Global Pre-history
These 7 fragments with a four-legged animal are thought to be the first piece of art from Africa, dating back to c. 25,500-25,300 BCE.
What are the Apollo 67 stones?
This high-relief carving depicts a ruler gaining authority from Shamash, the God of Justice, to write divine laws, which are written in Akkadian cuneiform beneath it.
What is the Code of Hammurabi?
Polykleitos's Doryphorus (Spear Bearer) popularized this depiction of the body's axes tilting.
What is contrapposto?
This is the most famous group of sculptures from the Hellenistic Period, famous for its massive scale and dramatic depiction of the Gigantomachy.
What is the Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon?
Over 8,000 of these figures served as Qin Shi Huangdi's bodyguards outside of his tomb.
What are the Terra Cotta Warriors?
Stonehenge used this method of construction, in which two posts support a horizontal beam.
What is post-and-lintel?
This Sumerian work made of wood was found at a burial site and may have functioned as a soundbox for a lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a harp).
What is the Standard of Ur?
During this artistic period, sculptors explored new subjects and emphasized drama, intense emotion, and realism.
What is the Hellenistic Period?
Trajan's Forum was designed by this famous architect, who also engineered the Pantheon's reconstruction.
Who is Apollodorus of Damascus?
This Hindu god is shown in a ring of flames as the cosmic dancer who destroys and recreates the universe.
Who is Shiva?
The inscisions on this object were likely formed using sandpaper (or a similar material).
What is the Jade Cong?
The White Temple and its Ziggurat are linked to this Ancient Mesopotamian poem due to the Sumerian king of Uruk, on whom the poem is based.
This marble sculpture depicts the daughter of Proxynos with engaged pilasters on either side of her.
What is the Grave Stele of Hegeso?
This Flavian Emperor built his famous amphitheater as a means to give land back to the Roman people after the suicide of the previous emperor, Nero.
Who is Vespasian?
This Shakyamuni Buddha is the most sacred statue in Tibet because it is believed to be copied from a carving made during the life of the actual Buddha.
What is Jowo Rinpoche?
The double-faced ceramic figure found in Tlaltico, Mexico (ca. 1200-900 BCE) likely represented the duality between these two things.
What are life and death?
Under this individual's reign, there was a short-lived artistic revolution in which curves and anecdotal content replaced the cubic forms and stillness of earlier Egyptian art.
Who is Akhenaton?
Niobides Krater warns of this sin by depicting the death of Niobe's 14 children.
What is hubris?
The Imperial Roman statue Augustus of Primaporta wore a cuirass depicting this scene.
What is the Parthians returning Roman standards?
This person commissioned a 53-foot-tall Buddha statue in the Japanese temple Todai-Ji.
Who is Emperor Shamu?
The issues with this object include distrust of the validity of the fossil, difficulties in determining an accurate date, and losing it to scholars.
What is the camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine?
This work of narrative art commemorates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into a single under the rule of a divine pharaoh ca. 3000 BCE.
What is the Palette of King Narmer?
This work, originally found on the floor and a recreation of Philoxenus's painting, depicts the turning point of the Battle of Issus.
What is the Alexander Mosaic?
This casting method, used to create the Seated Boxer, allowed Greek sculptors to produce hollow bronze figures with fine detail.
What is lost wax casting?
At the Great Stupa at Sanchi, the four intricately carved entrances aligned with the cardinal directions are known by this Sanskrit term meaning "sacred gateway."
What are toranas?