhere
artists trained in Venice working for patrons elsewhere
artistic treatises, theories and academies
fortified watchtowers against Turks
other fortifications
innovative bastions
Spanish Habsburg possessions
border of Holy Roman Empire
V
F
R
1 Trade and Culture
population over 75,000
population 50-75,000
population 25-50,000
population under 25,000
conquered by Charles V
Titian portrait of ruler
centre of printing
centre of music
direction of Turkish threat
trade route
M
P
1 THIS WAS A VIOLENT CENTURY. The Habsburg-Valois
wars changed the balance of power in Italy:
Charles V conquered Milan and Naples, installing
imperial governors, and Florence was brutally
besieged by his armies before accepting the Medici
restoration. Süleyman, the Turkish sultan, seriously
threatened Venetian trade.
ITALY 1600–1800
183
S. Croce in
GerusalemmeS. Giovanni
in Laterano
S. Bibiana
S. Clemente
S. Martino ai Monti
S. Francesca Romana
Ss. Cosmo e
Damiano
S. Gregorio al Celio
S. Maria in
Cosmedin
S. Cecilia
S. Maria in
Campitelli
Capitoline
Museum
S. Francesco
a Ripa
S. Maria in
Trastevere
S. Cesareo
S. Maria Maggiore
S. Pietro in Vincoli
S. Susanna
Ospizio di S. Michele
(poor house)
Porto di Ripetta
(destroyed)
Porto di Ripa Grande
Ponte S.Angelo
Accademia dell’Arcadia
Villa Medici
S. Maria di Montesanto
(Piazza del Popolo)
S. Maria dei Miracoli
(Piazza del Popolo)
S. Maria del Popolo
Il Gesú
Piazza di S. Pietro
S. Pietro in Vaticano
Piazza di S. Maria della Pace
S. Maria del
Priorato
S. Pasquale
Baylon
S. Dorotea
Palazzo Corsini
S. Maria della Vittoria
Ss. Domenico e Sisto
Santi Andrea al Quirinale
S. Nicola da Tolentino
S. Maria della Concezione
Palazzo
Borghese
S. Pancrazio
S. Maria in
Via Lata
S. Caterina da Siena
Oratorio di S.
Filippo Neri
S. Maria in
Vallicella
Palazzo Barberini
Ss. Nome di Maria
Collegio di
Propaganda Fide
S. Carlo ai
Catinari
Santi Andrea
delle Fratte
Santi Carlo e Ambrogio al Corso
S. Carlo alle
Quattro Fontane
Villa Giustiniani
Villa Altieri
Villa Pamphili
Acqua Paola
Villa Ludovisi
Villa Borghese
Villa Albani (Torlonia)
Villa Bolognetti
Villa Aldobrandini
Palazzi Vaticani
Palazzo Lancellotti
Palazzo
Spada
S. Pantaleo
S. Filippo Neri
Palazzo Rondanini
Palazzo della Consulta
Palazzo Rospigliosi-Pallavicini
Palazzo Falconieri
Piazza del Popolo
Palazzo Colonna
Orti Farnesiani
(Farnese Gardens)
Baths of Diocletian
Colosseum
Arch of
Constantine
Roman Forum
Tiber
Tiber
CAPITOLINE
HILL
ISOLA
TIBERINA
PALATINE
HILL
AVENTINE
HILL
C A E L I A N H I L L
E S Q U I L I N E H I L L
QUIRINAL HILL
VATICAN
HILL
JANICULUMHILL
TRASTEVERE
VIMINAL
HILL
PINCIAN HILL
(1656-67)
(1667-71)
(1771)
(1655-79)
(1723-28)
(1577)
(1695)
(1734)(1690)
(1707)
(1610-11)
(Bosco Parrasio)
(1735-62)
(1656-57)
Porta
Angelica
Porta del Popolo
Porta Pia
Porta S. Lorenzo
Porta S. Paolo
Via della Lungara
Borgo Santo Spirito
Via Alexandrina
Borgo Sant’Angelo
Via Angelica
Via Trinitatis
Via Cassia
Via Triumphale
Borgo Pio
ViaAppiaAntica
ViadiS.Gregorio
Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano
ViaMerulana
ViaFelice
Via S. Lorenzo
Via Pia
19
30
1031
5
3229
17
27
14
7 11
23
2021
35
33
3
15 6
34
12
8
2 1
22
9
18 1613
4
24
26
25
28
N
0
0
0.5 miles
0.5 kms
2 Rome, 1748-98
city walls
city gate
street commissioned by Renaissance popes, 1471-1590
academy, with date of foundation
artists‘ neighbourhood, 18th century
art dealers/restorers/antiquarian shops, 18th century
church/religious institution, built or rebuilt 17th century
church/religious institution, built or rebuilt 18th century
17th-century palace
18th-century palace
17th-century villa
18th-century villa
private collection of ancient art
private collection of ‘modern’ art
piazza/square, with date
fountain/monument, with date
bridge, with date
port, with date
excavation or spolia site, 17th century
excavation or spolia site, 18th century
museum, with founding date
(1539-1600)
(1734)
(1754)
(1666)
(1543)
Sant‘ Ignazio
S. Ivo della Sapienza
S. Maria Maddalena
S. Stanislao dei Polacchi
Stimmate di S. Francesco
Ss.Vincenzo e Anastasio
Palazzo Aldobrandini-Chigi
Palazzo Altieri
Académie de France
(Palazzo Mancini/Salviati)
Virtuosi al Pantheon
Pantheon
Palazzo Braschi
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(1642-3)
(1666-7)
(1627-9)
(1727-8)
Palazzo Chigi (Odescalchi)
Palazzo de Carolis
Palazzo Doria-Pamphili
Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Giustiniani
Palazzo Madama
Palazzo Mattei di Giove
Palazzo di Montecitorio
Palazzo del Quirinale
Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps)
Fontana della Barcaccia
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Via
del Babuino
Piazza di Sant‘ Ignazio
Fontana del Tritone
L’Obelisco e l’Elefante
Fontana di Trevi
Customs House
Collegio Romano
S.Agostino
Sant‘ Andrea della Valle
S. Luigi dei Francesi
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Accademia
di S. Luca
Ss. Luca e Martina
Piazza del Campidoglio
Accademia del Nudo
Piazza Navona
Palazzo Pamphili
S.Agnese in Agone
Fontana del Moro
Fontana dei Quattro Fiume
Ss.Apostoli
1
2
3
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(1646-66)
(1648-55)
Renovation/restoration/preservation
completion campaign,
17th/18th century on:
ancient site
early Christian or medieval
church/religious site
early Christian/medieval palace
Renaissance church/
religious institution
Renaissance palace/
villa/other site
2 IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Rome had
established itself as the artistic capital
of Europe, and in the eighteenth
century it continued to be the great
international training ground for
artists and the premier attraction of
the Grand Tour. During the later
period, the Via del Babuino (26) was
occupied by the shops of
antiquarians, art dealers and
restorers, while artists lived at either
end. The central urban fabric of the
city, where most of Rome's
incomparable treasures of ancient,
medieval and ‘modern’ art and
architecture are clustered, was
surrounded by the natural beauty of
its villa parks and gardens.
CANALETTO (GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL),
Piazza S. Marco with the Cathedral,
1735–40?, oil on canvas. Canaletto's
artfully topographical vedute, or
views, were among Grand Tourists'
most coveted souvenirs of Venice.
Commissions for the artist's paintings
were exclusively arranged, for at least
a time, by the British consular
representative in Venice, Joseph
Smith, a noted businessman, art
dealer, collector and patron. At his
palace on the Grand Canal, the
consul's own collection of Canaletto's
paintings offered potential patrons
examples of what they could order.
Engraved and drawn views were less
costly alternatives to painted vedute.
As appreciation for drawings rose in
the eighteenth century, the market
expanded, and drawn views were
created as independent works of art.
Naples – which in turn made their way into artistic depictions. Italian
patrons, for their part, helped to satisfy the interests of tourists by
opening their residences on a semi-public basis, so that visitors could
view their art collections. In the eighteenth century some of the first
public museums in Europe were established on the peninsula.
Rome, the ‘Academy of Europe’, was the climactic destination of
most travellers, mainly for its antiquities, and in the eighteenth century
this interest coordinated with a rash of excavations throughout Italy,
such as those of the ancient cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, buried
since AD 79 by an eruption of Vesuvius.
Although the majority of art dealers and agents were stationed in
Rome, in the eighteenth century the market for souvenirs, both large and
small, fostered a veritable Italian industry in restored antiquities and newly
made objects and works all’antica, as well as painted and engraved views of
various monuments and sights by artists such as Canaletto, Francesco
Guardi and Giovanni Paolo Panini. By the end of the century this demand
gave rise to modes of production geared toward serving a mass market and
to the development of new techniques, such as miniature mosaics and
tinted prints, and the revival of ancient ones, such as encaustic painting.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
182
IN THE SEVENTEENTH and eighteenth
centuries the Italian peninsula was not yet a
unified nation. There were continual changes in
its diverse political entities and considerable
regional differences to its shared language and
culture. Artists and architects continued to
develop traditional techniques and to work in
traditional materials, some associated with
particular regions – fresco painting in central Italy,
marble sculpture throughout, with abundant
sources in the quarries of Massa and Carrara
(from which area came many masons and
stonecutters), travertine architecture in Rome,
and so on. Painters, sculptors and architects
worked in various combinations with different
types of artisans and craftsmen, especially as
required by projects for the multimedia
decorative ensembles characteristic of the period.
THE ACADEMIC SYSTEM
Among the forces unifying artistic practice during
this time was the growth and institutionalization
of the academic system, founded on the artistic
tradition that had emerged in the Renaissance.
This was in turn based upon the art of classical
antiquity, considered a ‘native’ tradition in
Italy, with attendant political implications. The
academic system was disseminated not only
through art academies and related writings, but
also through artistic practice and production. It
did not so much replace traditional workshops as
training grounds for artists and architects as
function alongside them. Academicism did not
promulgate any specific ‘style’ in the modern
sense of the term, and Italian artists and
architects worked during the period in an everevolving
range of modes, now usually classified
under the rubric ’Baroque’. In the mid-eighteenth
century ‘Neoclassicism’ was introduced in
Rome, less as a break with those modes than
as another, not entirely new, alternative.
From its development in sixteenth-century
Italy, the academic system had spread all over
Europe, and with it the establishment of Italian
art as an international standard. Foreign
collectors and patrons acquired examples of
Italian art, both ancient and ‘modern’
(Renaissance and later), in the original and in
various kinds of reproductions. Italian artists,
such as Luca Giordano and Giambattista Tiepolo,
worked throughout Europe. The many foreign
artists, like Peter Paul Rubens, who came to study
and work in Italy influenced Italian art and
carried its influence back to their own countries.
ITALY 1600-1800
GIANLORENZO BERNINI, The Ecstasy of S. Teresa,
1645–52, marble and gilded wood, Rome, S. Maria
della Vittoria, Cornaro Chapel. This famous
altarpiece is the quintessential example of postCounter-Reformation
art: ‘divinely’ illuminated by a
hidden window, the sensual figures of Teresa and
the angel compellingly enact the dramatic visionary
experiences of the revered saint.
10˚
40˚
Milan
Turin
VareseVarallo
Modena
Avignon
Lucca
Velleia
Genoa
Piacenza
Parma
Bergamo
VeniceVerona
Bologna
Ferrara
Mantua
Pisa
Massa
Carrara
Volterra
Tarquinia
Florence
Cortona
Perugia
Rome
Vatican
Pompeii
Paestum
Naples
Caserta
Benevento
Herculaneum
Pórtici
Palermo
Syracuse
Po
Arno
Tiber
Adige
LIGURIAN SEA
TYRRHENIAN SEA
IONIAN
SEA
M
E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A
D
R
I
A
T
I
C
S
E
A
A
PEN
NIN
E
S
A
L
P
S
CORSICA
ELBA
LOMBARDY
PIEDMONT
REP. OF GENOA
PR. OF MONACO
MODENA
KINGDOM
OF NAPLES
PAPAL
STATES
REP. OF SAN MARINO
TUSCANY
SARDINIA
MALTA
S I C I LY
R
E
P.
O
F
V
E
N
I C
E
F R A N C E
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
HABSBURG EMPIRE
SW
ISS CONFED.
Roman Arena
Roman Sites
Greek
temples
(to the Pope)
(to the Popes)
Roman monuments and works
(to Genoa)
(to Savoy by 1720)
Etruscan Tombs
ancient Roman city ancient Roman city
ancient Greek city
Royal Palace
Uffizi
(1620)
(1751)
(1769)
(1748)
(1757)
(1760)
(1604-80)
(1586-1765)
(1752)
(1639)
(1736)
(1710)
(1563)
(1573)
(1577)
(1755)
(1738)
(1756)(1763)
(1794) (1714)
(1727)
(1771)
(1748)
(1745)
(1769)
(1785)
(1723)
(1752-74)
(1734)
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
1 Italy, 1648-1715: Political Divisions and Artistic Centres
art academy, with date of foundation
city with important monuments/works, 17th century
city with important monuments/works, 18th century
institutional museum, with date of foundation
public museum, with date of foundation
major private collections of ancient art
major private collections of ’early modern art’
major early modern site
major ancient site
excavations, with date
marble quarry
textile production, 18th century
Spanish Habsburg lands
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The presence of the papacy in the peninsula
underscored the continuing influence of the
ideals of the Counter-Reformation on artistic
production, especially in the seventeenth
century. Although no particular ‘style’ was
promoted, urban planning, church architecture
and decoration, the manufacture of liturgical
objects and vestments and the choice of subjects
and their treatment in painting and sculpture
were all affected. In Piedmont and Lombardy, in
the town of Varallo and near that of Varese, the
Sacri Monti (Sacred Mountains) were built as
popular devotional simulacra for those pilgrims
to whom the Holy Land was inaccessible. These
hillside complexes of chapels and churches,
marking the venerated sites of Christ’s life and
Passion, were ornamented with frescoes and
lifesize, unidealized polychromed wood or
terracotta figures composing tableaux, such as
the scene of the Crucifixion. In Rome, the wealth
of the papal court and its associates attracted
artists from Italy and abroad seeking
patronage, both ecclesiastical and secular.
Caravaggio, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Francesco
Borromini, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and
Antonio Canova were among those who came
from other parts of Italy, while Claude Lorrain
and Nicolas Poussin arrived from France.
TRAVEL AND TOURISM
During this period, Italy was a travel destination
not only for artists and pilgrims, but also for
aristocrats, dilettantes and scholars, who served
as well to diffuse the taste for Italian art
throughout Europe and the New World. Tourism
rose sharply in the eighteenth century and came
to be ritualized, in the case of the British, in the
itinerary of the Grand Tour. While travellers went
to Italy primarily to view its incomparable
artworks and monuments, they were also
attracted by its natural sights and wonders – such
as the volcanic eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, near
1 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY initiated a period of
intensive building and artistic activity throughout
Italy, and important collections of ancient and
‘modern’ art were formed. By the end of the
eighteenth century art academies had been
established in all the major cities and many smaller
ones, museums dotted the peninsula, and
archaeological excavations were increasing.
