Jonathan Morgan
Adjunct Professor of Art at Lone Star College & South Dakota State University, PhD candidate at IDSVA
Unit 3:
Defining ‘Art’ as a Concept
ARTS 1301, Art Appreciation
Prof. Morgan
Prehistoric Art
Deciphering Prehistoric Rock Art
Magdalenian polychrome bison from Altamira Cave
Cantabria, Spain
c. 36,000 BCE
Chauvet Cave Paintings
Adrèche, France
c. 34,000-32,000 BCE
Chauvet Cave Paintings
Adrèche, France
c. 34,000-32,000 BCE
Chauvet Cave Paintings
Adrèche, France
c. 34,000-32,000 BCE
Cueva de los Manos
Santa Cruz, Argentina
c. 7,300 - 700 BCE
Probable tools & method for creating the handprints
Cueva de Ardales
Málaga, Spain
c. 63,000 - 42,000 BCE
Woman Figurine (a.k.a. Venus of Willendorf)
c. 25,000-20,000 BCE
Stone
Lion Man of Ulm
c. 38,000 BCE
Ivory
Origins of the Lion Man of Ulm
Stonehenge
Salisbury, England
c. 2,000 BCE
Detailed view of outer ring construction technique
The physical development of the Stonehenge site
Stonehenge alignment
Stonehenge & Astronomy
Stonehenge
Cursus
Woodhenge
Durrington Walls
Stonehenge and surrounding sites
Durrington Walls
Salisbury, England
c. 2,600 BCE
Woodhenge
Habitation
Aerial site view
Hypothetical reconstructions of Durrington (left) and Woodhenge (right)
Full Stonehenge site and proposed function and/or symbolism
Ancient
Egypt
Pyramids of Giza / Fourth Dynasty Pyramids | Giza, Egypt
From the Left:
Pyramid of Menkaure | c. 2490–2472 BCE
Pyramid of Khafre | c. 2520–2494 BCE
Great Pyramid of Khufu | c. 2551–2528 BCE.
- Ka - the life force
- Ba - the personality
- Sheut - the shadow
- Ren - the name
- Ib - the heart
The Five Parts of the Egyptian Soul
The Mummification Process
Artist's Reconstruction of Original Pyramid Site
Evolution of the Egyptian Pyramid
How the Pyramids were Developed
Plan of the city of Heit el-Ghurab, Giza
Heit el-Ghurab site with potential waterways
Medinet Habu / Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III
Luxor, Egypt
c. 1200 BCE | New Kingdom
Aerial View of the Temple
Hammurabi & Shamash (Utu)
Ur-Nammu & Shamash (Utu)
Palette of King Narmer
c. 3000-2920 BCE
Predynastic Egypt
Decoding the Palette
Reverse side of the Palette
Canon of Egyptian Proportionality in Art
Depicting the Human Body in Ancient Egypt
Menkaure and Khamerernebty
c. 2490-2472 BCE
4th Dynasty
Khafre Enthroned
c. 2530 BCE
4th Dynasty
Akhenaton and Nefertiti with their Three Daughters
c. 1353-1335 BCE | 18th Dynasty
Palette of Narmer
Akhenaton
(colossal statue from the temple of Aton)
c. 1353-1335 BCE
18th Dynasty
Bust of Nefertiti
c. 1353-1335 BCE
18th Dynasty
Ancient
Greece
Map of Ancient Greece
Topography of the Aegean Sea
The End of the Aegean Bronze Age
Rise of the Athenian Empire
Temple of Aphaia
Aegina, Greece
c. 500-490 BCE | Archaic Period
Artist’s rendering of the temple's facade
The Parthenon
Athens, Greece
5th century BCE | Classical Period
4:9
Artist’s rendering of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in ancient Athens
Parthenon
Erechtheion
Propylaia
Theater of Herodes Atticus
Artist’s rendering of The Parthenon's facade
Recreation of the Athena Parthenos Statue from Athens
Dying Warriors
Temple of Aphaia
c. 490 & 480 BCE | Archaic Period
Kouros
c. 600 BCE
Archaic
Doryphoros
Polykleitos
c. 450-440 BCE
Classical
Apoxyomenos
Lysippos
c. 330 BCE
Late Classical
Kritios Boy
c. 480 BCE
Classical
Warrior
(aka Raice Warrior)
c. 460-450 BCE
Classical Period
Once-Lost Greek Bronzes
Weary Herakles
Lysippos
c. 320 BCE
Late Classical
Laocoön
Early 1st century BCE
Hellenistic Period
Seated Boxer
c. 100-50 BCE
Hellenistic Period
Roman Art
The Rise & Fall of Rome
Italian Peninsula, c. 500 BCE
Chimera d'Arezzo
c. 400 BCE | Etruscan
Portrait of a Boy
3rd century BCE
Etruscan
The "Uncanny Valley" Phenomenon
Simplified chart of the Uncanny Valley
The Uncanny Valley as experienced through AI
Roman Conquest of Italy
Head of an Old Man
c. 80-70 BCE
Late Republic
Torlonia Patrician
1st century CE copy
(80-70 BCE original)
Late Republic / Early Empire
Portrait of a Husband & Wife
c. 70-79 CE
Early Empire
Augustus of Primaporta
c. 20 BCE
Early Empire
Revealed Polychromy of Augustus
The Myth of Marble
Colosseum
Rome, Italy
c. 70-80 CE | Early Empire
Artist's Rendering of the Colosseum with Cutaway
View from Inside the Colosseum Ruins
Pantheon
Rome, Italy
125 CE
High Empire
Overhead plan view the Pantheon
Aerial view of the Pantheon
Elevation view of the Pantheon
Oculus 'spotlight' effect within the Pantheon
Gothic Art
Basilica of Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis, France
12th century CE
Example of a (Blind) Arcade
Window
Window
Window
Saint-Denis as it appeared with reconstructed North
tower intact
Vue De La Basilique Saint Denis
Etienne Bouhot
c. 1840 CE
Based on late-1800's design by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Birth of Medieval Gothic Styling
Notre Dame de Paris
Paris, France
1163-1345 CE
Exterior View from the South
Tympanum from the Western Portal
Tympanum from the Western Portal (detail)
View of the height and ribbed vaulting
Interior view facing East
The Grandeur of Gothic Cathedrals
Modern perceptions of "Gothic" art
The concept behind Medieval Gothic art:
Marvel not at the gold and at the expense but at the craftsmanship of the work. Bright is the noble work; but being nobly bright, the work should brighten the minds, so that they may travel, through the true lights, to the True Light where Christ is the true door
-Abbot Suger, Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis
About the term "Gothic"
Chartres Cathedral (Western entrance)
Chartres, France
1190-1220 CE
Tour of Chartres Cathedral
Rose Window (South Façade)
Chartres, France | c. 1224 CE
Chartres Cathedral (South Façade)
Main features of Gothic Cathedrals
Arcade
Exterior wall of Chartres Cathedral
Arcade
Roman Arch vs Gothic Arch
Decreased angle of thrust
resulting in less
outward pressure
relative to height.
Interior of Chartres Cathedral showcasing Ribbed Vaults
Physics of a Vaulted Ceiling
Types of Architectural Vaults (ceilings)
Gothic
Interior of Chartres Cathedral
Columnar Statues, West Portal
(from Chartres Cathedral)
1145-1150 CE
Carved Stone
Head of a Prophet
(from St. Denis)
1137-1140 CE
Carved Stone
Head of a Prophet
(from St. Denis)
1137-1140 CE | Gothic
Christ in Majesty
(from Saint-Sernin)
c. 1096 CE
Medieval
Adam
Pierre de Montreuil
c. 1260 CE
Carved Stone
Charles V and Joanna of Bourbon
mid-14th century CE
Carved Stone
Notre-dame de Reims or Reims Cathedral
Reims, France
13th-14th century CE
Entrance to Reims Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne, Germany
13th-14th century CE
Rear view of the cathedral
Interior (nave) of Cologne Cathedral
Aerial view of Cologne Cathedral
The Beauty of Cologne Cathedral
Detail of stonework on Cologne Cathedral spires
Interior of one of the spires
The European Renaissance
The Italian Peninsula during the Renaissance
Depostion
Rogier van der Weyden
c. 1435-1438 CE
Oil on Panel
Flemish
The Flagellation of Christ
Pierro della Francesca | c. 1451 CE | Oil & Tempera on Panel
The Birth of Venus
Botticelli | 1448-1446 CE | Tempera on Canvas
David
Donatello
c. 1425-1430 CE
Bronze
Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore
(Dome)
Brunelleschi
Florence, 1420-36 CE
Structure of Brunelleschi's Dome
On Brunelleschi's Dome
Interior (looking east) of San Lorenzo
Florence, Italy
Filippo Brunelleschi | c. 1421–1469 CE
Example of Linear Perspective (single-point)
Interior of Santo Spirito (looking northeast)
Florence, Italy
Filippo Brunelleschi | 1434–1436 CE
Drawing of the elevation of Santo Spirito
Florence, Italy | c. 1430 CE
Villa Rotunda
Vicenza, Italy
Andrea Palladio | 1565 CE
Palladio's Novel Approach
Villa Rotonda floor plan & elevation
Villa Rotonda at a Distance
Andrea Palladio's Architectural Style & Impact
Queen's House
Greenwich, London, UK
Indigo Jones
1616-1635 CE | Neo-Palladian style
The Palladian Style
Front (top) & Rear (below) views of the site
Site Plan for Queen's House
The Tribute Money
Masaccio
c. 1427 CE
Fresco | Florentine
Medieval Italian Painting by Berlinghiero
Interior view of Brancacci Chapel
Map of Frescoes in Brancacci Chapel
(Massacio's work indicated in red)
David
Michelangelo
1501-1504 CE
Marble
The Last Judgement
Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
1534 - 1541 CE
Fresco
Wide shot of the Sistine Chapel
(with Michelangelo's frescoes indicated)
Neoclassicism
Path of the Mt. Vesuvius Ash Cloud, 79 CE
Timeline: Europe's Path Towards Modernity
Cornelia, Pointing to her Children as her Treasures
Angelica Kauffman | 1785 CE | Oil on canvas
The Death of Marat
Jacques-Louis David
1793 CE
Oil on canvas
Pieta | Michelangelo | 1498-1499 CE | Marble
Deposition | Van der Weyden
Romanticism
Wanderer above a Sea of Mist
Caspar David Friedrich
1817-1818 CE
Oil on canvas
Monk by the Sea
Caspar David Friedrich | 1809-1810 CE | Oil on canvas
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Whereas the beautiful is limited, the Sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the Sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt.
Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason, 1781
Click for an illustration of the Sublime
Saturn Devouring One of His Sons
Francisco Goya
1820-1822 CE
Oil mural transferred to canvas
Gisleburtus' Last Judgement (detail)
Saturn Devouring One of His Sons
Francisco Goya
1820-1822 CE
Oil mural transferred to canvas
The Industrial Revolution
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix | 1830 CE | Oil on canvas
The Raft of the Medusa
Théodore Géricault | 1819 CE | Oil on canvas
Realism
The Barricade (Memory of Civil War)
Ernest Meissonier
1850 CE
Oil on canvas
Gustave Courbet
Burial at Ornans
1849 CE | Oil on canvas
Fight between Schools
Honoré Daumier | 1855 CE | Lithograph on newsprint
Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1934
Honoré Daumier | 1834 CE | Lithograph
Olympia
Edouard Manet | 1863 CE | Oil on canvas
Modernism & Art
An Overview of 'Modernism'
The Sower
Vincent Van Gogh
1888 CE | Oil on canvas
The Night Café
Vincent Van Gogh | 1888 CE | Oil on canvas
Impression-Sunrise
Claude Monet | 1872 CE | Oil on canvas
Example of Monet's techniques
La Moulin de la Galette
Auguste Renoir | 1876 CE | Oil on canvas
Reading
Berthe Morisot | 1873 CE | Oil on canvas
Bridge Over a Pool of Lilies
Claude Monet
1899 CE
Oil on canvas
The Bathers
George Seurat | 1883-1884 CE | Oil on canvas
The Bathers
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
(Rococco)
Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures
Angelica Kauffman
(Neoclassical)
Mont Sainte-Victoire
Paul Cézanne | 1902-1904 CE | Oil on canvas
When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field, or whatever.
