Indus Valley Art

Indus Valley Art I• The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest

urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

• Date: 3300 BCE to 1500 BC• Though it seems to have been a very well

advanced society we know little about it because the script has not yet been deciphered (cannot be read)

• So a lot of mystery about various facets of the civilization from its origin to extinction

Mohenjodaro excavated site

Art

• Varied and extremely curious kinds of artifacts have been found from Indus valley sites

• Sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite (a kind of soapstone) have been found at excavation sites.

Seals

• Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization.

• Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had other uses as well.

• Many of them preserved in National Museum, Delhi

Usually indentified as a Proto Shiva seal

Siva as Pasupati

• The Pashupati Seal: This seal depicts what is probably the modern Hindu God, Shiv. Lord Shiv is surrounded by various animals like the rhino, the buffalo, the elephant and deer

• tiger. He wears a crown of horns on his head. He is believed to have been considered by the Indus Valley Civilization people as the lord of the animals.

• The Unicorn Seal: This is based on a fictional animal that the Indus Valley Civilization people had conjured up. It is an example of early fictional art.

Sculpture

• Sculpture appeared to have made great advancements based on the various artifacts that have been found.

• The Indus Valley Civilization made sculptures mainly in stone, metal and terra-cotta.

• The famous bust of the bearded man, and the male torso are examples of such work.

Bearded man excavated from Mohenjodaro

Authority

Stylized

Well developed sculptural style

• The Indus Valley Civilization had also made great advances in metal sculptures using a fascinating technique to make sculptures out of bronze. The process was known as the lost wax process.

• . A beautiful example of such work, is the naked dancing girl found at Mohenjo-Daro. She is covered with jewellery, wearing several necklaces and bangles.

• The Indus Valley Civilization also made several sculptures out of terra-cotta, a fine example being a figure of the Mother Goddess.

Mesopotamian Art

• Another Ancient Civilization

• It’s the land between river Tigris and Euphrates..somewhere around around present day Iraq and Iran

• Meso= Between

• Potamus= River

Main Empires (broadly)

Sumerians (3500-2300 BC),

Akkadians (2180-2340 BC),

Babylonians (1792-1750 BC),

Hitties (1600-1200 BC),

Assyrains (1000-612 BC) 

and the Persians (559-331 BC).

• The history of ancient Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban societies during the Ubaid period (ca. 5300 BC)

• Among the Mesopotamian architectural accomplishments are the development of urban planning, the courtyard house, and ziggurats,(step pyramid temples)

Reconstruction of a Ziggurat

• Dating back to 3500 B.C.E., Mesopotamian art was intended to serve as a way to glorify powerful rulers and their connection to divinity. Art was made from natural resources such as stone, shells, alabaster and marble, and was often created as didactic pieces

Sumerian Art

• Standard of Ur

• Sumerian container depicting war and peace

• This work is inlayed with shell, lapis lazuli and limestone. 

• It served as a visual representation of a civilization’s conquest and the serenity of victory to follow. 

Standard of Ur

Akkadian Art

• Victory Stele of Naram-Sin • his work from Akkadian culture was the first work

that depicted a man as synonymous to a god • Made from sandstone, • Naram-Sin is physically shown above all other

figures in the piece, establishing him as the most important.  He is also wearing a horned crown and standing under stars that appear close enough for the ruler to touch them. Such imagery was meant to indicate his divinity.

Babylolian Art

• Ishtar gate

• Ishtar was the godess of beauty and love

• This gate is made from blue-glazed brick with images of alternating bas-relief dragons and wild cattle

• Commissioned by King Nebuchadnezzar II, this structure was once considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World

Hittite art

• Stele of Hammurabi, 1790 B.C.E:

• This sculpture represents the set of laws that the sixth king Hammurabi enforced.

• , Hammurabi ordered a sculpture that depicted the king in an animated dialogue with the divine, situated directly above the list of engraved laws.