SOUTHEAST EUROPE 1500 –1800
185
It was in western Hungary where the clash
between Turkey and Europe was at its most
intense. From c.1470, under the rule of King
Matthias Corvinus, the country enjoyed a
period when early Italian Renaissance art was
imported. In 1526 the Habsburgs gained the
Hungarian crown. But from 1541 almost the
whole country was occupied by Ottoman
Turkey, and many of its monuments were
destroyed. The occupation lasted until the late
seventeenth century when German-Austrian
power drove the Turks back. Artists from Vienna
and the German lands, working under the
banner of the Counter-Reformation movement,
designed Hungarian urban churches, country
houses, and, later on, bishops’ palaces. The
Hungarian artistic landscape is strongly
divided into the dense western and northern
parts (some of which now belong to Slovakia)
and the poor south and east, with a third area,
staunchly sober and Calvinist, in the northeast.
A CULTURAL CROSSROADS
The central region of Transylvania
(Erdely/Siebenburgen) experienced extreme
population diversity, but avoided antagonisms;
Greater Hungary was the chief power for most
of the time. Incorporating Roman remains, the
Late Romanesque-Early Gothic Cathedral of
Alba Iulia mixes forms from many western
European countries, as do the late Gothic
parish churches, built mainly by German
settlers. These are fitted out with German-style
altarpieces, which, in turn, existed side by side
with monuments in the style of the Early Italian
Renaissance, mediated by Hungarian cultural
influences. Two-thirds of the population was
Orthodox, and the Romanians built churches in
the Wallachian style, though from the later
eighteenth century urban Orthodox churches
adopted Western Classical styles, too. By then,
a certain standardization, often dubbed
‘European’, had set in.
THE MONASTERY of the Premostratensians (1745–65)
at Jászó (Jasov, formerly in Hungary, now in
Slovakia), by the Viennese architect Franz Anton
Pilgram, shows what is probably the most
accomplished of Hungary’s eighteenth-century
church complexes, contrasting strongly with the
Byzantine continuity of Sucevit,a.
30˚25˚20˚15˚
45˚
40˚
Nyírbátor
Suceava
Dragomirna
Moldovita
Sucevita
Kishinev
Causani
Cozia
Tismana
Kremikowszi
Monastery
St Joachim Osogovski
Preobrazhenski
Monastery
Troyan
Monastery
Bachkovo Monastery
Philippopolis
(Plovdiv)
Pazardzhik
Rila MonasteryÜsküb
Prizren
Shkodër
Elbasan
Tirana
Berat
Sofia
Svishtov
Kriva Palanka
Hurez
Bucharest
Ruse
Tryavna
Karlovo
Samokov
Mt Athos
Melnik
Roshen
Monastery
Bitola
St John
Bigorski
Gostivar
Churchi
Rudí
Jassy
Putna
Humor
Hîrlau
Kassa
SárospatakJászó
Eger
(Erlau)
Veszprem
Pozsony
(Bratislava)
Szeged
Kalocsa
Temesvár
Kecskemét
Györ (Raab)
Fertorákos´´
Osijek
Bosna Saray
(Sarajevo)
Foca
Maglaj
Cajnice
Pljevlja
Sümeg
Szentendre
Esztergom
(Gran)
Székesfehérvár
Szombathely Buda
Pest
Ljubljana
Ribnica
Fiume (Rijeka)
Zagreb
Belec
Hvar
Ragusa (Dubrovnik)
Trogir
Sibenik˘
Balti˘
Capriana˘
Patrauti˘ ˘
˘
¸
¸
Arbanasi˘ ¸
¸
˘ ˘Radauti¸
¸
¸
Neamt
Monastery
¸
Tîrgoviste¸
Curtea de Arges¸
Nesebur˘
˘
˘
Pristina˘
˘
Danube
Dniester
Drava
Sava
A E G E A N
S E A
B L A C K
S E A
A
D
R
I
A
T
I
C
S
E
A
A L P S
PIN
D
U
S
M
TS
D
I N
A
R
IC
A
L
PS
BA L K A N M T S
O
T
T
O
M
A
N
E
M
P
I
R
E
H
A
B
S
B
U
R
G
P
O
S
S
E S S I O N S
H U N G A R YH O L Y
R O M A N
E M P I R E
TRANSYLVANIA
MOLDAVIA
W A L L A C H I A
N
0
0
100 miles
150 kms
2 Religious Architecture
border of Holy
Roman Empire
Roman Catholic church
Roman Catholic
bishop’s palace
Protestant church
Orthodox church
Orthodox church in shape
of a Roman Catholic church
mosque
late medieval-early 16th c
16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
INSET 2A
2 UNTIL WELL INTO the nineteenth
century the significant works of
architecture and decoration in the
Balkans are religious, and it is the
diverse denominations that
account for the strong differences
between them. In Transylvania,
Roman Catholics, Germans
Lutherans, Hungarian Calvinists,
and Orthodox Romanians coexisted,
creating a unique multicultural
landscape.
Danube
TRANSYLVANIA
W A L L A C H I A
H A B S B U R G
P O S S E S S I O N S
Nagyvárad
(Oradea)
Szamosújvár
(Gherla)
Szászbuzd
(Buzd)
Brassó
(Brasov)
Kolozsvár
(Cluj-Napoca)
Segesvár (Sighisoara)
Berethalom (Biertan)
Prázsmár
(Prejmer)
Gyulafehérvár
(Alba Iulia) Seben
Balazsfalva (Blaj)
Nagyszeben
(Sibiu)
Beszterce
(Bistrita)¸
Demsus
(Densus)¸
Marosvásárhely
(Târgu Mures)¸
Fogaras
(Fagaras)¸˘ ˘
Resinár
(Rasinari)¸˘
Muzsna (Mosna)¸
2A Transylvania
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
184
THE POLITICAL BORDERS of the Balkans
have undergone constant and dramatic
changes. Dominated by Turkey between 1453
and 1683, the full pattern of national states in
the region was not established until 1912–13,
when Turkey’s presence in Europe was all but
eliminated. At this point, the Balkans lacked
the consolidated, independent states of
northern and western Europe. Statehood in
almost all areas changed at least once, in some
areas many times. Many towns bear three or
even more names. Large parts of the region
lacked a system of territorial units altogether;
to some extent this was also due to low
population density and a lack of towns.
Culturally, there are vast discrepancies in
the region. Bulgaria may be said to have
changed little from the ninth to the nineteenth
centuries and Mount Athos in Greece has
remained unchanged until the present day.
Hungary, on the other hand, was intensely
receptive to trends from outside. There was an
immense contrast between areas into which
strangers never strayed and those where a
multitude of peoples lived (and still live) side
by side, such as Transylvania. In general, the
patronage of art was haphazard. The most
stable institutions were probably the politically
relatively independent monasteries.
RELIGIOUS COHESION
The southern and eastern parts of the region
belong to the Orthodox Church, the northern
and Western parts to the Roman Catholic
Church, one of the oldest dividing lines in
Europe. It was, ironically, perpetuated by the
fact that the Orthodox areas remained much
longer under Turkish rule, which allowed some
freedom for the church. In these areas
monasteries, usually in very remote locations,
served as a refuge from foreign domination.
The areas of the Roman Catholic Church, on
the other hand, were always open to the West,
whether it was the Italian (Venetian) domination
of Dalmatia, or the more generalized GermanAustrian/southern
and western European
influence in Hungary and Croatia. A third, major
religion, dispersed all over the region, was
Judaism, but it was deprived of the possibility
of architectural expression.
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
The most stable urban features of the region,
reflecting the extent of Turkish occupation, are
the mosques, which can even be found in
western Hungary. But the Byzantine
architectural style was also strikingly persistent.
The churches of Bulgaria and Macedonia, in
particular, and especially their painted
decorations and icons, had hardly changed
when they reached their last major florescence
in the monastery of Rila in the nineteenth
century. In Moldavia and Wallachia Byzantine
models continued into the eighteenth century,
although these principalities developed a
special style in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries that corresponded with their degree
of political independence. All churches, even
cathedrals, were small. A nave with a major
apse and two side apses sufficed in Moldovia
and it was high and narrow, crowned by one or
two cupolas carried up in a complex system of
vaulting. Wallachian churches adhered more to
the multi-domed Byzantine models. In the
sixteenth century many exteriors of the
Moldavian churches were covered with frescoes.
Occasionally Western imports, such as Gothic
windows and Western-type buttresses, are
found on the exterior of Moldavian churches.
SOUTHEAST EUROPE 1500-1800
SUCEVITA MONASTERY CHURCH, Moldavia (Romania)
1582–1606, one of a group of monuments that
highlights both the continuation and the
modification of the Byzantine tradition.
40˚35˚30˚25˚20˚15˚10˚50˚
45˚
Athens
Varna
Bucharest
Bakchisarai
Azov
Jassy
Kassa
Cracow
Brassó
Constantinople
Adrianople
Smyrna
Philippopolis
Sofia
Belgrade
Temesvár
Mostar
Spalato
Zagreb
PécsTrieste
Zara
Üsküb
Bosna Saray
(Sarajevo)
Graz
Vienna
Venice
Kolozsvár
Debrecen
Buda
Thessalonica
Danube
Dniester
B L A C K S E A
A
EG
EAN
SEA
A
D
R
IA
T
I C
S E A
C R E T E
MOLDAVIA
PRINC. OF
THÖKÖLY
AUSTRIA
WALLACHIA
BULGARIA
CROATIA
DALMATIA
SERBIA
MONTENEGRO
MACEDONIA
O
T
T
O
M
A
N
E M P I R E
TRANSYLVA
NIA
VENETIAN REPUBLIC
HU
N
G
A R Y
N
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
1 Southeastern Empires
greatest extent of
Ottoman Empire to 1683
border of Holy Roman Empire, 1683
states with a degree of autonomy
from Ottomans
Venetian territories
extent of lands regained
or newly gained by Austrian
Habsburgs, 1683-1775
1 THE BALKAN region was flanked by two great powers,
the Ottoman empire, and the Holy Roman Empire,
ruled by the Habsburg family from their seat in
Vienna. Despite the fluid nature of states and borders
within the region and the multitude of different
ethnic groups there is one stable border that crosses
the whole area, that of religion.
AEGEAN
SEA
B L A C K S E A
ADRIA
TIC
SEA
CRETE RHODES
O
T
T
O
M
A
N
E M P I R E
H
U
NGARY
ITA
LY
GREECE
1A Ethnicity and Language in SE Europe
Germans
Slovaks
Magyars (Hungarians)
Romanians
Slovenians
Croats
Serbs
Bosnians
Macedonians
Bulgars
Greeks
Albanians
Turks
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
Bucharest
Kishinev
Nikopol
Jassy
Constantinople
Adrianople
Spalato
Vienna
Budapest
Thessalonica
B L A C K S E A
ADRIA
TIC
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
CRETE RHODES
O
T
T
O
M
A
N
E M P I R E
H
U
NGARY
IT
A
LY
GREECE
Religion in SE Europe
Roman Catholic
Protestant
centres with a large Jewish population
Orthodox
Muslim
1B
0
0
250 miles
350 kms
EUROPE 1600–1800
187
2 ART AND ARTISTS circulated
throughout the continent
during this period. Italian
masons and stuccoists in the
fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, sculptors in the
seventeenth, and painters in
the eighteenth century plied
their trades abroad.
Netherlandish sculptors and
architects also travelled
around Europe in the
seventeenth and eighteenth
century, as did French artists
during the entire period. Art
was shipped from
manufacturers to clients in
distant countries. The
plunder of art in Europe’s
many conflicts also led to a
further distribution of
treasures across Europe.
30˚20˚10˚0˚
40˚
50˚
Paris
Antwerp
Berlin
Prague
Magdeburg
Hamburg
Würzburg
Nuremberg
Augsburg
Münster
Frankfurt
Dresden
Breslau Kiev
Vienna
Munich
Amsterdam
London
Turin
Naples
Lisbon
Rome
Venice
Madrid
Dublin
Edinburgh
Stockholm
Moscow
St Petersburg
Christiania
(Oslo)
Copenhagen
Fredericksburg
Warsaw
Milan
Florence
Ebro
Duero
Guadalquivir
Seine
Elbe
O
der
Vistula
Rhi
ne
Dniester
Dnieper
Loire
Rhône
Ga
ronne
Danube
Tagus
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N N O R T H
S E A BALTIC
SEA
B L A C K
S E A
M
E D I T E R R A N
E
A
N
S E A
A
D
RIA
TIC
SEA
PYRENEES
A
L P S
SICILY
SARDINIA
CORSICA
ENGLAND
NETHERLANDS
SPANISH
NETHERLANDS
DENMARK
RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
P O L A N D
PRUSSIA
HUNGARY
SWISS
CONFED.
NORWAY
S W E D E N
F R A N C E
S P A I N
SCOTLAND
WALES
IRELAND
PORTUGAL
V
E
N
E
T
I A
N
R
E
P
U
B
LIC
BRANDENB
U
RG
to American
colonies
to New
France
to
Mexico
1632
1648
from c.1720
from c.1660
salons from c.1730 from
c.1660
c.16-1700
from c.1720
from c.1700
c.16-1700
1630
1659
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
Travels of individual artists:
From London:
-Reynolds to Rome, Florence, Bologna,
Venice, 1749-52; to Flanders & Holland, 1781
From Paris:
-Poussin to Rome 1624-40, 1642-65
From Venice:
-Canaletto to Rome 1719-20, 1742-3;
to London twice between 1746 and 1753
-Tiepolo to Milan 1730-34, Würzburg 1750-53,
Madrid 1761–1770
From Rome:
-Caravaggio to Naples, Sicily, Malta 1605-10
-Bernini to Paris c.1665
From Madrid:
-Velázquez to Venice, Rome and Naples 1629;
Rome and Naples 1649-50
From Antwerp:
-Rubens to Venice, Mantua, Rome, Genoa,
Valladolid 1600-8; London and
Madrid 1628-30
-van Dyck to Genoa, Rome, Florence, Palermo,
Marseille from 1621-7;
to London from 1632
2 Cultural Contacts
general routes of
the ‘Grand Tour’
major art centre
travels of artists abroad
sacks of art
sales of art
also worked throughout the continent. In Spain
the French Bourbon dynasty assumed the
throne in the early eighteenth century, and
French painters followed them. In the
eighteenth century French architects and
decorators were also active in many places in
Germany, in Bohemia, and in Austria, after the
court changed its previous orientation from
Italy to France.
ART COLLECTIONS AND DISPLAY
In large measure the rise of princely courts
stimulated the circulation of artists and art.
