Hi! My name is Conner Darrell, and I’m a student in Introduction to Art History (AH112). In just a few short weeks, this class has taught my fellow classmates and me more about art than we’ve ever known before. Let me set the stage with an overview of just our first week.
Our first week’s classes constituted diving more deeply into the content presented in the first four chapters of our enormous Janson’s History of Art textbook. We began at the beginning, so to speak, examining interesting and detailed sculptures of the female form like the Austrian Woman of Willendorf and cave paintings hidden deeply within the Lascaux Caves in France, all the while exploring what these representations could’ve meant in a pre-historic age (an age before written history). Next we travelled into the humble beginnings of modern civilization by examining objects such as the Stele of Naram-sin, which memorializes an Akkadian general’s victory over his mortal enemies in ancient Mesopotamia. Afterwards, we travelled to Egypt where the striking mastaba-inspired and originally white limestone-covered great Pyramids of Giza still sit as the enormous tombs of Pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Finally, we were swept to the Aegean Sea to witness the beautifully painted fresco of a male figure flipping himself over a bull while abstract, almost floating, female figures witness this feat from both sides. We also studied the gorgeous ruins of the city of Knossos on the island of Crete, which revealed a structure so large and incredibly designed that the historian Arthur Evans first defined it as a “palace” which he thought belonged to the mythical King Minos.
But this is just a simple taste of what has been and will be in store for us in AH112, so keep yourself posted with our blog to discover what other extraordinary and historic artistry we uncover in the future. Finally, stay tuned for more information regarding the unveiling of our class-curated art exhibition later in Block 2!