-Claude Monet, 1874 CE
Merely think, here is a little square of blue,
here an oblong of pink,
here a streak of yellow,
and paint it just as it looks to you,
the exact color and shape,
until it gives your own naïve impression of the scene before you.
The Large Bathers
Paul Cézanne | 1906 CE | Oil on canvas
Composition VIII (The Cow)
Theo van Doesburg | 1917 CE | Oil on canvas
-Theo van Doesburg, Principles of Neo-Plastic Art, 1919 CE
The visual artist can leave the repetition of stories, fairy-tales, etc., to poets and writers.
The only way in which visual art can be developed and deployed is by revaluing and purifying the formative means.
Painterly means are:
colors, forms, lines and planes.
The Elementary Means of Expression in Painting
Theo van Doesburg | c. 1915
Fundamental Elements of Painting
Theo van Doesburg
1922
Tableau I
Piet Mondrian
1921 CE
Oil on canvas
Grey Tree
Piet Mondrian | 1911 CE | Oil on canvas
Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow
Piet Mondrian | 1930 CE | Oil on canvas
van Doesburg
Mondrian
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Pablo Picasso
1907 CE
Oil on canvas
Gertrude Stein
Pablo Picasso
1906–1907 CE
Oil on canvas
Violin & Palette
Georges Braque
1908 CE
Oil on Canvas
Years of research had proved that closed form did not permit an expression sufficient for the two artists' aims. Closed form accepts objects as contained by their own surfaces, i.e., the skin; it then endeavors to represent this closed body, and, since no object is visible without light, to paint this 'skin' as the contact point between the body and light where both merge into color.
This chiaroscuro can provide only an illusion of the form of objects.
In the actual three dimensional world the object is there to be touched even after light is eliminated.
Thus the painters of the Renaissance, using the closed form method, endeavored to give the illusion of form by painting light as color on the surface of objects. It was never more than 'illusion.'
—Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, The Rise of Cubism, 1949
Violon
Pablo Picasso
1911-1912 CE
Oil on canvas
Still Life with Chair-Caning
Pablo Picasso | 1912 CE | Oil and oilcloth on canvas
The Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dalí |1931 CE | Oil on canvas
Exploring Surrealism
Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure)
Meret Oppenheim | 1936 CE | Fur-covered cup
The Son of Man
René Magritte
1964 C
Oil on canvas
Golconda
René Magritte | 1953 CE | Oil on canvas
Magritte was fascinated by the seductiveness of images.
—Charly Herscovici, 2007 CE
Ordinarily, you see a picture of something and you believe in it, you are seduced by it; you take its honesty for granted.
But Magritte knew that representations of things can lie.
These images of men aren't men, just pictures of them, so they don't have to follow any rules.
This painting is fun, but it also makes us aware of the falsity of representation.
The Treachery (or Perfidy) of Images
René Magritte | 1928–1929 CE | Oil on canvas
"The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it!
And yet, could you stuff my pipe?
No, it's just a representation, is it not?
So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe",
I'd have been lying!"