Eager for prestige, many rulers made their
residences into centres of patronage and
collecting. The example set by Rudolf II’s
Prague (c.1600), which was singled out by the
artist and art historian/biographer Karel van
Mander as the best place to go and see art,
provided a model, especially for German
courts. In mid-seventeenth century Brussels
and Vienna Archduke Leopold Wilhelm
assembled a major collection of paintings, to
which eighteenth-century Habsburgs added
and reorganized. In Spain, another dominion
ruled by the Habsburgs through the
seventeenth century, Philip IV became one of
the first European mega-collectors.
In part because of rivalry, but also because
of genuine interest, rulers in other lands
followed, imitated or independently amassed
their own collections. Notable examples
include the English royal collections under
Charles I, and the French royal collections of
Louis XIV. In the mid-seventeenth century
Queen Christina of Sweden also established an
important collection of many kinds of works of
art, taking much of it with her to the Continent,
ultimately to Rome, when she converted to
Catholicism and abdicated. The Papal and
Neapolitan collections, especially of
antiquities unearthed in ongoing excavations,
were also significant. In the eighteenth century
the last king of Poland, Stanisaw Poniatowski
had a painting collection assembled for him
(now in Dulwich College, England).
THE DISSEMINATION OF ART
Political rivalries resulted in frequent warfare,
and art was plundered. Sometimes art
vandalism was organized, for example the
plunder of the German monasteries and the
pillaging of the treasures of Prague and
Frederiksborg in Denmark by Swedish troops.
Plunder became an important means by which
works of art moved around the continent.
Important sales of art collections – for
example, that of the Gonzagas, which went in
large measure to England – were another
means by which art was dispersed. Private
collectors, such as Eberhard Jabach in Cologne,
also sold their collections to the French crown.
A burgeoning market provided the larger
context for commerce in art. In the seventeenth
century agents and auctions were centred in
Antwerp and Amsterdam, with other locales in
Nuremberg and Augsburg. In the eighteenth
century auction houses were established in
London and Hamburg.
Although Italian art academies, both state
(in Florence) and private (in Rome) had been
established already in the sixteenth century,
many similar institutions were founded
throughout Europe, beginning with the French
Academy in 1648. These institutions involved
primarily instruction in the rudiments of art,
but also theoretical discussion and debate, and
display, in the form of public salons. Other
forms of public attention were encouraged by
the development of aesthetics, independent
criticism and art history, and the first public
museums. Thus the eighteenth century
provided both sources and sites for the origins
of the modern reception of art.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE SALON
in eighteenth-century Paris
created a new public site for
art. Paintings were placed
on display in exhibitions
accessible to a larger public.
Salon exhibitions provided
the impetus for a new form
of often hotly contested
discussion in which writers
who were neither artists nor
art theorists participated.
The most famous
eighteenth-century
criticism of the Paris salons is
that of the philosophe Denis
Diderot.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
186
ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS, as well as works
of art, moved around Europe to an
unprecedented degree during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. While earlier
individual Italian artists had worked abroad,
now whole teams of painters, masons,
sculptors and stuccoers, often from the
Lombard lakes, travelled north to build or
decorate churches, convents and palaces. From
Luca Giordano and Tiepolo in Spain, to
Rastrelli in Russia, Italian artists worked from
one end of the Continent to the other. An
entire chapel was shipped from Rome to
Lisbon, and groups of paintings were also
transported from Italy to Mafra, in Portugal.
AN ARTISTIC CROSSROADS
Italians were not unique. In the early
seventeenth-century Netherlandish painters,
sculptors and architects also worked
throughout the Continent. In the Baltic
region they came to play an increasingly
dominant role during the seventeenth
century. Conversely, German artists and
architects worked in the Netherlands and
in Scandinavia.
As French taste came to replace Italian
during the reign of Louis XIV, French artists
EUROPE 1600-1800
30˚20˚10˚0˚
40˚
50˚
Paris
(Académie Française, 1648)
(from 1650; Paris salons, c.1750)
CologneBrussels
(c.1650)
Antwerp
(1665)
Kassel
Copenhagen
Berlin
(1696)
Prague
(c.1576)Würzburg
Dresden
(1697)
Warsaw
Wilno
Breslau
Kiev
Cracow
Lwów
Gdansk
(Danzig)
´
Vienna (1705)
Graz
Mainz
Munich
Augsburg
(1670)
Salzburg
Amsterdam
Utrecht
Haarlem
Versailles
Fontainebleau
Nuremberg
(1662)
(Royal Academy,1768)
(1630s)
London
Castle Howard
Blenheim
Bath
Turin
(1563)
(open to public, c.1780)
Florence
Bologna
Naples
Palermo
Milan
Nancy
Besançon
Trier
Lemberg
Lisbon
(French Academy, 1666)
(from 1650s; Papal
collections from 1700s)
Rome
Venice
Madrid
(Real Academia de Bellas
Artes San Fernando, 1752)
Salamanca
Seville
Granada
Valladolid
Dublin
Edinburgh
Christiania (Oslo) Stockholm
(c.1650)
Moscow
St Petersburg
(1757)
Ebro
Duero
Guadalquivir
Seine
Elbe
O
der
Vistula
Rhine
Dnieste
r
Dnieper
Loire
Rhône
Garo
nne
Danube
Tagus
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N N O R T H
S E A
BALTIC
SEA
B L A C K
S E A
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
A
D
R
IA
TIC
SEA
P
Y
R
E N E E S
A
L P S
S I C I LY
NAPLES
PAPAL
STATES
PARMA LUCCA
SAVOY
MILAN
MANTUA
SAXONY
BOHEMIA
MORAVIA
SWEDISH
POMERANIASCHLESWIG-
HOLSTEIN
AUSTRIA
BAVARIA
MODENA
TUSCANY
TRANSYLVANIA
L I T H U A N I A
SARDINIA
CORSICA
SI
LESIA
GENOA
ENGLAND
NETHERLANDS
SPANISH
NETHERLANDS
DENMARK
R U S S I A N
E M P I R E
P O L A N D
PRUSSIA
HUNGARY
SWISS
CONFED.
NORWAY
S W E D E N
F R A N C E
S P A I N
SCOTLAND
WALES
IRELAND
PORTUGA
L
O
T
T
O
M
A
N
E M P I R E
V
E
N
E
T
I
A
N
R
E
P
U
B
L
IC
BRANDENB
U
RG
(Kunstkammer,
c.1560; Belvedere,
1780)
(c.1740)
(c.1710)
(c.1620)
(c.1790)
(c.1769)
(1746)
(1754)
(1777)
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
1 Centres, Collections and Academies, 1600-1800
border of Holy Roman Empire, c.1700
major urban development project
major palace complex
major art collection (with date of foundation)
art academy (with date of foundation)
major art centre
1 DURING THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH centuries
courts throughout Europe formed art collections,
and an art market developed to serve royal,
aristocratic and eventually bourgeois clients.
Instruction in the arts was provided by academies,
which, starting in cinquecento Florence, were also
established throughout Europe. In the eighteenth
century the foundation of public museums and the
institution of public art displays in salons fostered
increased familiarity with the arts.
IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH
century the Dresden
Kunstkammer was broken
up into its constituent
elements. The collection of
objets d’art and precious
jewels was placed in a suite
of rooms decorated with
mirrors and woodwork
known as the Grünes
Gewölbe, on the ground
floor of the Schloss. Opened
to a larger public, the
establishment of this
collection marks one of the
beginnings of the move
towards modern public
museums. The present
Kunstkammer is a
reconstruction made
necessary by bombing of
Dresden in World War II.
NORTH AFRICA 1500–1800
189
THE BAB AL MANSUR AL-‘ILJ at
Meknès in Morocco. It was the
principal ceremonial gateway in
the city, connecting the Medina
and the Hadim Square with the
Dar al Kabirah, the palace
complex that was built by Mawlay
Isma‘il in 1679. The gateway was
named after the government
minister Mansur al-‘Ilj, who was a
Christian renegade. It was begun
during the reign of Mawlay Isma‘il
and was completed in 1732, five
years after his death,
by his son Mawlay ‘Abdallah.
3 Bab ad Dar al Kabirah
4 Dar al Kabirah
8 Mosque of Lalla ’Awda
9 Tomb of Mawlay Isma’il
10 Qasr al
Muhannashah
14 Hury al Mansur/
Qasr al Mansur
stables
granary
Bridge of
the Cavalry
(built 1681-93)
water towerwater
tower
13 Dar al Madrasah
12 Madinat ar
Riyad al 'Anbari
6 Sahat al Hadim
7 Bab al Khamis
11 Qubbat al Khayyatin
5 Bab al Mansur
1
2
Mellah
Djenane al Af
i
a
Krim
at al Oudaiya
Bo
u
Fekrane
Agdal Basin
MEDINA
1 Old city of Meknès,
pre-dating Mawlay Isma’il
2 Jewish quarter
3 Gateway of the Dar al Kabirah, 1679
4 ‘Grand Palace’ complex
5 Gateway, 1732
6 Square of Destruction
7 Gateway, 1687
8 One of several mosques built in the royal city
during Mawlay Isma’il's reign
9 Tomb of Mawlay Isma’il
10 ‘Palace of the Labyrinth’, with a series of
courtyards, pavilions and gardens
11 ‘Dome of the Tailors’ used for the
reception of ambassadors
12 ‘City of Amber Gardens’; residences for viziers
13 ‘Palace of the Madrasah’; complex of apartments,
courtyards and gardens
14 Storehouse and palace
N
0
0
0.5 miles
0.75 kms
2 Meknès: the City of Mawlay Isma’il
ramparts of the royal city
extent of the royal city
principal palace complexes
old city of Meknès
cemetery
Jewish quarter
City of Amber Gardens
canals
In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Turks
subdued all of North Africa with the exception of
Morocco. New mosques, palaces and other
buildings had Ottoman features, especially in
Cairo, but also in the other capitals – for
example, the mosque of Sidi Mahriz (built
1675–92) in Tunis. Turkish styles of dress were
adopted among the urban elite. In Morocco,
however, artistic patronage lay largely in the
hands of the sultans of the Sa‘dian (1511–1631)
and ‘Alawi (1631–present) dynasties. Marrakesh,
Meknès and Fez maintained a distinct style of
architectural decoration using tile mosaics
(zillij), carved stucco and wood, though its
quality declined from the seventeenth century.
European influence was evident in coastal
enclaves eventually created by the Portuguese
and Spanish. From 1765 the Moroccan coastal
town of Essaouira, previously a Portuguese fort,
was constructed following designs provided by
European architects and masons. Some
European influences, including Renaissance
designs, penetrated the interior. Ahmad alMansur
procured carved marble from Pisa in
Italy for the construction of his Badi‘ Palace.
When Mawlay Isma‘il (r.1672–1727) created
his capital at Meknès, he plundered building
materials from older sites in Morocco but also
ordered marble from Italy. Mawlay Isma‘il
admired and perhaps tried to emulate his
contemporary, Louis XIV of France.
Along trade routes across the Sahara,
caravans from the north carried textiles,
paper, swords and other merchandise, while
from the sub-Saharan regions came gold,
slaves, ivory, ostrich feathers and hides. In the
east an important corridor for trade was the
Nile, along which gold was brought to Egypt.
INDIGENOUS RURAL TRADITIONS
Local traditions in architecture, textiles,
metalwork, pottery and other crafts flourished
especially in remote areas, with many regional
variations. The sedentary Arabic-speaking Jbala
tribes in northern Morocco lived in single-room
thatched huts. The sedentary Berber-speaking
Rif tribes built two-storey wooden houses. On
the coastal plains, semi-nomadic Arabicspeaking
tribes lived in tents and conical huts
made of reeds, cane and thatch. The traditions
of the High Atlas and Anti Atlas included qasbas
(individual houses, communal fortified
granaries or whole towns made of mud-brick
and pisé). In the Berber-speaking Kabylia and
Aurès regions of Algeria, dwellings of stone and
brick were made with tile roofs.
The Mzab oases of the Sahara had adobe
tapering horned minarets and domes. Tunisia
had the domed houses and mosques of Djerba
Island, the barrel-vaulted granaries of Matmata
and cave dwellings in the south. Libya had the
distinct buildings of the Jabal Nafusah.
2 A VAST ROYAL COMPLEX was added to the Moroccan
city of Meknès when sultan Mawlay Isma‘il (r.1672–
1727) moved his capital there. Materials came from
the Roman remains of Volubilis, the Marinid
necropolis at Chella and the Sa‘dian Badi‘ Palace in
Marrakesh. Marble also came from Pisa in Italy. The
labour was provided by Christian renegades and
slaves. Much of Mawlay Isma‘il‘s city is now in ruins.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
188
ISLAMIC ORTHODOXY in North Africa
supported the production of manuscripts,
especially the Koran and other religious texts,
sometimes illuminated and with fine bindings.
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca encouraged
the movement of artistic ideas. Cultural life
was also characterized by networks of Sufi
orders, and by religious fraternities organized
around zawiyas (schools). During this period,
marabouts (religious hermits) became a marked
feature of North African life. Saints’ tombs,
often modest domed buildings, were
constructed throughout the region.
Jewish minorities lived throughout North
Africa. Christians in Egypt and Ethiopia gave
architecture and art Christian purposes,
producing items for church ritual, figural
paintings, manuscripts and other artefacts.
The main centres for textiles, metalwork,
pottery and other crafts were the larger urban
communities. In Cairo each year the covering
(kiswa) for the Ka‘bah in Mecca was made from
black silk brocade lined with cotton, with a
band of Koranic inscriptions embroidered in
silver-gilt and silver thread. The arts of urban
centres were considered more refined than the
rural ones, which served local needs.
FOREIGN INFLUENCES
The Christian conquest of Spain, completed in
1492, brought Muslim and Jewish refugees.
They made important contributions in
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In Tunis, for
example, the zawiya of the Andalusian refugee
Sidi Qasim al-Jalizi was built in the HispanoMoresque
tradition, decorated with small
glazed tiles of Andalusian type, which began to
be manufactured in Tunis. When the Moroccan
sultan Ahmad al-Mansur (r.1578–1603) built
the Badi Palace (1578–93) in Marrakesh, its
plan was based on that of the Court of the
Lions in the Alhambra at Granada, though
much larger in scale. This influence was also
felt in the addition of pavilions at either end of
the courtyard of the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez.
