Ancient Art of Anterior Asia
Code: 100576 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500239 Art History | OB | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Ana Belen Villalonga Gordaliza
- Email:
- annabel.villalonga@uab.cat
Teachers
- Ana Belen Villalonga Gordaliza
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
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:
- Recognise, characterise and identify functions of the most important works of art.
- Place them correctly in their historical and cultural context.
- Master the terminology and vocabulary of the course.
- Interpret the iconography and symbolism of the works of art.
- 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
- Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
- Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
- Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
- Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
- Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
- Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
- Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
- Efficiently presenting knowledge in oral and written form.
- Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
- Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
- Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
- 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.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Theory classes/ seminar. | 44 | 1.76 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Review from a reading | 12 | 0.48 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal study and team work | 90 | 3.6 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
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 at a seminar of gender directed by the teacher and / or led by other specialists.
2. Individual work written on a transversal topic (to be determined).
2.1 Group oral presentation.
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.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical reading in gender key | 10% | 0.5 | 0.02 | 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
| Group oral presentation | 25% | 0.3 | 0.01 | 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 |
| Individual written work | 25% | 0.6 | 0.02 | 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 |
| Test 1 | 20% | 1.3 | 0.05 | 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 |
| Test 2 | 20% | 1.3 | 0.05 | 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12 |
The subject will be evaluated by applying the following procedures:
- Written tests: 40% Written tests (each one 20%).
- Individual written work: 25%
-Group oral presentation: 25%
-Critical review in gender key: 10%
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 recovery the block that has been failed.
Single assessment
-Final test: 50%.
-Compulsory reading test questionnaire (to be determined): 25%
-Critical review in gender key: 25%
The same recovery system will be applied as for the continuous assessment. The required reading test and the critical review are not recoverable.
The same non-assessable criteria will be applied as for the continuous evaluation. The review of the final qualification follows the same procedure as for the continuous assessment.
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 50% 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 possible to pass the failed tests with a maximum grade of 6. Critical review and oral presentation are excluded from the reassessment process. Individual work can be recovered by making the corrections indicated by the teacher.
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.
Bibliography
ANDRÉ-SALVINI, Béatrice (2008): Babylone. Paris: Musée du Louvre, Hazan.
ASCALONE, Enrico (2006): Mesopotamia. Asirios, sumerios y babilonios. Barcelona: Electa.
AZARA, Pedro (coord.) (2012): Antes del diluvio: Mesopotamia 3.500-2.100 a.C. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa.
BAHRANI, Zainab (2001): Women of Babylon: gender and representation in Mesopotamia. London: Routledge.
BAHRANI, Zainab (2003): The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. University of Pennsylvania Press.
BAHRANI, Zainab (2014): The Infinite Image: Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity. Verlag: Reaktion Books.
BAHRANI, Zainab (2017): Mesopotamia. Ancient Art and architecture. London: Thames & Hudson.
BAHRANI, Zainab (2016): Art of Mesopotamia. London: Thames & Hudson.
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 (2002): Mesopotamia: la invención de la ciudad. Barcelona.
LIVERANI, Mario. (2006): Uruk, la primera ciudad. Barcelona: Bellaterra.
SASSON, Jack M. (2000): Civilizations of theAncient Near East, Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers.
Software
No specific software is needed.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |