Annabelle's Global Art Class Blog

An Early Painting in an Islamic Palace Bathing scene on west wall of west aisle of audience hall, Qusayr ʿAmra, Jordan, c. 730s (photo by Sean Leatherbury/Manar al-Athar)      The Islamic Palace this painting is from is the " Qusayr ʿAmra."  This palace is the palace of the Umayyad   caliphs and princes. Most Islamic palaces still have well-preserved paintings, and this painting is one of them. This painting is found in the audience hall of this palace. The audience hall is normally where large crowds and events would be held. The scene is what seems to be a semi-naked woman bathing. The color scheme is tans and blues. The blue in the painting resembles the bathing water, and the rest of the painting is a faded series of tans. You can assume the painting is faded due to wear and aging. In the background of the image, you notice many people. There is a line of men in robes on what seems to be a balcony, many of them are gawking, pointing, and making som...

  https://smarthistory.org/athanadoros-hagesandros-and-polydoros-of-rhodes-laocoon-and-his-sons/   Dr. Amanda Herring, "Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön and his Sons," in Smarthistory, August 25, 2021, accessed September 16, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/athanadoros-hagesandros-and-polydoros-of-rhodes-laocoon-and-his-sons/.   Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön and his Sons This group sculpture is a largely influential piece that stands well over 6’8” tall, and it is composed of entirely marble. The piece consists of Laocoön and his sons. The three are sculpted to be muscular and strong. As you can see in the image above, there is a large snake wrapped around Laocoön and his sons. The symbolization of the exaggerated muscles is to show how Laocoön has to fight off the snake in order to protect his sons. In the time of the art piece, it would have originally been painted. You would’ve seen the bright vibrant green of the sn...

 The Greek Slave  https://smarthistory.org/hiram-power-greek-slave/ Dr. Bryan Zygmont, "Hiram Powers,  The Greek Slave ," in  Smarthistory , March 10, 2020, accessed September 9, 2021,  https://smarthistory.org/hiram-power-greek-slave/ . I chose The Greek Slave, it is a Greek sculpture carved from marble. This Greek sculpture, as you can see, is a naked woman, whose hands are chained. She is attempting to cover herself in each of the sculptures. If you look closely, you can see along the cloth the woman is holding, there are many little crosses and lockets. It can be inferred that the crosses symbolize the woman's Christian faith. Lockets tend to symbolize love, which can be inferred as well. Using those two visual elements, Powers paints the scene of a Christian woman who has been taken from her family, her clothes have been stripped from her, and she is now presented as a slave by her captors. The sculptor, Hiram Powers, made six of these sculptures. The woman...

 Describe What You See Post:  https://smarthistory.org/running-horned-woman-tassili-najjer-algeria/ I chose the Running Horned Woman art piece. It is pigment on rock. Nathalie Hager, "Running Horned Woman, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria," in  Smarthistory , April 30, 2016, accessed September 3, 2021,  https://smarthistory.org/running-horned-woman-tassili-najjer-algeria/ . In this art piece you see a variety of monochromatic colors. The colors range from black to white, to browns and tans. There is also a wide use of texture. In many ares of the images you can observe the stippling technique. There are many little white dots around the face and horns of the woman. Moving on from the painting itself, what do you actually see? For me, I see a woman running. This figure has two large horns on either side of her head. The horns in a way resemble those of a steer. The woman is wearing light coverings and she has dark skin. In the background of the images, there are more people, ...