NORTH AFRICA 1500-1800
0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚
30˚
Qarawiyyin Mosque
Zaytunah Mosque
Al Azhar Mosque
Jerusalem
Mecca
Sana
Jedda
Suakin
Quseir
Cairo
Alexandria
Tripoli 1551
Algiers 1525
Great Kabylia
Meknès
Essaouira
KairouanTlemcen
Tétouan
GaoTimbuktu
Jenne
Walata
Kano
Katsina
Agadez
Sokoto
Fez
Marrakesh
Medina
DJERBA
N
ile
BlueNile
WhiteNile
Niger
Seneg
al
L. Chad
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A
B L A C K S E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
A T L A S
M T S
SINAI
A R A B I A N
P E N I N S U L A
KABYLIA MTS
CHOKE MTS
MASSIF DE L’AURÈS
AL JABAL
AL AKHDAR
JABAL
NAFUSAH
TIBESTI
S Y R I A N
D E S E R T
N U B I A N
D E S E R T
S A H A R A
I TA
LY
A N A T O L I A
PORTUGAL
S P A I N
SULTANATE
OF MOROCCO
S Y R I A
E G Y P T
Kiswa (cover)
for Ka’bah in
Mecca made here
and sent annually
Tunis 1574
export of tilework;
Spanish garrison 1534-74
Wattasid capital 1472-1549;
’Alawi capital 1666-72, 1729-1912
Berber artistic traditions in architecture,
textiles, pottery and metalwork
in mountainous regions
marble carved at
Pisa for Al Mansur's
palace in Marrakesh
conquered 1516
conquered 1517
camel and
goat hair tents
distinct
vernacular
buildings
’Alawi capital 1672-1727;
developed by
Mawlay Isma’il
Portuguese and Spanish Christian
centres on coast from 15th century
Mawlay Isma'il (r. 1672-1727)
builds over 70 qasbas,
employing slave army
to construct them
refugees from
Muslim Spain
continue Spanish
artistic traditions
Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (r.1757-90) builds
new town on site of Portuguese fort, designed by
European architects and masons
Sa’dian capital 1525-1659
conquered by
Morocco 1591;
gold and slaves
taken to Morocco
goldbroughttoEgypt
goldbroughttoEgypt
N
0
0
500 miles
750 kms
1 North Africa, 1500-1800
extent of Ottoman Empire and
Ottoman artistic influences
Ottoman artistic influence
other artistic influences
routes of pilgrimage to Mecca
trade routes
approximate limit of desert
cities captured by Ottomans
important Islamic school
centre of manuscript production
textile centre and embroidery
urban pottery centre
rural pottery centre
metalworking centre
leatherworking centre
saints’ tombs constructed
throughout period
COLOURED GLAZED TILES in the Qaramanli mosque in
Tripoli, Libya (built 1711–44), probably from Tunis,
then the major centre in the region for their
manufacture. The floral designs are arranged in a
geometric grid with pronounced borders.
1 EAST–WEST TRADE ROUTES linked the major cities of
North Africa, and trade extended southwards
across the Sahara. The arts were influenced by
refugees from Muslim Spain, and by the artistic
practices of the Ottomans, especially in the urban
centres. Berber artistic traditions continued
especially in the Rif and Atlas mountains of
Morocco and the Kabylia and Aurès
regions of Algeria.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1500–1800
191
20˚ 10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
Axim
Benguela
Luanda
Cacheu
Delagoa
Bay
Inhambane
Sofala
El Mina
Cape Town
Mozambique
Saint-Louis
Gorée
Fort James
Cape Coast Castle
Bunce Island
Accra
Whydah
New Calabar
Loango
Malemba
Kilwa
Mombasa
Senegal
Niger
Congo
Nile
Zam
bezi
Li
m
popo
Orange
L. Victoria
L. Chad
L. Nyasa
L. Tanganyika
A T L A N T I C O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
R
E
D
S
E
A
S A H A R A
K A L A H A R I
D E S E R T
ETHIOPIAN
HIGHLANDS
ARABIAN
PENINSULA
D
R
A
K
E
N
SBERG
EGYPT
KAARTA
SEGU
AIR
OYO
BORGU
KABI
GOBIR
KANO
JUKUN
BENIN
BORNU
WADAI DARFUR
SENNAR
ETHIOPIA
SHILLUK
BUNYORO
BUGANDA
TIO
KUBA
YAKA
LUNDA
LOZI
VIYE
NJIMBO
A KALUNGA
KALONGA
LUBA
UNDI
LUNDU
ROZWI
DUTCH
SOUTH AFRICA
WANDU
MATAMBA
KASANJE
MBAILUNDU
WAMBU
ANGOLA (PORTUGUESE)
LOANGO
KONGO
DAHOMEY
KONG
WALO
FUTA
JALLON
ASANTE
(ASHANTI)
A F R I C A
M
ADAGASCAR
FUT
A
TORO
K
ATSINA
Z
ARIA
(Portuguese)
Zulu
Hebe/Lughuru
Gwazhili
Jimma
Chewa
Pende
Yoruba
Asante
Malinke
Bamum and
grasslands kingdoms
Chokwe
Tabwa
Nyamwezi
Pepper
Coast
GrainCoast Ivory
Coast
Gold Coast
toArabia
to India
to N America
Caribbean
to Brazil
to Caribbean, Brazil
to Brazil
to Caribbean
to N America, Caribbean, Brazilto N America, Caribbean
to
Brazil
to the Americas
Slave C
oast
Christian imagery
(crucifixes and statues
of saints) enter Kongo
in late 15th c: later
secularized and persist
well beyond 18th c
18th and 19th c imports
of brass vessels and copper
wire used to embellish
reliquary images among
Kota and Ossyeba peoples
N
0
0
500 miles
700 kms
Imports
cloth (linen, silk etc)*
clothing*
iron, pewter, brass* (manillas, basins)
horses
firearms (muskets, gunpowder, cannon)
kettles (19th c)
wines, spirits, bottles
bells
beads (often Venetian)*
keys, locks, clocks
glassware, crockery
hardware
tobacco*
books*
* items involved in trans-Saharan trade
2 African States and Trade, c.1750
approximate borders of kingdoms
trans-Saharan trade routes
Ottoman Empire
Dutch South Africa
slave trade
Portuguese settlement
Dutch settlement
French settlement
British settlement
distribution of high-backed chairs,
17th-19th c, indicating European
influence, even if indirect
Exports
slaves*
gold*
ivory*
wax
hides*
pepper*
sugar
palm oil (19th c)
gum Arabic*
ostrich feathers*
kola nuts*
adopted Christian symbols, using some forms, such
as crucifixes, in secular political and judicial contexts
after abandoning Christianity. Islamic/Arabic styles
prevailed on the Swahili coast and islands, in the
emirates of northern Nigeria, and in the mosques
and architecture of the western Sudan. Leatherwork
and embroidery on cotton garments in the same
areas also betray Muslim influence. Secular Europe
is present along coastal West Africa in forts and
castles, and also in motifs (weapons, clocks, bells,
hats and many other items) that were assimilated
into local iconography.
European art, architecture and material culture
entered southern Africa with the Boers and later the
British who colonized large areas. These forms –
metalwork, glassware, furniture and other household
goods, plus architectural forms and styles – were
adopted by the separatist European colonies
2 BY THE YEAR 1750 many European nations were involved
in African slave traffic and other trading. In some areas the
arts changed markedly because of these interactions,
resulting in new object and architecture types, new
materials, motifs, and sometimes, styles. Islam continued
its expansion southwards and along the East African coast.
Christianity was perhaps less influential in 1750 than in
1550, but its legacies remained in art and architecture.
PORTRAIT OF KING MISHE MISHYAANG MAMBUL. Wood, c.
eighteenth century, Kongo. This work was commissioned
and carved during the king’s lifetime, and housed in his
harem. Each Kuba monarch since the seventeenthcentury
King Shayaam nMbul aNgoong has
commissioned a similar commemorative image.
established from the mid-seventeenth century. Such arts,
still present today, evolved alongside the indigenous
art forms and styles of black African peoples.
Black peoples were frequently moved off their
original lands, yet in new locations many were able to
maintain, partly modified, their arts of personal
decoration, carved domestic objects and their
distinctive construction of houses and compounds,
sometimes decorated with wall paintings. Woodcarving
was apparently never highly developed among
southern African Bantu and Khoisan peoples who
were displaced by European colonists. Although
some instances of figural sculpture remain, carvers
mostly made everyday, useful objects, such as stools
and neck rests, staffs, beer containers and meat plates.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
190
THIS IS THE FIRST PERIOD for which firm
documentation survives for what Westerners
term works of African art, and indeed often the
works themselves are extant. Most art was made
by, and for, local peoples using local materials,
according to inherited styles and purposes. Yet
this is also a period when Islamic culture was
continuing to penetrate the east coast and
interior. At the same time, there was increasing
coastal contact and trade with Europe and the
Americas, including the slave trade. Around
1500 the first ‘tourist’ arts were produced: the
famed Afro-Portuguese ivories. European
colonization of southern Africa began in 1652.
Christianity, long established in Ethiopia,
persisted there, and was also introduced into
the interior Kongo kingdom early in this period.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Most art forms and material culture collected in
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had
antecedents in this period. Art was used in daily
life, in spiritual and political rituals and for rites
of passage. Figural sculptures and masks were
broadly distributed. Iron-smithing and copper
alloy casting were widespread, whereas silver,
gold and stone sculptures were rare. Arabinfluenced
chip-carved architectural elements
were made in east coast Swahili towns, and
distinctive architectural forms prevailed in
countless areas. Bead-making and varied forms
of personal decoration, such as scarification,
hairstyling and body painting, were important.
Probably festivals and other performances were
the artforms that were most highly valued by
local African peoples during this era.
THE ARTISTIC CONSEQUENCES OF SLAVERY
Slavery and related trading had widespread
effects in Africa. European ships became royal
emblems in the arts of Dahomey in the
eighteenth century, after Dahomean troops
gained access to coastal slaving and other trading
ships and their luxury material goods. Bound
captives (some doubtless slaves) appear in the Ife
sculptures of the twelfth to thirteenth centuries,
and the Inland Niger Delta sculpture of the
fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, as well as in
eighteenth-century Asante goldweights, as do
slave manacles. Many other European artefacts
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1500-1800
and motifs entered Africa partly as a result of
slave trading. Locks, keys and bells, for
example, occur in brass goldweights and gold
beads; such motifs can be considered at least a
metaphor for the control African leaders and
Europeans had over coastal slave trade.
In the seventeenth century European chairs
were adapted by many African peoples, serving as
high-status symbols. Their direct relationship to
slavery – like aspects of European dress adopted
by coastal traders – remains to be established.
However, there can be little doubt that chairs,
dress items and other imports were among the
treasured goods that were exchanged for slaves
from the sixteenth to the nineteeth centuries.
FOUR ARTISTIC COMPLEXES
Four complexes of artistic ideas, objects and
styles characterize this period: indigenous,
Muslim, Christian and European secular. Most
artefacts, made for domestic, ritual and
political use by hundreds of peoples, were
created without influence from outside forms and
ideologies. This is true despite the inroads of
Islam and the contacts made along the western
coast with both secular and Christian Europe.
Exceptionally, the Christian art of Ethiopia
is, in fact, indigenous. The Kongo peoples also
IVORY SAPI-PORTUGUESE SALT CELLAR, c.1490–1530,
Berlin, Museum für Volkerkunde. Originally carved
by an African for Europeans, probably for the
curiosity cabinets of the wealthy or nobility. The
snakes and humans are African in style and type,
whereas the covered sphere-on-pedestal derives
from European chalices.
10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
0˚
10˚
20˚
30˚
20˚30˚
Sierra Leone
1460
Santa Maria
1462
Fernando Po 1472
Benguela
1484
Walvis Bay
1486
Cabral 1500
Lüderitz
1487
Principe I. 1472
Sofala 1488
Kilimani
1498
Mozambique
1489-90
Kilwa 1488-89
Mombasa
1489-90
Mogadishu
1499
Malindi 1489
Cape St
Catherine 1474
Elmina
1482
Alexandria
Tangier
Jerusalem
Mecca
Medina
Sana
Gondar
Barka
Axum
Lalibela
Zeila
Berbera
Aden
Suakin
Tunis
Tripoli
Benin
Ikom
Zimbabwe
Luzira
Sao
Igbo-Ukwu
Nok
Bura
Timbuktu
Walata
Marrakesh
Koma
Kissi
Owo
Esie
Ilorin
Ile Ife
Oyo
Ibadan
Akan
N
i
le
Senegal
Congo
Za
m
bezi
L. Tanganyika
L. Nyasa
L. Chad
L. Victoria
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
I N D I A N
O C E A N
RED
SEA
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
KALAHARI
DESERT
S A H A R A
ARABIAN
PENINSULA
A T L A S
M T SWATTASIDS
ZAYYANIDS
HAFSIDS
M
A
M
L
U
KS
K H O I S A N
P E O P L E S
BED
U
IN
S
B E D U I N S
B
A
N
T
U
S
B
A
N
TUS
C U S H I T E
S
T U A R E G S
MALAYS
TAKRUR
MOSSI
KINGDOMS
BORGU KINGDOMS
YORUBA
KINGDOMS
KAKONGO
MBANGALA
LUNDU BEMBA
LUBA
NGOYO
KONGO
CHOKWE
JAGA
BENGUELA
MARAVI
MONOMOTAPA
TORWA
HAUSA
STATES
KANEMBORNU
TUNJUR
LOANGO
BENIN KINGDOM
TEKE
KUBA
DARFUR
AIR
AKW
AM
U
MAKURIA
FUNJ
ETHIOPIA
SMALL
STATES
INTERLACUSTRINE
STATES
AKAN
STATES
DENKYIRA
NUPE
IGALA
KWARARAFA
S O N G H AY
M A L I
WOLOF
SIINE
A F R I C A
PORTUGAL
MADAGASCAR
c.15th c
c.15th c
15th-16th c
began 11th c
15th-17th c
12th-15th c
c.16th c
c. 17th-19th c
13th-15th c
began 17th c
Sapi-Portuguese
ivories, late 15th/
early 16th c
Bini-Portuguese
ivories, late 15th/
early 16th c
Allada Tray
to Ulm,
early 17th c
9th-10th c
pre-1750
12th-13th c
3rd-11th c
N
0
0
800 miles
1200 kms
1 Africa, c.1550: States and Early
European Trade
extent of Islam by 1500
approximate borders of kingdoms
trans-Saharan trade
areas under Portuguese control c.1550
Portuguese settlements, with date
Portuguese trade and travel,
late 15th c. onwards
peoples
distribution of figural terracottas
distribution of stone sculpture
extent of Nok culture, c.500 BC-AD 200
exports of art
approximate limit of desert
approximate northern limit of thick forest
1534
HAFSIDS
1 IN THE CENTURIES before 1500, most non-internal
African trade was across the Sahara. After 1500,
however, the centre of ‘trade gravity’ shifted to
the coasts. First the Portuguese, then later most
other European powers, had extensive coastal
interchange with many diverse African peoples.
Trade relations thrived, and European contacts had
a strong impact on African art and culture.
ASIA 1500–1800
193
style that had developed under the Timurid
rulers of Central Asia in the fifteenth century
was adopted by Muslim courts from Istanbul to
Delhi. An international visual language was
created that united disparate – and often
antagonistic – political entities (although
architectural styles remained regionally
distinct). Throughout Asia imperial rulers
created magnificent capital cities that
proclaimed their grand – and often grandiose –
aspirations. From Edo (now Tokyo) to
Ayutthaya and Constantinople (Istanbul), the
finest buildings in these cities – whether
temples, pagodas or mosques – were designed
to express imperial power and prestige.
