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2023/2024

Ancient Art of Anterior Asia

Code: 100576 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500239 Art History OB 2 1

Contact

Name:
Montserrat Claveria Nadal
Email:
montserrat.claveria@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.

Teachers

Ana Belen Villalonga Gordaliza

Prerequisites

There are not any prerequisites, but it is advisable to have some notions of English, French and Italian in order to be able to consult the specialised bibliography.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of this subject is to provide a wide introduction to Middle East Ancient Art.

Having finished the course, the student should be able to:

  1. Recognise,  characterise and identify functions of the most important works of art.
  2. Place them correctly in their historical and cultural context.
  3. Master the terminology and vocabulary of the course.
  4. Interpret the iconography and symbolism of the works of art.
  5. Identify gender, ideological and cultural biases in the history of art

Competences

  • Critically analysing from the acquired knowledge a work of art in its many facets: formal values, iconographic significance, artistic techniques and procedures, elaboration process and reception mechanisms.
  • Interpreting a work of art in the context in which it was developed and relating it with other forms of cultural expression.
  • Recognising the evolution of the artistic imagery from the antiquity to the contemporary visual culture.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  6. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  7. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  8. Efficiently presenting knowledge in oral and written form.
  9. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  10. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  11. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  12. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.

Content

1. Southern and Central Mesopotamia: sumerians and akkadians.

2. Central and Northern Mesopotamia: babylonians and assyrians.

3. Anatolian Peninsula: hittites.

4. Iranian Plateau: persians.

5. Levantine Coast: phoenicians.

6. Image of women in ancient Mesopotamia.


Methodology

 

1. Theory classes directed by the teacher. The teacher explains orally and with the visual support of PowerPoint to the students the essential aspects of the subject, systematizing the contents and suggesting suitable bibliography to prepare the exam. 

1.1 Attendance to sessions of seminars and practices led by the teacher and / or other specialists.

2. Comprehensive reading of texts. A compulsory reading book * is proposed and it will be evaluated in a test.

 * to be determined.

3.  Supervision of the review of a reading on gender perspective.

 

 



 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theory classes/ seminar. 44 1.76 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 12, 6
Type: Supervised      
Review from a reading 12 0.48 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 12, 6
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study, reading comprehension and critics 90 3.6 3, 4, 2, 5, 1, 7, 9, 12, 6

Assessment


The subject will be evaluated by applying the following procedures:

- Written tests: 60% Written tests (each one 30%). In these tests all the subject matter of the course contained in the class explanations will be evaluated. The average of the two written tests must be a minimum of 5. Otherwise, the student must submit to the recovery of the subject of the block that has failed.

- Compulsory reading test questionnaire: 20%

-Critical review in gender key: 20%

 

Notes: 

All the course material contained in the explanations in class will be evaluated.
										
											
										
											The two written tests will be averaged, which must be a minimum of 5. Otherwise, the student will have to re-evaluate the subject of the block that has been suspended.

Single assessment

-Final test: 50%.

- Compulsory reading test questionnaire: 25%

-Critical review in gender key: 25%

 

Remarks:

At the time of each assessment activity, lecturer will inform students (Moodle) of the procedure and date of review of each test.  

The student will receive the grade of "Not assessable" as long as they do not complete 1/3 of the assessment activities.

 

Recovery

In the last days of the course there will be a reassessment exclusively for those students who have failed some or some of the previous partial written tests. Therefore, those who have not taken them in the planned date nor those who have passed them will not be able to present themselves. Reassessment is only possibleto pass the failed tests with a maximum grade of 6. The delivery of reviews or other evaluable activities that have not been presented on the date set by the teacher are excluded from the reassessment process.

Penalties for irregularities

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject,the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. All the assessment activities affected by irregularities will not be recovered.

 

 

 

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Compulsory reading test 20% 0.8 0.03 3, 4, 2, 11, 10, 8
Critical reading in gender key 20% 0.6 0.02 11, 5, 1, 9, 10, 12, 6, 8
Test 1 30% 1.3 0.05 2, 1, 7, 9, 10
Test 2 30% 1.3 0.05 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 6

Bibliography

ANDRÉ-SALVINI, Béatrice: Babylone. Paris: Musée du Louvre, Hazan, 2008.

ASCALONE, Enrico: MesopotamiaAsirios, sumerios y babilonios. Barcelona: Electa, 2006. 

AZARA, Pedro (coord): Antes del diluvio: Mesopotamia 3.500-2.100 a.C. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2012.

BAHRANI, Zainab: Women of Babylon: gender and representation in Mesopotamia. London:  Routledge, 2001.

BAHRANI, Zainab: The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.

 BAHRANI, Zainab: The Infinite Image: Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity. Verlag: Reaktion Books.

 BAHRANI, Zainab: Mesopotamia. Ancient Art and architecture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2017.

 BAHRANI, Zainab: Art of Mesopotamia. London: Thames & Hudson, 2016.

BENOIT, Agnès (2003): Art et archéologie: les civilisations du Proche-Orient ancien. Paris: Reunion des musées nationaux.

BENOIT, Agnès (2011): Les civilisations du Proche – Orient  ancien.  Paris: Petits manuels de l’ École du Louvre.

COLLON, Dominique (1995): Ancient Near Eastern Art. Londres: University of California Press.

GÓMEZ LÓPEZ, Consuelo (2006): El arte en el Próximo Oriente antiguo. Madrid: Ediciones JC.

KUHRT, Amélie. (2000) : El Oriente Próximo en la antigüedad, 2 vols. Barcelona: Crítica.

LEICK, Gwendolyn: Mesopotamia: la invención de la ciudad. Barcelona, 2002.

LIVERANI, Mario. (2006): Uruk, la primera ciudad. Barcelona: Bellaterra.

SASSON, Jack M. (2000): Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers.

 


Software

No specific software is needed.