—Magritte
Surrealism & Meaning
Early Postmodernity
Untitled
Donald Judd
1969 CE
Brass and colored fluorescent Plexiglass on steel brackets
Mas o Menos (More or Less)
Frank Stella | 1964 CE | Metallic powder in acrylic emulsion on canvas
Untitled
Frank Stella
1966 CE
The Nominal Three (to William of Ockham)
Dan Flavin | 1963 CE | Fluorescent lights
"It is what it is, and it ain’t nothin’ else. . . . There is no overwhelming spirituality you are supposed to come into contact with. . . . It’s in a sense a “get-in-get-out” situation. And it is very easy to understand.
One might not think of light as a matter of fact, but I do. And it is, as I said, as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find."
- Dan Flavin
Die
Tony Smith | 1962 CE | Steel
"I just picked up the phone and ordered it."
-Tony Smith on the making of Die
Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?
Richard Hamilton
1956 CE
Collage
Hopeless
Roy Lichtenstein | 1963 CE | Oil on canvas
Roy Lichtenstein's Ben-Day Dot Painting Technique
Oh, Jeff … I Love You, Too … But …
Roy Lichtenstein | 1964 CE | Oil on canvas
Campbell's Soup Cans
Andy Warhol
1962 CE | Synthetic polymer paint on paper
Silkscreen printing in action
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Campbell's Soup Cans
(Tomato Soup)
Andy Warhol
1962 CE
Synthetic polymer paint on paper
Green Coca-Cola Bottles
Andy Warhol
1962 CE
Oil on canvas
Marilyn Diptych
Andy Warhol | 1962 CE | Synthetic polymer paint on paper
Gold Marilyn
Andy Warhol
1962 CE
Synthetic polymer paint on paper
Floor Cake
Claes Oldenburg | 1962 CE | Canvas and polymer paint
Plug
Claes Oldenburg | 1970 CE | Painted steel
Spoonbridge with Cherry
Claes Oldenburg | 1988 CE | Painted steel
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks
Claes Oldenburg
1969 CE (reworked, 1974) | Painted steel, aluminum, and fiberglass
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks
Claes Oldenburg
Canyon
Robert Rauschenberg
1959 CE (Dada movement)
L.H.O.O.Q.
Marcel Duchamp
1919 CE
Pencil on paper reproduction (postcard) of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2
Marcel Duchamp
1912 CE
Oil on canvas
Brief Overview of Marcel Duchamp
Fountain
Marcel Duchamp
1917 CE
Porcelain
No, not rejected. A work can't be rejected by the Independents.
It was simply suppressed.
-Marcel Duchamp, 1971
I was on the jury, but I wasn't consulted, because the officials didn't know that it was I who had sent it in; I had written the name "Mutt" on it to avoid connection with the personal.
The Fountain was simply placed behind a partition and, for the duration of the exhibition, I didn't know where it was.
I couldn't say that I had sent the thing,
but I think the organizers knew it through gossip.
No one dared mention it.
I had a falling out with them, and retired from the organization.
Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it.
He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared
under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.
From The Richard Mutt Case, 1917 CE:
Fountain
(second version)
Marcel Duchamp
1950 CE
Glazed earthenware
Sold in 1999 at Sotheby's auction house to a private collector...
...for $1.7 million
That's equal to $3.3 million in 2025
Fountain
(2/8)
Marcel Duchamp
1964 CE
Glazed earthenware
Brillo Soap Pads Box
Andy Warhol
1964 CE
Plywood and paint
Photo taken during the 1964 exhibition at the Stable Gallery
Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box
Andy Warhol
1964 CE | Plywood and paint
Sold at Christie's auction house for $1.2 million...
Set of Four Boxes
Andy Warhol
1964 CE
Plywood and paint
One and Three Chairs
Joseph Kosuth | 1965 CE
Work No. 88
Martin Creed
1995 CE
Work No. 338
Martin Creed
2004 CE
Work No. 944
Martin Creed
2008 CE
Interview with Martin Creed, Conceptual Artist
End of
Unit 3
Art Appreciation: Unit 3
By Jonathan Morgan
Art Appreciation: Unit 3
Prof. Morgan | Updated Summer 2025