Rulers, their courtiers and even merchants
amassed the wealth necessary to transform the
landscape, and large and lavish gardens
became a hallmark of this period. Persian
hydraulic gardens, however pleasant and
beautiful, were first and foremost designed for
growing food in an arid land, whereas Chinese
and especially Japanese gardens were aimed
primarily at aesthetic delight, especially with
the development of the tea ceremony in Japan.
Conflicting territorial claims often led to
the displacement of artists and the consequent
commingling of artistic techniques and ideas.
MASJID AGUNG, OR GREAT MOSQUE OF DEMAK, central
Java, Indonesia, 1477–79. The oldest mosque in
Indonesia is located in a trading settlement on the
north coast of Java. The building is based on the
traditional Javanese pendopo, a square, open
pavilion whose four enormous timber pillars
support a high, multi-tiered roof. A broad pillared
verandah extending from the entrance is used for
teaching and meetings, and instead of a tower
minaret, a drum is used to call the faithful to
prayer. This form became standard for mosques
throughout Indonesia and Malaysia.
1 A NEW WORLD ECONOMIC SYSTEM replaced the
ancient Silk Road, which had served for millennia
to link China with the Mediterranean. The major
commodities traded were the spices and textiles
traditionally made throughout South and East
Asia, but European merchants also sought out
ceramics, lacquerwares, gems and exotic Asian
woods. Even American silver was brought across
the Pacific Ocean via the Spanish Philippines to
Southeast Asia. While long-distance trade had a
decisive impact on the arts of Asia, Asian arts in
turn exercised an impact on the arts of Europe.
The Persian artists and works of art captured by
the Ottomans at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1517
brought a new wave of Persian artistic culture
to the court at Constantinople. Following the
Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s,
Korean artists, especially potters, were
captured and taken to northern Japan, where
their rustic wares captivated Japanese
connoisseurs. The enormous booty brought
back to Iran following the brilliantly successful
invasion of India by the Afghan Nadir Khan in
1738–89 included the jewel-encrusted Peacock
Throne, which not only became the symbol of
the Iranian monarchy but also inspired a new
taste for bejewelled excess.
Along with the expansion of empires came
the spread of West Asian monotheism,
especially Islam and Christianity, at the
expense of the traditional Asian religions,
ranging from Shamanism to neo-Confucianism.
Muslim merchants and Sufis (mystics) brought
Islam to western China and Southeast Asia,
along with new forms of architecture (such as
the mosque) and new attitudes towards the
visual arts (such as the discouraging of figural
sculpture). The Spanish and Portuguese
brought Catholicism to their trading colonies
along the coasts of South, Southeast and East
Asia, where they built Mannerist and Baroque
churches and promoted painting and sculpture
depicting Christ, the Virgin and a host of saints.
The various manifestations of Buddhism, long
displaced in its Indian homeland by Hinduism
and Islam, remained dominant in Tibet,
Mongolia, Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan.
COMMERCE AND ART
Exquisite blue-and-white porcelains, which had
been produced since the fourteenth century at
the great kilns of Jingdezhen in southern China,
were exported by European merchants east to
Korea and Japan and west to Iran, Turkey and
eventually Italy and the rest of Europe. Chinese
blue-and-white porcelains inspired not only
the production of local pottery imitations, but
also the incorporation of Chinese motifs, such
as the lotus, peony and dragon, in a wide range
of other media. Europeans resident in Asia as
well as back at home coveted Asian arts –
Polish ambassadors to Iran and British
merchants in India commissioned splendid
carpets in which traditional arabesques were
combined with European coats-of-arms. At the
same time Asian artists took inspiration from
the arts of the West, adopting such techniques
as painting in oils on canvas and the overglaze
painting of ceramics with colloidal gold.
The techniques of papermaking and
printing, which had been used in East Asia for
centuries to disseminate Buddhism and had
already spread across Asia to Europe by the
fifteenth century, became major vehicles of
both artistic dissemination and expression.
Chinese painted papers were exported to
decorate European walls, while European
biblical and allegorical prints were brought
by Jesuit missionaries to India, where they
were copied by Mughal artists, who adopted
the European imagery and techniques of
perspective and shading, if not the meanings,
of the originals. Jesuits also introduced
printing with moveable type to the
Philippines, where only Chinese-inspired block
printing had been known. Indian block-printed
cottons were exported to Southeast Asia and
Europe, where they inspired a fashion
revolution as bright patterned colour at last
became affordable. In Japan, which alone had
closed its ports to European traders,
woodblock printing became a major industry,
as artists perfected the technique of colour
printing for a burgeoning merchant class.
Nevertheless, Dutch merchants managed to
export some Japanese paper to Holland,
where Rembrandt used it for printing some
of his etchings.
160˚150˚140˚130˚120˚110˚100˚90˚80˚70˚60˚50˚40˚30˚20˚
30˚
10˚
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
Constantinople
(Istanbul)
Aleppo
Cairo
Mecca
Mocha
Baghdad
Azov
Astrakhan
Samarkand
Tashkent
Kashgar
Kucha
Khotan
Herat
Meshed
Alexandria
Isfahan
Shiraz
Delhi
Agra
Lahore
Nagasaki
Macao
Fuzhou
Hangzhou
Pasai
Colombo
Cochin
Calicut
Goa
Bombay
Surat
Cambay
Tranquebar
Madras
Masulipatam
ChittagongBalasore
Calcutta
Pondicherry
Malacca
Manila
Batavia
Demak
Ternate
Macassar
Muscat
Hormuz Island
Guangzhou
Xiamen
Nanjing
Shexian
Xuancheng
Xiuning
Anping
Beijing
ChengduDerge
Seoul
Edo (Tokyo)
Kyoto
Osaka
Ayutthaya
Bukhara
I N D I A
A R A B I A
P E R S I A
S Y R I A
EGYPT
CEYLON
C H I N A
JAPAN
KOREA
T I B E T
M O N G O L I A
R U S S I A
S O U T H E A S T
A S I A
C E N T R A L
A S I A
C E N T R A L
A S I A
P
H
I
L
I
P
P
INES
E A S T
I N
D
I
E
S
M
ESOPOTAMIA
ANATOLIA
J AVA
BORNEO
CELEBES
LUZON
HAINAN
FORMOSA
MINDANAO
NEW
GUINEA
UZBEK RULERS
1500-1785
KINGDOM
OF AYUTHIA
SUMATRA
A R A B I A N
S E A
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
SEA
OF
JAPAN
YELLOW
SEA
EAST
CHINA SEA
ARAL
SEA
CASPIANSEA
BLA
CK
SEAPERSIAN
G
U
LF
REDSEA
YELLOWSEA
I N D I A N O C E A N
Hebrew 1493, Turkish 1729
1556
1579
Bengali and
Persian 1780
timber
cotton
textiles
spicesgold
Gold
spices,
sugar
Gold
copper
gems
porcelain, silk, tea
wallpaper
copper,
gems,
spices
carpets
opium
Opium
gems,
textiles
cotton, silk,
textiles
spices
copper,
gold
1712
1591
1604
1706
Arabic and
Persian
1637,
Armenian
1644
1540s
1557
1684
1643
17251762
1613
1624
1510
1639
1611
1687
1612
1672
1616
1498
1514
1507
1522
1619
1521
1571
1664
1669
1511
1641
1517
1656
1796
1690
1642
New
W
orld silver
New World silver
New World
silver and
opium from
India
furs, gems and silver
from Russia
Furs, gems and silver
from Russia
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 Asia, 1500-1800: Trade and Culture
Asian empires:
Ottoman Empire 1683
Safavid Empire 1512
Mughal Empire 1707
Qing Empire 1800
Korea 1800
Japan 1800
Predominant religions:
Animism
Buddhism
Buddhism with Confucianism
Buddhism with Shintoism
Christianity
Hinduism
Islam
Jesuit travels in the 16th century
culture:
major centre of courtly art
major centre of
religious architecture
centres of traditional
Chinese printing
major centres of
Japanese colour
woodblock printing c.1650
introduction of European
printing technology
trade:
main European trading ports:
Portuguese
Spanish
Dutch
English
French
Danish
goods imported to Asia
by Europeans
sources of traded goods (specified):
carpets
Islamic trade routes
R
INDIA
CHINA
SOUTHEAST
ASIA
PHI
LIPPINES
I N D O N E S I A
European
possessions, 1650
Dutch
Spanish
Portuguese
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
192
IN THIS PERIOD Asia entered a new global
economic system, based on long-distance
maritime trade and dominated by Europeans.
The treaty of Tordesillas (1494) promised the
Spanish control over much of the New World,
while allotting Portugal all the trade from the
Cape Verde Islands east to the Moluccas. After
the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama
rounded Africa in 1498, the Spanish and the
Portuguese, followed closely by the English
and the Dutch, began to establish trading
colonies along the coasts of Southwest, South,
Southeast and East Asia.
EMPIRE, RELIGION AND ART
The land-based empires of Asia, while
conceding control of the seas to European
fleets, expanded at each other’s expense. Ming
and Qing rulers moved west from China into
Tibet and Turkestan, while both the Japanese
and the Chinese invaded Korea. Muscovy
pushed south into the Caucasus and Central
Asia. Timurid princes decamped from Central
Asia into northern India where they established
the Mughal Dynasty, which itself expanded
southward at the expense of the Hindu rulers
of the Deccan. The Shi’ite Safavids of Iran were
wedged between two Sunni and Turkish rivals,
the Uzbeks of Central Asia and the Ottomans of
Anatolia, the Levant and the Balkans.
Everywhere, these courts took inspiration from
the fine arts of times past.
This age of empires went hand-in-hand
with the creation of imperial styles and capital
cities. Throughout West and South Asia, for
example, the Persian language and the artistic
ASIA 1500-1800
CHINESE EXPORT WALLPAPER, gouache on paper, second
half of the eighteenth century. Beginning in the
late seventeenth century, European merchants
imported hand-painted Chinese wallpapers to
decorate private sitting and bedrooms. They were
so valuable that they were not pasted directly on
walls, but on canvas stretched over battens, which
were then nailed to the walls. They were supplied
in sets of 25 to 40 rolls, each about 1 metre wide.
WEST ASIA 1500–1800
195
travellers also brought back many exotic goods,
which in turn influenced European taste. Ogier
Ghislain de Busbecq, Habsburg ambassador to
the Ottoman sultan Süleyman, for example,
imported tulip bulbs to Austria, thereby laying
the foundation for the tulip mania of 1636–7.
THE IMPERIAL STYLE
To bolster their creation of nation-states, the
Ottomans and Safavids not only played upon
sectarian rivalries (for example, between the
Sunni and Shi‘i sects) and ethnic divisions
(Arab/Persian/Turk), but also created glorious
capital cities. For reasons of politics and
security, they sometimes had to move their
capitals, but their final choices – Istanbul and
Isfahan – become the showpieces of their
empires. Each power also created an imperial
style of architecture, which was used to define
territory. Thus the distinctive Ottoman style of
mosque – built of limestone masonry with a
large domed hall surrounded by cascading semidomes
and pencil-point minarets – was erected
throughout the empire. The message of these
mosques as signifiers of the dynasty was so
clear that when conservative Wahhabi clerics
came to power in eighteenth-century Arabia,
they ordered Ottoman minarets and domes
destroyed. Safavid mosques are equally distinct.
They were built of brick and glazed tile with an
open courtyard, which was surrounded by two
storeys of rooms and four iwans on the sides, and
a large portal with an iwan flanked by minarets.
Although both the Ottomans and Safavids
drew on the common heritage of Persian culture
promulgated by the Timurids in fifteenthcentury
Central Asia, each dynasty created a
distinct artistic style by establishing state
control over manufactures. As in architecture,
royal design studios ensured stylistic coherence
through the use of paper patterns and designs.
The same motif, such as a jagged leaf (saz),
appears on Ottoman tiles, ceramic vessels,
textiles, carpets and metalwork. Distinct artistic
personalities also emerged in this period,
notably Sinan (d.1588), the premier Ottoman
architect, and Reza (d.1635), who was the
foremost painter of Safavid Iran.
UNDERGLAZED PAINTED DISH with floral design. Royal
design studios allowed the Ottomans and Safavids
to develop dynastic styles of art with common
motifs in many media. The jagged leaf painted on
this large dish in the Ottoman workshops at Iznik,
for example, is also found on contemporary textiles
and metalwork.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
194
maker Thomas Dallam, the Huguenot jeweller
Jean Chardin, the German physician Engelbert
Kaempfer and the Capuchin father Raphael du
Mans. Most were impressed by what they found
and wrote long accounts of their journeys, often
illustrated with engravings of these exotic lands.
These emissaries brought European goods
as gifts, thereby introducing new media and
artistic techniques to the region. Venetian plateglass
mirrors and oil painting on canvas, for
example, were introduced to Isfahan in the
seventeenth century, as were single-point
perspective and shading. The Hungarian convert
Ibrahim Müteferrika introduced printing with
moveable type to Istanbul in the early eighteenth
century. An Armenian press was established in
Isfahan and a Maronite press in Lebanon,
although printing was not fully exploited in the
region until the nineteenth century. European
DURING THIS PERIOD West Asia was
contested between two rival Muslim
dynasties of Turkish origin. The more powerful
were the Ottomans (r. 1282–1924), who had
grown from a minor principality in northwestern
Anatolia to rule a vast empire that
encompassed Anatolia, Syria, the Levant,
Arabia and Mesopotamia, as well as the
Balkans, much of southwestern Europe, all of
Egypt and all of North Africa except Morocco.
The Ottomans challenged the Christian powers
of Europe for control of the Mediterranean and
challenged the Habsburgs and Romanovs for
control of eastern Europe and southern Russia.
The Ottomans’ rivals to the east, the
Safavids (r.1501–1732), ruled Persia and made
the Shi‘i sect of Islam the state religion. Their
borders were constantly harrassed on the west by
the Ottomans, who vied with them for control of
the Shi‘i shrines at Najaf and Kerbela, and on the
east by the Uzbeks, who vied for control of the
Shi‘i shrine at Meshed. Eventually the moribund
Safavid dynasty was overthrown by the Turkmen
chieftain Nadir, who re-established the territorial
integrity of Persia through constant wars
financed by invading India in 1738–9. This
brilliant campaign brought him enormous booty,
including the Mughals’ fabled Peacock Throne.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
After European ships rounded the Cape of Good
Hope, the traditional land routes across Eurasia
were displaced. Inland caravan cities were
supplanted by Persian Gulf ports which linked
Persia directly into the European mercantile
system. Persian silk cultivated on the Caspian
littoral was shipped to Europe through
Ottoman-controlled Aleppo in northern Syria,
while the Ottomans themselves exported silk
from Bursa. Both the Safavids and the Ottomans
also exported fine finished textiles including
silks, velvets and carpets. Most carpets exported
to Europe came from the Ottoman Empire. Their
increased presence is amply documented in
European paintings, and they are consequently
known as, for example, ‘Holbein’, ‘Bellini’ or
‘Crivelli’ carpets. Other carpets – and works of
art – were made on commission for Europeans.
