fuck yeah art history

Snake Goddess from Knossos
c. 1600 – 1550 BCE (New Palace Period)
Crete/Minoan Culture
Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete

The Snake Goddess is a Minoan goddess associated with the snake cult. The snake is both connected with welfare of the household and is a symbol of the underworld deity.  She is wearing a Minoan court costume consisting of a flowing skirt and open bodice.

Faience is a term for earthenware covered with a solid glaze containing crushed quartz, which is the cause for the bluish tint and glassy surface. It was probably imported from Egypt in the Pre-Palace period.

Veiled Lady
Raffaelo Monti
c. 1860
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN, USA

This is an amazing execution of trompe l’oeil. I can hardly believe this is pure marble.

Double-Headed Serpent
Aztec (Mexico)
15th-16th century AD
The British Museum, London, England, UK

Pieces of turquoise, conch shell, and crab shell create the mosaic exterior of this double-headed serpent on a wooden base. Measuring at 17 inches by 8 inches, it has been surmised that the sculpture was given to Hernan Cortés by Moctezuma II after his arrival at Tenochtitlan in 1519.

The Kiss
Constantin Brâncuşi
1912
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Sometimes all you need to convey an emotion is a block of limestone and a few simple lines.

Victory or The Genius of Victory
Michelangelo Buonarroti
c. 1525-1530
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy

Check out the figura serpentinata on this sculpture. (Sorry contrapposto, we love you, but you’re just not going to cut it here.)

Mica Hand
Hopewell, Ross County, Ohio (Mound 25)
c. 100 BCE - 500 CE
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA

The Hopewell tradition (sometimes referred to as Hopewell Culture) is the name given to groups of peoples living in the northeastern and midwestern United States from c. 200 BCE to 500 CE. Because of the variety in cultures that comprise this tradition, Hopewell art can’t be lumped into one definitive style. The artifacts that have been discovered used a variety of media (stone, copper, shell, teeth, etc.), with some pieces being abstract while others extremely detailed and realistic.

The piece above is a hand carved from a single sheet of mica, and is almost a foot long and approximately 6 inches wide. There are two holes delicately pierced into the bottom of the hand, which indicates that this may have been worn as a necklace. Because of the fragility of this work, it is likely that it was only worn as a decorative piece for public viewing on rare occasions.

Cloud Gate
2004/2006
Sculptor: Anish Kapoor
Millennium Park, Chicago, IL, USA

Known affectionately as “The Bean,” the Cloud Gate stands at 33 feet by 66 feet by 42 feet, and weighs in at 110 tons. Indian-born, London-based artist Anish Kapoor used liquid mercury as the inspiration for the sculpture, which distorts and manipulates images reflected on its surface. A little known fact is that it’s actually hollow inside!

What do you think? Art, or eyesore?

Robert Smithson

Spiral Jetty

1970

Land art: mud, salt crystal, basalt, and water

Great Salt Lake, Utah.

Naum Gabo

Linear Construction Number 1

Acrylic and nylon

1942-43

Currently in the collection of the Tate Modern, London.

Torso of Belvedere (Apollonius of Athens)
Anonymous (Hellenistic-Greek)
1st cent. B.C.
marble
62 1/2 inches