The Armenian merchant Sefer Muratowicz, for
example, ordered ‘Polonaise’ carpets woven in
Isfahan with the arms of the Czartowski family.
Ottoman potters at Iznik made polychrome
ceramics bearing European coats of arms.
European trade was encouraged by
merchants, missionaries, adventurers and
ambassadors, including the English organWEST
ASIA 1500-1800
10˚ 0˚ 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 40˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚
40˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
Istanbul (Ottoman capital)
Tabriz
(Safavid
capital to 1555)
Isfahan (Safavid capital from 1590s)
Qazvin
(Safavid capital
1555-1590s)
Vienna
Szigetvár
Samarkand
Meshed
Mecca
Hormuz
Bandar Abbas
(Gombroon)
Medina
Ardabil
Rhodes
Antalya
Kütahya
Ushak
Athens
Bursa Ankara
Tokat
Trebizond
Simferopol
Erzurum
Diyarbakir
Van
Mardin
Mosul
Baghdad
Najaf
Kerbela
QumSaveh
Shiraz
Kashan
Kerman
Tabas
Kandahar
Yazd
Urfa
Nishapur
Aleppo
Damascus
Jerusalem
Amman
Cairo
Alexandria
Benghazi
Tripoli
Rosetta
Jericho
Nicosia
Amasya
Konya
Eupatoria
Gaziantep
Tripoli
Beirut
Acre
Jaffa
Belgrade
Budapest
Üsküb
Thessalonica
Adrianople
Iznik
Smyrna
Tirana
Sofia
Pec´ (Ipek)
Khiva
Bukhara
Nile
E
uphrates
Tigris
Danube
B L A C K S E A
A R A B I A N
S E A
ARAL
SEA
M E D I
T
E
R
R
A
N
E
A
N
S
E A
R
E
D
S
E
A
C
A
SPIAN
SEA
PE
R
S
I A
N
G U L F
H U N G A R Y
BALKANS
A L G E R I A
T U N I S I A
E G Y P T
S Y R I A
A R A B I A
E
U
R
O
P
E
P E R S I A
ANATOLIA
LEBANON
R U S S I A
C E N T R A L
A S I A
K H A N AT E
O F
K H I VA
KHANATE
OF
BUKHARA
T
R
I P O L I
M
ESO
PO
TAM
IA
Safavid trade
with Europe
Silk
Silk, carpets and
Iznik ceramics
Raw silk
Carpets
Raw
silk
1 West Asia, 1500-1800: Trade and Culture
Ottoman Empire, 1520
Ottoman Empire, 1683
Safavid Empire, c.1520
Safavid Empire, early 17th century
area fought over by Ottoman and Safavids after 1512
trade routes
Ottoman exports
Safavid exports
capital cities
new trade centres
towns with Ottoman construction
Safavid mosques
pottery manufacture
textile manufacture
centre of manuscript production
N
0
0
300 miles
400 kms
MUHAMMAD ZAMAN, Fitna Astonishing Bahram Gur,
added in 1675 to a copy of Nizami’s Khamsa
(Quintet) made in 1539–43 for the Safavid shah
Tahmasp. Seventeenth-century Persian miniature
painters adopted such features of European art as
single-point-perspective and shading, used here
within a traditional Persian tripartite composition
and subject to create a sense of space and to focus
attention on the figure of the ruler.
Old Meydan
New
Meydan
(1590-1602)
Shah Mosque
(1611-30)
Chahar Bagh Avenue
Bridge of
33 Arches
(1602)
Madar-i Shah
Madrasa
(early 18 c)
Mosque of
Sheikh Lotfallah
(1603-19)
Ali Qapu
(entrance to
palace precinct
1597-1660)
Bazar
Old
Congregational
mosque
R
.Zayandeh
To New Jolfa
N
0
0
500 m
1000 ft
Isfahan under
the Safavids
mosques
mansions of the nobility
2
1 THE TWO MAJOR POWERS in the region, the
Ottomans and the Safavids, were active traders
in the global market, exporting many goods to
Europe overland and by sea. The most
important were fibres and textiles, which were
cultivated and produced throughout their
realms. Both dynasties also used architecture as
a nationalist symbol, creating dynastic styles of
architecture displayed in the many cities that
flourished during this period. Although they
were sometimes forced to move their capitals,
their final choices – Istanbul and Isfahan –
became the showpieces of their empires.
2 THE NEW CAPITAL OF Shah Abbas (r.1587–1628) at
Isfahan reflected the role of the city as the hub of
the Safavid order. A long covered market led from
the old city to the New Meydan (square) with a
congregational mosque at the south and the palace
precinct to the west. Beyond, a broad avenue,
flanked by the mansions of the nobility, led across
the river to the suburb of the Armenian merchants
and hunting preserves for the court.
CENTRAL ASIA 1500 –1800
197
rooms and an iwan in the middle of each of its
four sides. The largest (73 x 55 metres; 237 x
179 ft) is the Mir-i Arab madrasa (1530–36) in
Bukhara. As in Timurid times, surfaces were
decorated with brilliantly glazed tiles which
were set in geometric or figural patterns. These
buildings were often arranged in beautifully
laid-out complexes, either facing other
structures, as at the Registan complex in
Samarkand, or set around reservoirs, as at
Bukhara.
City Wall
City Wall
City Wall
Khanagah (1572)
(exact location & size unknown)
Sheikh
Jahal Gate
Qul Baba
Kukultash
mosque
Labi-i Haws complex
Qul Baba Kukaltash Madrasa
(1569)
Warehouse
Caravanserai
Mir-i Arab Madrasa (1530-36)Inner City
Congregational
Mosque
Arg
(Citadel)Registan
Bath
Madar-i Khan
Madrasa (1567)
Abd Allah Khan
Madrasa (1590)
To Chahr
Bakr
Royal
Bath
Rud i-Shah
See
Inset B
See
Inset A
Goldsmith’s
dome (1417)
Ulugh Beg
Madrasa (1417)
Hatseller’s dome
(c. 1582-7)
Congregational
mosque
(1574-9)
Gaukushan
Madrasa
1562-6
Moneychanger’s
dome
Caravanserai of
Khwaja Sa’d
Warehouse of
Abd Allah Khan
(c.1577)Bath of
Khwaja
Sa’d
Rud i-Shah
N
A: Central Commercial
District
B: Qul Baba
Kukaltash
Madrasa
0
500 m
500 yds
0
2 LOCAL PATRONS USED THE WEALTH garnered from
trade to develop their cities. Bukhara, for example,
was extensively enlarged under the local Shibanid
khans, who added mosques, madrasas and shrines
around a large commercial district with
warehouses, caravanserais and domed markets.
The city replaced Samarkand as the political and
religious centre of Transoxania. The city walls were
rebuilt, and the site presents one of the finest
examples of a pre-modern Islamic city.
THE REGISTAN, OR TOWN SQUARE, IN SAMARKAND. Most
public buildings erected in Central Asia during this
period were made of brick and glazed tile. Many
were set in complexes, often around a pool. The
Registan, the most spectacular ensemble, was laid
out in the early fifteenth century by the Timurids.
It was redeveloped in the seventeenth century
when governor Yalangtush Bi Alchin built a new
madrasa known as the Shirdar (‘lion-possessing’)
from the decoration of rampant lions on the
spandrels on the entrance. Erected between 1616
and 1636, it replaced a large madrasa built by the
Timurid ruler Ulugh Beg.
region is reflected in the substantial new
investment in commercial facilities, such as
caravanserais and covered markets, as well as
expenditure lavished on religious architecture
and literary and artistic works. New building in
Bukhara and Samarkand was carried out on a
scale not seen since the time of the Timurids.
By the middle of the seventeenth century,
however, the traditional land routes across
Central Asia were insufficient to meet the
growing world demand for goods created by
European industrialization. Prosperity
dramatically slackened as the economic
significance of the region diminished. Deprived
of their Mediterranean markets, Central Asian
merchants turned northwards towards Russia
and Siberia, developing reciprocal trade in
textiles, furs, precious stones and rhubarb
(used as a medicine).
THE RELIGIOUS ART OF CENTRAL ASIA
In reaction to the establishment of Shi‘i Islam
as the state religion of Persia under the
Safavids, Central Asia became a staunch centre
of Sunni Islam. It was taught by religious
scholars who presided over many large madrasas
(theological colleges) constructed in the major
cities, which attracted students from across
Asia. The typical madrasa, like most buildings in
the region, was a large brick structure with a
central open court surrounded by two stories of
Sufis, or mystics, had been responsible for
much of the conversion of Central Asia to
Islam, and Sufi orders remained important.
Shrine complexes were developed around the
graves of Sufi saints. The most famous is the
Char Bakr complex (1559–69) outside Bukhara,
which comprises a khanaqah (hospice), madrasa
and mosque in the midst of the cemetery for
the Jubayri family of Naqshbandi sheikhs.
lllustrated manuscripts produced in the
region became increasingly repetitive in
subject, composition and style. Following
successive incursions into Khurasan, the
northeastern province of the Safavid realm,
painters in Central Asia began to incorporate
the classical elements of Persian manuscript
painting as had been practised in fifteenthcentury
court ateliers at the Timurid capital of
Herat. The most important texts were the
classics of Persian literature, illustrated for
emirs and members of the learned class, as
well as for local princes.
Many of the other arts also followed earlier
traditions. Fine metalwares, not only inlaid
bronzes but especially tinned coppers,
continued to be produced, but few are dated.
Polychrome ceramics were replaced by blueand-white
wares imitating Chinese porcelains.
Typical pieces, mainly bowls, were covered with
a slip and decorated under a transparent glaze
with flowers, fruits, birds and geometric
designs. The expensive cobalt pigment used in
the fifteenth century was replaced with cheaper
manganese and copper that produced darkgreen,
turquoise and purple-brown hues. To
judge from earlier and later examples, fine
textiles and carpets in wool, silk and cotton
were also made in this period, but so far it is
difficult to date or localize many of them.
2 Bukhara in the 16th Century
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
196
Uch Turfan, Khotan, Kashgar and Yarkand. By
the middle of the seventeenth century, power
passed from the Chaghatayids to the Khojas
(1658–1759), descendants of Naqshbandi Sufi
sheikhs, who cemented their authority by
marriage into the Chaghatayid family.
ARTISTIC PATRONAGE
The khans, emirs and sufis were all important
patrons of architecture and art, especially the
arts of the book. In form and style, the works of
art produced under Uzbek patronage in Central
Asia were dependent upon models the
Timurids had established in the fifteenth
century. The repetition of the same forms for
the next three centuries means that these
works of art, although copious, are often
mediocre in quality, particularly when they are
compared with contemporary works produced
by Safavid and Ottoman patrons in West Asia
or by the Mughals in South Asia, all of whom
had far greater resources at their disposal.
The European discovery of direct sea links
with Asia and the Americas at the end of the
fifteenth century had a crucial impact on the
economy of this region, which was an entrepôt
on the intercontinental trade route linking
China to South and West Asia. By the midsixteenth
century, precious metals from the
New World had found their way into the
pockets of Central Asian businessmen and
politicians. The ensuing prosperity of the
IN THE THREE CENTURIES following the
collapse of the last remnants of the Timurid
Empire in 1506, the Turko-Mongolian rulers of
Central Asia were challenged by the advances
of two powerful rivals, the Chinese and the
Russians. The area to the east of the Tien-Shan
mountains fell increasingly under Chinese
control, and in 1757 it was made a Chinese
province called Sinkiang (‘new frontiers’). The
region to the west became tied to the growing
economic power of Muscovy. After defeating
the Tartars and annexing the Khanate of Kazan
in 1552, Muscovy extended its political and
economic reach south and eastward. Anthony
Jenkins, representative of the English Muscovy
Company, established the first diplomatic
exchange with the Central Asian khanates in
1558, and Russia became the region’s main
trading partner.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
During this period authority reverted to
descendants of Genghis Khan who exercised
their power from oasis cities irrigated by rivers
and irrigation systems fed by waters collected
in distant mountain ranges. In western Central
Asia the political system was organized into
fiefdoms led by khans descended from
Genghis’s eldest son, Jochi. The main lines
were the Shibanids (1500–1599) and the ToqayTimurids
(1599–1747), who ruled from capitals
at Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Balkh.
Military and bureaucratic figures from the
Turko-Mongolian tribes were sometimes even
more important than the khans, while the
learned class, which included traditional
Muslim scholars and members of Sufi
(mystical Islamic) brotherhoods, often served
as mediators between the disenfranchised and
the ruling classes.
In eastern Central Asia descendants of
Genghis Khan’s second son, Chaghatay, ruled
in the Altishahr, the ‘six cities’ of Kucha, Aksu,
CENTRAL ASIA 1500-1800
PAGE FROM SAADI’S MASTERPIECE in prose and poetry,
the Bustan (‘Orchard’), made at Bukhara in 1616.
Rich patrons continued to commission illustrated
copies of Persian classics. This manuscript of the
famous poem by the thirteenth-century Persian
master from Shiraz, for example, was made for the
library of a Juybari sheikh who represented the
Naqshbandi order of Sufis in the Transoxanian city
of Bukhara. It gives a good idea of court life there.
50˚ 60˚ 70˚ 90˚80˚ 100˚
30˚
Turfan
Kucha
Andijan
Kokand
Tashkent
Bukhara
Karmina
Samarkand
Yasi (Turkestan)
Khiva
Baqirqan
Merv
HeratIsfahan
Shiraz
Mashhad
Old Urgench
Kandahar
Kashgar
Uch Turfan
Aksu
Yarkand
Khotan
Kabul
Yamghan
Lahore
Balkh
Lake Balkhash
Il
i
Indus
Tarim
M
urgab
Helmand
Zeravshan
Am
u
Darya
Syr Darya
Hari Rud
CASPIANSEA
PERSIAN
GULF
ARAL
SEA
T I E N
S H A N
H
I N
D
U
K
U
S H
P A M I R S
K A Z A K H S T E P P E
KOPET DAGH
KYZYL KUM
KARA KUM
To Hami:
horses, camels, skins
To China
To Orenburg:
textiles, rhubarb,
precious stones
To Khiva:
furs
To Kazan
R U S S I A
C H I N A
TURKMENISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
KHANATE
OF KHIVA
KHANATE
OF KOKAND
S I N K I A N G
KHANATE
OF BUKHARA
TURKESTAN
P E R S I A
OTTOMANEMPIRE
M U G H A L
E M P I R E
KARA-KIRGHIZ
1 The Civilizations of Central Asia, 1500-1800
border of Qing Empire, 1779
border of Safavid Empire, 1725
border of Russian Empire, 1725
‘six cities‘ of the Altishahr
trade routes
madrasas
shrine complexes
caravanserais
centres of manuscript production
N
0
0
600 miles
800 kms
1 SANDWICHED BETWEEN GREAT POWERS in China, India,
Persia and Russia, Central Asia was fragmented
among principalties and city-states ruled by
descendants of Genghis Khan, and artistic
patronage became inwardly focused. To display
their might and cement their authority, patrons in
the western part of the region commissioned
buildings and objects resembling those that had
been commisioned by the Timurids, their richer and
more powerful ancestors in the fifteenth century.
ONE OF FOURTEEN CENOTAPHS (chhatries)
constructed in the seventeenth
century to commemorate the
kings of the Rajput dyansty of the
Bundelas in their capital city of
Orccha. While their form resembles a
common north-Indian-style Hindu
temple, their function, to
commemorate the dead, reflects the
influence of Islam, as mausolea
and tombs are unknown among
Hindus, who bury their dead.
Interestingly, the cenotaphs contain
no human remains.
SOUTH ASIA 1500–1800
199
(particularly when decorated), books were
exchanged at ceremonial occasions and are
often mentioned as war spoils by court
historians. Painters were usually
commissioned personally by patrons to
illustrate manuals, court histories and
biographies, a fact often reflected in the highly
individualized nature of miniature painting.
MUGHAL ARCHITCTURE
The Mughal emperors constructed palaces,
mosques, forts and cities. Mughal architecture
blended Persian and Central Asian prototypes
with indigenous Indian techniques and styles.
Mughal monuments in the sixteenth century,
like the city of Fatepuhr Sikri, were largely built
in distinctive red sandstone with contrasting
marble inlays, while those of the seventeenth
century, such as the Taj Mahal (see pp.146–7), a
mausoleum sponsored by Emperor Shah Jahan
(r.1627–58), were constructed in white marble
and inlaid with semi-precious stones. Decorative
techniques were distinctive: perforated screens,
tesselated designs of alternating stone types,
inlaid floral motifs and glazed tiling.
One of the more remarkable architectural
developments of the Mughal period was the
proliferation of garden architecture (and
culture) among the courtly elite. The Mughal
prototypes came from Persia, where the Islamic
concept of paradise as a utopian garden of
plants and flowers arranged in geometrical
symmetry around pools of water had
developed. Though inspired by Persian
prototypes, Mughal gardens, like painting, were
quickly adapted to Mughal taste.
privileges alone but by the end of the
eighteenth century had come to acquire limited
diplomatic and administrative powers, a
process which would eventually lead to fullscale
colonial rule.
Despite the rapidly changing political
landscape, this was a period of increasing
economic dynamism. A significant rise in the
flow of commodities during the Mughal period
led to a corresponding expansion in the
demand for manufactured products, including
luxury goods and crafts. This demand was
reinforced by the development (and imitation)
of an impressive courtly culture in the major
imperial metropolises, as well as vigorous and
distinctive provincial courtly styles. These were
manifested in architecture, painting, textiles
and portable decorative arts.
COURTLY CULTURE
Early Mughal courtly culture was heavily
influenced by contemporary Persia, particularly
in painting and architecture. While painting
(both Hindu and Muslim) was by no means
unknown in pre-Mughal India, it was developed
extensively as a courtly art from early Mughal
times, partly as a result of the emperor
Humayun’s exile to the court of Tahmasp in
Persia, where he witnessed the spendours of
Persian miniature painting, and partly due to
the subsequent arrival of Persian artists at the
Mughal court seeking refuge from religious
iconoclasts. Miniature paintings were
essentially book illustrations and were closely
associated with the culture of books in Mughal
India. Considered rare and precious objects
Gwalior Gate
Tehra Gate
Mosque and Tomb of
Shaikh Baha-ud-Din
Tansen’s
Baradari
Naubat Khana (Music House)
Mint
Diwan-i-Khass
(Hall of Private Audience)
Diwan-i-Amm
(Hall of Public Audience)
Jodha Bai’s Palace
Anup Talao (‘Peerless Pool’)
Daftar Khana (Records House)
Buland Darwaza
(Gate of Victory)
Panch Mahal
(Five-Storey Palace)
Hiran Minar
(‘Sunken Minaret’)
Hawa Mahal
(Palace of Breezes)
Jami Masjid
VILLAGE
AREA
Sarai (Caravanserai)
Chor
Gate
Ajmer Gate
Chodanpol
Gate
Birbal
Gate
Agra Gate
Lal GateDelhi Gate
N
0
0
500 yds
500 m
2 Fatehpur Sikri, Mughal Imperial City, 1571-1600
TEXTILES AND DECORATIVE ARTS
Sources suggest that the Indian textile industry
was truly mammoth, with every part of the
country producing textiles for both local
consumption and distant markets. The English
factory records alone mention some 150
varieties of cotton fabric available for export.
There were many regional specialities, such as
painted cloth from the Deccan and mixed silk
and cotton from Gujarat. Indian fabrics were
printed, painted, dyed and often embroidered
and appliquéd. Yet technologies remained
comparatively simple and rudimentary.
Inlaid jewellery was a Mughal speciality,
particularly under the patronage of Shah Jahan,
whose famous golden ‘peacock throne’ was
encrusted with precious stones. Exports
of fine cotton and silk textiles, precious and
semi-precious stones, spices and other luxury
items reached Persia, Turkey, Muscovy, Poland,
Egypt and Arabia. It is no surprise that
European merchants were drawn in the
seventeenth century to trading entrepôts
along the coast of India, where they
established factories.
The art of miniature painting involved a
variety of artisans – painters, paper-makers,
binders, gilders and calligraphers. The studio
masters drew models on paper with graphite or
ink, which were then coated with a white
translucent layer of paint. Details were added
and then paint, made of plant, animal and
mineral-based pigments mixed with glue or
gum arabic, was applied with squirrel-hair
brushes. Finally, the surface of the paintings
was burnished.
2 THE CITY OF FATEHPUR SIKRI was
constructed under the patronage of
Emperor Akbar over a
fifteen-year span (1571–85), to
celebrate a prophecy made by the
Chisti saint Shaikh Salim, of the birth
of a son. A brilliant combination of
Persian principles with an Indian
flavour, the city is built of red
sandstone with contrasting marble
inlays. Fatehpur Sikri was not
destined to last, however, and was
abandoned by 1600.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
198
Empire, with its complex system of flexible
political alliances with Hindu kings called
Rajputs, was one of the most remarkable states
witnessed in the subcontinent. By the latter
half of the seventeeth century, however, it had
been weakened by internal divisions (which
included the rise of the independent state of
the Marathas in the Deccan) and fiscal
overspending. At the same time, European
merchant companies began to arrive in India
seeking precious materials and finely worked
goods. At first they excercised trading
THE PERIOD BETWEEN 1500 and 1800 has
traditionally been seen as an epoch of
imperial grandeur followed by political and
economic decay and stagnation, setting the
stage for the arrival of European powers and
colonial rule. Recent research suggests that
this period instead saw steady but remarkable
economic growth and socio-political dynamism.
ART AND SOCIETY
In 1526 Babur (r.1526–30), who had been forced
from his homeland in Samarkand by the
Uzbeks, defeated the acting Sultan of Delhi,
and established what was to become the last
great imperium before the arrival of European
powers, the Mughal empire. Throughout the
sixteenth century, the Mughal emperors
established control throughout the
subcontinent. The Deccan, where the kingdom
of Vijayanagara had fallen to a confederation
of sultanates in 1565, saw a power vacuum and
was soon swallowed up by the expanding
Mughal Empire under the dynamic leadership
of Emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605). The Mughal
SOUTH ASIA 1500-1800
70˚
15˚
20˚
25˚
65˚60˚ 80˚75˚
M
A
A
18
17
13
2
12
4
7
3
16
1
9
10
15
8
19
6
14
5
11
Ghazni
JalalabadKabul
Peshawar
Sirhind
Chamba
Kangra
Kulu
Dadeldhura
Dullu Dailekh
Mandi
Basohli
Jammu
Lahore
Ahmadabad
Hisar
Bikaner
Gwalior
Chitor
Kotah
Udaipur
Uch
Pandua
Kantanagar
Ujjain
Asirgarh
Dhar
Kathmandu
Baranagar
Ayodhya Jaunpur
MauTanda
Patna
Bihar
Bhadgaon
Cuttack
Lakhawar
Benares
Monghir
Kalinjar
Allahabad
Calcutta
Bishnupur
Qasimbazar
Dacca
Kanauj
Balasore
Chicacole
Vizagapatam
Bidar
Puri
Jaisalmer
Srinagar
Panipat
Delhi
Multan
Bhuj
Thatta
Nasarpur
Baroda
Patan
Aurangabad
Thalner
Dharangaon
Burhanpur
Hariharpur
Sonargaon
Malda
Chanderi
Surat
Cambay
Diu
Broach
Daman
Junagarh
Thana
Ikkeri
Goa
Bednur
Rajahmundry
Masulipatam
Nagapattinam
Tranquebar
Nizampatam
Chandragiri
Madras
Golkonda
Gulbarga
Hyderabad
Gingee
Pulicat
Hampi
Tanjore
Seringapatam
Madurai
Tuticorin
Jaffna
Trincomalee
Kandy
Mannar
Bombay
Chaul
Janjira
AhmadnagarJunnar
Cochin
Quilon
Colombo
Calicut
Mysore
Mangalore
Kandahar
Brahmaputra
Ganges
Goda
vari
Mahanadi
Narmada
Krishna
I
ndus
I N D I A N O C E A N
ARABIAN
SEA
H
I
M
A
L
A Y A S
WESTER
N
G
H
ATS
EASTER
N
GHATS
T H A R
D E S E RT
KATHIAWAR
CUTCH
MEWAR
D E C C A N
AHMADNAGAR
CEYLON
(SRI LANKA)
A J M E R
M A R W A R
P U N J A B
D E L H I
A W A D H
B E N G A L
A G R A
B E R A R
KANDAHAR
S
I
N
D
K
A
B
U
L
A S S A M
GO
N
D
W
A
N
A
GOLKONDA
O
RISSA
M
A L W
A
KHANDESH
GUJARAT
BIJAPURMYSORE
KASHMIR
S
I
K
H
S
Zamorins
Savulus
Udaiyars
Nayakas
M
arathas
R a t h o r s Jats
Sisodiyas
Bundelas
Nizam
Shahis
Q u t b
S h a h i s
A d i l
S h a h i s
M U G H
A
L
S
N
0
0
200 miles
300 kms
trade routes
leathers
centres of miniature painting
centres of terracotta arts
palace
garden
Sikh gurudwara
Hindu temple
mosque
tomb
centres of textiles:
sericulture
silk stuffs
major silk mart
brocade
chintz
calico
muslin
cotton cloth
long cloth
carpets
shawls
felts
baftas
Materials, Techniques
and Evidence
Mughal Empire, 1605
minor dynasty
region
ruby
jade
diamonds
sapphires
agate
gold
marble
pearls
conch shells
1
M
A
MALWA
Sikhs
S
1. Amber
2. Ajmer
3. Agra
4. Jaipur
5. Mathura
6. Orccha
7. Jodhpur
8. Lucknow
9. Bundi
10. Nagaur
11. Fatehpur Sikri
12. Kishengarh
13. Amritsar
14. Datia
15. Murshidabad
16. Sikandra
17. Lati Koili
18. Sambhal
19. Sasaram
ports with European
mercantile interests:
British
Dutch
French
Portuguese
Danish
S
1 THE EXPANSION OF THE MUGHAL STATE from the end
of the sixteenth century was facilitated by
centralizing economic and political reforms put in
place by Emperor Akbar to maximize state
revenue and curb rebellions. Persian sources of the
period, combined with early European trade
records make it possible to reconstruct numerous
zones of agricultural and mineral production as
well as centres of exchange and industry. During
Mughal times India was more integrated into the
world economy than ever before, in part through
the presence, from as early as the sixteenth
century, of Portugese, Dutch, British and French
trading interests at different ports throughout
the subcontinent.
A JALI, OR PERFORATED STONE SCREEN, at Humayan’s
tomb in Delhi. Constructed under the direction
of Emperor Akbar to commemorate his father,
this monument marked a departure from
Sultanate period architecture. Its massive
dimensions, bulbous dome, supporting platform
and surrounding quadrisected garden
(charbagh), make it a one of the defining
monuments of the classic Mughal style.
CHINA AND TIBET 1500–1650
201
SCHOLARS IN A GARDEN and its
accompanying text are the
painter Ding Yunpeng’s
(1547–c.1621) designs for the
front and back of an ink-cake.
They were published by the ink
producer Cheng Dayue
(1541–c.1616) in a 1606
catalogue of such designs,
Master Cheng’s Ink Garden. The
images in such catalogues
evoke the literati ideals of the
famous men who created and
signed them, presumably to
attract status-conscious
buyers of ink.
Tiger Hill
Cold
Mountain
Temple
West Garden
Lingering
Garden
North
Temple
Pagoda
Lion Grove
East
Garden
Coupling
Garden
Garden of Harmony
Twin
Pagodas
Ruigang Pagoda
Prefectural school
Wu County
offices
Local government
inspection office (Ming)
Garden of the Master
of the Nets and Fishing
Blue Wave
Pavilion
Changzhou
county offices
Prefectural
offices Department of
prefectural
defence (Ming)
Humble
Administrator’s
Garden
Fengqiao Lu
GuangjiLu
Pingqi Lu
Outermoat
Outermoat
Dongbei Jie
Dong Baita
Baita
Donglu
Xilu
Zhongshi
Jingde
Lu
Daoqian Shiquan Jie
Shizi Jie
Jie
Guanqian Jie
N
2 Modern Remains of the Gardens of Suzhou, 1500-1650
gardens
pagoda/temple/pavilion
non-Buddhist temple/government offices
canal
old city walls
0
0
0.5 miles
1 km
2 AFFLUENT CHINESE of the late
Ming were avid consumers of
luxury goods, curiosities and art
objects. Among the most
extravagant possessions of the
period were large gardens,
consisting of buildings,
landscaping and rare plants and
rocks. Suzhou was famous for
the number and magnificence
of its gardens, the most famous
extant examples of which are
marked here. Suzhou gardens
artfully re-created nature in all
of its asymmetrical and
seemingly random beauty, and
were favoured gathering places
of literary salons and venues for
private theatrical performances.
manufacture of luxury goods such as
chopsticks.
Furniture-making reached an apex in the
late Ming. Utilization of mortise-and-tenon
joinery on hardwoods, many of which were
imported from Southeast Asia, produced
architectonically engineered pieces of extreme
simplicity and great value. Such furniture was
complemented by advances in textile
manufacture; complex and intricate brocades
and embroidery were made in great volume.
Such textiles were used, for example, for chair
covers and cushions, as well as for wall
hangings and robes.
Lacquer was another indigenous material
prized during the late Ming. Small lacquer
objects circulated easily among the urban
elites, but large, expensive pieces of lacquer
furniture were considered particularly
ostentatious – sets of lacquer furniture were
commissioned for imperial palaces, and were
regarded as decadent outside that context.
Major urban centres were homes to celebrated
artists and artisans of national reputation; they
were also important sites of artistic production
for more local consumption and reputation.
CONNOISSEURS AND THEORISTS
The late Ming was also a period in which
antiques collecting flourished. Collecting
enabled men of means to engage with the past
through its material culture, and to assert their
cultivation. As social mobility was broadly
possible through the accumulation of wealth,
or through success in the civil service
examinations, the need to assert cultural
sophistication was pressing. In addition to its
ancient associations as a metaphor for the
ability to make political decisions,
connoisseurship legitimized the semi-public
assertion of one’s cultural sophistication.
Together with poetry writing and painting, it
became a component of literary gatherings.
Connoisseurship manuals, for example, Wen
Zhengheng’s (1585–1625) Superfluous Things,
became an important genre at this time.
Interest in connoisseurship paralleled the
expansion of theoretical writing about painting.
Extrapolating from Buddhist history and
literary theory of the early Ming period, the
painter Dong Qichang (1555–1636) described
lineages of past painters in order to establish
‘orthodox’ models for current practitioners.
Dong, whose work as an amateur painter
complemented a successful political
career, rejected the work of artisan
painters in favour of those of his literati
predecessors. Although Dong’s historical
knowledge of painting made him famous
as a connoisseur, extant paintings
appraised by Dong indicate that political
expedience, rather than authenticity, was
a frequent factor in his attribution.
Increases in women’s literacy are perhaps
responsible for the larger number of
recorded female artists, who included
professional artisans, courtesans and gentry
women. During the late Ming, traditional
disciplinary boundaries between the visual arts
eroded: while Dong, for example, stressed the
interrelationship of painting and calligraphy,
elite literary culture found expression in all
media of the visual arts, and many forms of
popular visual phenomena were manifest in
literati texts and images.
The Tibetan Renaissance of
c.1300–1500 fostered considerable artistic
heterogeneity. Under the rule of the
Gelugpa sect and the auspices of the
Dalai Lama, there was a political
consolidation of an unprecedented
territory from the western border of
modern Ladakh to the eastern borders
of modern Sichuan and Yunnan. This
political unification thus encouraged
consolidation of Tibetan artistic
production, especially in painting and
sculpture. Tibetan art history was born in
the writings of Pemo Karpa (1527–92), a
Karma Kagyu religious master and painter
who distinguished Tibetan religious art in
historical and regional terms, and continued in
the writings of Taranatha (1575–1635).
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
200
THE PERIOD 1500–1650 in China was
characterized by a rich visual field that
included the rise of a society of spectacle, in
which life was as much watched as lived. The
emergence of a media culture allowed printing
technology to translate spectacle into widely
disseminated images. The stability of native
rule permitted the demographic expansion of
urban centres: by the late Ming, the population
of Beijing may have been as high as 1.15
million people; the population of Suzhou was
approximately 500,000 during the sixteenth
century. Other urban centres were
commensurately large. Well-developed urban
economies were concomitant with such large
populations; in fact, the economies of Beijing
and Suzhou were integrated to some degree
through their proximity to the Grand Canal.
Stability and prosperity during this period
began to decline through regionalist and
eunuch political factionalism at the Ming court,
which became especially pronounced
at the turn of the seventeenth century. The
imperial ambitions of the Manchus, whose
incursions across the Chinese border became
more frequent and sustained, resulted in the
Manchu conquest of China, leading to the
establishment of the Qing (‘Pure’) Dynasty in
1644. Remnants of the Ming Dynasty remained
intact in southern China until 1662, when the
eradication of all claimants to the Ming throne
completed the Manchu conquest.
ARTS IN THE LATE MING PERIOD
The late Ming was a period in which the arts
flourished. The boundaries between the
decorative and fine arts were eroded as the
pictorial quality of decorative arts came close
to that of painting itself. Production of blueand-white
porcelain at Jingdezhen reached new
heights, both through indigenous
development, and through contact with foreign
traders who circulated Chinese porcelain
CHINA AND TIBET 1500-1650
90˚
100˚ 110˚ 120˚ 130˚ 140˚ 40˚
30˚
20˚
10˚
Ag
Beijing
Chengdu
Lijiang
Litang
Chamdo
Kumbum
Lhasa
Tsurpu
Sakya
Shigatse
Alchi
Khotan
Tabo Toling
Tsaparang
Samye
Gyantse
FuzhouJianyang
Dehua
Xuancheng
Guangzhou
(Canton)
Manila
Longquan
Jizhou
Qishicun
Shantou
Xiuning
Changsha
Guilin
Guiyang
Kunming
Shexian
Jingdezhen
Ningbo
Jiaxing
Hangzhou
Nanjing
Zhongdu Wuxi
Jinan
Taiyuan
Kaifeng
Wuchang
Nanchang
Fengyuan
(Xi‘an)
Suzhou
Songjiang
Yixing
Putian
Yalu
Yellow
Rive
r
Yangtze
Xi Jiang
Lop Nor
S E A O F
J A PA N
Y E L L O W
S E A
E A S T
C H I NA
S E A
S O U T H C H I NA
S E A
G O B
I
TAKLA MAKAN
DESERT
T I B E TA N P L A T E A U
H
I
M
A
L A Y A S
A
LTA I M T S
Q I L I A N S H A N
T I E N S H A N
TAIWAN
HAINAN
FUJIAN
HUGUANG
GUANGDONG
GUANGXIYUNNAN
GUIZHOU
SICHUANWUSI ZANG,
TUOGAN REGIONAL COMMANDS
SHAANXI
HENAN
SHANXI
NANJING
JINGSHI
KHANATE
OF CHAHAR
KHANATE OF
ORDOS TUMET
JURCHEN
TERRITORY
KHANATE OF
ORDOS TUMET
HAMI AND OTHER KINGDOMS
JIANGXI
ZHEJIANG
S
H
A
N
DONG
I N D I A
M O N G O L I A
C H I N AT I B E T
K
O
R
E
A
JAPAN
P
H
IL
IP
P
I N
E
S
(Martaban wares) to China from the
New World via Manila
from Mongolia,
Manchuria, Siberia:
Mongolian oak,
Korean oak
Willow
Wall
Great
Wall
from Korea:
Korean oak
from Taiwan: camphor
from Hainan Island: Chinese rosewood,
‘chicken-wing’ wood; Mount Hongmao
nanmu, camphor
English and
Portuguese
Spanish
Dutch
from Vietnam:
non-indigenous
varieties of cypress
(Swatow
wares)
1 Visual Production, 1500-1650
China’s borders, 1500-1650
provincial boundary
provincial capitals
imperial capitals
painting centre
kiln site of empire-wide reputation
important printing centre
important silk-production site
important gardens
Tibetan art centre
jade
silver
external sources of
exotic hardwood
foreign contact
Ag
N
0
0
400 miles
600 kms
1 NATIVE RULE UNDER THE MING DYNASTY created the
climate of political and economic stability that
fostered an era of cultural florescence, despite
China’s self-imposed isolation from maritime and
overland communication. The large urban centres
of southeastern China were vibrant sites of artistic
production and commerce, producing new
developments in painting, printing, ceramics and
textiles and the creation of optical devices. This
multidimensional visual culture was enriched by the
engagements between the various media in play in
the visual field.
throughout maritime Asia, and to Europe,
where it was highly valued. Chinese porcelain,
especially that from Jingdezhen, revolutionized
both the European taste for ceramics as well as
their production processes. The Medici were
among the first to try to replicate Chinese
porcelain in Europe, and were subsequently
joined by the Dutch and others. Silver, brought
to China from New Spain via Manila, was used
for currency, and increasingly for the
THE AESTHETIC VISION of the later Ming
was one informed by simplicity and
restraint on the one hand, and by
conspicuous consumption on the other.
These ideals produced objects such as
this huanghuali (Chinese rosewood)
painting table. Its simple lines and
mortise-and-tenon joinery bespeak
restraint, while the material,
huanghuali, was one of the most
valuable woods of the time. Such
tables were used by scholar-officials
for painting works often exchanged
with friends or traded for favours.
CHINA AND TIBET 1650–1800
203
‘BUDDHAS OF THE THREE GENERATIONS’ is a silk tapestry
manufactured in 1744 on behalf of the Qianlong
emperor. Created in the style of the famous
Buddhist painter Lu Lengjia (active c.730–60), the
work depicts, left to right: Kashyapa, a Buddha of
the past; Shakyamuni, Buddha of the present; and,
Maitreya, Buddha of the future, and thus suggests
the unbroken continuity of Buddhism.
A nearly identical work was presented to the Dalai
Lama by Qianlong.
Inner City
Outer City
Inset
Temple of Earth
Yellow Temple
Temple of
the Moon Temple of
the Sun
Temple of
Heaven
Temple of
Agriculture
Imperial Palace
(Forbidden City)
Wenming He
N
0
0
2 miles
2 kms
Beijing, the Forbidden
City, 1650-1800
boundary of city, c.1267-71
inner city
outer city
quarters of the city
2
1
2
3
4
5
9
10
18
11
13
12
17
16
14
15
6
7
8
Inset Major buildings or monuments
1 - Da Ming (Qing) Gate
2 - Five Marble Bridges
3 - Chengtian (Tian’an) Gate
4 - Duan Gate
5 - Wu Gate
6 - Ancestral Temple
7 - Twin Altars of Soil and Grain
8 - Five Marble Bridges
9 - Taihe (Great Harmony) Gate
10 - Three Great Halls
11 - Three Back Halls
12 - Imperial Garden
13 - Six Eastern Palaces
14 - Six Western Palaces
15 - Yangxin Palace Complex
16 - Ningshou Palace Complex
17 - Shenwu Gate
18 - Jing Shan (Prospect Hill)
N 0 300 m
2 THE CITY OF BEIJING and its enclosed Forbidden City,
or Imperial Palace Complex, remained the centre of
government administration under Qing Dynasty
rule. The plan of Ming Dynasty Beijing was said to
be based on the body of an eight-armed boy,
Nezha, who had killed the son of the dragon king.
Independently, during the Qing dynasty the Inner
City was divided into designated quarters for the
Eight Banners, the hereditary military class
established under Manchu rule.
The Outer City housed the ethnic Chinese
strata of society.
in painting on porcelain, and is presumed to be
the result of Dutch transmission of a technique
already known in Vienna by 1725.
Simultaneously, the Qing also developed
highly vitreous enamelled monochrome wares
for palace use.
Pictorial culture in China under Manchu
rule developed in a number of directions.
Firstly, the Orthodox tradition of Dong Qichang
(1555–1636) was developed by practitioners in
the southeast who retreated from the reality of
Manchu rule into an art-historical past. These
men, including Wang Shimin (1592–1680),
Wang Jian (1598–1677), Wang Hui (1632–1717),
and Wang Yuanqi (1642–1715) copied
canonical works and creatively reworked the
ideas of the canonical masters established by
Dong. They perpetuated art-historical ideas in
painted form as well as in their writings.
Individualist painters, such as Shitao
(1642–1707) and Bada Shanren (1626–1705),
sought to address the question of Manchu
rule through their exploration of self and
subjectivity, creating works steeped in
personal visual perception and psychological
introspection.
At the Manchu court, patronage of painting
reflected a willingness to experiment with
divergent representational sensibilities. The
Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), also
known by the Chinese name of Lang Shining,
introduced Western single-point perspective to
the court, as well as colouristic techniques and
chiaroscuro. However, Castiglione worked in
traditional Chinese materials, and frequently
painted traditional Chinese subjects, producing
a remarkable hybrid European-Chinese
painting style perpetuated by other Qing court
painters.
THE DISSEMINATION OF MANCHU ART
As in previous dynasties, fine and decorative
arts of local and regional reputation were
produced throughout the Qing empire in urban
centres such as provinicial and prefectural
seats. Unlike works of national reputation, few
such works survive. The development of
Chinese decorative arts during the Qing
Dynasty was also affected by past traditions,
Manchu culture and European influence.
The export of Chinese decorative arts,
together with Chinese philosophy, created the
craze for chinoiserie in Europe and her colonies
during the eighteenth century. Although the
Qing court was a patron of ornate lacquered
furniture, Qing hardwood furniture maintained
the clean, classical lines of the best Ming
pieces. The export of Ming-style furniture to
Europe is thought to have resulted in the
Queen Anne style, and in a heightened
understanding of joinery, especially the use of
mortise and tenons. Ceramics produced
outside Jingdezhen, for example the teapots of
Yixing, explored three-dimensional natural and
geometric forms. These pots, as well as
Jingdezhen wares, influenced the rise of
porcelain manufacture in Europe, for example
the 1710 establishment of the Meissen factory
under the patronage of Augustus the Strong
(1670–1733). Chinese ceramics also influenced
the forms of English and American silver of the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. Traditionally, Chinese pasted plain
paper to their walls; European knowledge of
this custom and access to inexpensive Chinese
artisanal painting led to the development of
hand-painted wallpaper for export to Europe.
As a result of civil unrest, Manchu troops
were garrisoned in eastern Tibet, which
subsequently became a Manchu protectorate
under local Tibetan rule in 1725. Manchu
control of the area was further consolidated by
the installation of two Manchu imperial
representatives in Lhasa from 1728 through to
the end of the dynasty. The Qianlong emperor
(r.1735–96) was a significant patron of Tibetan
Buddhist teachers and Buddhist art; his
patronage produced a hybrid Sino-Tibetan
Buddhist art. Under Manchu rule, Eastern Tibet
flourished, especially the city of Derge, whose
princes supported Buddhist art and literature.
Not only did painting flourish, for example as
practised by Tshultrim Rinchen (1698–1774),
but the existence of a large printing industry
facilitated the empire-wide distribution of
Derge images and texts, including Tshultrim
Rinchen’s work and a
1744 edition of the Buddhist canon.
ART, EXPLOITATION AND DISPLAY
202
THE MANCHU CONQUEST of China was
consolidated in 1644 with the proclamation
of the Qing (literally ‘pure’) dynasty. Under
Ming rule, the capital of the empire had shifted
north to Beijing despite the cultural primacy of
south-eastern China. As nomadic people from
northern Asia, the Manchu occupation and
renovation of Beijing as a capital allowed
China’s new rulers to assimilate to pre-existing
paradigms of imperial mandate and to place
themselves in proximity to their ancestral lands
to the north of China proper. The Qing
imperium made its mark on the capital city by
dividing it into an inner and outer city,
inhabited by hereditary military families,
Manchu and Chinese, and ethnic Chinese,
respectively. The population may have reached
800,000 people.
DECORATIVE ARTS UNDER THE MANCHU
The Manchus were arbiters of popular custom,
for example, requiring men under their power
to wear the ‘queue’ – shaving the front of their
head and wearing a long braid down the back.
As patrons of the arts they promoted
indigenous Chinese traditions, supported
Western arts and artistic technology
transmitted to China, and